At the end of every year, the NQTs who have just completed their first year of teaching pass on their advice to the NQTs who are just starting. This is always a good opportunity for them to reflect on their practice and we end up with some good advice, not just for new teachers but also those of us who have been in the job for a while! So here is some of the advice that they shared: Continue Reading
Top Tips
I’ve got my Knowledge Organisers – now what?
Practical suggestions for using Knowledge Organisers in the classroom.
This blog is made up of two parts. The first is a little overview of KOs and why they can be so helpful in your medium term planning. I’ll structure this part as an FAQ based on the last year of working with departments. The second is a list of 20 practical lesson planning ideas for using KOs with pupils in which I’ll seek to answer the question at the top of this blog. Continue Reading
Mastery Principles that Work for Everyone
The idea of ‘mastery teaching’ has been an educational buzzword for some time, but what does it really mean and what can every teacher learn from its principles? Continue Reading
Feedback with Impact!
Time effective strategies to make sure that feedback always leads to learning
I ran an inset today with a colleague about giving ‘Feedback with Impact’. We deliberately avoided the word ‘marking’ because there are so many ways to communicate with pupils about their learning. We wanted to focus on ‘Impact’ because feedback is only worthwhile if it leads to learning. Continue Reading
Memory Matters / Effective Revision
On Thursday night I gave a talk to parents on effective revision techniques as part our Year 11 Revision Evening. The aim was to illustrate some basic principles relating to memory and how these can be utilised to improve recall and retention. This is a summary of the content. Continue Reading
Let’s Get Pupils Thinking Hard pt.2
Following on from the previous blog, this post is all about getting pupils thinking hard. Whereas pt.1 focused on some basic principles, pt.2 aims to provide some practical suggestions for the classroom. Continue Reading
A Concise Literacy Policy
Writing concisely and precisely is a common challenge for our pupils in improving the quality of their writing. In order to lead the way here, I’ve tried to model these qualities in our new literacy policy.
The policy, consisting of just nine words, is as follows: Continue Reading
“The Research Homework”
It’s tempting to give up on setting research based homework because of the exhausting battle against plagiarism, but there is an alternative! See these resources and ideas from the Literacy group.
Although I’m sure that plagiarism has always been an issue for teachers, it seems that it has never been easier for pupils to hand in others’ ideas as their own. Continue Reading
New Year Assessment Resolutions for 2016
In 2015, I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of time I spend marking by finding more efficient and effective strategies for providing feedback. Doing this has made me increasingly reflective about the link between formative feedback and pupil progress. In 2016, I’m committing to a more considered approach which takes into account some of the research in this area. Continue Reading
