By former DfE Assistant Director, Vanessa Pittard A major distinction between primary maths teaching in England and Singapore (and other high performing jurisdictions in the Far East) relates to whole-class (interactive) teaching. In the Far East everyone is taught the same maths together at the same pace, regardless of prior performance or how quickly different […]
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17 July 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family in a cellar in Ekaterinburg in the Urals. This centenary provides an opportunity to review the circumstances which led to the Tsar’s tragic end and to reflect on the importance of the event for the course […]
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SHARED PRACTICE Greenaway Shadowing with SEN students—Joy Court talks to Caroline Fielding I would like to think that Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Shadowing will always feature in a Great School Library, but do you realise how flexible the scheme can be? Here Caroline Fielding, Librarian at Charlton Park Academy—a Special Academy for students with complex, low incidence […]
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HOT TOPIC Great School Libraries Joy Court discusses the new ‘Great School Libraries’ campaign and the ways in which your library can get involved with the movement for change! “June 6th saw the launch of the plan for the ‘Great School Libraries’ campaign, which should be dear to the hearts of everyone reading this! The […]
Read moreI had never stroked an elephant’s tongue until I started researching Thailand for my new book. That’s the wonderful thing about research – once you start, it can lead you to such exciting and unusual places. My second book in the Stunt Double series , Jungle Curse, is set in Thailand. I’m very lucky that I got to […]
Read more By former DfE Assistant Director, Vanessa Pittard I recently led a session with Derbyshire schools on mastery teaching. Derbyshire is a rural county, like many in England. This group of primary headteachers and maths leads included several people from schools with mixed-age classes: a fact of life for many rural schools. No surprise therefore that […]
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What to expect during the GCSE years and how to support your child If you have a child about to embark on their ‘GCSE journey’, there are probably any number of questions spinning around your mind. Aside from the obvious one (which is “where has all the time gone? It only seems like yesterday they […]
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GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are the main academic qualification taken in several subjects by the vast majority of pupils in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. But, in England, there have been significant reforms to many of the topics studied within the subjects, as well as to the examinations themselves and […]
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Head Teacher of Yarborough Academy, Hannah Albery, shares the journey of changing the maths culture in her school. “…this was mastery, but it also transcended everything. It was just good maths teaching. And, for me, that’s what mastery is. Teaching for understanding. And, that’s what Numicon gives us.” When the new curriculum came into place, […]
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I was not surprised when I finished reading ‘Why Closing the Word Gap Matters: Oxford Language Report’ , but it still made for sombre reading. The report put in black and white what teachers already know: Most of the students we teach don’t have the vocabulary they need to fulfil their full potential at school. The word gap affects students’ wider life chances. After […]
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