Everywhere you look in the education world currently, it seems that discussion is centred around the forthcoming new Ofsted Framework. For many (including myself), the framework is a welcome change – an opportunity to put the what and why back at the heart of our teaching discussions and decisions. With the framework clearly centred on […]
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With problem solving and reasoning at the core of the mathematics curriculum, we recognise an increased emphasis on developing teaching styles where children are encouraged to think for themselves, explore strategies, communicate their thinking and discuss and debate with their peers. This can be in conflict with a belief that all learning in mathematics has […]
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The draft Curriculum for Wales has now been released, and as educators we finally have the What Matters statements for the new Areas of Learning Experience (AOLE). The Mathematics and Numeracy AOLE is segregated into four subsections of mathematics: The number system is used to represent and compare relationships between numbers and quantitiesAlgebra uses symbol systems to express the structures of relationships between […]
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I have been floating the idea of treating key mathematics ideas as handrails for teachers and students. Recently several positive comments about this perspective have floated back to me, so I am sharing the idea with you. In mathematics, teaching key ideas could be handrails. Handrails can be held, used as guides or supports, or […]
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This month we welcome Rebecca Nobes, Head of Spanish to the Teaching Languages Today Blog with her reflections on the Ofsted Framework… Having read the new Ofsted Framework, all in all I am feeling positive. I’m really encouraged by the way in which it outlines all the things that they will not be expecting early […]
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Empathy Day on the 11th June is an annual event founded by Empathy Lab , to harness books’ empathy-building power. It aims to encourage us to read stories, build empathy and make the world a better place. We’ve put together a list of brilliant books that will help you and your class see things from someone else’s […]
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Every year thousands of young people from across the UK pick up their pens to enter BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition. As part of ongoing language and lexical research, the Oxford Children’s Dictionaries & Children’s Language Data team at Oxford University Press has analysed almost 113,000 short stories submitted to the competition for the […]
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Following a 3-month public consultation period that got more than 15,000 responses, Ofsted has published its new Education Inspection Framework. The new framework will apply from September 2019, but what’s changed and what does this mean for schools? “Our goal is really simple: to be a force for improvement through our inspections. We want to […]
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I am not sure about you, but I am constantly curious about how plays get their titles, as some appear to be quite random; think of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or A Streetcar Named Desire or Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano. Have your students ever asked you why Miller called his play […]
Read moreOn the Bookshelf River Boy by Tim Bowler In perfect tune with our Author Focus we feature on the Bookshelf a stunning new edition of the Carnegie Medal winning novel by Tim Bowler. River Boy also has a heroine, Jess, seemingly more at home in the water. She is another powerful swimmer and there is a mystery inextricably linked […]
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