When we implemented a whole-school textbook programme, we were delighted with the results. Before the programme, our KS2 maths results were below the national standards, with KS1 not far behind. We were very aware that maths was a concern from an Ofsted perspective and had been for some time. However, after one year of Inspire Maths … […]
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Create a 5-minute buzz in TOK class over sense perception. Which version of the words do your students hear? It seems that groups of people are truly split over how they interpret the sound file! The first video here (from The Guardian) simply gives the options – as you’ll want just to get your class […]
Read more May in the northern hemisphere. The return of long daylight. But also IB exams. Tired students. Tired teachers. Time to take a class into the calm and beauty of pattern, with gentle TOK reflection on the deep intersections of mathematics, nature, art and technology. This year, my favourite vehicle is the animated sculpture of John […]
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Francois Walker, Headteacher from Model School Whiteknights Primary shares his experience of the impact of the resources from Read Write Inc. After a term of implementing Read Write Inc. Phonics we saw an impact! Children were starting to read out of Oxford Reading Tree books and they’d never done that before. They were also able to […]
Read moreLines, squares or plain? The pages of maths exercise books, I mean. For years I have insisted that pages have to have squares. Without vertical lines as well as horizontal ones how could my students possibly draw all the right-angled triangles and bearing North lines and coordinate axes and so on that I would tell […]
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As History teachers, we are just about to embark on ‘exam madness’ season. We have precious little time left with our exam classes. We will be prepping and delivering extra revision sessions on top of completing all of the other tasks that are part and parcel of our profession. So it is no surprise that […]
Read more Today, it’s time to lighten up – with a TOK cartoon, and a smile. In recent months, we’ve been heavy on a cluster of inter-connected topics: confirmation bias, fake news (variously defined), fact-checking, “pushback” to opposing views, and class activities for self-awareness of cognitive resistance to changing our minds. But today – as May exams […]
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Where to start? I’m someone who likes to keep mixing things up to see if new combinations of ingredients result in surprising and delicious outcomes, like Heston Blumenthal’s egg and bacon ice cream. Enjoying the freedom of being able to teach topics in any order, I can’t resist tweaking the Scheme of Work to see […]
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This month we’re delighted to be welcoming back David Shanks with his second post about preparing for GCSE 9-1. Have an effective and organised general approach Measuring what works in education is a notoriously tricky business with so many variables acting upon the learning process. However, advances in the world of cognitive science and educational […]
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By Jean Gross CBE, formerly the government’s Communication Champion for children and young people. Oxford University Press recently published the Oxford Language Report – a study into the effects of the word gap on children’s learning and what we can do to combat this. Here, Jean Gross CBE, offers some practical suggestions about how we […]
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