Lockdown is a weird time for us all; but spare a thought for trainee and newly qualified professionals that have been catapulted into their careers at an alarming rate. Teachers are not exempt from this fate and they will be starting their classroom careers without the support that would usually be on offer as lockdown […]
Read more
As a teacher, I am always striving for ways to determine if students are making progress, hoping to identify those pupils who would benefit most from targeted intervention and also to give context to parents to help them understand if their child is doing OK. At my school, we need target grades for every student and […]
Read more
11th February is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To celebrate, Oxford staff have picked some of their favourite women in science. Let us know yours in the comments! Science Editor Mélanie chose Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Mélanie says, “she was the first woman to be awarded a licence to practise medicine in Britain, […]
Read more
Adam Boxer, one of the authors of the new Oxford Revise series, explains how its Knowledge, Retrieval, Practice model leads to truly effective revision. If you’re anything like me, one of the questions you’ll be asked the most by students is how they should revise. Most students and parents don’t really know how to do it. So […]
Read more
In my opinion Key Stage Three is the most important time in secondary school and the time when we can have the biggest influence on students. It’s a time where we can have a significant impact both academically and socially. I even put this to Twitter and Twitter agreed: 50% of people shared this view! […]
Read more
Examiners’ reports are a wealth of information, giving data about how many students tried each question as well as breaking down misconceptions for every section. Are there any key messages that we can draw from the examiners reports to improve the performance of our students? Sam Holyman has looked through the reports to give you […]
Read more
Sam Holyman shares some of her top tips for constructive, productive appraisal conversations, drawing on her own positive early career experience when preparing for the appraisals she now gives. When I first started teaching, I used to meet with my line manager for performance management meetings. It felt like an informal chat over a cuppa, […]
Read more Learning science involves the acquisition and retention of a large body of knowledge. To be useful, both in assessments and in everyday life, this knowledge needs to be stored durably in memory. Knowledge also needs to be accessible when attempts are made to retrieve it. Aware that students felt overwhelmed by the quantity of content […]
Read more
It’s a bright, crisp September morning and I’m sitting in a hall, surrounded by shell-shocked teachers as we all adjust to the Autumn term and the return of our early morning get-up time. As I listen to the announcements and take part in the discussions, I realise the same words keep popping up: Ofsted, cultural […]
Read more
Reading through the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF) [1] it’s clear that there are some implications for Science departments and teachers that need to be considered. In this blog I’ll identify three key issues and discuss them. The three issues are: The 3 Is: Intent, Implementation, Impact Key Stage 3: Two Years vs Three Years Science or Biology, Chemistry & […]
Read more