Year after year, when SATs and GCSE results are announced, the headlines shout about girls outperforming boys, but there is very little or no explanation for parents as to why this might be happening. As educators, we owe it to parents to show them what the issues are, what their school is doing about it, […]
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Putting brilliant reading corners, libraries and learning spaces at the heart of your school As the headteacher at Our Lady & St. Hubert’s in Sandwell, I was recently given the opportunity to expand our school to two-form entry and build a brand new school. We wanted a building that flowed, suited Sandwell children and approached […]
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As I travel far and wide, training and talking to teachers, common questions occur… How can we improve the mathematical reasoning skills of our pupils and how can we support them as well as gather evidence for it? To address these questions, firstly, we need to understand what mathematical reasoning is and understand why it […]
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We know that giving children strong grammar, punctuation and spelling skills really helps them to communicate clearly, but children often find the rules difficult to understand. Here are some top tips from our resources to help. Brush up your knowledge The National Curriculum includes an extensive list of grammar terms for children to understand. You […]
Read moreGiving children the skills to become confident spellers has a huge impact across the curriculum – not only helping them approach their weekly spelling tests with ease, but importantly helping them make effective vocabulary choices in all of their writing. Here are some top tips from our resources to help. Make the most of staff […]
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There is a lot of talk about mastery in science education. It has become the new ‘buzzword’ and some might claim the panacea in teaching and learning. Having done a bit of reading and thinking about this, I am yet to be convinced about whether it is really the solution to success in science. In […]
Read moreThe last twelve months have seen the world of assessment data in primary education change beyond recognition. The removal of National Curriculum levels, Average Points Scores and changes to the curriculum structure entirely, has thrown many schools and providers into a spin over what data means. With the government deciding that they would not be […]
Read moreWhat’s going ahead and what’s not The statement to Parliament by Justine Greening and the publication of the final report of the Rochford Review on October 19th, and the appearance of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) results one day later mean that we now have clarity on two fronts. Firstly, we now know all the national assessment outcomes […]
Read moreThe first few weeks of a new school year usually involves both looking forward and looking back. The summer of 2016 saw an almost completely new set of national assessment and accountability arrangements and schools are analysing how they’ve done and pondering the implications for the years ahead. We don’t have all the results yet […]
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We were delighted to join over 300 teachers and 40 guest speakers at the University of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute in June for researchED Maths and Science. researchED is an organization with aims that very much complement our own. We therefore jumped at the opportunity to join forces to host a conference that would help to […]
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