All them empty lines

During a GCSE intervention session recently, I asked one boy why he disliked English so much. He sat back and, with a cheerful smile, provided me with a list. These were his exact words: All that writing makes my hand hurt so much You have to write loads of stuff just to explain one little […]

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The Language of Labels

A recent conversation about Medium Term Plans made me think about the terminology we might say goodbye to now that we have waved the old National Curriculum off. I grew very excited about the thought that certain phrases might just cease to exist. Level – somehow the word level seems associated with elevators, altitude, flat […]

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Assessing without levels

For years we have been deluged in AfL and BfL so now let’s prepare for AwL – Assessing without Levels. The DfES states that the levels “system is complicated and difficult to understand” and “encourages teachers to focus on a pupil’s current level, rather than consider more broadly what the pupil can actually do”. This […]

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