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*Exam Grades 2020*: Technically a fiasco.
It’s been one hell of a week for everyone involved with exams – especially for the thousands of students receiving A levels. Earlier this week I posted my thoughts about the system: Adjusting CAGs: no politics, no disgrace, no injustice. It’s just technical. Well – that headline didn’t turn out so well did it! The blog … Continue reading
Adjusting CAGs: no politics, no disgrace, no injustice. It’s just technical.
In the wake of the Scottish exam results being published, Nicola Sturgeon’s apology for ‘getting it wrong’ is adding fuel to the bonfire of sanity around this year’s exam results. One of the things that winds me up is that nobody is presenting an alternative that: provides a more fair or more accurate outcome. doesn’t … Continue reading
The A|D|A|P|T approach to implementing teaching ideas.
When Oliver Caviglioli and I sat down to think about our Teaching WalkThrus project, an early consideration was the problem of “implementation” and the practices that surround it. It’s a common and highly problematic concept in CPD that teachers are meant to receive ideas through training that they then deliver; they implement. This leads to … Continue reading
Our Wonderful @WalkThrus_5 Adventure.
Oliver (Caviglioli) and I have been on quite an adventure in the last year. It’s just over year since Oliver pitched the idea that we could work together on a book. In our first meeting around my kitchen table we hatched a plan for five-step WalkThrus; a repository of the core ideas and strategies that … Continue reading
100+ Lockdown Movie Adventures.
Like lots of people, film and TV have always played a big part in our lives. We have a fabulous Picture House cinema nearby and, pre-lockdown – we would go nearly every weekend; a family ritual. My son is something of a film expert- on his Letterboxd film app, he’s recorded over 1200 movies that … Continue reading
Comfort vs Strategy. (Don’t project anxieties; make things possible)
As a parent I observed early on how often our kids would take their emotional cues from us. I also learned a great deal from my wife about minimizing drama. Whether it was an ‘alarming’ nappy-change moment in the those first weeks of uncertainty, or one of the kids had grazed a knee in the … Continue reading
British History; Black History: Everyone’s history.
One of the positive changes that I see emerging from the recent wave of #BlackLivesMatter protests is that schools are going to be talking a lot about how effective their curriculum is in teaching children about colonialism, empire, slavery and the wider frame of the history of BAME people in Britain. What is an anti-racist … Continue reading
Curriculum Positions. Knowing where you stand.
In the discussions teachers and leaders are having in their schools about what to teach, there are going to be a hundreds of decision points where alternative choices are being weighed up. These will happen at the macro level: what subjects to offer; how much time to give them; which choices students can make. It … Continue reading
Anti-Racism and Allyship. Privilege and paralysis.
The #BlackLivesMatter protests of the last two weeks, catalysed by George Floyd’s death, have been accompanied by a wave of powerful messages I find I’m hearing or absorbing at a different level. It’s not like they’re new – or that I’ve never heard them before; far from it. I’ve been involved in discussions about racism … Continue reading
Re-Establishing Teaching Routines.
This week I took part in one of the excellent #CPDConnectUp webinars with David Weston for Teacher Development Trust. The theme was ‘re-establishing teaching routines’ as schools begin the path back to being fully open. The format included about 15 minutes input from me, then lots of questions in break-out groups and the full session. … Continue reading
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