Ofsted has now completed its set of pilot “visits” to schools and will now start inspecting schools. We can only hope Ofsted will learn the lessons from the pilot – give schools a week’s notice of their visit and don’t issue any judgemental letter. Or better still accept that now is the time to leave school and school leaders to get on with their already challenging jobs.
Continue readingThe key to re-thinking GCSEs is to consider their fundamental purpose. GCSEs, and their predecessor O-levels, were designed as an end point summative assessment of young people’s academic subject based attainment, at sixteen. However, young people are now required to stay in full-time education, start an apprenticeship/traineeship or spend 20+ hours a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training, until they are 18 years old. Sixteen is now a staging post rather than an end point.
Continue readingCognitive Load Theory is increasingly impacting on teachers. Its latest inclusion being in the Early Career Framework. Alongside its wider impact on policy, it is featuring in professional development programmes, influencing people’s thinking and hopefully their approach to teaching. At its heart, it is a theory about instructional (teaching) design.
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