Leadership

Teacher Monitoring; Lessons from Pig Wrestling

Imagine the Department for Education offered you £100, 000 to do either:

a) Employ two more senior leaders to monitor and improve the quality of teaching in your school

b) Give every teacher an hour or two additional non-contact time per week to collaboratively plan learning, assess gaps in pupils’ knowledge and support pupils who were behind with their learning.

Instinctively I’m drawn towards b); systemically we have implemented a) across schools in England for the past few decades. Continue reading →

Accountability and Inclusion; Like Oil and Water?

If the English Education System is to move forward it has to address a long tail of underachievement.  This underachievement can be greater for certain groups of pupils; disadvantaged, particularly white working class, looked after children and those with special educational needs.  The move towards greater equity, in terms of educational outcomes, is likely to be achieved as we become more inclusive as a system. Continue reading →

We Need Better Readers; So What Next?

If all your students read at the same standard as your very best readers in the year group would you transform the progress, attainment and life chances of your young people?  I tend to say “yes” to this; so what must we do to achieve it?

Continue reading →