Marking in many schools has reached fetish level. It’s out of all balance with other key activities teachers must undertake most noticeably planning. Ofsted reports, for too many years, have obsessed about marking – I managed a hat-trick of marking as a key issue for action in consecutive reports over a decade – but subject and curriculum planning is rarely mentioned. Continue reading
Schools don’t usually group all disadvantaged pupils together and deliberately teach them badly. A lack of progress by this sub-group maybe a result of more generic issues across the school; disadvantaged children are just impacted on more. Continue reading
Is it a report? Is it a poster? Is it a decision to stop doing so many things; most of which don’t impact positively on children’s life chances? With thanks to Debra Kidd and all the other organisers of another brilliant Northern Rocks 2017; here is an outline of the workshop session I gave. Continue reading