Expert Contributor | Schools Week

The new Ofsted framework is great for AP

Debra Rutley rejoiced when she read the new Ofsted framework. “At last we in AP could tell our story” The day the new Ofsted framework came out I was at an event for alternative provision chief executives, where two Ofsted HMIs, Nick Whittaker and Dan Owen, were speaking. None of the attendees had had a […]

How research can help address students’ recurring mistakes

I can’t begin to estimate the number of times I have written the same feedback on a student’s work – time and time again. Other teachers tell me that I am not alone. But help is at hand from the research evidence. For example, the Education Endowment Foundation’s A Marked Improvement report distinguishes between mistakes […]

Creativity can’t be left to chance – it must be taught

A knowledge-rich curriculum is vital, says Paul Carney, but students must learn what creative processes are and how they might be used in their own thinking In his book Making Kids Cleverer, David Didau eloquently argues that the best way of improving children’s welfare is to teach them a knowledge-rich curriculum because this will make […]

Be brave and say ‘no’ to excessive executive pay

Trustees need to make ethical decisions about CEO pay – and not get caught in a race to the top, says Sam Henson The matter of executive pay has been in the spotlight for some time, and the attention hasn’t gone away. In the same week that the National Governance Association has published guidance for […]

Maths teaching for mastery: Is it worth it?

The Shanghai Teacher Exchange has been deemed ineffective for improving maths SATs scores, but does this mean teaching mastery should be discarded altogether? Researcher Mark Boylan explains Mastery has been the government’s flagship policy to improve mathematics education for the last five years. Over £70 million has been committed to support the maths hubs and […]

How to interpret effect sizes in education

Humans are not naturally good at understanding abstract statistics. As teachers, sure, we can easily understand the idea that 65 per cent of our students answered the hinge question correctly or that the average mark on an essay was a 72.4/100. But when we read reports on education interventions, it can be harder to get […]

Julia Skinner’s top school governance blogs Jan 2019

It has been so good to see more governors starting to blog to share their opinions. More please! I’ve been a (wild) governor for many a year @ChrisChivers2 Chris Chivers will be known to many in education and on Twitter for his reflective approach, so it was great to read his take on governance. He […]

Sustaining Resilience for Leadership

I began reading this book in the Christmas break, having just finished my first term as a headteacher. It helped to energise me and make me ready to lead again, come January. Workload and wellbeing are hot topics in education and Julia Steward uses recent research, with some (often amusing) anecdotes, to remind headteachers to […]

5 unintended consequences of the new Ofsted framework

The vast knowledge of HMIs should support and improve schools rather than tell them what they already know, says Vic Goddard Most of you will have seen the film It’s a Wonderful Life, but a quick summary: we don’t know the full impact of our own behaviour on others’ lives – think ripples in a […]