teacher training | Schools Week

Why effective heads don’t need to have been teachers

Too many headteachers are nearing retirement with too few to take their place. But there are plenty of highly skilled people with the potential to run schools, says Mike Buchanan. Toby Young, Sir Michael Wilshaw and Sir Anthony Seldon are all colourful characters who prod us with their pronouncements. They are all passionate believers in […]

Prepare well and school trips can be fun

Accidents happen, but what if they are on a school trip that you are in charge of? Jade Kent lists what you need to be aware of School trips seem great in principle, but what if something goes wrong? How should we prepare for taking pupils off site? As a starting point, teachers are required […]

What is teaching for mastery in maths?

I was very interested to read the item in last week’s Schools Week that suggested pupils in one primary school were being prevented from reading books ‘above their level’ because of a ‘mastery’ approach to English teaching. Teaching maths for mastery involves employing approaches that help pupils to develop a deep and secure knowledge and understanding of […]

The ‘Workload Principles’: A one-page guide to the most useful parts of the workload reports

After surveying 21,000 people and taking a year to mull over the results what did the groups tasked with reducing workload find? The recommendations themselves cover three different areas – planning, marking, and data – and are mostly very weak. Lots of lines saying ‘should’ and ‘encourage’ but no real commitment. Also, many of the […]

‘Tread warily in this brave new academy world’

Teacher training needed reform. But are school-led routes the only solution? Accountability, parent power and the question of who controls schools all need to be addressed too – and soon Last week, I explained how the school-led system is stifled by a lack of true autonomy for school leaders, and is failing to improve education […]

‘Setting targets does nothing good for pupils – it can even make things worse’

It’s time to ditch a culture of misused statistics and instead come up with a fairer system for measuring pupil performance – and that of those that teach them too In many schools, targets appear on marksheets without any input from the teacher who knows pupils. Instead they are derived solely from those pupils’ key […]

‘No excuses’ is not a solution for angry teens

Insisting disadvantage can be fixed with a traditional academic curriculum and a strong dose of discipline is not engaging with the issue. That method did nothing for my sister, and it will do nothing for others like her, says Kiran Gill Last term there was a predictable exam hullabaloo when school GCSE data was published. […]

Teachers must learn to tame technology

There are powerful tools already available in schools. Staff must realise they don’t need to upgrade, they need to maximise the use of what they have I went to the Bett Show recently. Four days – and half a mile – long, bigger than ever, stand after stand showing the latest educational technology. The show […]