teacher training | Schools Week

How you can evaluate the impact of your decisions

With the government increasingly asking for evidence that initiatives have had “impact”, Stuart Kime writes a step-by-step guide for creating those documents Professor John Hattie’s entreaty for teachers to “know thy impact” is a laudable and important one. But knowing is hard. How can a teacher or school leader know what impact their choices had […]

How to make teacher training more attractive

Many subjects devalued by Progress 8 are undersubscribed in this year’s training intake. To boost recruitment, Oliver Beach suggests, schools should use new entrants’ skills beyond the classroom We’d all like to see graduates running down university corridors to bag a place in schools. Imagine: economics grads stomping down corridors, carrying Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations […]

Skills or knowledge: which is more important?

Skills and knowledge are often viewed as separate ingredients of the learning cake, like eggs and flour, added in different proportions depending on the recipe. But, says Heather Fearn, you need one, then the other becomes possible I have a question. When planning what to teach do you: A – Aim to teach mainly knowledge B – […]

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 […]