teacher training | Schools Week

How to start addressing extremism in the classroom

Discussing extremism requires knowledge of a wide range of issues unconnected to the mainstream curriculum, as well as clarity, objectivity and the confidence to respond to difficult questions. Here are some suggestions as to how to frame the major questions — and approaches to answering them The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 introduced statutory obligations on […]

Peer mentoring as an alternative to exclusion

Tutors of school-leaving age can help to unlock hidden potential in pupils excluded from mainstream education In the face of ever-changing goals schools are having to run just to keep up. They are (rightly) judged for the continuous improvements of their students – and there is nowhere more difficult to achieve this than in alternative […]

Why teachers may find it more difficult to strike

Consultation on the Trades Union Reform Bill opened this week, giving the government time to calculate where public opinion lies and whether it really does have the support to push ahead It’s worth remembering that this is not the launch of the actual bill, it’s simply the opening of a consultation (which ends on September […]

We still haven’t got the right training model

Freeing up the teacher training market has some advantages. But if recruitment targets are to be met, the artificial distinction between school-led and university training should be removed The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) last week announced a new way of managing trainee teacher recruitment for 2016/17. Instead of allocating places direct to […]

Lunchtime: the most important break of the day

Ofsted regularly focuses on lunchtime behaviour. To get the precious hour right needs creative thinking and carefully planned whole-school systems The lunchtime break is many children’s favourite time of the school day – and, in a moment of honesty, some teaching staff may admit to feeling the same! During this precious hour children eat, let […]

Four guiding principles of a good assessment system

The confusion, debate and disagreements that have followed the move away from levels are necessary if teachers are to work out the best assessment system for their school A “necessary stage of confusion” is how one commentator recently portrayed the move away from the national system of levels to monitor progress. It seems an apt […]

Hold a child’s hand and walk him through the curriculum

The curriculum starts off as a document: it’s then up to teachers to turn it into something that will resonate with them –and their pupils I’m not a proper teacher because I don’t work full or part time in one institution. I don’t have the long-lasting relationships with a GCSE class anymore and I miss […]

How much pay can be withheld if you go on strike?

You are not entitled to be paid for the time you spend on strike, but the amount docked will depend on what type of institution you teach in In maintained schools in England the Burgundy Book says that deductions for teachers on strike should be calculated on the basis of a day’s salary being 1/365th […]

Developing great teaching: eight lessons from new research

Good CPD focuses on subject or topic-based pupil issues and outcomes, uses collaborative problem-solving approaches over several months and moves away from the one-size-fits-nobody approach Too much CPD is unproductive but the evidence suggests a better way. No teacher has ever got to the end of their day with an empty to-do list; we’re an […]