headguruteacher
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The Anatomy of High Expectations
A lot has been written in the last week about the experience of able learners in state schools. The OfSTED report published last week was widely reported in terms of failure, despite using a small evidence base of 41 schools and subsequent articles and posts have focused on the issues in different ways: David Didau, … Continue reading
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After millennia of battle the surviving G’Gugvuntt and Vl’hurg realised what had actually happened, and joined forces to attack the Milky Way in retaliation. They crossed vast reaches of space in a journey lasting thousands of years before reaching their target where they attacked the first planet they encountered, Earth. Due to a terrible miscalculation … Continue reading
I love this song by Ian Brown. Play it as you read on…is there a better acrostic song?! It is better sung than written down but here is a sample: F.E.A.R. For each a road For everyman a religion Forget everything and remember For everything a reason Freeing excellence affects reality Fallen empires are running … Continue reading
I’ve been on a fantastic professional learning journey in recent weeks: listening and talking on the conference circuit (#lfe2012 #SSATNC12, #elconf); burying my head in my tweetdeck and the library of blogs and youtube clips that follow; hosting a TeachMeet (#TMEssex); reading a couple of books and having the privilege of visiting some amazing schools. … Continue reading
In the last two weeks I’ve been to a number of conference events with the SSAT and Essex Headteachers and attended the London Festival of Education. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and hearing the wise words of some of the best contemporary educational thinkers: Guy Claxton, John Hattie, Sir Tim Brighouse, John West-Burnham. I’ve … Continue reading
A previous post, What makes a great teacher?, was a popular post. I suppose that’s not surprising; people are intrigued to know what the answer might be. Am I a great teacher? Can I be a great teacher? What would it take for me to feel that this applies to me? We all want to … Continue reading
One of my core beliefs as a teacher: G&T is a total philosophy of teaching and learning. At both a pedagogical and strategic leadership level, I’d argue that cracking the issue of ‘G&T’ provision is the key to success – in the classroom and across the whole school. In fact, I think that if the … Continue reading
A blog about something really obvious but worth spelling out. After 25 years of teaching, I’ve been through a fair amount of dodgy INSET/CPD. As a result I am something of a ‘visiting speaker’ sceptic. However, it hasn’t all been bad; far from it. Some ideas have been very influential such as the ideas behind … Continue reading
I’ve been working on composing a song, Sola Vida, with help from some students over the last few weeks. Here is the latest recording: The composition originated as an instrumental piece: On June 6th Venus completed its transit across the sun. My son was moved to say “how come we got picked out of all … Continue reading
These issues of Learning Lessons describe a range of strategies for bringing formative assessment alive in every classroom. Click this image to view the pdf online via Issuu: The next issue in the series by MFL specialist Alex Steele. It cannot be recommended highly enough – it is packed with practical strategies and interesting approaches … Continue reading
