Leading Teacher Development

Teacher development, and the leadership of it, is a hot topic at the moment. It is therefore worth pausing to ask ourselves, ‘what is teacher development’? And ‘how should we lead it’? Teacher Development The NPQ Framework for Leading Teacher Development states that teacher development, “is likely to involve a lasting change in teachers’ capabilities

One-Page Report Formats

Reports are something we often overcomplicate. With the desire of personalising each and every one, we inadvertently add to teacher workload. My argument is that parents are already well aware of how their child has progressed this year because of parents’ evenings, mini reports, informal conversations and however else a school chooses to communicate regularly

FREE maths resources to help prepare for SATs

This blogpost is to share the great free maths resources that I use to help children prepare for the SATs that you may not be aware of. Maths4everyone – TES – search ‘maths4everyone TES’ on Google or access here – https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Maths4Everyone/Mathematics PDF booklets split into each maths topic and by content domain (which appears at

Why not plan forwards?

In my previous blog, I suggested that we should plan backwards to enable us to design tasks more effectively. Why not plan forwards? I think this is best summarised by the thinking of Shirley Clarke and Dylan Wiliam. Clarke argues that planning forwards can often lead to a conflation of the learning objective and the

Planning lessons backwards

Wiggins and McTighe propose that lesson and curricular planning should follow a ‘backwards’ methodology. In doing so, they predict we will have “results in more clearly defined and wisely blended short-term and long-term goals, more appropriate assessments, and more purposeful teaching than typical planning”. They describe their framework as ‘backwards’ because it opposes “conventional habits”,

How can a teacher’s view of learning influence the tasks they design?

This is the third blog in this series. The first can be found here and the second here. The design of a task can require significant thought and devotion of time, as it must marry up multiple factors: the subject content that is learnt; the pedagogy of the teacher; the disciplinary practice of the subject;

What is the purpose of a learning task?

This is the second blog in this task design series. The first defined task design and discussed why it is an important part of practice – find it here.  From a functionalist perspective, the purpose of a task is the application of knowledge learnt. Following instruction from a more knowledgeable other, a learner undertakes a

What is Task Design and why is it important?

This is the first blog in a series on Task Design. What is task design? Task Design may sound unfamiliar to you, but it is rather self-explanatory. While I have defined it in the past as the ‘thoughtful ideation of tasks that learners will engage with’ or ‘the process that refers to the principles and

Is commenting on ‘pace’ useful observation feedback?

‘You need to improve upon the pace of your lessons.’ Feedback many of us will have received or delivered throughout our career. I heard it just today, in fact – in feedback to a trainee. Maybe, we notice it as observers because it is more readily apparent from the outside looking in? Such feedback is

How do we achieve instant feedback for all?

After writing my previous blog on the best method for checking understanding, I carried on thinking about how we can check for understanding effectively. We know we want to check all pupils during a lesson, but we realise that this can be a rather challenging task. At best, we get a cursory glance of everyone’s