Trying to apply educational research to students of all abilities and backgrounds
I started to read The Ape that Understood the Universe by Steve Stewart-Williams and it got me thinking about the teaching of evolution. I posted a quick survey on twitter because it occurred to me that the sequencing of ecology and evolution is quite varied. In this blog I want to discuss the various ways... Continue Reading →
I've written this blog to share the strategy we are using to facilitate whole-class feedback and formative assessment for our students. Obviously this has a science context, but should be applicable to most subjects with long-answer questions. You might already be doing this, or your own version of it, but hopefully you'll find some or... Continue Reading →
My summer reading book this year was the interestingly titled ‘How Behaviour Spreads’ by Damon Centola. It’s an account of a decade worth of work and goes into detail about why most of the research and assumptions made about how behaviour is spread are wrong in most situations. I was fascinated by the ideas and... Continue Reading →
The government has suggested the schools stagger the start and end of the day to reduce the number of people congregating around the school entrance. Schools, desperate for guidance and support from a pathetically ill-equipped DfE, have taken this on board and most schools have some sort of staggering to the day. They also do... Continue Reading →
I am writing this as I finish my final day of Oak National Academy lessons. I have made 25 lessons in 15 days and my brain is a bit mushy. I thought as it is, hopefully, a one-of-a-kind type event I would just write down some thoughts and feelings on the experience. Getting asked to... Continue Reading →
In lockdown I've tried to live by the mantra everything you do now, try to make sure it is of use when "normality" returns. With this in mind I have been going through the Biology SLOP booklets and made some changes to the originals Some changes that have been made are: Proof readingSlight reduction in... Continue Reading →
There has been a recent discussion around the setting, or streaming, of students on twitter. This tweet by Dylan Wiliam seems to give a slight nudge towards mixed ability favouring less able students. https://twitter.com/dylanwiliam/status/1262037870560378882?s=20 Some people are very much in favour of sets. The use of rank order as a tool to make the setting... Continue Reading →
Below are links to download the majority of our KS3 booklets we used this year. These were incredibly helpful in supporting non-specialist teachers, disadvantaged students and improving the amount of reading in science lessons. They are varied in nature as they were written by a wide range of staff and also show a progression in... Continue Reading →
This is hopefully the final post I will make in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1 on creating a temperature screening protocol from existing school supplies is here Part 2 on maintaining social distancing within a lock-down school setting is here This is the post I hope you never need to use. In times... Continue Reading →
This is the second part of a blog that focuses on the issues involved with protecting the children of key-workers and suggests some possible solutions. Part 1 which is focused on temperature screening all building occupants on a daily basis. This section shares some of the decisions we have made to try to promote social... Continue Reading →
Reflections on Education 