I wonder how aware people are that Ofsted encourages, promotes even, poor self-assessment practice? It’s one of the great ironies and flaws of its inspection process. Those of us who’ve been around a while will remember the rubric for inspection reports in the early days: judge impact; don’t argue cause and effect. I remember the day well when the then responsible minister said something like: ‘You’ve got all these expert inspectors – why aren’t you making recommendations in your reports […]

I have an experiment for you. Put the kettle on and make a brew. As you create that warm thinking space, just sit back and imagine your classrooms full of expert learners. What is it that you see? What are the traits these learners have that set them apart from reality (if, indeed, there’s any difference.) Now imagine the impact on your workload if you could enable your learners to develop all of those traits. Sadly, while many children do […]

I love the concept of ‘magical moments’ as a teacher. You know, the ones that leave learners changed. They can be huge, cross-curricula moments that take a lot of planning, or very small ones that just take a little thought. Even better, though are the magical moments preceded by a wonderful cocktail of curiosity and anticipation. Isn’t it a shame that, so often, Progress Reviews don’t fall into this category of experiences. Why do you think that might be? Teachers […]

On Wednesday afternoon, we’ll be looking at The Art of Using Target Setting. I know, I know, who ‘wants’ to attend yet another session on SMART?! However, I’d like to think that this one is different. That word – ‘different’ – is really important in this context; as the good Mr Einstein rightly proclaimed: ‘Madness is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results’. Yet isn’t that what we so often see with training on target setting; […]