Tony Davis Blog · Centre for Creative Quality Improvement - Part 3

Where do you feel the ‘culture’ of your organisation comes from? Is it the leaders, the staff, the governors, the learners? While everyone plays their part, I’m not sure it’s any of the people, as they change so often. All of us in the LinkedIn community can testify to that, given the number of It’s-been-a-blast-but-I’m-off-to-pastures-new posts. So I think it comes from somewhere less volatile (or, at least, somewhere that should be less volatile..). I think culture is set by […]

What’s the no. 1 challenge teachers from across the sector are reporting right now? It isn’t English or maths, or even financial hardship; though I don’t wish to diminish the enormous challenge of any of these. It’s wellbeing. Or could I be a bit provocative – is it the helplessness teachers feel when they are rightly stretching and challenging their learners… who then play the ‘mental health’ card? This is a minefield, I know. I’m not for one moment suggesting […]

Sometime ago, I watched a college observer evaluating a flower-arranging lesson. It was delivered by a pro who gave up her time once a week to run an evening class. And it was one of those lessons you really wished you were involved in, rather than watching! When the observer fed back, their criticism was that the teacher hadn’t used any learning technology. This gave me a mild moral dilemma. As an observer of the observer, I shouldn’t be challenging […]

Let me pose a fascinating thought challenge about the purpose of Further Education & Skills provision and why, of late, Ofsted seems to have its trolleys in a tangle over IAG. Before I do, however, I’d like to ask a couple of questions. Does achieving their qualification guarantee learners a job or a university place? Of course, unless there’s some sort of special relationship in place, the answer is no. While it should go without saying that qualification success is […]

In this Thursday’s open, online training session, we’re going to be taking a forensic look at Progress Reviews. One delegate summed up the session by say it “identified that progress reviews will be a cultural change and not a procedural change”. Couldn’t have said it better. When you’re next surfing inspection reports, sharpen your antennae for judgements on Progress Reviews. You may well find that there are a significant number of weaknesses on this themes, few strengths, and, well.. have […]