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Raising Attainment
The biggest impact upon student attainment is the teacher that stands in front of them. There are numerous systems that can be put in place to raise attainment but what are most successful are those that improve that which has the biggest impact, the teacher. As such school leaders wishing to raise attainment should primarily concern themselves with improving the quality of these teachers.
An Indian Education
My recent visit to Indian schools highlighted the transformational power that effective school leadership can have, how education can change lives, how a ‘different’ style of examination system can foster high level thinking skills, why teachers should act as a ‘distanced friend’, the power of Skype, how children can make their parents ‘live better’ and why we should focus on nature and heritage
The Intelligence Wager
Much has been discussed concerning whether students can become more intelligent, i.e. whether they can increase their capacity to learn, as well just simply learn new things. I firmly believe that they can but regardless of the answer to this question the most important things is that we act as if they can and Pascal’s wager provides a good analogy as to why.
Monzo: Turned their weakness into their USP
Monzo, like Wagamama, have turned their weakness into their ‘thing’ and we all love
Motivating Staff: Lessons from a head-hunter
An engaging talk by successful headhunters, from Moloney Search, at the recent Prince’s Trust Institute conference, has highlighted what is necessary to motivate staff in the school context.
Why our brains need flipped classrooms
Providing content before the lesson increases student creativity and allows new ideas to be brought and used within the lesson
The most important building learning power muscle
One of the most important things that teachers can do in lessons to consolidate learning is to constantly encourage students to make links. Link to as much as possible of what they have learnt in that subject and also to what they are learning in other subjects. An analysis of how we learn seems to suggest that this is the most important building learning power muscle.
Teaching: The art of simplicity
Posing a series of simple questions actually helps us plan and achieve outstanding lessons
Schools without a HOW
When schools do not have a ‘how’ they have a vacuum and this is very dangerous.
Spaghetti, marshmallows and assessment for learning
The marshmallow challenge highlights that AFL methodologies have most impact when they are intrinsic to lessons and not used as a ‘tag-on’