Teachers and research evidence: building engagement
March 19, 2018
The move towards a research-engaged teaching profession, working in an evidence-informed way seems to be gaining momentum. The recently established Chartered College of Teaching, highlights as one of its three central aims well informed teachers, with access to ‘high quality research’ and promotes this through its own journal, database and research summaries; meanwhile, the teacher-led …
The Never-Ending Story of EYFS Assessment
November 6, 2017
In this post Philip Hood offers a perspective on EYFS assessment plans. In September in this blog series Helen Victoria Smith wrote about school readiness and aspects of the assessment system in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Since then the government has published a response to the Primary Assessment Consultation. You can see the full …
What do we mean by school-ready?
September 4, 2017
This September, most 4 year old children in the UK will start school for the first-time. Due to the offer of free childcare places for all 3 to 4 year olds, most of these will have experienced being in some sort educational environment although these will differ greatly. In addition, their home experiences …
What do we mean by ‘Character Education’?
May 3, 2017
The use of ‘Character Education’ as a term has become more widespread in recent years but can be understood in many different ways. In this post, Rupert Knight explores this concept and provides an example of one school’s approach. Education for character as well as academic attainment is nothing new and the 2015 report …
An Early Years ‘PISA’, Good-Level washback and the forgotten areas of learning.
April 3, 2017
It is not a new phenomenon for the UK early years phase of education to be a centre of controversy between practitioners, policy makers (and enactors) and academics. But, in this post, Philip Hood argues that the impending introduction of a set of tests for five-year-olds from OECD, a real Early Years PISA may, indeed …
Are textbooks in the primary school the answer? To what problem?
November 3, 2016
Primary schools in many ‘high performing countries’ use textbooks in primary classrooms. In this post, Jane Medwell explores the role they may play in English classrooms. In 2014 Nick Gibb told us told to “shed the anti-textbook culture” in primary schools: “In England, 10 per cent of 10-year olds are issued textbooks. In South Korea, …
