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Ability Setting: No Longer ‘Best Practice’ by @BloggingAP - UKEdMag

Ability Setting: No Longer ‘Best Practice’ by @BloggingAP – UKEdMag

For a long time it was popular to put children into ability groups/sets in Primary schools (especially maths) – the theory being that you can provide challenge for the highest ability groups whilst allowing the least able to work at a pace which suited them whilst enabling them to ‘catch up’ where necessary. The most recent research, however, tends to show that it has no long term benefits for…

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Prioritising for better wellbeing! by @BloggingAP

Prioritising for better wellbeing! by @BloggingAP

Wellbeing: Whilst watching a re-run of 1990s tv show ‘Police, camera, action’ at 2.30 this morning (the things you do when you have a 20 month old who refuses to sleep through!) I heard a police officer talking about the risks drivers take when they speed; she used the phrase “Better to get there late than never at all!” and I started thinking about how this may also be the case in teaching. This…

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Feedback – perfect this and everything else falls into place! by @BloggingAP

Feedback – perfect this and everything else falls into place! by @BloggingAP

At it’s most simple, feedback is information given to a pupil and/or the teacher about the learners performance relative to their learning goals.  It should aim to produce improvement in the pupil’s learning.  Feedback should be designed to redirect or refocus the pupil or teachers actions to help achieve a learning goal or target.  Feedback can be verbally given, written, or can be given through…

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Why ‘mixed ability’ classrooms are the way forward by @BloggingAP

Why ‘mixed ability’ classrooms are the way forward by @BloggingAP

In the week where the government’s Social Mobility Commission published a report stating that putting children into sets can have a ‘profound negative impact’, I ask “Does setting have a place in the Primary classroom?”. Putting children into sets can have a “profound negative impact” This is a re-blog post originally posted by @BloggingAP and published with kind permission. The original post can…

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Via @BloggingAP: Hands up if you think this is just good practice (or not)!

Via @BloggingAP: Hands up if you think this is just good practice (or not)!

Recently, a school came under fire for ‘banning’ children from putting their hands up to answer questions.  Leaders at the Samworth Church Academy in Mansfield claim the traditional method of answering teachers’ questions is outdated and fails to challenge pupils effectively. Whilst the leaders at the school in question chose to change their approach based on sound educational research and, as is…

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Teacher well-being - we must do right by ourselves in order to do right by our pupils! by @BloggingAP

Teacher well-being – we must do right by ourselves in order to do right by our pupils! by @BloggingAP

Until very recently I didn’t really believe in stress. Stress was something that other people let happen to them. I am by default a positive person (to some, annoyingly so!) and as such have always been able to manage situations that others refer to as stressful by compartmentalising them, putting a positive spin on them or ‘parking them’ completely.  This doesn’t mean that I never got cross and…

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