I remember my exam results’ day very vividly. A quiet car journey filled with expectation, a soulless school hall with rows of brown envelopes and then the celebrations or commiserations amongst friends....
As Head of Department you’re already juggling a team of teachers, several classes of students and pressure from above – getting to grips with your data might feel like a time-intensive, stressful, tedious task on an endless to-do list. We’ve been there....
Joining the ranks as a head of your department is an exciting step in your teaching career. You feel like you can really make a difference at your school, and you’re proud to be acknowledged for your achievements as a teacher....
Car keys, laptop, marking, lunch, folders, wallet, handbag, glasses, phone… check, check, check… and if you’ve forgotten them then it’s often a mad, curse-filled dash to get them....
It’s second lesson on Monday. You’ve been dreading this lesson. You struggled to sleep last night. You’ve tried everything. You’ve discussed the class with every other teacher in your department. You’ve held endless detentions… and still nothing has changed....
When facing your first couple of years as a teacher, the adjustment to managing a classroom can feel a bit overwhelming. You’ve finished your teacher training with the drive to be the greatest teacher you can be, but you know it’s going to be a huge learning curve....
Is critical thinking just another buzz phrase that really means very little? Is it yet another fad?...
The data looks good, the future doesn’t. While writing this blog for Pupil Progress on behaviour management strategies, I started to reflect on student behaviour more generally....
There’s no denying that it’s a difficult time for everyone involved in education right now, and that schools are under extreme pressure to produce results. We all know this, we all feel it. Our teachers and school leaders are living and breathing this pressure every day....
One of the drivers that led me to leave the teaching profession and start Pupil Progress was that I could see the impact an effective tracking and monitoring system would have on my students’ outcomes and my ability to support teachers in my team and do my job as a Head of Faculty....
How good is your department or school? To support schools with the analysis of their exam results this month, former headteacher and senior leader Michael Harpham and Barnaby Grimble take senior leaders and governors through the data analysis process and help them secure a clearer picture......
The validation process is going to be the most important step in recommending student grades for submission by the centre. If you get the grades in line with your centre’s prior attainment and the distribution of KS2 prior attainment, then it is likely that your recommended grades will be accepted....
Many teachers will respond to the challenge of suggesting a grade for the centre to submit differently; some will relish the opportunity to prove that teachers know their students, others may feel a lack of confidence, guilt or anxiety around recommending grades for their students....
Ofqual have made it clear that work done after 20th March shouldn't be taken in to consideration when deciding students' recommended grades....
Information about the methodology for awarding grades for students is gradually being released before the official guidance comes out from exam boards....
Ofqual has stated that, once you have decided on the recommended grades for students, centres will need to recommend “the rank order of students within each grade....
Michael Harpham is an ex-headteacher, author and education consultant. Having worked in some of the most challenging circumstances with students, he shares his thoughts about resilience here....
The big countdown has begun. Mock data is in and results have been given back to students. So your thoughts will now be back to how you can make the biggest difference to your students’ grades between now and the final exams....
At last, your marking has been done! You may have used up valuable time in the holiday or weekend to break the back of it or had some early morning rises, but it’s done. The last thing you are likely to want to do now is to pass it to another teacher to get their critique of your marking....
The new Ofsted framework has again sparked debate and heated discussion, but on the whole teachers are considering it to be a step in the right direction. It focuses on delivering a meaningful curriculum and encourages the use of meaningful data when tracking and monitoring progress....