Category Archives: Uncategorized

Over the past two years curriculum and assessment have changed and developed more rapidly than I can remember; the emphasis on evidence informed practice is refreshing and brings clear rationale to the ‘why’ when individuals, faculties or whole schools introduce change. The drive to improve becomes purposeful and a collaboration when exploring the evidence together.Continue reading “Curriculum and Assessment a Symbiotic Relationship”

Over the last two years in science we have worked hard on thinking about how we sequence our curriculum. In doing so we introduced a ‘spiral curriculum’ which splits topics up to ensure deliberate spacing and returning to topics to encourage retrieval and consolidation of each topic. Our next step was to then consider theContinue reading “Deeper Curriculum Thinking in Science”

Following on from considering the components that will help to structure a lesson for online learning that ensures not just engagement of students but progress in their learning, it is important to think about how PPA is utilised to maximise impact. It is all too common to hear the phrase ‘online teaching is more tiring’.Continue reading “Thinking Differently not Working More”

Following the first week back teaching remotely, it has been noticeable how full edu-social media has been with teachers sharing tips and ideas on how to use a range of different technology for ‘live teaching’ – it’s brilliant! Technical barriers aside, there have also been adjustments to make in the delivery and execution of theContinue reading “Adjusting to Online Teaching”

Following a year carefully sequencing our curriculum and focusing on improving teaching techniques to deliver content effectively, my aim for the coming year is to review how our assessment model can be improved and complement our curriculum content. Assessment has already begun to evolve as a result of our improved curriculum delivery, but also nowContinue reading “Assessment”

How many science teachers teach only their specialism? So far from my experience, and also identified by the DfE 2016 report on impact of specialist and non-specialist teaching, the general answer is that hours taught by ‘specialists’ increase the further through the key stages students progress. Beyond this the DfE report is difficult to useContinue reading “Subject Knowledge and Misconceptions in Science – part 1.”

Every lesson I have taught since I became a teacher I have created learning goals/objectives/intentions (whichever phrase you choose to use) for each lesson. It is drilled into every teacher from the moment they begin training that these are the foundation of each lesson and the starting point for your planning. Knowing that these areContinue reading “Learning Goals and Success Criteria”

Over the past term the topic of Retrieval Practice has been of real interest to me and is taking an increasingly high profile across education. However it is with most interest that I reflect on the implementation of this as a learning strategy, how this varies across different classrooms and how the research needs toContinue reading “Retrieval Practice”