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Latest Blog Posts
- What curriculum do young people need? July 23, 2020
- School reopening? top scientists say not yet May 25, 2020
- Sending England back to work and back to school? May 11, 2020
- Too early to reopen schools : look at Europe April 30, 2020
- Ofsted : unreliable, destructive, beyond repair December 5, 2019
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Category Archives: Accountability
Ofsted : unreliable, destructive, beyond repair
Ofsted is clearly beyond repair, and the Election provides an opportunity to close it for good. This will help to stop the mass exodus of teachers from England’s schools. It will help schools concentrate on what really matters: children’s education … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, inspection, Ofsted
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Life after SATs – a world to win
It is hardly surprising that the prospect of ending SATs has worried some parents and teachers. After all, younger teachers, and most parents, have always lived under their shadow. SATs are part of the landscape. It’s hard to imagine what … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Uncategorized
Tagged accountability pressures, assessment alternatives, testing
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Are SATs closing the poverty gap?
Based on an elaborate formula invented by his officials, schools minister Nick Gibb is “proud we’re closing the gap between rich and poor pupils.” A more straightforward measure shows that nothing has changed. Last summer 54% of children eligible for free … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Social Justice
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, National Curriculum, poverty
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Primary school tests and children’s mental health
One study after another has shown the damage being caused by SATs to children’s mental health. In a survey by the ATL (now part of the National Education Union) in 2016, 89% thought that testing and exams were the biggest cause … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Uncategorized
Tagged accountability pressures, Ofsted, politicians, testing
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Stop these tests, protect the children
Following Michael Gove’s revision of the National Curriculum, the Government deliberately set out to make tests harder. The result was predictable. In their first year, the new KS2 SATs failed half of England’s children in at least one subject (Reading, … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability
Tagged accountability pressures, assessment alternatives, testing
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Without SATs the sky won’t fall in!
The National Education Union’s first conference in April voted to ballot on boycotting SATs. The next day, Jeremy Corbyn promised that a future Labour government would abolish them along with the proposed baseline test. This has caused excitement but also … Continue reading
Demoralisation and failure: what are we doing to children?
In the open letter which a hundred education professors and lecturers wrote to Michael Gove in 2013, and which hit the front pages of national newspapers, the government was clearly warned about what the new curriculum would do. The lists … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Uncategorized
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, National Curriculum, testing
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Ofsted: notoriously unreliable
Ofsted judgments have never been trustworthy. There have been problems from the start. It should come as no surprise that none of the 46 schools wearing an Outstanding label which were inspected this January retained that label: 37 became Good, … Continue reading
How teaching can be different
by Valerie Coultas Cultures of performativity must go if collaboration and creativity is to survive in teaching This article takes issue with the dominant managerial view that teaching is improved by close supervision and imposed lesson observations. Instead, I argue … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Teachers
Tagged accountability pressures, competition, lesson observation, professionalism
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Urgent action on Ofsted
Ofsted are desperately trying to rebrand themselves, including the claim that they will rely less on test data and more on intelligent engagement with the school’s curriculum. There are good reasons to be sceptical about this, given the hit-and-run nature … Continue reading
Reclaiming Schools 