Newsnight carried a item on 20th February about the growing gap in school performance between London and the rest of the country. Chris Cook of the Financial Times did his customary job cogently summarising the situation and Sir Michael Wilshaw attempted to suggest that what was happening in London could happen elsewhere. Nudged by Gavin Esler, he also said heads could and should 'root out' poorly performing teachers.
The Evidence People
The Blog
Post date: Wed, 21/11/2012 - 11:39
Is what you're doing making a difference?
This blog focuses one way or another, on working out how well we are doing. There are lots of good things going on in school, but only some of them have a very big impact on pupils’ learning and so really help us meet our aspirations for them. There are obviously a lot of variables to take into account in weighing up what to focus on and do really well, and each of the news stories and details about research has been selected to help people think about just that.
Post date: Thu, 25/10/2012 - 16:24
Philippa's Autumn Blog
The Olympics gave us a glorious close to a very unglorious summer but I guess the cultural and sporting triumphs will long be remembered as rather special. New academic years are always exciting too, and the sunshine cheers us along even if it would have been nice to have more of it during the break. But with new years come new challenges and 2012-13 promises lots of them.
Post date: Wed, 11/07/2012 - 18:16
The role of the Head in promoting good governance
Summary
Governors are, it seems, under attack with Michael Gove caricaturing them as “local worthies who see being a governor as a badge of status”. His model of ‘good governance’ looks at lot like a – rather idealised – company board. There are a clearly some problems of governance but it’s not at all clear that these are signs of systematic failure. Many problems in governance come down to problems of availability or effective use of information or to breakdowns in relationships.
Post date: Tue, 17/04/2012 - 19:12
I am intrigued by the recent attack on A Levels by Michael Gove. For me (though not necessarily for Mr Gove), it links back to the big fuss around the 'scandal' of exam boards briefing teachers on the content of future papers. Those getting aerated about exam papers were, I contend, demonstrating lack of contact with the real world. My fundamental thesis - which I am alarmed to see is apparently shared by the Secretary of State - is that we try to achieve too many mutually exclusive outcomes with the exam system and a spot of rationalisation is needed for the system to hit any.
Post date: Thu, 23/02/2012 - 09:41
I spent two days in company of academics, government officials and teacher professional association representatives from around the world looking at this question.
This was a terrific event. Great presentations from a good range of perspectives, most kept to strict timescales and lots of debate amongst smart people form lots of countries. Things that stick in my mind and that I am still pondering:
Post date: Thu, 16/02/2012 - 11:35
The longer days and snowdrops are telling me that we are on our way out of winter’s gloom – even if the colder weather feels more wintry.
Post date: Fri, 25/11/2011 - 10:50
Phew! The middle section of this term has been a whirlwind of meetings, development sessions, conferences and research visits. A special favourite (apart from a very peaceful picnic in the middle of a 10.5KM paddle/walk to and from this tarn) was spending a day with 170 PGCE students in Belfast – we were really struck by the depth in which the Big Picture of the National Curriculum adopted by QCDA from the NI original is embedded in ITE. |
Post date: Wed, 16/11/2011 - 21:20
The second stop on my intensive learning journey was the 2011 British American Conference in London designed to help leaders from different fields expand their notion of what leadership means by working well beyond their field and through the lens of contrasting British and America approaches... This was certainly outside my field