“Peccavi” was the one word telegram that Sir Charles Napier (apocryphally) sent to announce his conquest of Sindh province (it’s Latin for “I have sinned”). Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher famously ended a letter with the apology “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time”. Both are good examples of how less can definitely be more in communicating something important.

Closing the Gap and Pupil Premium

The evidence base about Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and more recently Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) that works for teachers and pupils is settled and mature.

Phew wot a scorcher!

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.

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.

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.

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: