“All international assessment data like this is a starting point for discussion, though people tend to use it as an end point.” Professor Christian Bokhove, in TES article, ‘UK’s PISA scores fall in maths, science and reading’ It is difficult for a busy school teacher or leader to process
They say that interests and trends in education come and go in cycles. Depending on your attitude, it beckons the disagreeable return of a fad, or it is the timely return of a vital aspect of education. ‘Oracy’ is one of those touchstone trends that comes and goes in cyclical
The performance of reading aloud can offer vital opportunities for pupils to learn. In particular, the act of reading aloud can benefit pupils’ reading fluency, as well as proving a helpful bridge to increasing reading comprehension. Reader’s Theatre is a comprehensive classroom approach that can offer a vehicle to
There are a vast array of barriers and problems that attend literacy development. In Part 1, it was tricky to limit it to only ten! And yet, the gains from developing literacy are so significant – for many pupils they can prove genuinely life-changing – that we keep making literacy a significant
Developing literacy is difficult. Like most school improvement efforts, it is beset by challenges, barriers, and limits of capacity and time. Rather than gnash our teeth, it is helpful to confront these issues and understand the likelihood of failure. In doing so, we can attempt to carefully plot our way
This blog is based on my talk entitled, ‘Why Literacy Fails (And What To Do About It)’, at the researchED National Conference, in a baking-hot Camden classroom! It will be the first part of a short series of blogs. I’ve never found a teacher who disputes the importance of
Has ‘growth mindset’ been debunked? Will the million+ selling book quietly be removed from shelves, or will it reappear rebooted in teacher training in some other guise in future? I began writing about the promise and the problems with ‘growth mindset’ in 2014. It was a wildly popular topic that
