TeacherBee

My previous post described my introduction to comparative judgement as a way of assessing writing. As a federation, we embarked on our trial of this approach, using No More Marking (NMM), and facilitated by our regional consortium, in September 2022. We were using NMM's 'Assessing Primary Writing' product. For each year group from 1 to 6, there was an assessment 'window' and these were spread across the autumn and spring terms. A set prompt for writing was supplied just before the assessment period began and the children had to write on individual, pre-printed lined sheets. This meant that there was a certain amount of administration on my part, entering names, dates of birth, classes, gender and entitlement to free school meals (the category on the spreadsheet is 'Pupil Premium' as it's designed for the English system), and then printing and distributing the sheets for the children to write on.  The teacher guidance is clear that after explaining the ta

Assessment in the new Curriculum for Wales is a hot topic. The practice of making a 'best-fit' judgement against (at best woolly) level descriptions is no more, and many would say good riddance to these and even more so to the additional nonsense that was sub-levels!  As a result, teachers are now having to grapple with the hugely challenging task of working out exactly what progress along a continuum of Progression Steps looks like, ensuring their curriculum is built to enable this, and deciding how it will be assessed, in all six Areas of Learning (AoLEs) and the disciplines within these. There is a lot of guidance from the Welsh Government on the Hwb   platform and in the  Progression Code  document, but the emphasis is on school and cluster-based agreement on how learners will be enbled to demonstrate their progress. Against this background, and as the lead for LLC (Languages, Literacy and Communication) in our federation, I jumped at the chance, provided by our regional c

Writtien in April 2021 Following my Performance Management meeting in the autumn term, I found myself feeling a little adrift. The meeting itself had gone very well and I was happy with the targets I had agreed, yet I somehow felt something was not quite right. Afterwards, I listened to and enthused with younger colleagues who had, in their meetings, been discussing professional pathways, and hopes and plans of future promotion. While I felt excited for them, I realised what was bothering me: I am now, most probably, in the final decade of my teaching career and so what lies ahead for me?  In the past, I have been part of a leadership team (as an ALNCo) and have worked as a regional Teacher Adviser but more recently, I have relished being 'just' a classroom teacher again. The classroom, for me, is the beating heart of the job and nothing else comes close to the sense of privilege there is in helping to shape young minds and lives.  Even so, the drive and expectation to achieve

'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.' Read 'man' as 'person' and this well-known Martin Luther King Jnr quote couldn't be more apt to describe some of the truly remarkable examples of educational leadership many of us are witnessing through the current crisis. In Wales, it comes from the very top. Our Welsh Government Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, has shown unwavering support for the profession and given reassurance to parents and children. Her communication has been clear and timely throughout, and she has not been afraid to be a fierce advocate for Wales' schools in the wider arena.  Then there are the Local Authority leaders who, within a very small time frame, offered valuable information, support and guidance to school leaders on school closures, the allocation and organisation of childcare for key workers a

"What are teachers doing at home on full pay?" was the provocative tweet from  ITV correspondent, Rupert Evelyn this week. A reply from our Welsh Government Minister for Education certainly put the record straight! Whilst school buildings are indeed closed to all but the children of key workers and those identified as vulnerable, it seems not everyone realises that teachers are still working and children are still learning, albeit that both are adjusting to a very different kind of reality.  Many of the children in my LKS2 class have shown extraordinary adaptability and have quickly learned how to use Microsoft Teams to communicate with me and to access their daily suggested home-learning activities. They have regularly had to practise the skill of following instructions and many have been able to upload photos and files to show me activities they have completed. The activities themselves have been chosen either to revisit and practise previously taught knowledge and

A few weeks ago I read  a piece from the BBC on the financial gains and losses    likely over a working life, for people with different degrees.  Unsurprisingly, the Institute for Fiscal Studies' investigation found that studying creative subjects at university was unlikely to result in financial gain. For a woman, the net result was close to zero but for a man, the projected loss was £100 000 compared with their peers who did not go to university.  There is a certain type of middle class snobbery that looks down on, or even feels sorry for young people who choose higher education courses in, say, media or theatre or photography. I know this to be the case from personal experience as a parent of a current photography undergraduate, and some teachers are not without guilt here. There is an implicit as well as explicit hierarchy of subjects and a corresponding attribution of value.  Yet, over the past few weeks, how many of us have tuned into the rolling news ch