The impetus for change Our school, a larger than average primary school located in the west of Huddersfield, had been reflecting on how we give feedback to pupils in light of the independent review group report on marking and reducing …
Why do we mark? At the end of my first year of teaching I met with each of my students and discussed their progress. I was looking with Kate at her latest A level English literature essay. I had written …
School improvement is all too often overcomplicated by leaders, who are under pressure to make ‘quick wins’, as a result of the high stakes culture that schools now find themselves in. As a result, teachers are asked to do things, …
Westfield Community Primary School is a high performing school working in a demanding area of Wigan. My staff are highly professional and dedicated - but never complacent. We believe pupils do best in an environment of high expectations and teachers …
I’m pleased that Ofsted has been involved with the Teacher Workload Review Groups. These led to the three recent reports aimed at reducing workload associated with marking, planning and data management. Along with two other Ofsted colleagues, I worked on …
Right from the onset of the new National Curriculum and the removal of levels we decided as a Multi-Academy Trust (The White Horse Federation) to review how we collected and used performance data. We took our ‘levels’ thinking hats off and …
South Axholme Academy in Doncaster has introduced a series of changes to reduce the time spent on cumbersome data collection and allow teachers time to respond to what the data is telling them. A year or so ago, it became …
Following the Government’s decision to remove levels from the National Curriculum I was keen to review the school’s assessment practice. There was a general feeling in the school that the removal of levels provided an opportunity to re-think the approach …
Plantsbrook School is committed to tackling teacher workload. We recognise the importance of staff welfare to ensure that our students get the best possible learning experiences. Today I'm writing this update on my previous blog because the three reports from the …
Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in Buckinghamshire has been making innovative use of technology to tackle two long-standing teacher workload burdens: data sharing and marking. For the last couple of years Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, a selective co-educational secondary …