Blog
Workload and English mocks
Posted on July 22, 2017
You can also read this post on the No More Marking blog here. Last weekend, I posted a question to English teachers on Twitter. English teachers: how long does it take you to mark one English Language…
Life after Levels: Five years on
Posted on June 11, 2017
Exactly five years ago, the government announced that national curriculum levels would be removed – and not replaced. Here’s a quick guide to some of my life after levels blog posts from the last five…
Five ways you can make the primary writing moderation process less stressful
Posted on June 4, 2017
The primary interim frameworks are now in their second year, and their inconsistencies have been well-documented. Education Datalab have shown that last year there were inconsistencies between local a…
Four and a half things you need to know about new GCSE grades
Posted on May 14, 2017
Last week I had a dream that I was explaining the new GCSE number grades to a class of year 11s. No matter how many times I explained it, they kept saying ‘so 1 is the top grade, right miss? And 3 is…
Sharing Standards 2016-17: The results
Posted on May 6, 2017
In July, I will be leaving my role at Ark Schools to work for No More Marking as Director of Education. Over the last 6 months, No More Marking have been working with primary schools in England on a…
The Global Education and Skills Forum 2017
Posted on March 25, 2017
Last week I spoke at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. I took part in a debate on the following topic: This house believes 21st century learners need their heads filled with pure facts….
Shakespeare and creative education
Posted on March 11, 2017
This essay was first published in the Spring 2016 edition of Use of English. I can remember reading Othello for the first time when I was studying A-level, and feeling slightly disappointed and cheate…
How do bad ideas about assessment lead to workload problems?
Posted on February 18, 2017
This is part 7 of a series of blogs on my new book, Making Good Progress?: The future of Assessment for Learning. Click here to read the introduction to the series. Bad ideas can cause workload proble…
How can we measure progress in lessons?
Posted on February 11, 2017
This is part 6 of a series of blogs on my new book, Making Good Progress?: The future of Assessment for Learning. Click here to read the introduction to the series. With national curriculum levels, it…