Pupil Exclusions

Facts About Pupil Exclusions and What They Mean

What has been the reason behind the recent increase in pupil exclusions? Despite the fact several people in the education world have tried to provide an explanation, it’s actually down to a number of contributing factors.

Matters aren’t helped by the fact that almost a quarter of teachers and school leaders (23 per cent) feel they lack confidence when it comes to managing behaviour and exclusions.

With this in mind, here’s six facts about pupil exclusions and what they mean.

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Changing Pedagogy

How Learning by Questions Is Changing Pedagogy

With teacher workloads continuing to increase, how can you expect to improve engagement, feedback and outcomes with the little time you do have to spare?

Well, there is a potential solution… Learning by Questions (LbQ). This innovative app promises:

“Curriculum-aligned Question Sets and immediate feedback to super-charge learning. Reduce your workload with automatic marking and instant insight for effective interventions. It covers all abilities so you can support your students your way.”

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Assessment in the Classroom

To Sit Beside, Not Sit Alone: Mastering Assessment in the Classroom

Many teachers will learn that assessment is either summative or formative. But how many actually know the etymological meaning of the word ‘assessment’?

According to Evangeline Harris Stefanakis (2002), “The word assess comes from the Latin assidere, which means to sit beside. Literally then, to assess means to sit beside the learner.”

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Teachers in 2020

Top Hopes and Fears for Teachers in 2020

For some, the start of a new year means healthier eating and more exercise. For others, it represents an opportunity to set goals and be more successful.

So, what about teachers? Well, it’s fair to say that most in education will have a number of hopes and fears for 2020, which are likely to include the following.

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The 12 Days Of Christmas

The 12 Days Of Christmas for Teachers

What does the run-up to the festive season look like at your school? Several teachers will integrate the 12 Days of Christmas into their lesson plans as a way to keep children engaged, as attention spans are usually at their shortest point of the year.

But why should teachers miss out on all the fun? Here’s an education-inspired 12 Days of Christmas, with a reading recommendation for each.

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red ink to blue ink for marking

Should you switch from red ink to blue ink for marking?

A few years ago, a US study suggested that teachers should stop using red pens because the colour is associated with ‘warning, prohibition, caution, anger, embarrassment and being wrong’.

The research revealed that students think they’ve been assessed more harshly when their work is covered in red ink compared to other colours. It could even have a negative impact on teacher-student relationships and learning outcomes.

News of the report was met with ridicule by many, including Tory MP Bob Blackman who said: “It sounds to me like some petty edict which is nonsense. It is absolutely political correctness gone wild.”

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Teachers Test Pupils

Retrieval Practice: How Best Can Teachers Test What Pupils Have Learnt?

According to research, retrieval is a key process for both learning and understanding. As well as being a neutral assessment of a learner’s knowledge, the act of retrieval itself also produces learning.

But how best can teachers test what pupils have learnt in the classroom? What do you know about memory and how can you develop its capacity to learn?

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Creative Writing

3 Ways to Get Passionate About Creative Writing

Getting your class passionate about creative writing is no mean feat, especially when you consider the amount of research, planning, teaching and marking involved to perform this activity in the first place.

But what if you could instil a love of creative writing among your pupils in just one day? It might sound impossible, but where there’s a will, there’s a way…

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websites for teachers

15 websites that every teacher and educator should know about

Professional development is at the heart of teacher practice. But in addition to learning on the job and formal training courses, you can increase your confidence and competence as a teacher by accessing the abundance of resources available online today, starting with the following:

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Ofsted

What questions do Ofsted ask parents?

As you’re probably already aware, whenever an Ofsted inspection is triggered, the head teacher of a school has to notify parents about the inspection and invite them to complete Parent View – an online survey that gives parents and carers the opportunity to tell Ofsted what they think about their child’s school.

At this moment in time, anyone can log in to the system and complete the survey as many times as they want. Some have argued that this could result in unreliable outcomes, as several questions were considered ‘dangerous’, such as: Read More