Monday Starter
If, like me, you have a Year 10 class first thing on a Monday morning, you need a little something to get those students brains ticking over. A warm welcome, a slightly chilled room, an engaging starter or thunk should …
Expert definition
Every once in a while I try and take a shift in our boarding house. It is a tough gig, working all day, then the evening shift and missing the first quiet hour of the next morning, missing out on …
Drive to the finish line
This Friday, The Wellington Academy Yr11 ‘Drive to the finishline’ committee met and shared their 31 point plan to support students. The breadth and coverage of this plan is impressive, the committment to it even greater. In my new role, one area …
Marked improvement
This is not the time to be reflecting on a weekends marking however, just as I am checking out and about to power down, @dandesignthink posts this insightful image on Twitter. If you have not come across Dan’s graphic design, do …
Obs, 4Matrix and more
This week I lead our lesson observation and data training. Two eighty minute session, the first based on the ASCL lesson observation training materials and 4Matrix, the second the inner workings of 4Matrix and lesson observations. Our staff were very perceptive in …
Alliteration
Y7 poetry – abbreviated lesson objective OAR. Onomatopoeia, alliteration and rhyme. A short poem caught my eye – Three Witches Three witches wished one wish but which witch wished which? Morgan Suzie When Suzie sits in the shoe shine shop …
Mistake
When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision. Paulo Coelho An interesting perspective – potentially, one to be shared with students on their second mistake. I was once gifted a Paulo Coelho book, …
Dashboard for governors
Tomorrow the new, two-page data dashboard for governors will be announced by SMW. More data unleashed into wild, well primarily to governors (though I provided the same data just this past week, and by series or data collection to show …