My writing online has gone through various platforms and guises over the years.
FFT have just published an analysis of repeat suspensions and exclusions across the life of students who started primary school in 2008 & 2009. The headline news is that both suspensions and exclusions are heavily weighted towards certain ethnic groups, those of the different Black, Gypsy/Roma & Irish heritage are around twice as likely to have been…
This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/implications-for-mat-data-leaders-part-2/ Last month saw the long-awaited publication of the Government’s education white paper ‘Opportunity for all‘. In this second post picking apart the white paper from the point of view of a MAT or school data leader, I look at…
This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/implications-mat-data-leaders/ Last month saw the long-awaited publication of the Government’s education white paper ‘Opportunity for all‘. By now, you’ve probably seen some breakdowns of the paper. If not, I would recommend the ASCL summary. Over the next two Data Trends posts,…
Education is awash with data. League tables and accountability measures have driven an obsession with headline figures, KPIs and metrics. The associated data collection, presentation and analysis processes consume time throughout the system. Do we collect too much data? Do we wait too long to act upon it? This post is the third of our Challenges…
This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/measuring-changing-disadvantage-nfer-report/ NFER: Investigating The Changing Landscape Of Pupil Disadvantage This post focuses on the latest report from the National Foundation for Educational Research – Investigating The Changing Landscape Of Pupil Disadvantage. Within the report, NFER highlight the increasing number of disadvantaged…
This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/monitoring-improving-attendance/. The Attendance Challenge There is no bigger challenge in school leadership in 2022 than monitoring and improving school attendance. Despite the incredible progress in remote learning, we know students achieve best when taught face-to-face by subject specialists. During the…
My blog is resurrected! I’ve not posted for years and have lost the last few posts in various moves. I don’t stand by much of what was written here anymore, but it stands as a relic from the past that’s important to me and my learning. Someone wise once said to me you should have…
A positive Ofsted school improvement experience — credit where it’s due 4 min read There have been enough Ofsted scare stories to last a lifetime, and the perverse effect they can have on schools are well known. But sometimes credit should be given where it’s due, so here is a tale of a supportive and constructive Ofsted visit…
9 Ways to Turn Around a Failing School — Sir William Atkinson 2 min read I had the pleasure of seeing Sir William Atkinson close the GL-Assessment Conference on Friday. He’s an incredible character, responsible for turning around ‘the worst school in England’. He regaled that tale to us, reflecting on the 10 years it took to…
Strong Positions, Weakly Held 2 min read Starting a new job as Vice Principal at a new school, doing my NPQH, reading profusely and collating 9 years of blog posts into this one site have made me realise how my views on education have changed over recent years. Without blowing my own trumpet this post struck…