Warren Valentine

@adamboxer1 @BenRiceTeach @Carousel_Learn Fair enough! We’ve managed the low-tech way. Have found, initially, that using authentic examples in our school secured stronger buy-in than when using carefully selected examples from elsewhere & it has been a rich tool in lesson feedback but as you say, misses the full room etc

@goldilockshist @BenRiceTeach Ha I wouldn't! We have a professional cameraman for @Carousel_Learn, doing it yourself unfortunately produces footage and audio of a generally poor quality. It's why we made our courses and video library, so schools can adapt our resources and videos

Have you ever done something that nobody has ever done before? @BenRiceTeach and I had this crazy idea to film lessons in a way that's completely new and a bit mad, so we're back at the home of great Teaching and Learning for two days of filming it to see if we can do it 👀👀

@adamboxer1 And DfE auditors are starting to swing hard on increasing contact ratios in schools. Makes it far easier said than done, unfortunately. It’s a system not a behaviour problem, to some degree, until we can share further examples of how such staffing models are structured & funded

@adamboxer1 The problem is making this happen. Points 3 & 4 should be relatively easy if the school has shared norms & values including a shared learning model. 2 in theory likewise, but all hinge on 1 which is hard when schools are being funded to 10% PPA (1/2)

I think a lot of leadership teams really don't understand the role and function of Heads of Department (HoDs). In many schools, HoDs are purely technocratic. Their job is to deal with things like timetables, set changes, data deadlines, detention systems and cover. Occasionally they venture into the realms of more "curriculum" type issues, but often these are still things like ordering textbooks, setting homework centrally, making sure there are clubs and extra-curricular activities and the like. Come summer, they project manage curriculum improvement work, which again is often bureaucratic and mostly focused around "why haven't my colleagues hit their deadlines?" Rarely is the HoD considered the driver and champion of Teaching and Learning in their subject. But that's what they should be. A true leader or teaching and curriculum, helping their colleagues develop their practice and skills in the classroom, and coordinating the team to ensure that the curriculum and resources are effective and supportive. The important bit is that a lot of leaders *tell* me that actually their HoDs do fulfil this vision. Unfortunately, as I've written before, ideality rarely matches reality, and when I speak to the HoD they tell me they have no time to go observe lessons, no autonomy over policies, no meeting time to discuss T&L, and are drowning in the implementation of other people's priorities. If you want your HoDs to be able to do this job, you need to actively make it happen, rather than just hope it does. You need to - Give them free periods to go and observe - Reduce the number of tasks they need to do that are unrelated - Allow them the autonomy they need to make disciplinary changes and developments - Ring fence meeting time for T&L and, above all, trust them!

@Counsell_C @C_Hendrick I ask, because this is such a fabulous example. However, I think colleagues would benefit from seeing multiple models of what planning for vocab acquisition looks like over time for a stronger grasp of how they can more effectively begin this work. Any recommendations or advice?

@Counsell_C @C_Hendrick Completely agree this is the level of precision of planning req’d. Would you expect subjects to follow a ‘bought in’ or ‘borrowed in’ curriculum to enable this? Or would you have any advice for curriculum leaders to embed this into their existing curriculum plans?

So much of what we call reading comprehension failure is basically disguised vocabulary failure. Struggling kids don't need to be taught to "find the main idea", they need to be taught more words. And explicitly. Reading Marzano's book on vocab and I'm fascinated by this table. Look at the jump from grade 2 to 3!! There is a vocabulary avalanche in grades 3-5. The jump from 782 terms to 2,398 is just massive. Again, when students encounter so many new academic terms in grades 3-5 and struggle to "make inferences" or "identify main ideas", the problem is not “comprehension strategies”, it’s not understanding enough words! And there is an argument to say that what we think of as ‘higher-order’ subjects are really just high-density subject vocabulary subjects, even Economics, Sciences, Advanced Math terminology etc Again "critical thinking skills" don't help you if you don't understand what you're reading.

@AdrianBethune You, rightly, challenged his view. We must all think aloud & in turn have our views scrutinised. To question the psychological safety of pupils in classrooms requires you to formally act on your concerns or withdraw such remarks & focus on your effective critique.

@goldilockshist I've seen enough of Adam's posts to know that on X his modus operandi is sarcasm, condescension, and being patronising. If he's like that in class, some of his students won't trust him or feel safe with him imo. If he's not like that in class, then I'd suggest he's nicer online

I wonder if Adam has ever considered the possibility that children might use toilet passes more frequently when being taught by sarcastic, condescending teachers that they don't feel safe with? 🤔

@Zonal_Marking Also against the spirit of things to buy the land out from under a women’s hockey team 36 miles out from the place you are named after and evict them with just days of notice to build a car park for your training facility. Worth adding.

good luck to London City Lionesses as the WSL could do with a bit of a shake-up, but let's be honest, no top-division side should have 'London' in their name. Against the spirit of things. You can be named after towns, boroughs and, er, armaments factories. Not London as whole.

@C_Hendrick And presented to students. Curriculum issue in knowing the structure & relationship between granular components of knowledge to enable teachers to do this. Appears easier to plan for in some disciplines than others (any research you know on this too?)

@C_Hendrick Those with weaker schema still engaged in practice, for most part, but it was ‘scattergun’ & students couldn’t discern why knowledge wouldn’t stick from feedback because unable to diagnose which crucial knowledge is missing. Important instructional implication on how structured

This study outlines a critical paradox in learning: despite overwhelming evidence that practice testing enhances learning, students who need it most often use it the least. Despite the strong evidence for the benefits retrieval practice, many students, especially low-achieving ones, don’t engage with it when given the choice. Practice testing demonstrated clear benefits: each additional quiz attempt increased exam scores by 0.21 standard deviations and improved passing rates by 10 percentage points. However, the benefits were not equally distributed. Students with stronger prior achievement (higher secondary school grades) both engaged more frequently with practice testing and derived greater benefits from it. Lower-achieving students required substantially more practice attempts to achieve similar gains, needing five or more quiz attempts compared to three for their higher-achieving peers. Critically, students needed to achieve at least 35% accuracy on quizzes to realise meaningful benefits, suggesting a threshold effect rather than universal applicability. Read the full paper here: 🔓sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@sainsburys bought these potatoes and there are several mouldy ones in the bag! Boo!

@sainsburys bought these potatoes and there are several mouldy ones in the bag! Boo!

@sainsburys Annoyed I picked these up from your Crayford store. Had to dodge the out of date pizzas in the fridge and then I’ve picked these up. Can confirm, they’re past their best!

@MaryWBousted Apart from anything else, it will not work. Those from privileged backgrounds have and will continue to fill the gap by other means. As a council estate kid, I promise you, none of my peers wanted ‘fun’ lessons in which we achieved nothing or to be taught less.

@MaryWBousted This sounds like a dangerous argument to lower expectations of the disadvantaged. More rigorous & knowledge rich curriculum has meant poor pedagogical approaches & the challenges of disadvantage carry a higher penalty. It would be criminal to lower our expectations.

I read this article, and then read the reactions to it, and wonder why they are so extreme. I then remember that culture warriors use manufactured outrage to attempt to silence legitimate questions of the status quo - in this case about the current curriculum.

@Se_Railway can you pass on positive feedback to the driver of the 1706 CHX to DFD? Glad to hear a driver enjoying their work, speaking to passengers & being informative in the process!!

@afneil Fully accept the deal for train drivers might exceed keeping up with inflation (I don’t know) and given the changing ratio of economically active to young/elderly we’re starting to feel the pinch & raises bigger questions of the political economy.

@afneil Two genuine questions: 1) do you expect productivity deals tied to every pay increase e.g. those that are only keeping pace with inflation? 2) is criticising individual pay deals by this govt difficult to sustain without criticism the cost of not making deals ie under last gov?

No. You settle when you drive a hard bargain and come to an agreement after both sides make concessions. The government did not do this with the train drivers. It capitulated. As with its other capitulations on the public sector pay front, it didn’t even insist on any productivity improvements for its huge pay hikes, even though public sector productivity is dire.