EdBlogs

What is he known for? Expertise in educational assessment and testing policy. His research focuses on the effects of high-stakes testing, including score inflation, changes to classroom practice, the impact on pupils with special educational needs and international differences in pupil achievement. He is curr...

I recently taught a PSHE lesson to a year 8 group on the assumptions we make about people. I started with the word "Australian" – students said common judgements were that they would say "g'day", wear cork hats, like beer, wear shorts, have barbecues all the time and be good at rugby. Then we moved on to "American" – apparently they like burgers, a...

Any discussion among teachers about good practice will get around, at some point, to learning outcomes. Conversation will often turn to Bloom's Taxonomy and the attendant verbs connected to the "lower" and "higher" order "thinking skills". And then someone will raise the idea of SMART targets, which, in conjunction with Bloom's, enable us to develo...

It's been more than a year since the Department for Education published reports from three independent review groups addressing issues raised by the Workload Challenge survey. All three reports gave clear recommendations to help reduce teacher marking, planning and data management. But is the message getting through to leaders? To look at scho...

When it was announced earlier this month that sex and relationships education (SRE) was to be made compulsory in England's schools, it was met with relief from many teachers, parents and other groups who have long campaigned for the move. Young people have also been crying out for a more coherent approach to SRE; a recent survey from Barnados found...