EdBlogs

Growing up, the only thing I ever wanted to do was to be a teacher. I loved my subject, English, and wanted a career that let me continue to read and discuss, think and learn, and convey my enthusiasm for my subject to others. As a child I played "school" with my dolls and my friends and always took the teacher role. I completed a PGCE after m...

My varied teaching career so far has seen me teach two- and three-year-olds in a bilingual nursery setting, and secondary English and humanities in an international school. This latter placement was what I really enjoyed doing, and where I spent the majority of my career so far. Despite imperfections with the school (and no school is perfect), I re...

University Challenge fans may remember Daisy Christodoulou: she was described as "Britain's brightest student" after her outstanding performance on the 2006-07 series, where she captained the University of Warwick's team (you can catch the final on YouTube here). Fast forward a decade and the student is now a teacher. Christodoulou initially b...

What are they? Up until 2016, all students and schools were measured on how many good GCSE's they achieved at A*- C, including English and mathematics. In October 2013, the government announced that a new secondary school accountability system would be implemented from 2016. It included two new headline measures, Attainment...

What is it? The process of putting students into classes that have a mix of abilities, rather than streaming them into sets alongside others of a similar attainment level. The practice is still quite rare in England's schools (both primary and secondary), with most leaders opting for the more traditional approach of setting by ability, particularly...