There are a seriously great bunch of people on Twitter; many of whom have constructed their own reflective #Nurture1415 posts. @Sue_Cowley has collated these here, and @ICTEvangelist has produced some fantastic posters for each here. My post is designed to cover a few professional and personal highs and lows, with a little look into 2015. […]
Education
Science Technicians – do we have the right balance?
The Engine Room As a teacher of science I have always had an admiration for the technical team. They work tirelessly to put lessons together for us, to arrange photocopying, to adapt to all the changes thrust upon them, to work together to make their jobs more efficient (is that even possible?) and to keep the department running. They are […]
FRICCUS! Calculations in Science
I subscribe to a mailing list called CAPT – Connecting Advancing Physics Teachers, for the OCR B specification at A Level – and a regular contributor David Thomas threw in a slightly off-topic acronym: FRICCUS! It came about as part of a discussion around the fact that exam boards are publishing their June 2014 papers far […]
Specialist teachers at KS3?
This post relates to specialist teachers at KS3 for the sciences and whether we should have science teachers teach any of the three sciences pre-KS4 or whether there is an argument to suggest having specialists teaching their subject improves student outcomes. I was unable to find any research on this, so this is all through […]
Advance Notice Article – G495 Mock Exam – June 2014
Have produced a 40 mark Mock Exam for the G495 Advance Notice article for June 2014. It contains a range of questions on each part of the article. The mark scheme is also provided. G495 Section C Mock Exam G495 Section C Mock Exam Answers Please also take a look at the Matthew Arnold VLE for […]
Work-Life Balance and the Drive to Succeed
Whether you’re pushing for a promotion, trying out new teaching strategies, become more involved in school working parties, becoming an active Twitter user or otherwise busting a gut there is a balance to be struck. Can this drive to succeed accompany a healthy work life balance? I’m an ambitious teacher and the moment I got […]
The truth about Ofsted ‘Outstanding’
We’ve just had Ofsted in and I was lucky enough to be awarded the ‘Outstanding’ badge after my lesson was observed for around 30 minutes. It was a middle set Year 11 group who I had taught three lessons to previously and hadn’t been involved with when they were Year 10. They’re a group with […]
Where are the Physics teachers?
Where are the Physics teachers? It’s a pertinent question and one that, through current experience, is tremendously worrying. I work in a fantastic school with an exceptional Physics department. We have 70 students across A-level; three sets of AS and two sets of A2. Myself and my colleague, who is leaving, are the only two […]
Student Response to Mechanics
Wandering home I was crossing the road, and a car approached reasonably fast. So I wrote a quick mechanics question and fired it out to my Year 12s (during the holidays!) The e-mail: “Hello! Yes, I’m e-mailing you over the holidays. Yes, it’s because I had a geeky moment. So basically, I was crossing the […]
What will pay competition mean to teaching?
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools at Ofsted, recently suggested teachers needed to work past 3pm to earn any kind of promotion. Alongside this he also told his Ofsted inspectors that schools should be considered for a lower grade if teachers are moved up the teacher pay scales without justification. Provided there’s a […]