Category Archives: Leadership

Five ways that the implementation of evidence-informed practice can go wrong

Posted on November 3, 2019 by classteaching

By Andy Tharby It is early September, the first INSET of the school year. The school hall is a hive of expectancy, brimming with freshly rested minds and newly bronzed bodies. After a few moments, a member of the senior … Continue reading →

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Guest Blog from Jack Tavassoly-Marsh, Senior Assistant Headteacher at Farnham Heath End School.

Posted on June 4, 2018 by classteaching

Guest Blog from Jack Tavassoly-Marsh, Senior Assistant Headteacher at Farnham Heath End School. As a Research School, we are very keen to work with colleagues from other schools and share ideas about effective teaching and learning. Last term, we had … Continue reading →

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Classroom Change: How the EEF’s Implementation Guide Can Support Classroom Practice

Posted on February 19, 2018 by classteaching

The EEF has recently published their guide to implementation entitled ‘Putting Evidence to Work’, which provides a detailed, analytical framework designed to ‘help implement any school improvement decision, whether programme or practice, whole-school or targeted approach, or internal or externally … Continue reading →

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Growing a culture of great teaching

Posted on June 25, 2017 by classteaching

These are the slides that Andy Tharby and I talked through at the Wellington Festival of Education on Friday. Andy talked about how we used the wisdom of great teachers we had worked with over the years, alongside evidence from … Continue reading →

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Workload Matters

Posted on February 27, 2017 by classteaching

  Teacher workload is a hot topic of discussion in schools at the moment – and rightly so.  The DfE have recently published the results of their ‘Teacher Workload Survey 2016’, which is available here.  This report contains some alarming … Continue reading →

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Bright Spots – what can we learn from our Curriculum Leaders?

Posted on February 10, 2017 by classteaching

Curriculum Leaders play a pivotal role in developing teaching and learning at Durrington, as they work with their teams on a daily basis to ensure high quality teaching in their subject areas. Over the past week, I have visited each of our Curriculum … Continue reading →

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World class leadership with Baroness Sue Campbell

Posted on December 4, 2016 by classteaching

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the SSAT National Conference.  It was a great two days with some inspirational speakers – many of whom I got some great ideas from.  The highlight though was listening to Baroness Sue … Continue reading →

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Leading a Winning Team

Posted on October 5, 2015 by classteaching

There are many really difficult jobs in a secondary school – but leading a subject area, especially a large subject area, has to be one of the most difficult.  I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some inspiring Curriculum Leaders … Continue reading →

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Life without lesson observation grades

Posted on February 17, 2015 by classteaching

  In April 2014 we stopped grading lesson observations.  This post looks at why we did it (and why every school should) and what we’ve noticed since. Why we stopped grading lesson observations Judging a teacher on a 30 minute … Continue reading →

Posted in General Teaching, Leadership | 23 Comments

Assessment Without Levels – The story so far

Posted on February 12, 2015 by classteaching

  In May 2014 we were awarded a DfE Innovation Fund to develop a method of assessing without levels in KS3.  We saw this as an opportunity to reclaim purposeful assessment and so came up with our ‘Growth & Thresholds … Continue reading →

Posted in General Teaching, Leadership | 16 Comments