In 2014 the government’s Workload Challenge survey identified the frequency and extent of marking requirements as a key driver of large teacher workloads. The reform of marking policies was the highest workload-related priority for 53% of respondents. More recently, the 2016 report of the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group noted that written marking had become unnecessarily burdensome for teachers and recommended that all marking should be driven by professional judgement and be “meaningful, manageable and motivating”.
Ben
Are your school policies a barrier to achieving your vision?
If you are noticing that your staff are looking more stressed, their performance is inconsistent, deadlines are being missed more frequently, parents are complaining more often, staff are asking more questions about “normal” operations or there is a feeling of confusion in a department, then it may be a sign that your policies are not working the way they should be.
Trust in Education
In any successful classroom, relationships between teacher and adult are built on trust. Whether it is the consistency of action in behaviour management or simply doing what you said you would. Trust allows students to take risks without fear of castigation for failure, they trust that their teachers will have their back.
Teacher Sick Days, Sugar-free Schools and Good-looking pupils.
These stories are pulled from external media sources and do not reflect the views of Education Roundtables.
According to an article in The Independent, better-looking children performed better on tests of academic achievement. On average they perform 0.4 years better than their less attractive peers.
Razing ‘Aspirations’
Ok, I’ll admit it, I have shamelessly pinched this pun from @SchoolsWeek, but it really caught my eye. I imagined teacher’s armed with pitchforks and burning torches burning the “aspirations” monster like the windmill in Frankenstein. My first instinct was to send a teacherly reply suggesting they spellcheck their tweets in future, however, on reading the article which the tweet was linked to, I have decided to salute them for a great “clickbait” headline.
Phone Masts, Elections, LGBT teaching and Expansion into China
These stories are pulled from external media sources and do not reflect the views of Education Roundtables.
Publicly owned buildings like schools and hospitals could be used to install mobile phone masts to improve signal for rural users, culture secretary Nicky Morgan has said.
Engineering & Technology
What is the real cost of an underfunded education system?
The lack of funding in schools has been hitting the headlines in the UK recently, although often buried under the Brexit Shambles (B.S. for short). This article is not one where I will be decrying the real-terms fall in education investment by the government — there have been enough of those articles already. Instead, I will be taking a look at what the hidden costs of this are.
Does failing make you a failure?
In a world where education is driven by performance goals the action of failing to achieve a target has resulted in labels being given to children at an early age.
The action of failing at something has become an identity. I failed, therefore, I am a failure.
Should schools be policing children’s diet and exercise?
This morning, the news in the UK featured a story “Parents ‘must not abdicate duties’ to teachers, says Ofsted” The heart of the story is that Amanda Spielman, the boss of OFSTED (the organization that judges the standards in schools), is due to deliver a speech that states:
Parents should not expect schools to police children’s eating and exercise, or toilet train pupils