Latest articles from the Innovate My School community.

With teachers and school leaders across the UK enjoying a well-deserved break, we're taking a look at the academic year ahead. What can educators expect? How can they go about boosting their own wellbeing and student achievement alike?

We've gathered writers from a variety of backgrounds to tackle this Countdown to 2018/19. What's more, August's content is powered by Bett Global Series, whose new Bett Innovation Index gives a major selection of insights in itself...

Adding kudos to careers development [case study]

A huge advocate of developing the prosperity and wellbeing of the communities it serves, East Kent College aims to open up a world of possibilities which could lead students into their perfect career. They’re doing this by providing high-quality education, celebrating students’ individuality, and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit. So how does the college facilitate these standards?

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Image credit: Flickr // Mr_Stein. // Originally published on 28th February 2018.

Disrupting assessment culture

For children with special educational needs (SEN), one of the toughest barriers to accessing the curriculum can simply be how intimidating the classroom can feel. With 70 per cent of those permanently excluded from school also being registered for with SEN, we need to do more to engage students to maintain their attendance and ensure that functional skills are developed among all students, no matter what their situation or environment.

Image credit: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure // Orion Pictures.

The past, present and future of Primary assessment

I recently received an invitation to chair the Westminster Insight forum in London on the assessment reform in our Primary schools. At first, I felt a little unsure; the word ‘baseline’ was being muttered on everyone’s lips in the staffroom, and I wondered if this could end up being a rather fiery forum to have to control. I realised, however, that the main reason so many teachers and parents ...

Train like a Jedi you must, says Mark Hamill

To inspire greater physical activity in pupils, Public Health England (PHE) and Disney UK have launched Train Like A Jedi. This nationwide Change4Life programme sees the excitement of Star Wars - alongside Double Olympic Gold medallist Jade Jones - to encourage children to get their daily minimum of 60 minutes’ moderate to vigorous physical activity.

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Image credit: Shutterstock // motion.pl.

5 hot takes on assessing assessment

“What can educators do to personalise assessments?” We posed this question to five of the UK’s leading edu-suppliers. Here are their thoughts....

For teachers to thrive, assessment must evolve

One of the defining characteristics of successful schools is how they deliver assessment. How effective a school is at assessment goes a long way to determining how they are perceived by parents and other stakeholders. Assessment is mission-critical in the constant drive for “school improvement”, a buzz-phrase has now become a key strategy outcome for school leaders.

Originally published on 15th January 2018.

How one ‘everyday hero’ can change a life [interview]

You may know Jaz Ampaw-Farr from her famous TEDxNorwichED talk ‘The power of everyday heroes’ - or perhaps from when she was fired from The Apprentice for a particularly daring move. Jaz is a teacher who has taken her survival of childhood abuse, including sexual assault, and has become an unstoppable force of resilience, positivity and passion.

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Making sense of assessment

Reading is incredibly important in supporting students’ overall growth. It’s a predictor of success in further education and life, with achievement in Mathematics and reading significantly associated with academic motivation and quality of life. So it is understandable that education policy largely focuses on developing strong readers at an early age. With that focus comes assessment requirements that can be confusing to parents and exhausting to educators. How do ...

Image credit: Flickr // Elgin County Archives.

Student success: Feeding back, forward and up

If you are reading this, you are no doubt privy to the expectations heaped on teachers and school leaders about the importance of feedback in driving student success. If you hear the word “feedback”, and are haunted by images of lengthy, scribed comments that go ignored, much to your distress (how many hours of your life that you won’t get back?) and to the student’s peril, you are ...

5 ways to make assessment effective and manageable

Over the past five years, I have had some big changes in my life: I became a dad for the first time; I left my position as a Primary school deputy headteacher; I became an SLE in formative assessment; I set up my own education company with my headteacher... These changes were all massive, but the thing that has made them manageable for me was the smaller, more marginal changes ...

Image credit: Tassomai Twitter page // Tassomai in action.

Empowering pupils and staff alike through digital assessment

I bet children will be cursing every day this month, if only about having to take exams and needing to revise for them. Exams are often seen as a necessary evil to be able to assess what children have learned throughout the year. However, exams imply marking, and for time-poor teachers of big classes, it can quickly become a nightmare. So what to do?

Expert insights from the Urban Teacher [interview]

Computer Science educator Mark ‘Urban Teacher’ Martin has become a big name in education, and can be regarded as a true edtech expert. During London Tech Week 2018, Mark won the Diversity Champion Award at the TechXLR8 awards. Here, the South Bank UTC Computing lead - and Tech City UK digital business academy mentor - discusses favourite resources, representation, the people who inspire him, and more.