I promise this blog isn’t about my attempts to play golf – it’s about self assessment. I’m delighted to have been asked by the Skills & Education Group to discuss this wonderful subject – one of the most creative parts of any educator’s day job – at SEG’s network meeting in Nottingham on September 21st. So why the golf photo? One of the things we’ll be looking at in the session is how to make a judgement about the potential […]

Imagine we have a time-machine and we’ve whizzed forward to the week after October half-term. (On a typical cohort-based study programme, this is the end of the Extended Induction Period – week 8.) I have my film camera with me, and I’ve just filmed an interview with your learners. I’m about to play you that film. What do you want to hear your learners say? This is pretty much what we’re going to be looking at in the last of […]

This Wednesday at 1pm, in the penultimate open, online training session, we’re going to be looking at The Art of using Target Setting. I know, I know – not the sexiest of subjects. It’s the sort of session many delegates are sent to rather than sign up for willingly, but it does have a twist.. Is the first thing you thought of when you read ‘Target Setting’: SMART? Here’s my hypothesis: the reason so many staff and learners find it […]

Where do you feel the ‘culture’ of your organisation comes from? Is it the leaders, the staff, the governors, the learners? While everyone plays their part, I’m not sure it’s any of the people, as they change so often. All of us in the LinkedIn community can testify to that, given the number of It’s-been-a-blast-but-I’m-off-to-pastures-new posts. So I think it comes from somewhere less volatile (or, at least, somewhere that should be less volatile..). I think culture is set by […]

What’s the no. 1 challenge teachers from across the sector are reporting right now? It isn’t English or maths, or even financial hardship; though I don’t wish to diminish the enormous challenge of any of these. It’s wellbeing. Or could I be a bit provocative – is it the helplessness teachers feel when they are rightly stretching and challenging their learners… who then play the ‘mental health’ card? This is a minefield, I know. I’m not for one moment suggesting […]