By Anne Heavey, ATL education policy adviser. The key stage 2 test results this year look very different to results in previous years. The curriculum being assessed is different, the tests are…Read more…
Primary school teachers go above and beyond to give their children the best
If the recent media coverage of the new primary school assessment and testing arrangements are anything to go by you would think that primary schools are pretty horrible places to be right now….Read more…
Times tables tests – as easy as 1, 2, 3?
By Anne Heavey, Education Policy Adviser at ATL. Happy New Year! Yesterday Nicky Morgan announced that in 2017 every 11 year old child will take an online test to check that they know their times…Read more…
Put students at the heart of the curriculum, not political ideologies
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. Stanley Park High recently hosted a visit for ATL members. In my last blog, I explained about their Excellent Futures Curriculum, and the pupil-led…Read more…
Do schools really fail to prepare pupils for the world of work?
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. Every week we see headlines decrying the crisis of skills teaching in our schools, the gist: our schools fail to prepare our children for the world…Read more…
One Size Does Not Fit All, Conquering the KS3 Cliff Edge
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. For many children in this country starting secondary school can be a pivotal moment. The TES recently reported the following: “A range of studies…Read more…
Stating the obvious, or the importance of aims and values
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. The Curriculum is more than simply facts and figures arranged into subjects; as Dylan William has stated “The National Curriculum is the intended…Read more…
Igniting a passion for learning
Anne Heavey is a policy officer at ATL. The mood at Stanley Park High is a happy one, in which all students and staff are united in joint purpose – learning. The students were engaged in their…Read more…
In a fast-changing world, how should a curriculum and assessment system enable all learners to achieve?
William Stewart is a reporter at the TES. Opinions on the kind of curriculum pupils should be taught have tended to become steadily more polarised in recent years. On the one side is the…Read more…
Value what is valuable – not just what is measurable.
Nansi Ellis is ATL’s assistant general secretary with responsibility for policy. ATL wants a broad, balanced curriculum which prepares young people for life. Here are three principles that…Read more…
Let’s make the most of the choices we have
David Crossley is the Executive Director of Whole Education Network. The Whole Education Network champions and shares innovative practice in education and supports the development of a curriculum…Read more…
Engineers and teachers are uncomfortable bedfellows, it seems.
Scott Young is responsible for delivery of skills and employment objectives on the Thames Tideway Tunnel. Question: Which two-word answer, according to the UK press, threatens the success of UK…Read more…
In a fast-changing world, how should a curriculum and assessment system enable all learners to achieve?
Lee is Deputy Head at Cherry Orchard Primary School in Worcester. You can follow Lee on Twitter. There are few more persuasive voices in global education at present than that of Andreas Schleicher….Read more…
A national curriculum should help children flourish
By Michael J. Reiss A school curriculum is not an end in itself, but a vehicle to realise further purposes. You would think, therefore, that those who devise a national curriculum would start by…Read more…