Archives:

  • Teacher comments ‘more effective than smaller classes’

    Posted by on March 30th, 2012

    What’s the best way to spend the Pupil Premium? Is it on more Teaching Assistants? One-to-one tuition?  The Sutton Trust has released research on the most effective ways to spend the Pupil Premium, the extra money given by the Government to support poorer pupils.  It made very interesting reading.  The report says “smaller classes, uniforms, [...]

    Read more
  • Schools: places where kids go to watch teachers work?

    Posted by on March 18th, 2011

    Our specialism at Power of 2 is supporting students who struggle to learn maths. Recently we’ve been looking into ‘Hinge questions’, the idea that asking important assessment questions half-way through a lesson can make a major impact on learning. ‘Hinge questions’ stem from the idea that it’s vital to have the foundation blocks of maths [...]

    Read more
  • Bad at maths – a badge of honour?

    Posted by on March 17th, 2011

    A recent report calls for an end to being bad at maths being seen as a “badge of honour” if poor numeracy skills among England’s adults are to be tackled. The NIACE report on Adult Numeracy makes 7 recommendations and is worth a look if you’re involved in maths education at any level. Carol Taylor, [...]

    Read more
  • SEN Exclusions

    Posted by on March 10th, 2011

    Why are ‘School action plus’ pupils who just miss out on obtaining a statement being excluded from school at a particularly high rate? At the end of 2010, a report in the Observer reported children who just miss out on obtaining a statement are being excluded from school at a particularly high rate. Figures show [...]

    Read more
  • Stumbling blocks in maths

    Posted by on March 10th, 2011

    When a child hits a stumbling block in maths, quite often the focus will be on the current topic and their lack of understanding. This may be the case but the issue may lie further back in the child’s education. For this reason, 123maths.co.uk takes a step by step approach, filling the gaps in a [...]

    Read more
  • Government SEN Proposals

    Posted by on March 9th, 2011

    Today the Government published its plans for SEN Support. It’s being called a new approach to special educational needs and disability. The Green Paper proposes: a new approach to identifying SEN through a single Early Years setting-based category and school-based category of SEN; a new single assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan by [...]

    Read more
  • Don’t call me stupid

    Posted by on February 18th, 2011

    Where does dyslexia start and personality begin? Kara Toynton, she of Strictly fame, presented a programme that was on BBC3 just before Christmas. I don’t think it got a great deal of publicity, but it looks into the reasons why some people are dyslexic. The programme investigates the associated difficulties pupils with dyslexia have. Kara [...]

    Read more