- Mary Myatt Learning
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Sensible stuff, no quick fixes
Dear Colleague
Here are some links that I hope you find helpful:
One of the ongoing conversations I’m having with colleagues relates to getting a handle on assessment of the foundation subjects in primary.
It’s important that we know how our pupils are getting on for several reasons:
As a matter of entitlement – have our pupils encountered and engaged in the lovely content and great ideas?
To check whether there are any gaps in their exposure to, engagement with and learning of the curriculum
To provide information to leaders, including governors and trustees about how pupils are getting on
To celebrate what young people have achieved!
One of the challenges in gathering this information is that there are no national benchmarks or exemplars for standards in the foundation subjects.
When there’s talk of reaching ‘age related expectations’ I scratch my head and wonder whereabouts the ARE for the foundation subjects exist. I’ve been looking for them for years, and they’re not there!
I think what’s happened is that because the standards in primary are more tightly defined in maths and English, there’s a tendency to think it’s possible by extension, to do the same for the other subjects.
And I think this is where we’ve sometimes got into a muddle.
One of the most helpful ways I’ve found to get some clarity on this, is to go back to what Tim Oates has to say on assessment.
At the heart of coming to some judgements about whether our pupils have learnt what was intended, we can look at the things they ‘produce’.
The next question is ‘What are some of the things that pupils might produce to show what they know, understand and can do?’
I’ll be exploring the opportunities for rich assessment of pupils’ learning of the foundation subjects in a short course starting in January. It will be live and recorded, light touch, interactive and hopefully enjoyable.
I’ll be running this assessment course for primary colleagues on The Teachers’ Collection – and it will be available to all colleagues in schools with a subscription.
I’ll be sending out more details and if you’d like to be kept in the loop, you can sign up for more info here.
Andy McHugh has started a website to support teachers who are interested in writing either as a hobby or commercially. I’ve long thought this would be a good idea and you can find out more at Teacher Writers!
Embedding oracy properly, no quick fixes!
Finding My Voice is a light touch, high impact personal development and oracy approach for the whole school.
It’s been developed by Rachel Higginson, Emmanuel Awoyelu, Christian Foley and me. More info on the programme here.
Have my pupils ‘got’ it?
In a recent post ‘I might have taught it, but have they got it?’ I argued that the fact I have taught something doesn’t necessarily mean that my pupils have learnt it.
This was particularly brought home to me when I was chatting to a pupil about what she was learning in her English lessons. We were going through some of her work, and she was telling me what she was particularly pleased with.
I noticed that she had been learning about homophones a few lessons earlier.
I assumed she had learnt about them, because she had completed a worksheet which had been ticked off, with a smiley face and stuck into her book, no doubt having turned some spreadsheet green for that objective.
‘Ooh homophones’, I said, ‘those are interesting! Is there anything you’d like to tell me about homophones?’
She couldn’t tell me anything. Even though she was a high attaining pupil.
Why was this?
Well, it was because the completion of the task was more important that whether she had really learnt about homophones.
We can shift this very quickly.
Instead of saying ‘Have you finished?’ we might say ‘Tell me what you’ve learnt.’
It’s irrelevant whether an exercise has been completed, it only matters if the child has learnt something.
I’ve done a series of short recordings on Myatt & Co on helping pupils to learn the curriculum. You can check them out here. (£/free trial)
A collection of ‘Rooted in Reading’ blogs from Steve Willshaw is well worth checking out if you want to develop reading for pleasure in your school.
Cat Priggs has a new course ‘Starting as a senior leader’ and a great new blog which is worth checking out: ‘We need to talk about…’ how new senior leaders should approach line management of subjects, read here.
Also worth checking out colleagues who have started writing on Substack: Laura Spargo’s ‘Glimmers in Education’ offers recommendations and practical ideas hoped to spark a continued enjoyment of life-long learning.
And Nimish Lad has starting posting on Substack: ‘What happens when we don’t get it right?’ again worth subscribing to!
Huh Academy courses
The courses are online, self-paced and designed to support curriculum development, leadership and personal development. We’ve just had the first round of check-ins for the Curriculum Leaders: some great discussions on how to help colleagues bring a great curriculum to life. More info here.
Building Teams: Lekha Sharma and Sam Crome share the research plus plenty of practical strategies for building great teams. More info here.
Being Your Best, Doing Your Best: Created by Dr Emma Kell practical, research-based coaching tools and approaches to promote coaching cultures in schools and promote and enhance self-efficacy, success and job-satisfaction. More info here.
Leadership Lobby: Andrew Morrish and I have curated the most interesting and impactful research to support leadership development. With a combination of recordings from educational leadership researchers and practitioners, together with insights from experience and practical resources to support leadership development. More info here.
One part of my daily routine is to complete the quick questions on Teacher Tapp. Hard to believe that something so quick can provide so many terrific insights! If you’re not using it yet, you can sign up here. My current streak is almost 1000, sad I know, but it’s that good!
If you think there’s someone who would appreciate this update, you can forward the link here
Until next time
Mary