Blog

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive, SSAT, pays tribute to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II following the announcement of her death.

The DfE published its technical guide to primary school accountability on 5th September. SSAT Senior Education Lead, Colin Logan, considers the key headlines.

“Data-driven school improvement” was all the rage in the 2010s. School leaders, advisers and inspectors all used RAISEonline, Fischer Family Trust and the Ofsted data dashboard as the touchstone for their work. Fortunately, we gradually became savvier and more looked more at “data-informed school improvement”. And then came the pandemic.

And so another new year starts. The GCSE and A level results are in. Heads of department are busy analysing their data to present to their line managers; senior leaders are preparing presentations for their governors. Just another year. Or is it?

Huge congratulations to all students receiving their results today. All students in this year’s cohort, regardless of their final results have so much to be proud of. They have shown extraordinary resilience, persevering when the world as we knew it
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No child should go through a school day without interaction with teachers about their learning and well-being, but it happens. There are learners that can go days without direct contact from a teacher in school. I was one of these hidden children.

For us at Shireland Collegiate Academy, it all began with a fabulous joint Trust School INSET day. Dylan Wiliam had travelled over from LA to share his wisdom about all things relating to formative assessment. This was in March 2020 and, towards the end of the day, he spoke about how difficult it was to change teachers’ habits in the classroom. A way to foster the idea of change and practice was though TLCs (Teacher Learning Communities).

For middle leaders, leading change can be as challenging as it gets – but there are some golden rules that will help you. This article offers top tips from the middle leaders at Eltham Hill School in Greenwich, London, many
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Conversations about tackling disadvantage and discrimination often focus on intervention – on the additional support which might make a difference. And of course this kind of support can and does make a difference.

SSAT’s ‘Four Pillars of Principled Curriculum Design’ now has versions for mainstream primary, secondary and special schools. Over the coming weeks, SSAT’s senior education leads, Alex Galvin and Colin Logan, will be looking at each of the four pillars in turn. Today, Alex and Colin consider the fourth pillar: Experience