In the last two weeks I have been assessing my trainees- teachers on the Graduate Training Program who have spent the last year working in North London Schools and are now ready to take their first steps into their NQT year. I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on 5 lessons that they (and …
Tagged Teacher training

Getting to Grips with the Pupil Premium
The Pupil Premium is one of the coalition’s most high profile policies and can be worth tens of thousands of pounds to some schools. More importantly, it has the potential to help schools close the disturbing attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. This short e-book by LKMco Director, Loic Menzies, explores: The purpose of …
Quick summary of peer-reviewed education research
It turns out my copies of the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ) were being sent to the wrong address. Last week, the nice people at the IoE sent over the whole set of last year’s journals so I thought I’d go through and provide a summary of the highlights from these latest bits of peer …
Having vs. Getting: Don’t Believe The Falsities in the QTS Debate
(blog updated 25/10/12 to reflect that change only influences academies and free schools who make up >50% of secondary schools) By confusing ‘having’ and ‘getting’ in their QTS announcement last week, the DfE have caused journalists, the public and (sadly) several teaching groups to mistakenly believe schools can now employ unqualified teachers. They are incorrect. All schools have always been …
Should teachers be employed without QTS?
Today is a BIG news day. To most people, the opening ceremony of the Olympics, after years of build-up means one thing: time for a party. But not for the DfE; For them it can mean only one thing: time to launch a major policy change whilst the headlines are otherwise occupied. So, whilst thousands …