@alison100.bsky.social
Living and teaching in Monmouthshire. Mum to three adults and a black lab. Feel a sense of responsibility re ‘doing my bit’ to support evidence informed teaching pedagogies - even when saying nothing would be the easiest option!
The irony is that even if it was because schools have lacked focus, why have they lacked focus? I don’t suppose it would be anything to do with their Estyn recommendations? 🙄
It might be news to Estyn - but schools focus on what Estyn tell them to focus on because the IV will be round the corner!
It might be news to Estyn - but schools focus on what Estyn tell them to focus on because the IV will be round the corner!
November 22, 2025 at 8:32 AM
The irony is that even if it was because schools have lacked focus, why have they lacked focus? I don’t suppose it would be anything to do with their Estyn recommendations? 🙄
It might be news to Estyn - but schools focus on what Estyn tell them to focus on because the IV will be round the corner!
It might be news to Estyn - but schools focus on what Estyn tell them to focus on because the IV will be round the corner!
Just listened. Not quite sure what is most horrifying - the ineptitude, the arrogance, the disrespect, the lack of care about the children of Wales, the wordy drivel being written for teachers to interpret, the waste of tax payer’s money - I could go on. How depressing, but sadly par for the course.
November 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Just listened. Not quite sure what is most horrifying - the ineptitude, the arrogance, the disrespect, the lack of care about the children of Wales, the wordy drivel being written for teachers to interpret, the waste of tax payer’s money - I could go on. How depressing, but sadly par for the course.
Those with influence should listen ☝️ When I attended the first sessions on Successful Futures/CfW, I was enthused. Lots is good about CfW. But, WG need to act now to ensure CfW leads to successful futures and doesn’t become an embarrassment that fails children - especially our most disadvantaged.
September 3, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Those with influence should listen ☝️ When I attended the first sessions on Successful Futures/CfW, I was enthused. Lots is good about CfW. But, WG need to act now to ensure CfW leads to successful futures and doesn’t become an embarrassment that fails children - especially our most disadvantaged.
I have a wry smile to myself when on the one hand schools are quite rightly tasked by Estyn to improve their self-evaluation processes. However, on the other hand schools attempting to ascertain where their cohorts are versus UK standards are now seemingly doing the ‘wrong’ thing - interesting 🤔
August 27, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I have a wry smile to myself when on the one hand schools are quite rightly tasked by Estyn to improve their self-evaluation processes. However, on the other hand schools attempting to ascertain where their cohorts are versus UK standards are now seemingly doing the ‘wrong’ thing - interesting 🤔
Any school that does both will see the discrepancies as clear as day. It’s the elephant in the room…
August 27, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Any school that does both will see the discrepancies as clear as day. It’s the elephant in the room…
read *brigade above.
The confusion over online testing is interesting! The WG personalised assessments are now more user friendly but they still don’t compare with regards formative assessment usefulness to GL imho. When you do both, the higher WG SSs versus GL are interesting 🤔 Around +20 for most
The confusion over online testing is interesting! The WG personalised assessments are now more user friendly but they still don’t compare with regards formative assessment usefulness to GL imho. When you do both, the higher WG SSs versus GL are interesting 🤔 Around +20 for most
August 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
read *brigade above.
The confusion over online testing is interesting! The WG personalised assessments are now more user friendly but they still don’t compare with regards formative assessment usefulness to GL imho. When you do both, the higher WG SSs versus GL are interesting 🤔 Around +20 for most
The confusion over online testing is interesting! The WG personalised assessments are now more user friendly but they still don’t compare with regards formative assessment usefulness to GL imho. When you do both, the higher WG SSs versus GL are interesting 🤔 Around +20 for most
exists with CfW as it has from the ‘getgo’. There’s no clarity nor is there consensus from ‘on high’ as to what good curricula and good teaching looks like. There has also been an anti all things English bridge who are prepared to damage children’s life chances for reasons only they know.
August 27, 2025 at 10:23 AM
exists with CfW as it has from the ‘getgo’. There’s no clarity nor is there consensus from ‘on high’ as to what good curricula and good teaching looks like. There has also been an anti all things English bridge who are prepared to damage children’s life chances for reasons only they know.
So glad you mentioned the Estyn thematic maths report. I felt like cheering when I first read it as it was one of the first times we felt truly vindicated that what we were doing - following the science - was endorsed by an official body in Wales. The same
old, same old problem obviously still…
old, same old problem obviously still…
August 27, 2025 at 10:14 AM
So glad you mentioned the Estyn thematic maths report. I felt like cheering when I first read it as it was one of the first times we felt truly vindicated that what we were doing - following the science - was endorsed by an official body in Wales. The same
old, same old problem obviously still…
old, same old problem obviously still…
Your strength of characters and determination to ask questions of those in authority and stand up for what is right is commendable 💪 Why so many basically join the gravy train and keep their heads down to the detriment of the nation’s children is unfathomable to me. Bravo both for not doing so!
August 18, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Your strength of characters and determination to ask questions of those in authority and stand up for what is right is commendable 💪 Why so many basically join the gravy train and keep their heads down to the detriment of the nation’s children is unfathomable to me. Bravo both for not doing so!
The biggest travesty is that when we don’t use pedagogies and teach curricula that is evidence informed and carefully structured the children this damages most are those very same children WG says it’s trying to improve the life chances of. The hypocrisy is staggering.
Keep up the good work both 😊
Keep up the good work both 😊
August 18, 2025 at 7:44 AM
The biggest travesty is that when we don’t use pedagogies and teach curricula that is evidence informed and carefully structured the children this damages most are those very same children WG says it’s trying to improve the life chances of. The hypocrisy is staggering.
Keep up the good work both 😊
Keep up the good work both 😊
the next, I realised that learning something was very different to what I’d been told during my PGCE. I changed my practice to reduce the content and increase the retrieval. It worked! I now know why because I’ve independently researched. Teaching isn’t ‘hurling mud’ and hoping some sticks…
August 18, 2025 at 7:38 AM
the next, I realised that learning something was very different to what I’d been told during my PGCE. I changed my practice to reduce the content and increase the retrieval. It worked! I now know why because I’ve independently researched. Teaching isn’t ‘hurling mud’ and hoping some sticks…
Some of these researchers need to speak to teachers like me who have taught the same cohort of children for up to 4 years. I know that I’ve ‘taught’ knowledge and skills that I’ve been 100pc satisfied the children have mastered. However, because I taught these very same children the next year and…
August 18, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Some of these researchers need to speak to teachers like me who have taught the same cohort of children for up to 4 years. I know that I’ve ‘taught’ knowledge and skills that I’ve been 100pc satisfied the children have mastered. However, because I taught these very same children the next year and…
This is a fundamental issue hampering the success of CfW and disgracefully damaging attainment - it has been from the get go. Teaching was to be ‘evidence formed’ in CfW, but yet, surprise surprise, the evidence teachers find when they look, hasn’t aligned with the narrative of those advising WG.
August 18, 2025 at 6:40 AM
This is a fundamental issue hampering the success of CfW and disgracefully damaging attainment - it has been from the get go. Teaching was to be ‘evidence formed’ in CfW, but yet, surprise surprise, the evidence teachers find when they look, hasn’t aligned with the narrative of those advising WG.
You are dead right about independent learning. The independent learning recommendations are pointless at best and highly damaging at worst because it’s blindingly obvious that ‘independent learning’ currently means different things to different schools and different inspectors.
June 21, 2025 at 6:30 AM
You are dead right about independent learning. The independent learning recommendations are pointless at best and highly damaging at worst because it’s blindingly obvious that ‘independent learning’ currently means different things to different schools and different inspectors.
The most important being ‘quality teaching and learning’ and Wales badly needs some clarity as to what this is and its teachers need reassuring that doing the right thing and following the evidence isn’t regarded as ‘wrong’ by Estyn, WG etc.
December 27, 2024 at 6:14 PM
The most important being ‘quality teaching and learning’ and Wales badly needs some clarity as to what this is and its teachers need reassuring that doing the right thing and following the evidence isn’t regarded as ‘wrong’ by Estyn, WG etc.
A bigger problem at the moment isn’t the speed of the trains, it’s the lack of trains, due apparently to an endless issue of crew availability. It’s particularly problematic at weekends and getting worse month after month. Trains on a Sunday aren’t a ‘thing’ anymore seemingly.
December 18, 2024 at 5:42 AM
A bigger problem at the moment isn’t the speed of the trains, it’s the lack of trains, due apparently to an endless issue of crew availability. It’s particularly problematic at weekends and getting worse month after month. Trains on a Sunday aren’t a ‘thing’ anymore seemingly.
I thought the ‘held the line’ comment was interesting. Whose ‘line’ was this? Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t it the role of WG to decide upon and set out policy based, surely, on ‘best bets’ research, and Estyn’s role to hold the government’s ‘line’ when it inspects and reports on its findings.
December 17, 2024 at 4:15 PM
I thought the ‘held the line’ comment was interesting. Whose ‘line’ was this? Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t it the role of WG to decide upon and set out policy based, surely, on ‘best bets’ research, and Estyn’s role to hold the government’s ‘line’ when it inspects and reports on its findings.
In my class, certainly this time of year, 50% would probably say that their well-being pathway would be best served by letting them stay inside at break time, cancelling X country, and letting them eat a biscuit and not an apple! 😀Should I let them, if this new guidance becomes law??
December 8, 2024 at 12:00 PM
In my class, certainly this time of year, 50% would probably say that their well-being pathway would be best served by letting them stay inside at break time, cancelling X country, and letting them eat a biscuit and not an apple! 😀Should I let them, if this new guidance becomes law??
Everyone’s ‘well-being’ pathway is different to someone else’s surely…? Teachers are well aware that they have 30 individual children in front of them and do their best to manage everyone’s ’well-being’ daily. Difficult to mandate into curriculum design though or am I missing something…?
December 8, 2024 at 11:46 AM
Everyone’s ‘well-being’ pathway is different to someone else’s surely…? Teachers are well aware that they have 30 individual children in front of them and do their best to manage everyone’s ’well-being’ daily. Difficult to mandate into curriculum design though or am I missing something…?
In the absence of clarity/training, we decided to follow the science. We researched curriculum design in depth and in great detail. Ditto re pedagogies that are the ‘best bets’ to try to close the disadvantage gap. If this guidance becomes statutory, I might just throw my hat in and change career 😀
December 7, 2024 at 4:10 PM
In the absence of clarity/training, we decided to follow the science. We researched curriculum design in depth and in great detail. Ditto re pedagogies that are the ‘best bets’ to try to close the disadvantage gap. If this guidance becomes statutory, I might just throw my hat in and change career 😀
Much of the advice has been contradictory. We reviewed the 4 purposes guidance recently & were confused! Also, there’s WG guidance, versus Estyn reports and recommendations 🤷♀️ Add what ITT institutions seem to be saying to students into the mix and we have what might generously be called a ‘muddle’!
December 7, 2024 at 3:58 PM
Much of the advice has been contradictory. We reviewed the 4 purposes guidance recently & were confused! Also, there’s WG guidance, versus Estyn reports and recommendations 🤷♀️ Add what ITT institutions seem to be saying to students into the mix and we have what might generously be called a ‘muddle’!
What’s troubling about this, is the more I’ve researched curriculum development and successful pedagogies, the more it’s become clear that the guidance from WG and the direction it’s promoting is simply not evidence informed. Forget ‘ethical and informed’ it’s more unethical and ill-informed to me.
December 7, 2024 at 10:53 AM
What’s troubling about this, is the more I’ve researched curriculum development and successful pedagogies, the more it’s become clear that the guidance from WG and the direction it’s promoting is simply not evidence informed. Forget ‘ethical and informed’ it’s more unethical and ill-informed to me.
Sadly not all our children can earn a living being actors
December 5, 2024 at 8:26 PM
Sadly not all our children can earn a living being actors
of a handful of people who do not agree with the current ‘best bets’ with regards pedagogy, then I hope they are ready for the fallout. Schools were told to follow the science and now it seems we may have to follow something else without the money to have a hope in hell of making it work. Hey ho!
December 5, 2024 at 8:20 PM
of a handful of people who do not agree with the current ‘best bets’ with regards pedagogy, then I hope they are ready for the fallout. Schools were told to follow the science and now it seems we may have to follow something else without the money to have a hope in hell of making it work. Hey ho!
They can’t mention it as they know the training, resources needed and additional ‘enabling’ staff would cost thousands and thousands of pounds which schools don’t have. Schools were told to follow the science and that is not play based enquiry learning. If WG are going to follow the whims and dreams
December 5, 2024 at 8:16 PM
They can’t mention it as they know the training, resources needed and additional ‘enabling’ staff would cost thousands and thousands of pounds which schools don’t have. Schools were told to follow the science and that is not play based enquiry learning. If WG are going to follow the whims and dreams