I’m sure it is a mix of factors. But my observation as a school leader would be that Maths teaching has improved. Much more focus on explicit instruction and mastery. This means students’ confidence is much improved. And have confidence to go into further study.

Continually depressing to me how there is no policy area where you don't have to keep litigating the same shit. Essentially every old wealthy country has tried both approaches and we KNOW that having a curriculum that focuses on knowledge, not 'the skills of the future' works better.

Same can of course be said of group work in which lack of accountability allows passivity to go unchecked.

The phrase ‘teachers deliver to passive students’ gets me. In what ways are students listening to effective explanation, engaging in Q&A and deliberate practice passive. Of course possible, but not the intention.

Attention to Learning has actually been one of our focus for CPD this year. Looking at ratio, attention contagion and means of participation. I think this is probably one of the most important things we can focus on in the classroom.

I’ve never seen much point in writing a T&L Policy. But certainly there is a need to communicate a school’s vision for T&L in some way. But making that vision lived is surely about implementation. And that requires effective training and follow-up.

📊Pupil absence is a key, and growing, driver of the disadvantage gap. If disadvantaged pupils had the same level of absence as their peers, the gap at age 11 would be almost 1 month smaller, and at age 16, over 4 months smaller. In fact, absence fully explains the gap-widening at age 16 since 2019

This is a really important part of the discussion which needs to be had around SEND.

FFT published some interesting data on SEND figures and season of birth. Paper on it available here: sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/...

FFT links to interesting paper on this outlining implications of the data.

sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/...

So important! We’ve tried to build time in department into our CPD . So after whole-school training teams can discuss and plan their implementation. Giving Heads of Department time in advance to think about it, so they can lead their teams through this. We want fidelity to principles not uniformity.

I find this a really interesting point. I suppose my instinct is that a lot of the TLAC style techniques are really useful in developing a mental model which expert teachers can draw on. But there needs to be deep subject-specific thinking and discussion around how these work in different contexts.