Stoke-on-Trent Research School by The Keele and North Staffordshire Alliance Newsletter

Issue #3

Spring term

NEW MATHS TOOL

The EEF has published a Red Amber Green (RAG) self-assessment guide to accompany their guidance report, Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3. The report set out eight evidence-based recommendations on the effective teaching of maths, and this accompanying guide describes what ‘ineffective’, ‘improving’ and ‘exemplary’ practice can look like in relation to each of the recommendations.

Download the RAG self-assessment guide

NOW RECRUITING

Seventeen EEF-funded projects are currently looking for schools, as well as post-16 settings, to take part in trials of high-potential projects. They include:

• First Thing Music: educating young children through singing, giving direct access to the world of music without the difficulties involved with the use of an instrument. Read more.
• Speech Bubbles: using drama and storytelling to develop pupils’ communication skills. Read more.
• Power of Pictures: helping teachers develop their own understanding of the craft of picture book creation and illustration as a way of improving childhood literacy. Read more.
• Young Journalist Academy: immersing pupils into a fun but realistic ‘newsroom’ environment, providing an authentic purpose and audience for writing. Read more.

EEF GRANT-FUNDING ROUNDS

There are two EEF grant-funding rounds closing soon:

1. Science Teacher Retention, co-funded with Wellcome. Closing date: 5pm 22 March 2018 Read more.
2. Improving Science Education, co-funded with Wellcome. Closing date: 9 April 2018 Read more.

BLOG: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT GENETICS

At the recent Research Schools Conference on 7 February, Dr Kathryn Asbury, lecturer in Psychology and Education at the University of York, presented some stimulating findings from her work on the relevance of genetics to education. Not surprisingly, the role that genetics has to play in education is an emotive topic, and one that most people feel wary of approaching. However, whilst Dr Asbury acknowledges the trepidation felt by many at the idea of even talking about using genetic information to help shape our educational strategies, she also eloquently elucidates why the time is ripe for tackling these anxieties head on.

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BLOG: SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND TAMING THE ‘MARKING MONSTER’

The EEF recently published Putting evidence to work: a school’s guide to implementation, a guidance report that gives schools the support they need to put evidence to work in their classrooms and implement new programmes and approaches effectively. In this blog, Alex Quigley, Director of Huntington Research School, shares a worked example for changing marking policy using the guidance report.

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