Last term I had the fantastic opportunity to visit a school which gets exemplary results in order to see what I could learn from them and what I could take to my department. I saw a school of pupils who were aspirational. I saw pupils who loved their lessons. I saw pupils who were willing to justify their opinions and cogently yet respectfully challenge the opinions of others. However, I also saw a number of practices which my academic reading had led me away from and which my department has actively moved away from in the last five years. This was a conundrum; I had to been sent to learn about this school’s practices because they are successful. Yet, some of their practices were the exact ones I’d be advised to avoid. However, on closer inspection, I saw the foundation which supported the excellence I saw in lessons; every pupil I saw was exceptionally knowledgeable. In a history lesson (their first on the Cold War), I saw pupils guess “Yeltsin” and “Putin” when presented wi...
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