Earlier in the year, I wrote a piece for the TES about these monstrosities: progress arrows. I used these bad boys in the first two years of my teacher career. The idea was that if pupils could tick the boxes, they had met the criteria for the lesson, made progress, and proved that I was an amazing teacher. The reality was that pupils would tick them to make me (or themselves) feel good with absolutely no actual evidence to prove that they had made any progress. They were nothing more than transparent attempts to please the invisible Ofsted inspector. Thankfully, progress arrows are a thing of the past. After all, it’s been 7 years. I am now a well-respected and experienced teacher and head of faculty and with this experience comes wise decisions. Surely I wouldn’t make the same mistake again? Alas… The Problem: Pupils were finding it difficult to retain knowledge in our subject. We were giving carefully thought out and well-planned explanations, but frankly there ...
@MissSayers1