History Resource Cupboard – lessons and resources for schools

History Resource Cupboard - lessons and resources for schools

Ofsted

5 ways to use retrieval tests to make knowledge stick

So, Ofsted published some research recently which underpins their new inspection framework. It’s reassuring that they agree with us about what makes good assessment. The research states, ‘Teachers can use assessment to help them plan lessons, adapt lessons to measured gaps in knowledge and skills, and if necessary re-teach where[…]

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Are Curriculum ‘Statements of Intent’ worth it?

Good intentions

Ever since teachers got a whiff that Ofsted was no longer just interested in ‘outcomes’ but was now focusing on the ‘Quality of Education’ and the three ‘I’s, there seems to have been a debate about what curriculum intent actually is. In the summer, before the start of this new[…]

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Don’t let the curriculum control your pedagogy

control

Some people say knowledge is power. Others say powerful knowledge is power. But that is another debate. But how is the history teacher being controlled? We know we are being controlled by Ofsted. SLTs react to what they think Ofsted are looking for.  This is then forced upon teachers through teaching[…]

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An overview of the changes to the Ofsted framework

Ofsted inspection framework

If you were to analyse the frequency of words used in the proposed Ofsted inspection handbook (first use for January 2020), what do you think the three most frequent words would be? ‘Teaching’? ‘Learning‘? Maybe ‘Pupils‘? You probably wouldn’t be surprised to find that ‘school’ is the most common which appears[…]

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How do we decide what to teach in a curriculum: a blast from the past

Light bulb moments

So there seems to be some blather recently around the question: how do we decide what to teach in a curriculum? Ofsted This has inevitably be fuelled by talk of Ofsted changing its inspection framework over the coming months to focusing more on the quality of the curriculum and less[…]

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Giving effective written feedback and still managing workload

Marking

We are all told how important feedback is. Written feedback especially. The research. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research states “feedback studies tend to show very high effects on learning”. We know feedback is important. SLTs love looking for this feedback as they can make it part of their accountability[…]

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Marking: Thank you Ofsted. Let’s hope SLT listen

marking

Yesterday I saw a tweet about marking which definitely made me happy.  It cited Ofsted’s school Inspection Update Issue 8  and was written by National Director of Education, Sean Harford. He referred to  the Teacher Workload Review Group on Marking (March 2016)  and the Education Endowment Foundation (April 2016) which both[…]

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Teaching Historical Interpretations

Teaching historical Interpretations. If you want success at GCSE and beyond you need to think about how you teach what you teach and why you teach what you teach! Fact. This means developing a great Key Stage 3 curriculum and building on this into Key Stage 4. Recently Ofsted have[…]

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Curriculum planning and the issue of marking

Neil Bates and I have been working together from afar for many years. We have taught in different schools but have always met up to swap resources.  However, we were lucky enough to have been working together in the same school.  Poor Neil had me as his Head of Hums! We have[…]

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Ofsted Best Practise Case Studies

Links to some useful case studies on the Ofsted website: Making the most of local history Meaningful history for all Outstanding history in 100 minute lessons Successful 2 year Key Stage 3

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Want to improve your practice and grades at GCSE history? Course you do

Ever wondered what is going on in the best practitioners classrooms at GCSE? How on earth do they ensure that kids make that beloved progress everyone is obsessed with without compromising on certain principles? What do people who set the exam papers think makes good history teaching? Are you concerned[…]

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History Resource Cupboard

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