One of our Teaching and Learning priorities at Nova Hreod Academy is ‘Challenge for all.’ This is the notion that lessons should be planned and well-structured with high challenge content. As Assistant SENDCo at the Academy, I strongly believe in academic success for all; I teach English to students across the ability range and I teach the same high challenge content to all the classes I teach, with support in place to scaffold students’ learning. I truly believe that, with the right support, every SEND student is capable of achieving their potential, in school and beyond.

By Sophie Unsworth

Hopefully, when you saw the image at the top of this page you knew exactly what game I was alluding to. Perhaps you have very distinct memories of playing it: the arguments over whether or not you’re allowed to use the dictionary to check your word before placing your tiles; the burning hope that no-one will cross that triple word score when you’re about to play WHACKED (72 points if you managed to get W or H on a double letter space); or the descent into madness when someone claims the vowel-less monstrosity they’ve just played is actually the archaic name for a lobster trap. Yes, I’m talking about Scrabble®. You knew that, didn’t you?

By Nick Hetherington

This year, the Nova Hreod maths department has undergone a complete overhaul of technology. Replacing the older interactive whiteboards is a cutting-edge system focusing around wireless projection of Microsoft Surface Pro tablets to modern projectors. Alongside this, high quality visualisers have been provided in every maths classroom, projecting onto large whiteboards at the front of each room. This revamp of technology has led me to reflect on my own use of technology within the classroom, and more importantly the purpose of this use.

By Toby Watkins

In the summer term, the English teachers at Nova Hreod were gifted copies of Andy Tharby’s book ‘Making every English lesson count’ (MEELC). This is a follow-on from the equally excellent book, ‘Making every lesson count’ by Andy Tharby and Shaun Allison. As a recently qualified English teacher, I found MEELC incredibly helpful and can honestly say it’s the best teaching and learning book I’ve ever read.

By Sophie Unsworth

Every GCSE results day, commentators say that the rise in attainment is a sign that GCSE examinations are getting easier (rarely crediting the students’ hard work and improvements in teaching – but that’s not an argument for today!). A few years ago, the government decided that enough is enough, and GCSEs need a major overhaul. I, for one, welcome the idea that our iconic qualification (yes, the GCSE is an iconic qualification) should be more challenging. There is plenty of evidence that the standard of work and depth and breadth of learning at GCSE does not compare favourably with the work produced in other countries by students of the same age. Accepting (I hope) that our students deserve access to the best of humanity’s culture and learning, it would be unfair to let them drop behind international peers. So, new GCSEs with notably increased demand were developed.

By Phil Wilson

At Nova Hreod Academy, we teach a high challenge, knowledge-based English curriculum to all students in all classes. As a new member of the faculty this year, I am going to share my insights and the benefits I believe a high challenge, knowledge-based curriculum has on students’ ability to read well.

The ability to read is not innate; it requires explicit teaching. Not reading is a vicious cycle and it can quickly become something that the word-rich take for granted. As Willingham said: "Knowledge is vital for improving reading, and reading is vital for improving knowledge."

By Sophie Unsworth

Over the last year, Nova Hreod’s revision vision and the focus within many of our departments has been on the need for strong subject knowledge as a means to support skills. Within the humanities department, this has been implemented mainly through the use of knowledge organisers, “Do Now” quizzes at the beginning of each lesson and the using of “quizzing homework”, where pupils either write a quiz about a specific topic or test themselves on a previous quiz.

I have used two techniques within my classroom to make this framework as effective as possible: tracking “Do Now” quizzes and using Quizlet to supplement homework.

By Rebecca Sayers

During a period of intense national pressure to “raise standards” I have been asked to write an article on raising attainment in Art.  Whenever attainment and Art are mentioned in the same sentence, it is usually followed by the gender gap in results between boys and girls. This continues to be a real focus and for good reason.

By Sophie Fegan

The removal of national curriculum levels at KS3 has, I am sure, been both the joy and the bane of many KS3 raising standards leaders like me across the country. How to assess, report and show progress at Key Stage 3 has filled my working days for the past two years and I am certain is a topic that we will continue to debate on and disagree on over coffee.

By Benn Griffin

Behaviour policies can divide the teaching profession. One only has to look through blogs and Twitter feeds to see what a polarising issue it can be. Steve Adcock of United Learning has recently written an excellent article on the “scourge of low level disruption.” Allowing poor behaviour of any kind rewards the naughty students and, crucially, means the others are a silent majority who don’t learn.

By Graham Dakin

If we are not reality TV fans, we would tend to think of apprentices as those learning a particular skill or trade, and most readily associate apprenticeships with practical learning. ‘Practical’ is a matter of degrees – replacing a fan belt, grilling a chop and solving an equation are all practical, in the sense that there is a doer and a task. So let’s not limit our idea of apprenticeship to the learning of physical skills; we can see that students in classrooms are our apprentices.

By Phil Wilson

When I was an NQT, I can vividly remember writing out a list of interventions for every child I felt I needed personalised help after an assessment. This document ended up being about a page and a half of A4 for one of my 10 classes and, I’m ashamed to say, I wrote it, filed it and then didn’t look at it again until the next assessment.

By Rebecca Sayers

These are the principles that have guided the development of Nova’s revision vision:

By Phil Wilson

It’s very easy as an English teacher to espouse the value and importance of the reading we do during tutor time, but the question remains: why do we value tutor reading so much?

By Nick Hetherington

Teachers should believe their subject can change lives. No, let’s go further: teachers should have a sweetly dewy-eyed belief in their subject’s potential to change the world; that a deep knowledge and understanding of their discipline opens the door to a better future for humanity.

By Phil Wilson

In Matthew Syed’s excellent book “Black Box Thinking,” the author explores why some professions, like airline pilots, react and respond so well to mistakes and how having a positive attitude to this has led to huge increases in passenger safety, whereas other professions are much slower and less inclined to respond to the mistakes made and therefore improvement is extremely slow. I would definitely put teaching in the second category but what are the reasons for this and what can we do about it?

By Graham Dakin

Thanks to the recent books, blog posts and Twitter feeds, the mystery behind how to retain knowledge best and most effectively has been simplified to a few very simple techniques. However there is still a lot of work to be done in ensuring that these techniques are taught to all teachers and most importantly to all students.

By Graham Dakin

The usual approach to planning a year, or a two year GCSE course, of teaching is to look at the topics and teach them one after the other. For example, in science we’ve always simply taught biology 1, then chemistry 1, then physics 1, one after the other, then revise the lot at the end for the exams.

By Phil Wilson

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered why computer games are so compelling, so addictive to so many of our young people. To pin it down: they are just the right difficulty.

By Phil Wilson

Every day, I practice driving. To and from work equals almost an hour. Sometimes I even put in massive bouts of practice and drive a solid four hours. So why aren’t I a world rally driving champion?

By Phil Wilson