Finally....

Its taken a long time...too long but finally after many years of trying, heartache and disappointment SOUTHAMPTON FC HAVE WON A TROPHY!!!

Yes it has finally happened and I dont care about those who think its a small cup or a lower league trophy...how many of your teams will A) get to Wembley this year and B) win something!!!!

Well done to the lads - heres to many more successes!

Wordle...loads of fun but makes you think...

I was sat playing around with wordle today...if you havent found the site yet go its great!
I put in the vision for my faculty and the following came out- click on the link to check it out...

(www.wordle.net)

I found it interesting that the word pupils was supported by everything else...
sort of what we want to acheive!!

However, I was also quite challenged by the small sized words
which are key to achieving what we want to...thought provoking and work needed...

Standing on the shoulders of giants...

I was asked this morning how long I had been teaching. I worked out that at the end of this year it will be 15 years...hmmm...what have I achieved?

I can look back on those who have influenced me from my mentor at my second teaching practice to those around me now...you know who you are... who nudge me and give me opportunities to push myself.

These people have fed time and energy into me and as a result it is on thier shoulders I have built my career and been allowed to spread out and influence others.

Who will stand on my shoulders?

I have been thinking about all the students I have taught and what I instilled into their lives about Humanities, the world and life in general.

Its quite humbling to think someone may type this message in future and be referring to you but just in case no-one can(!)...my aim from now...build a foundation for others to stand on...

The plans the thing...

We are currently in the loop of report writing and have reached Yr9. We made a decision a couple of years ago to start the RE GCSE in Yr9 and so I was setting my class a GCSE question for assessment.

I teach both top sets which have similar data in terms of FFT and similar students.
Without actually meaning to do this - honestly - I set one group up with the question and let them use their books and their notes to help them to answer the questions (SET A).
The other group (SET B) had time in class to plan the question and then took books home to revise. They then completed the questions on paper with no reference to their books.

The results varied dramatically.

Set A - worked from their own notes in class

FFT mark range = A - D
Predicted % A*- C = 90%

Results of GCSE question = 40% A*-C

Set B - planned answers and took home to revise

FFT mark range = A - C
Predicted % A* - C = 100%

Result of GCSE question = 83% A* - C

So the plan seems to be the thing. Next time I will reverse this and see whether it impacts the groups in anyway.

This seems to have unearthed something I already knew but maybe dont spend enough time working on...