Michaela Academy given outstanding, is it the way forward for education?

[Gettheleather]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2016/dec/30/no-excuses-inside-britains-strictest-school

This is the school I'm talking about. I've read a lot about it and I'm almost persuaded it could work. It has recently been awarded outstanding by ofsted. What does everyone else think? My only concern is that if it was nationwide we'd have a whole generation of academics and there are other valuable skills we need in the workforce.

Well it might be pointless. But the school's philosophy is that children need the basic underlying content knowledge in their long term memory so they can use it to answer higher order questions involving analysis.

In that context it makes sense. Whether the philosophy is true or not I'm not sure.

If I'm reading the science curriculum page correctly, they've added the yr10/11 curriculum and it doesn't look like they are offering triple science. Which seems odd.

They aren't offering separate science? That doesn't seem in keeping with the stated philosophy?

I agree with their belief about knowledge I'm just no sure why they give low level homework

"It's low stakes 'quizzing' of facts/formulae/definitions" which seems pointless

Teachers spending a lot of time marking it would be of little value . I agree with Michaela that when asking teachers to mark something we should ask "Is that the best use of these two hours?". Often the answer is no although that contradicts the research from Sutton Trust about the value of feedback.

I don't think that setting the tasks is pointless. Children do need to learn the facts and it is something that can be done at home . If they don't do the learning at home- completing the quiz and then marking the quiz acts as revision. If they fail their quiz they then have to do extra revision with us anyway in their own time.

Could there be more effective homework set - probably but I am not willing to ask my department to put in any more hours than they already are.

Not offering triple science seems odd. I wonder if that is a staffing issue. It doesn't seem to name sense in light of their wider ethos.

Asking children to spend time on low stakes activities is a good use of their time?

"low stakes" is currently a buzzword for the amount of pressure involved in testing. So GCSEs are 'high stakes'. The normal kind of classroom quizzes/tests are identified as 'low stakes' for this reason. The term is probably used because of all the current concern on the possibly damaging effect of lots of high-stakes testing. People want to make it clear that some kinds of testing are not especially stressful and are highly beneficial for learning, including self-testing.

Yes I'm aware of the term kesstrel ..important homework but low stakes testing ...pointless

Mrz...I think it can be quite useful - drilling key ideas and getting used to quickly completing various mathematical tasks until they become automatic.

I think it's difficult to say with any certainty how pointless or not it is, for their essays I believe the teachers read them all and make notes on common misconceptions/who did really well/who put no effort in. I think we'll really only know when they get their first results & their first cohort off to uni. And beyond of course.

Detentions appear to be involved, so perhaps not uselessly low stakes.

"This homework and revision ecosystem does require considerable coordination. Departments must agree on and create a one-page organiser for each unit. Teachers must check all pupils’ practice books and quizzes weekly and set detentions if the self-quizzing is not done. Here’s what we’ve found valuable about this strategy: it’s long-term (spread over seven years up to A-level), habitual (always the same strategy every day), yet still subject-specific (one subject’s content to focus on each evening), collective (all pupils in the year do the same subject on the same night), research-based (based on 100 years of cognitive science), inexpensive (a few exercise books per year per pupil)"

I did mean the testing was low stakes, not the value of the activity.

That's what I thought was odd, Twinset. It might be that some pupils do sit it but there's no mention of it at all. Only pupils working towards the science Double award (which I thought had been renamed)

They must offer it surely. They teach 5hrs of science a week from yr 7 upwards. Which has to be far more teaching over 5 years than virtually any school in the country.

Maybe they're chasing the A*s? Or the 9s?

The cynical part of me was thinking that's exactly what they are doing.

Not sure it's that cynical - 9 As or A*s probably better than 11 GCSEs with a mix of grades for the pupils. Depends how vital single sciences are for uni places. I have no idea!

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay I don't teach science so I could be wrong. I am getting the impression that with the new more challenging GCSEs lots of schools are limiting the students who take Triple Science - more than they used to.

"I believe the teachers read them all and make notes on common misconceptions/who did really well/who put no effort in. ". So they mark the work?

Yes Rafa I knew what you meant. The cynical side of me wonders at the actual purpose.
When I set homework it's tailored to individual needs and to inform parents of areas that need working on.

"I believe the teachers read them all and make notes on common misconceptions/who did really well/who put no effort in.* ". So they mark the work?*

I wonder if they are filling in a general marking pro forms which summarises all the work handed in rather than writing individual comments on each book.

When my sixth formers so research I quickly read it and update my records but I don't "mark" every piece of work.

When I set homework it's tailored to individual needs and to inform parents of areas that need working on.

@mrz I think it is amazing that you manage your time to make this possible and this must help your students make progress. I don't want to work the hours needed to do this for every piece of homework and don't want to ask my department to work any more hours than they already do . I get the impression that Michaela take seriously workload concerns and this is a factor in their homework policy. It isn't ideal by any means but neither is burning out staff.

Don't be too impressed ..it actually takes a few extra minutes of thought

I am genuinely impressed. We set and mark differentiated homework once a term for key stage 3 and once a half term for key stage 4.

It's not geared to individual needs.

But presumably parents will see which bits of subject knowledge their kids have gaps in because they have the knowledge organiser and the corrected work.

Whether this has benefits in the long term remains to be seen.

Pupils walking in corridors in single file, on the left, in silence seems to be catching on elsewhere too. I was watching an old episode of Educating Cardiff which is on one of the channels at the moment and i looked up their website and they now seem to be doing this.
www.willowshighschool.co.uk/news/?pid=0&nid=2&storyid=26