Primary Assessment: How Has It Come To This?

Today, in between writing reports I discovered a couple of polls going around Twitter. Both were about what to do about the current assessment arrangements for KS1 and KS2.  One asked whether we should strike or not. The other asked whether it would be more effective to strike or to boycott the assessments.  My question is: how has it come to this?

After a widespread questionnaire last year, a seemingly-serious announcement about tackling teacher workload and the promise of having a year to implement new changes, teachers are now left with mere months to start collecting mountains of evidence and ticking off assessment criteria.  It will take many, many hours and will have close-to-zero positive impact on children's learning.  Talk about hypocrisy.  I recently heard the fact that Jeremy Hunt is investigating the low morale among junior doctors being compared to "Harold Shipman launching an enquiry into patient mortality rates" (Adam Hills on The Last Leg). Would it be criminal to suggest the same comparison with Nicky Morgan investigating teachers' workloads? 

As I see it, there are a few options for assessment arrangements this year.  None of which I wholly agree with but all of which are possible:

1) Teachers go on strike.

Potentially, the government listen and change things, perhaps abolishing national tests or teacher assessments this year.  This is hugely unlikely.

2) School leaders, supported by their governors, decide to boycott the assessments.  

They submit no data or put all children as working below expected standard.  If a record number of schools don't reach the floor standard then the government must stop lying about the fact that education has improved under the Tories.  It would leave OfSTED in a complete mess because there would be too many schools to inspect and many would become RI or below. The problem with this option is that it takes a great deal of confidence for a Headteacher to support a boycott. Also, it would only work if it were widespread enough, covering all authorities.  I'm not sure how parents would react if their children have been working towards the new SATs all year.  

3) School leaders put pressure on Year 6 and Year 2 teachers to reach or exceed the floor standards.  

This is the most dangerous but, sadly, the most likely.  If we all bow down to the expectations required of Year 6 now it means one thing: lots of cheating.  Teachers will be sat by children telling them what to write to ensure they have the evidence for working at the expected standard.  High expectations are important but Year 6 teachers have exclaimed online that this is what they are going to have to do to meet the floor standards.  This then leaves secondary teachers with no idea of children's true ability and means the government can bleat on and on about how they've raised standards with no mention of the broken teachers, anxious children and foul play which has been created in the process.  And, worse still, this relentless rate of change and ridiculousness imposed on us from the government continues. 

I am not a parent but I have a huge amount of sympathy for those parents of primary-aged children.  There is no certainty about their school future except that it will be tough.  Tougher than before in terms of content but even more so because of the unknowns. Their headteachers, teachers and parents have no clue how things will look for them in the next couple of years and I can't imagine that's been the situation for many years in primary schools. 

I always like this blog to be about solutions and ideas for primary classrooms.  Recently, it has had to take a much more negative tone because the government has completely lost sight of the children at the heart of why we do our job.  Their best interests have taken a backseat to political agenda and media image.  I have no solution for this except that teachers have got to have a voice.  This is mine. What is yours going to be?  Get on Twitter, write a blog, write a letter, sign a petition, join a union, email your headteacher, follow the NAHT, speak to parents, talk to friends; just do something.  It's time for teachers to take back the classroom. That is the only solution I can see making any positive difference. 

Teachers quitting, cheating or boycotting: how has it come to this?

The Power Of Choice in Learning

"You choose"

The phrase has so much more power than is first anticipated by the two short words.  By default, there is nothing prescribed for you but you take things into your own hands.  You have the power.  And that, alone, is powerful. 

I hadn't considered how important 'choice' is in learning until I started at my current school.  We have a 'Core Offer' which consists of things that we consider to be important elements and strategies to use in each lesson.  It is featured in our Teacher Handbook and is something which is referred to in planning and observing lessons.  I remember first reading through the Core Offer and recognising many of the elements as things I plan into lessons anyway: learning objectives matching activities, personalised learning and questioning, among others.  Every part of the Core Offer was something I did everyday, except for one. 

"Pupils will have an element of choice within their learning."

This really stuck with me and made me rethink a lot of what I do.  I have previously mentioned how early in my teaching career I was obsessed with grouping children by ability.  Thus I was prescribing what they did and how they did it.  Without meaning to, I was putting a glass ceiling on their learning; clearly this was before I'd heard of the idea of a Growth Mindset.

I started by including quite trivial choices for children to make so they felt they had some control over their learning: different colours of paper, a variety of context options or different writing implements.  Ultimately, these didn't have a great impact in their learning but I saw very quickly an increase in engagement.  They were buying into the lesson through a simple decision-making process.  This, along with reading about Growth Mindset, led to me completely changing how I managed differentiation, personalisation and challenge in lessons.

Rather than providing certain groups with prescribed activities at their level, I started explaining some different options of support to my class for the one activity they were completing and letting them choose if they needed support and how much.  Quickly, I realised this worked better if they sat in mixed-ability groups.  That way, they could learn from each other, keep their confidence as there's no "top" or "bottom" table and there was an enhanced team-spirit feel in the classroom.  With some guidance and conversations, children were choosing appropriate activities and challenging themselves.  I had never experienced a class so focused on their learning before and, without any evidence to back this up, I credited the element of choice for their enhanced positive attitudes.

It wasn't until the following year that I started to realise the difference choice can make for some children who struggle to behave in school.  I was teaching a child who had a tendency to cause problems during lessons.  Many teachers use "the choice" when managing behaviour in and out of the classroom.  For this child, the choice had always been whether to do the work in the lesson or not.  Teachers had previously said, "You can choose to do this work now or choose to do this work during your breaktime with *SLT member*".  Early on, I had taken a similar tactic but once the child was settled in my class, I started saying, "You can choose whether you do X, Y or Z" and the expectation was that the work was done in the lesson; the choice was about how the work was completed rather than whether it was completed.  This made a real difference and meant that they completed more work in the classroom and there wasn't the need for break time intervention.

Since then, I've been experimenting with different ways that children can have an element of choice in their learning.  Sometimes, the choice is about presentation format or use of practical resources; other times it is about the subject of a piece of writing or question to research, answer or investigate.  Each time, it amazes me how the children engage in their choice and produce some brilliant work, and reminds me how different the lesson would be if I had prescribed these elements.  

Related Links

Alison has used a writing project called You Choose which you can read about here.
You can read more about challenge is organised in my classroom here. 

How to Plan for a Supply Teacher

After such a successful first post about his experiences supply teaching, my husband has written another post to give some ideas about how best to leave plans for a cover teacher to follow.  

It is a huge misconception that class teachers need to leave thorough and detailed plans for supply teachers. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t provide plans at all, but what it does mean is that class teachers shouldn’t waste their time writing out, printing and generally fretting too much over what their supply teacher is going to do with their class. The reason I write this is because class teachers already have a busy schedule without needing to worry too much about days when they have got supply. They’ve got other things to get on with! 

When cover teachers arrive at a school in the morning, they don’t want to have to look through pages and pages of planning. This is not because we are lazy - we are against a time limit. We need to be able to read through up to five different lesson plans before the children arrive for the day. The plans need to be short, simple and understandable. I tend to arrive at a school before 8am meaning I have approximately 40 minutes to get my head around what is going on. It makes us supply teachers panic if we are not really sure about what to do in each lesson. It is best not to leave hand-written plans as, sometimes, that can be even harder to read and understand. Typed notes, if possible, are much clearer. 

If you know your school’s lesson plans are difficult to comprehend because the format is full of boxes, jargon and anything else that is simply included to impress Ofsted, don’t leave that for supply teachers to read through. Plans for supply teachers need to be brief notes with the important bits only. Either that or simply highlight the important parts of the plan that you want the cover teacher to read so they don’t have to go through it all. It is not ideal to write all over plans as, again, this can make the plans difficult to understand. 

I have often turned up at schools and the plans have been left with a teaching assistant.  This is less than ideal because they tend to come in later than me and could be absent on the day.  Instead, ensure any plans and resources are left out somewhere obvious so that, if the supply teacher comes in earlier than the teacher welcoming them, they can read through everything and get their heads around it straight away rather than having to wait. If the class teacher is in school on the day that they have got cover, it is helpful to visit the supply teacher to check if everything makes sense or to discuss the plans.  It is useful for teaching assistants to know what the class is doing so that, if there are any problems, they can help.  If there are any IT resources to be set-up for the day, it is a good idea to check that they work first and ensure that someone in school is arranged to load them. 

The most thorough supply teachers mark books from all lessons at the end of the day. However, it is really important for teachers to not leave too much marking for their supply. I have been in the position where, come 3:15pm, I’m faced with the prospect of marking 4 sets of books. If I am to mark well, there’s no way I can mark that many books before 6:00pm. If you want work to be marked well by the supply teacher, remember to include it in your notes. Furthermore, try to leave a reasonable volume of marking otherwise the supply will probably only tick and stamp them. If it is possible, try to think of some practical lessons, for example whiteboard or online work, to plan into a supply day to help reduce the marking. Alternatively, plan time for the children to mark their own work. 

Planning aside, the most important thing I need to know is how to keep your class safe.  Are there any allergies, serious family circumstances or other well-being issues?  Which children require extra support and are there any adults who are not DBS checked that cannot be left alone with children? These notes need to be very clear and near the top of any documents.  It is also useful to have timetable information for the school and some idea of how children are grouped in lessons.  

Finally, please make sure you point cover teachers in the direction of the toilet, staff room and coffee machine. After all, we're only human! 

Free Whole-Class Reading Texts

After blogging our move from carousel Guided Reading lessons to whole-class sessions, I get lots of messages asking which texts we use.  I compiled a list of over 350 books which teachers around the UK use in their primary classrooms but there are also many free ways of finding texts to help children practise reading skills.  Most of these free texts require an internet-enabled device or print out for each pupil or pair.

Please be aware of copyright laws and licenses when photocopying these or posting them on a shared server.

Song Lyrics and Poems

If it's on a website, you can always provide children with the link rather than printing copies - just remember to check on a school computer to ensure any adverts are appropriate. We have occasionally used lyric videos on YouTube to help with this - most of these have some errors which are interesting to talk about. 
There are often brilliant examples of imagery, metaphor and style in song lyrics and poems.  When we use song lyrics, we generally introduce it as a poem and don't mention that it is a song.  It is then a pleasant surprise for the children to realise that songs are poems.  We have explored some grammar fails which writers have used in songs to make the words fit the tune and have explored the double meanings.  Some examples which we've used are:

• Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson
• The Show by Lenka
• The Climb by Miley Cyrus
• Red by Taylor Swift
• The River Is by Valerie Bloom
• The Scribbleboy Rap (from Scribbleboy) by Philip Ridley

Free Publications

Again, these can be downloaded and printed out or uploaded to a school server for use on a screen.
Many organisations publish free e-books or leaflets which can be downloaded as PDFs or read online.  Some examples we have used are George The Sun-Safe Superstar, The Third Shakespeare's Globe and DigiDuck's Big Decision.  There are lots of free e-books of varying quality available to read online or download at FreeKidsBooks.org.  We have also used Tom Palmer's live Football and Rugby World Cup stories which are set out like serial dramas running parallel to the real-life events and outcomes of the games.  Rumour has it he may be doing something similar for the Euro 2016 finals too.  You can view and download all of Tom Palmer's free publications here, including some sports-related short stories. 

Historic Newspapers

Go to the Historic Newspapers website (Education section), choose a pack and email Tom with your request.  He will send you the PDF which you can then use for teaching.  He can also send you a hard copy if you send him your address.  

These newspapers can be uploaded to your school's server (we use Google Drive) so the children can access a copy on their device (we use Chromebooks) or you can print copies of the page(s) you want children to look at.  Because these are high-quality versions of original prints, everything is authentic, including some brilliant advertisements and interesting unrelated articles which can be used to get children think about persuasive devices, the style of newspaper writing and retrieve information.  

Information Websites

Remember to check these whole sites over before letting kids loose on them. Beware of updates to the websites which could ruin your lesson - check the links are live and appropriate each year before reusing plans.  

Sites like NHS Change 4 Life, this BBC Interactive WW1 Trench and BBC Mummy Maker are designed in a really simple, attractive way so they are as useful as a non-fiction book but without the cost or need for storage space.  Children also love using these sites and finding extra information hidden among the images.

Fairly Reasonable Paid-For Sites

• Twinkl do lots of information books, cartoons and stories as a PDF download.
• First News send their weekly child-friendly newspapers in PDF format along with lots of teacher resources.
• Fiction Express releases a chapter every Friday at 3pm and readers can vote for what happens next.  Texts are written by children's authors and run in line with school terms. 
• Curriculum Visions publish non-fiction print books in class sets but also have all their books and more available in digital format online.

From Odd to Even #Nurture1516

If I were to describe 2015 for me, 'odd' would be one word I would consider to sum it up.  Both personally and professionally it has been a strange year.  Rather than reflect on 15 things and look forward to 16 (as I did in my 13/14 and 14/15 nurture posts), I am simply going to suggest how some 'odd' things from the past year could be smoothed out to be 'even'.  After all, my main aim for this blog is for it to be solution driven.  

Assessment

So the government abolished levels.  It sounded like a brilliant idea. We all knew the flaws with the system and how far from what it was designed for it had become.  The powers that be decided to replace it with...well...nothing.  Nowadays schools are doing different things.  From conversations with colleagues in schools around the country this year, it would appear there is very little cohesion.  Even places using the same assessment system are using it in a variety of ways and coming to different judgments.  Most schools in our locality are using Target Tracker and deciding to click objectives for each child.  This process potentially requires up to 8,000 double-clicks for one year four class.

  

It feels like we have gone from one ridiculous time to another.  My biggest problem with assessment at the moment is that I cannot see a logical, practical solution.  We are being forced into a position where children are spending so much time proving they can do the objectives that we are losing valuable teaching time.  And, of course, our pay is dependent upon these confused assessments.  Assessment has caused much frustration for me this year and, although I can't see a solution for the time being and don't have a huge amount of faith in the system, I live in hope that a Eureka moment will come this year and that things will start falling into place for assessment without levels.  We shall see...

Well-being

After ending up at the doctor's in the summer, I decided to take some deliberate actions to improve my well-being.  This, along with a new cohort, has made a massive difference and the Autumn term was much easier than previous ones.  You can read more about what I changed here and I will try to update this at the end of the school year.  I will continue to try to put life first so hopefully this coming year will be more normal than the last one. 

Health

I was reminded recently by a teaching friend of the importance of looking after our health.  He explained how he put off a visit to the doctor because he felt his job was more important.  His message prompted me to get those little niggles that we often ignore checked out so that we are healthy.  After all, our classes need us to be fighting fit so that we can give them the best of our time during the school day.  So my aim for this year is to get some things checked out which I have ignored in the past. 

TeachMeet Sussex

The aim, when starting up TeachMeet Sussex, was to have an event each term.  However, due to this year being so odd, we have only managed to have one event in 2015.  Plans are underway for 2016 already, with the first TeachMeet being on Thursday 25th February in Worthing.  There are schools lined up to host in the Summer and Autumn term as well so hopefully this year can bring some continuity for these important and inspiring events.  

Supply Teaching: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

My husband has had an interesting couple of years since he started teaching and he is now a sought-after supply teacher in our local area.  Below he recounts how he ended up doing supply work, some of the challenges he's faced and why he's never looked back.

Supply teaching saved me and my teaching career. There is no doubt about that. I had seriously struggled through my NQT year and it completely put me off teaching before I even got the chance to get a foothold in the profession. I started at a school that was classified as ‘outstanding’.  It was also a school I had attended as a pupil, which for some reason made me feel that I was going to the right place to start my teaching career. I’m not going to lie, my NQT year was terrifying, included two OfSTED inspections in separate schools and I would not wish it upon anybody. Somehow, I managed to get through it, but it made me very negative about teaching and I found myself putting others off going into the profession. I completely understood why class teaching was not (and still isn't) an attractive career path for upcoming graduates. I very nearly quit teaching myself. 

I was in my second year of teaching, I'd left my second school and I was preparing to become a supply teacher. What was I thinking?! Surely, I wasn't going to be able to just turn up on the morning of a school day without knowing what I was doing and teach from someone else’s plans. Was I insane? What about not getting paid if I took a day off ill or not getting paid during the holidays? That would seriously alter our finances. What about my teacher pension? What if I didn’t get much work and ended up seriously reducing our monthly income? I had to consider all of these issues before deciding just to go for it but, ultimately, the choice was taken from my hands and I signed up to all the local agencies and direct with some schools.  It didn't take me long to realise that supply teaching wasn't just the final straw for me; it was the job I should have been doing all along. 

Supply made me see teaching from a completely different angle. It became enjoyable again. I got my life back; I got my passion back. There was no more time slaving away at home to plan for the following day. No writing of reports, planning for class assemblies, assessing children’s work or writing IEPs etc. I went to work, did my job (the most enjoyable part of it – teaching children), marked their books (if there was anything to mark), left teachers notes to tell them about how the day had gone and went home happy! When I got home, I could do things for myself and be a support to my wife. This meant that she was happy too. During my NQT year, my wife barely saw me. To have me back, and for me to be happy, made her happy. As a result, my home life improved significantly. I was back to being the man my wife married. I had been unbearable to live with when I was in a full-time class teaching role. I was depressed and stressed; not a good mix! Now, I can do what I want to do in the evenings and I don’t go to bed at silly o’clock when I have finished what I have to for the next day.

Due to being a happier man, I became a better and happier teacher. I was able to have fun in the lessons I taught because I knew that, come 5:30, I would be travelling home and I would have a free evening awaiting me to do whatever I liked. I started being praised by schools I worked at and my agency, who take my bookings. Not only that, but the children I was teaching enjoyed my lessons more. A happier teacher means happier pupils. They were asking me to come back and teach them again, which made me feel ecstatic. When I did go back, they remembered my name! I knew I had made a positive impact on their schooling.

I can understand that supply doesn’t suit everybody. Yes, reading plans in the mornings can be hard to do, particularly as different schools have different planning formats. However, you get used to this and eventually, it becomes a lot easier to do. I make sure I am at school around an hour before the children start the day so that I have time to go over plans in my head and prepare for the day. Some teachers leave very understandable plans. Some are there to talk you through the day. Other teachers in the school and especially in the same year group tend to be very supportive. 

You also learn tricks as a supply teacher that mean even if you don’t understand the plans you can improvise. After all, as long as you don’t freak out and do your best, the children will learn. Sometimes plans can be a little sparse, however from the experience I have gained, I know to have things up my sleeve to call upon if I have time to fill. I can understand it when teachers don’t leave thorough planning because I remember being in their shoes when I was in a full-time role and how hard it can be.  I have to factor in that some mornings the call will come at 6:30am but, the majority of days, I am booked in advance and I have the prerogative to say "no" if there is a school which is too far or where I've previously had difficult days. 

Because of just being able to focus on my teaching without having to think about much else, I have learned so much from supply. I perform better in the classroom because I understand how to engage and motivate children better. I have found myself managing classes better and understanding systems/routines better. My marking has improved, despite having to be much more time efficient due to not being able to take work home.  Since starting supply teaching, I have taught all year groups across the primary range.  Now adapting between difference key stages, even in the middle of a day, is like second nature to me.  I have learned strategies to engage and motivate children of all ages; something that, as a class teacher, it would take years for me to experience.  

Going to different schools has also helped me enormously. I have realised that not all schools are unhappy places like my first teaching job. A lot of schools do care about the well-being of their staff.  Some of them share my philosophy that if the teacher is happy, their pupils are happy (and learn more). Every school is different and it gives me a really good understanding of the different challenges teachers face. It has also meant I have made new friends. Going into different staff rooms and meeting new people is great. Many of the schools I go to make me feel at home to the point at which sometimes I forget I am not actually employed by the school! I have been offered a whole host of jobs by schools I supply at, which really helps my confidence. I know that eventually when I do want to go back into full-time teaching, the opportunities are there.  For the time being though, it is easy to resist accepting class teacher jobs because I know I'm in the right role doing supply cover.

So, if you are considering supply work or you end up needing to do it for some time, I would highly recommend it. Yes, there are downsides as I've mentioned previously, however there are also a lot of positives. Have a go and, you never know, you might enjoy it as much as I do!

Written by Mr P

A Few Thoughts On Attracting and Retaining Teachers

In the last few months, I have had many conversations about these issues with colleagues and friends.  We've all generally agreed but nothing will ever change with people just saying their thoughts in conversations.  Hence, I am sharing my views in this post.

It all started with that advert. You know. The one which says that great teachers earn up to £65,000 each year.  Twitter went into meltdown trying to locate such teachers.  Did anyone find them? Anyway, my first reaction to the advert was that I'm earning well below half of that amount so, according to the DfE, I'm clearly not 'great'.  My second reaction was one shared by a huge amount of those who I spoke to.  Why are we using money as an incentive to attract teachers?  This made me consider what attracted me to teaching, especially given that I grew up as a headteacher's daughter saying over and over again, "I'm never going to be a teacher."

During my A Levels, I got my best grades in Economics.  I loved the idea of business and was pursuing a Management and Spanish course at university.  When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time volunteering at kids' clubs, nurseries and summer camps.  While completing my UCAS application, I realised that, were I to go into a career in business, I would spend my working life in the office and my spare time volunteering to help children. I judged that if I became a teacher, I could make a positive difference to children's lives during the working day and have some time for myself.  Basically, I became a teacher for a good work/life balance; ironic really. 

Pay was never a part of my decision, nor was it a contributing factor for my friends.  Generally, teachers become teachers so they can have some sort of positive impact on their pupils' lives.  That is why we work far beyond the hours people expect of us and do unusual and uncharacteristic things (scooping fox poo from the school field anyone?!).  So does the DfE want scores of teachers entering the profession because of monetary incentives?  Surely it would have been better to use Taylor Mali's original poem about What Teachers Make.  Aren't those the sort of teachers we want in our profession?

I know that there is a massive need to recruit more teachers.  Six years ago, when I was training, the university had the prerogative to say yes or no to their applicants.  However, I recently read this article which states that, for three years running, ITT application numbers have missed government targets.  So, not only are fewer people wishing to be teachers, the universities are now under more pressure to accept people who would have previously not been successful in their applications, thus increasing the retention problem which I will come to later. 

So what is stopping people from applying to be teachers? I think the problem is three-fold: the press, OfSTED and people's personal stories.  Positive news articles about teachers are few and far between.  Strikes, cuts, league tables and workload stories are more common and are giving a less-than-attractive view of our profession.  More and more people are aware of OfSTED and their role in schools.  During my last inspection, the local pub called the school to offer lasagne for the whole staff because they knew of the pressure on that first night after the call.  OfSTED gradings appear on a variety of websites, including Rightmove and Zoopla.  Also, the pressure of OfSTED is reported time and again on websites and blogs.  It is stories about inspections, like this recent one, which target emotions and make even dedicated teachers question whether it really is all worth it.  

As is mentioned in business time and again, word of mouth is the best advert.  In order to attract new applicants, the DfE need teachers to give a positive view of their profession.  Up until recently, my optimism has meant I was able to do that.  However, I honestly don't think I could recommend teaching to many people right now.  I could only suggest teaching to the strongest, most organised and highly adaptable people I know.  I work in a "good" school with a solid, realistic leadership team and so can only imagine what those in schools with a lesser grading or weaker leaders would say.  This makes me incredibly sad for a job which I love so much and which is important to so many. 

I would need an extra few hands to count the number of people I know who have left the profession or opted to do supply instead over the last few years.  Which leads me on to retention.  Why is UK education struggling to hold onto so many of its employees?  Why are there so many headteacher jobs vacant?  Personally, I think it's the pressure from out of school which is causing massive stress to leaders, teachers and many other school workers.  OfSTED have tried over the last few years to dispel any myths and stop leaders adding to teachers' workload with documents like this.  However, all the while OfSTED exists and is making judgements about schools from the data presented to them, jobs, lives and teachers' wellbeing are suffering.  

Planning, teaching and assessing; it's a simple cycle which teachers are trained for.  It's my favourite part of the job because, in essence, it IS the job.  However, teaching nowadays involves a vast amount more than the important bits and often the peripheral jobs take the longest time and cause the most amount of stress.  I think teachers are exasperated and bored of doing useless (to them) tasks to please other adults rather than help the children in their care.  And there is no obvious panacea to put an imminent end to this.  Some of us can sit and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel, some can focus completely on the children and remember the reason we ended up in the classroom in the first place, but for others it just isn't worth even that any more so leaving the profession becomes their only option.  

This post has turned into a much longer one than I originally planned and has a more negative tone than I would like to have on this blog.  I do really love teaching...because of the kids.   However, I still have those moments when I think what I would do instead and imagine that the grass could be greener with different job title.  Always, I get to the other side of those moments and come to the same conclusion: there is nothing else I would want to do and nowhere else I'd want to be.  I just wish the DfE would make it easier for others to arrive at a similar decision.

Other education bloggers' thoughts on attracting and retaining teachers:

David Didau

Old Primary Head
Justin Gray
Teacher Toolkit

Leader Learner

I'd be very interested to read your own thoughts in the comments below.