The Chronicle January 2020

17 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

‘Leading the way in educational initiatives is instinctive for this dynamic Oxford school.’ TATLER SCHOOLS GUIDE 2020 Tell us more about the assessment techniques. MF: There will be tests – they can be useful. But we don’t want our pupils to feel that they’re simply jumping through hoops. In my subject area, we will ask pupils to pursue an investigative project in the Summer Term of the Fourth Form, and they will present their findings in a mini academic conference- style event at Gaudy. A significant element of the assessment will be looking at their findings and presentations, but we will also have observed how they researched and developed their project: the content of the investigation is not necessarily the most important element. MA: We’re very keen to assess our pupils’ ability to understand how they’ve learnt something – which is a big idea, and difficult to do. One of the criteria which is universal to all Pathways and Perspectives courses is self-management: our attempt to measure their ability to step outside what they’re doing and think about how to move to the next stage, which will be vital for Sixth Form. If we get education right, a pupil will positively welcome feedback in this context and will apply it to their future learning. Matthew, you teach Geography. In the Global Societies and Environments Perspectives course, how would you help a pupil to understand how she or he is learning? MA: In Geography, we run a course called Urban Futures, looking at sustainable energy, its impact on town planning and alternative transport technologies. Pupils will be asked to write an essay on one of these topics, and they will do it in three iterations. We will look at how they’ve moved from the first to the third, and we’ll mark them on the improvements they’ve made. If, for instance, the teacher feels the essay needs more research, the pupil will keep a journal to show how they’ve carried out further research, documenting sources, and using the new information to improve a section of the essay. In a GCSE, you would

Ndiana-Abasi Awak-Essien, Adriane Yeung and Lucas Joy

learn a case study off by heart and use it to answer a nine-mark question. It’s much more important to me as an educator to know how the pupil researched and assimilated the information, and how she or he used it to shape an argument. At the moment, pupils launch into their Sixth Form studies and we expect them to have a particular skill set – but there’s no scope for teaching that skill set in GCSE courses, so it seems very unfair on them. We want to ensure that by the time they reach Sixth Form, they are comfortable reflecting on how they learn. When it comes to content, it doesn’t really matter what it is as long as it’s stimulating and relevant. We will be able to adapt the content to make it interesting for the pupils we have before us. Technologies move very quickly in the modern age. Electric cars, for example, are changing every day. Why can’t we use something that was on the news yesterday as the basis for our lessons today: up-to-date content relevant to the world our young people inhabit. MF: I taught an A Level class earlier this week and somehow we found ourselves talking about atomic force microscopy. We got onto the subject because one of the pupils said, ‘We can’t see these with a

microscope,’ and I said, ‘Ah, no, but there is a technique we could use …’ And then after a few minutes’ discussion, I had to say, ‘But look, this isn’t on the course, so let’s get back to what we need to study to get the best grades we can in the exam.’ In our Applied Science Pathway, we could have pursued the discussion and it could have led us somewhere interesting. ‘The acquisition of core knowledge is important. But dry rote learning for exams is not the way forward … Young people need the opportunity to develop the knowledge and the skills they need for future employment through a broad and relevant curriculum that links explicitly to the real world.’

ROBERT HALFON MP, CHAIR OF THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE