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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
08 July 2025
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot reflects on key NACE initiatives over the past academic year, and looks ahead to our plans for 2025-26.
I’d like to start with a thank you: to all the member schools, NACE Associates and partner organisations who have contributed to our work this year. Our strength is in our network, and this has been particularly clear over the past year, with our membership and wider community working together to share and develop approaches to ensure every young person has access to cognitively challenging learning opportunities – helping to close the achievement gaps for all.
Subject-specific resources and CPD
One of the areas in which this collaborative approach has been most apparent and impactful is in our focus on collating subject-specific resources to support schools in implementing approaches to support cognitive challenge across each subject area.
Throughout the year, we’ve been adding to our subject-specific resource collections, with input from our member schools and a range of leading subject associations who have generously shared their expertise. Alongside this, we’ve worked with partners on a series of subject-specific webinars; if you missed any of the live sessions, the recordings are available for all members to watch back.
This work goes alongside our subject-specific online workshops, which we continue to run at both primary and secondary level.
More to come in 2025-26 – please contact us to share what’s working well in your own subject/department, or to suggest additional areas for us to focus on.
Research update
The third phase of our “making space for able learners” research initiative has focused on exploring how schools can best support more able learners who encounter disadvantage in any of its many forms. Thanks to all the schools which have contributed by sharing examples of what’s working in their own context, and to York St John University which is partnering with us on this project.
Key findings from this initiative were shared at our conference in June, alongside case studies from many of the contributing schools. Watch this space for details of the forthcoming publication, plus supporting materials and CPD opportunities.
NACE Challenge Development Programme
On the NACE Challenge Development Programme side, we’ve been pleased to welcome new schools to the programme whilst celebrating those attaining Challenge Award accreditation for the first, second, third, fourth or even fifth time. We were delighted to hold our first Challenge Award School Experience event outside of the UK earlier this term, at Horizon International School in Dubai, as well as celebrating the addition of Alfreton Nursery School to our growing network of NACE Challenge Ambassador Schools.
You can explore all currently accredited schools on our Challenge Award schools map.
If your school is interested in working with the NACE Challenge Framework, you can schedule a free 1-2-1 call to find out more. We also offer discounts for groups of schools working collectively on the programme.
What next?
We’re busy planning our CPD programme for next academic year, with several courses already open for booking. These include two exciting new collaborations:
- The Working Classroom – a six-part course for those working at Key Stages 3 to 5, led by Matt Bromley and Andy Griffith, authors of The Working Classroom: How to make school work for working class students.
- Thinking Moves A-Z: Metacognition Made Simple – a four-part course for teachers across all phases, led by Roger Sutcliffe, creator of the Thinking Moves A-Z and a world leader in the field of Philosophy for Children.
We’re also running our popular “Leading on more able” one-day course again on 9th October. Plus, bookings are open for our autumn term member meetup, which will be held at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) in London on 3rd October.
Check your school post-box ahead of the new term for your 2025-26 member mailing, including more updates on our plans for the year and ideas to get full value from your membership.
As always, please do get in touch with any feedback, questions or suggestions. From all of us here at NACE: have a great summer break!
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Challenge Framework
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Posted By Rebecca Cartwright,
17 April 2023
Updated: 17 April 2023
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Rebecca Cartwright, midway through her PGCE progamme in primary education with EXCEED Academy Trust, shares her experience of using critical incident analysis to develop her provision for more able learners, with additional input from NACE Associate Dr Jonathan Doherty.
As part of my School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provided through an apprenticeship route into teaching, I’ve had access to schools and experts involved in the EXCEED Academy Trust in Bradford. Schools regard inclusion as a high priority and it is a recurring feature in training days and embedded into all aspects of the SCITT curriculum.
Through my experiences on the course and in the classroom, I’ve become particularly intrigued by inclusion and what it looks like for more able learners. I’ve seen more able learning promoted through higher-order questioning, adaptive teaching and teaching for creativity. This has been an area I’ve reflected upon during my own teaching practice, where I wondered about effective strategies, the superficiality of some techniques employed, and how they could be made more effective without increasing workload.
The PGCE programme, in conjunction with Leeds Trinity University and EXCEED Academy Trust, encourages student teachers to critically examine research and other evidence and reflect on their own professional practice in relation to a specific learning need faced by pupils in school. Master’s Level study in the PGCE programme comprises two assignments each contributing 30 credits; these are professionally focused and are taught by blog co-author Dr Jonathan Doherty. The assignments build upon the strong thread of reflection in teaching, drawing together observations in schools and understanding from taught sessions at the university and in-school CPD.
Inclusion remains high on education policy agendas. Inclusive education is based on the belief that all members of society have the right to participate in and have access to education on an equal basis. Inclusion is a fundamental right for all learners – not just those who are deemed ‘vulnerable’ or those having special education needs. The module and first assignment, ‘Supporting Individual Needs’, is intended to develop thinking around this theme and challenge values to enable effective inclusive teaching that are culturally and individually responsive so that all children can succeed.
This assignment uses reflection and critical incident theory to support meeting a specific need for a child. Becoming an effective teacher involves considerably more than accumulating skills and strategies. It involves critical reflection. The more teachers explore, the more they discover (Larrivee, 2000).
What is critical incident analysis, and why use it?
Critical incident analysis (CIA) is an approach to understanding and dealing with challenges in everyday professional practice. The term ‘critical incident’ refers to an event or situation which marks a significant turning point or change for someone. Incidents that teachers deal with in everyday teaching become critical through reflection and then analysis. An incident becomes a critical incident as a result of 1) reflecting about it; 2) thinking critically about it; and then 3) applying an analysis framework to it. Critical reflection has several benefits for teachers: it informs future practice and informs appropriate action in similar future situations.
How does it work in practice?
A number of models exist to support critical reflection, but I used McAteer et al. (2010) to explore an incident with a more able pupil that occurred in my classroom. The incident related to a more able Year 2 pupil working at greater depth and a far higher level than his peers. The lesson was teaching to include emotions in diary writing in English. He displayed classic signs of a high ability learner by finishing set work easily and then appearing to disengage in the lesson. Individual follow-up activities for him did not engage him either and his behaviour began to quickly deteriorate. He started chatting and I observed a snowball effect, disrupting other children.
In my analysis of this short classroom episode and applying the CIA framework, my immediate thoughts were of frustration that I had not met the boy’s individual needs. Later, through deeper reflection, conversations with my teacher and class-based mentor and my knowledge of more able learning, I was able to explore other perspectives with regard to the incident and consider ways to provide appropriate challenge for this boy in future.
This included looking again at teacher assessment frameworks for writing, to understand in more detail what targets and requirements were needed for greater depth learners; annotating planning with a next step for any child who had met the success criteria of the lesson, which I, or any support staff could access to further their learning. I investigated teaching for creativity and methods such as teaching children that it is acceptable to make mistakes, working backwards and looking at gaps in knowledge. I reflected on the importance of taking time to identify the pupil’s learning on his writing journey and looking at greater depth and potentially higher year frameworks to support his learning.
NACE’s guidance on cognitive load theory (available to members here) affirmed some of my assumptions and suggested that more able learners may not need to spend as much time on retrieval practices. I will now allocate more time to providing opportunities for independent learning activities which are rich in cognitive challenge. Reading research has made me consider the impact of providing more able children with advanced content and making it accessible in different ways, enabling better engagement.
The experience has taught me much about teaching and extended my knowledge of more able learners. Going forward I will be better informed to identify where children are on their individual learning journeys and so quickly gauge next steps. The experience has also made me realise where I myself am on my own learning journey. I am not the finished article but have many positive aspects of my practice which I need to continually reflect upon. There are many sources to draw on for information and specific reflection that will allow other aspects of my teaching to fall into place. By being proactive in learning, such honest critical reflection will support me to gauge the needs of the children to further their journeys.
References
- Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1:3, pp. 293-307
- McAteer, M., Hallett F. & Murtagh, L. (2010) Achieving your Masters in Teaching and Learning. Exeter: Learning Matters.
Tags:
cognitive challenge
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early career teachers
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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
20 September 2022
Updated: 08 September 2022
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot shares an update on opportunities for NACE members this year – including new on-demand CPD, R&D Hubs, website updates, and reduced Challenge Development Programme costs.
Welcome to the new academic year! I am sure we are all looking forward to leaving school closures behind us, following the Covid pandemic, and being able to focus on the needs of our young people. Here’s an overview of what we have planned to support you and your school this year…
New on-demand CPD modules
Our set of new on-demand modules build on NACE’s research into cognitively challenging learning environments, exploring key aspects of cognitively challenging teaching and learning. Grounded in research, each module is brought to life with examples of cognitive challenge in practice – at the whole-school/leadership level, and within the individual classroom.
In a similar vein, we will soon be launching a set of on-demand modules for teaching assistants to understand the cognitive science behing challenge in the classroom. Again, this set of modules can be used to provide training across the academic year for all of the teaching assistants in your school.
R&D Hubs programme launch
Our Research and Development Hubs programme, free for our member schools, offers opportunities for NACE members to exchange effective practice, develop in-school research skills and collaborate on enquiry-based projects. This year, the Hubs are exploring three key themes: (1) oracy for high achievement; (2) rethinking assessment; (3) cognitive challenge within the new Curriculum for Wales. To learn more, please sign up for the online Hubs programme launch, which takes place on Tuesday 27 September at 3:30pm.
Website updates
We are making changes to our website, in response to member feedback, to make it easier for you to sign up for events (such as this term’s member meetup) and find the resources you are seeking. These amendments will continue throughout the academic year, but we hope you will see an immediate improvement this term – starting with our new-look members’ area. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with additional feedback and suggestions.
Keeping costs low to support member schools
We are all facing increased costs but, to support our members, we are freezing our membership subscriptions at the same rates as for the 21/22 academic year. We are also extending the discounts available for MATs, alliances and clusters; see here for all fees and group discounts.
In addition, to mark NACE’s 40th anniversary, we are reducing the prices of NACE Challenge Development Programme packages for the whole of the 22/23 academic year. The NACE Challenge Development Programme is designed to support school leaders who are uncompromising in their ambition to ensure more able learners achieve their potential, in the context of challenge for all.
Alongside this, we are reducing costs for schools working through the Challenge Development Programme who wish to apply for Challenge Award school accreditation – providing external validation of high-quality provision for more able learners. Again, these reductions will be in place for the whole of the 22/23 academic year.
NACE Challenge Ambassador programme launch
This month we are launching our NACE Challenge Ambassador Schools programme, which will be open to all schools that have achieved the NACE Challenge Award on two or more occasions. This initiative aims to create a strong network of schools, providing outstanding collaboration opportunities for similar-minded school leaders, and supporting continued improvements in provision for more able learners. The programme will also provide a collective voice to respond to government white papers and other high-priority issues at the national level.
Celebrating NACE’s 40th anniversary
As mentioned above, 2023 will be NACE’s 40th year working with schools, education leaders, practitioners and policy makers to improve provision for more able learners. Please keep an eye out for special events and initiatives later in the year to celebrate our 40th anniversary.
As always, please do get in touch if we can be of any help and I wish you all well for the new academic year.
Tags:
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Challenge Framework
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CPD
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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
12 July 2022
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot outlines NACE’s core research themes for 2022-23, and opportunities to get involved next term.
It’s been a difficult time for everyone as we moved out of Covid restrictions this academic year. The spring term was one of the most challenging for schools since the start of the pandemic, and we can only hope that – after a well-deserved summer break! – we can now really begin to refocus our energies on planning to meet the needs of learners going forward.
NACE research themes for 2022-23
It is early days as we begin to unpick the impact of the last two years for learners and school staff alike, but we have chosen to focus our research next year on two areas:
1. Oracy for high achievement: this strand will explore whole-school oracy strategies in the context of cognitive challenge, in addition to effective oracy practices for high-achieving classrooms.
2. Rethinking assessment: this strand continues our investigation of effective assessment practices in the classroom, across all phases of teaching, including assessment through questioning, dialogic discourse and improved oracy.
Get involved…
If the themes above sound of interest, you can sign up to participate in the 2022-23 NACE R&D Hubs programme. This will comprise a Hub on the two themes above, along with a third Hub focusing on cognitive challenge within the new curriculum for Wales. To learn more, register for the online launch event, taking place on Tuesday 27 September. Sign up here.
Registrations are also open for our first member meetup of the new academic year, “Speaking Up – Developing Oracy for High Achievement”, which will take place in Didcot on Tuesday 18 October. Sign up here.
And finally, next term will also see the launch of our new Challenge Award Ambassador Schools programme, which will be open to all schools who have been accredited with the NACE Challenge Award on two or more occasions. Further details coming soon!
I wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable summer break and I hope you get the chance to recharge your batteries ready for the new academic year.
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language
leadership
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Posted By Ann McCarthy,
07 July 2022
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Dr Ann McCarthy, NACE Research & Development Director
At NACE, research and development lies at the heart of our work. Using research findings from within and outside education, whether contemporary or historic, we have an evidence base on which to develop our understanding of cognitively challenging learning. Our publication “Making space for able learners: cognitive challenge - principles into practice” provided colleagues with practical guidance based on case studies from NACE member schools. The findings from this research, alongside the NACE Challenge Development Programme and associated resources, provide support for schools wishing to become outstanding providers. Our more recent activities have included work with schools in Wales on the new curriculum for Wales, as well as focusing on the development of early years provision, oracy, rethinking assessment and an increased understanding of metacognition and perfectionism.
What are the NACE R&D Hubs?
An important facet of our evidence-based practice is the NACE Research and Development (R&D) Hubs programme. The R&D Hub approach to research and development is based on teacher enquiry. This is a core tool used by teachers to make informed choices and systematic decisions supported by evidence. It enables teachers to measure the impact of their actions and as a result make purposeful changes to curriculum and pedagogy.
Each NACE R&D Hub brings together a community of like-minded practitioners who want to develop their own classroom practice and share this with others. Each Hub develops academic thinking relating to a specific theme and asks a “Big Question” about existing practice.
This academic year our three Hubs explored the following themes: (1) the influence of pedagogy on curriculum, (2) perfectionism and (3) cognitively challenging learning within the new Curriculum for Wales. Hub leaders provided participants with guidance on some existing research and reading resources. Participants were then encouraged to examine their own classrooms and present examples of practice which might be refined, improved or changed. They were able to articulate outcomes they wanted to achieve and potential changes which they might make to cause this to happen. Working from a classroom-based hypothesis they then developed a question in the form “If I… will pupils…?”
Through teacher enquiry we have been able to help teachers to understand the complexity surrounding the development of cognitively challenging learning environments. They have examined practice which improves cognition and cognitive skills. They have increased learners’ understanding of themselves and what is needed to learn well. Through their actions to refine provision for highly able learners they have had a positive impact on all learners. Through the Hubs, participants have developed their academic voices, which has enabled them to share their ideas more widely within their schools, in the NACE community, and with their networks of schools.
Theme 1: Pedagogy and the curriculum
In this Hub, led by Copthorne Primary School (Bradford), participants examined ways in which a focus on aspects of pedagogy impacts on a cognitively challenging curriculum. This reflects NACE’s belief that by creating cognitively challenging learning environments and refining provision for more able pupils, pedagogy will improve, and all pupils will benefit.
Aspects of pedagogy which teachers determined could be central to their enquiry interests included:
- Higher-order questioning
- Curriculum organisation
- Designing rich and extended talk opportunities
- Developing pupils’ enquiry skills
- Developing collaboration and language skills
- Use of manipulatives and practical resources
- Live modelling
- Developing independence
Teachers took time to reflect on their current practice and discussed features of their work which they would like to develop. They posed questions in line with the enquiry model and then refined the questions to provide a precise focus on an area for refinement and analysis. All teachers found it useful to have the time and space to think more deeply about strategies to challenge the more able. They were able to share some great examples of analysis of the impact of their interventions.
Pupil engagement increased in most cases and teachers showed that they were more confident and better equipped to challenge the more able across the curriculum. Through engagement with this hub teachers built up a wider range of teaching strategies. They have evidence to show that these strategies work to deepen understanding. Examples of impact included the use of manipulatives in maths, retrieval practice for GCSE revision, live modelling, extended talk and opportunities to develop reasoning skills.
Theme 2: Perfectionism
This Hub’s focus on perfectionism built on the work NACE has undertaken with York St John University in this field over the past few years. The original research examined the impact of raising awareness of perfectionism and helping young people to understand more about the associated traits. While that initial research focused on key stage 4 pupils, teachers in the Hub were able to use the information and resources developed to work with a wider age range. The question here was “Can a single classroom-based lesson improve student-reported knowledge about perfectionism and a willingness to seek support if needed?” The materials used to support the teachers’ enquiry projects are available for all schools here.
Teachers engaged in the enquiry found that some pupils already understood what was meant by perfectionism but did not necessarily appreciate the different “flavours” of perfectionism. Pupils’ response to this information was strongly positive. Some reported that it helped them to reduce stress and worry as they prepared for examinations. Others recognised some aspects of perfectionism in themselves. They learnt about the difference between being a perfectionist (which could lead to negative outcomes) and wanting to do well (as a positive trait).
Not all aspects of the enquiries were positive, as one target group was taken out of class, which caused them to worry about missing other activities. It was widely felt that raising awareness as a part of developing health and wellbeing for all is an important step forward in schools. One Hub participant commented that it would be useful to continue to explore the impact of the perceived expectations of others (e.g. parents, teachers, peers), and ways of creating a culture which emphasises doing one’s best rather than attaining a certain outcome.
Schools need to consider the effects of pressures on pupils from their peers, their teachers and their parents and carers. How can an improved understanding of perfectionism become more widely shared within schools? How can school culture adapt to reflect this knowledge about perfectionism?
Theme 3: Cognitive challenge within the new Curriculum for Wales
Led by Bishopston Comprehensive School and Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr (Swansea), this Hub sought to develop cognitively challenging learning experiences within the new Welsh Curriculum. To do this each participant focused on a key aspect of self-regulation or metacognition within their teaching. They then examined the impact on the resilience and ambition of their pupils within their learning. This group selected a wide range of starting points in response to this question.
One school was acutely aware of how highly context-bound resilience and metacognitive skills can be. They found that working with pupils on specific workload issues was more useful than additional revision. They also found peer support and advice could increase the effectiveness of working practices. Another participant also used peer collaboration to support some GCSE German students. This led to a greater understanding of explicit learning strategies and an improved linguistic range. Another school with older pupils tackled the issue of cognitive overload through the introduction of planning templates. The belief was that students have a negative attitude towards essay questions due to high content and cognitive overload. This affects their ability to achieve the highest marks, since they miss out key content when answering questions. During the enquiry period students’ marks improved, as did their attitudes to essay writing. They found that having “chunks” of information rather than one overwhelming larger piece of writing was easier to manage.
The use of explicit teaching and modelling by both the teacher and other pupils can impact on learning, as was evidenced above in GCSE classes. Another example of this was to introduce younger pupils to higher-order question types. When pupils understand what is possible, they can adapt their learning. In this school the intervention led to pupils setting themselves challenging questions which they sought to answer. They could reflect on the learning of others and guide them to improve responses. They took greater responsibility for their own learning and were more resilient. The quality of written responses have become more sophisticated, exhibiting a greater depth of knowledge.
In total contrast to the teacher explaining and modelling learning, another participating school trialled the “silent way method” with Year 8 pupils. For this method to work, the teacher does not explain each step but remains silent to enable pupils to discuss and discover the learning processes themselves. This took place in a mathematics class where pupils were skilled in routine and algorithmic responses but were less resilient in solving problems. When pupils were asked to investigate and discover the steps needed to solve problems, they became more active in their learning and showed greater resilience when faced with new problems.
NACE R&D Hub participating schools 2021-22
Despite the pressures experienced by schools over the last year, we were delighted to have a diverse range of schools participating in R&D Hubs programme this year. These included:
- Bishopston Comprehensive School
- Brooklands Farm Primary School
- Chelmsford County High School
- Christleton High School
- Copthorne Primary School
- Dylan Thomas School
- Furness Academy
- Hartland International School
- Howell's School, Llandaff
- Hydesville Tower School
- Kentmere Academy
- Pentrehafod School
- Laugharne Primary School
- Llwynypia Primary School
- Lutterworth High School
- Malvern St. James
- Samuel Ryder Academy
- St. Albans RC High School
- St. Cedd’s School
- St. Thomas More Secondary School
- Storrs High School
- The College, Merthyr Tydfill
- The Cotswold School
- The Mulberry House School
- Ysgol Caer Elen
- Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr
- Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe
- Ysgol Llanhari
Congratulations to all of those who persevered and completed their projects. We look forward to working with many of you, alongside new participants, next year.
NACE R&D Hubs 2022-23: join us next year...
What aspect of your own practice would you like to examine? Would you like an engaged community of peers to discuss this with? If you have not yet joined a NACE R&D Hub, now is the time to consider this. We believe the experience of engaging in a teacher enquiry project is one of the most effective ways to examine and develop your own practice, while engaging with current research and sharing insights with others.
Whether or not you have engaged in teacher-enquiry projects or belonged to a Hub before we would be delighted to welcome you next year. The Hubs are open to all NACE members, and those with more experience in teacher enquiry will make all new participants welcome and support them as they use this approach to developing expertise.
Theme 1: Oracy for high achievement. If you or a colleague are interested in developing oracy in the classroom or across the school, you will want to join NACE Associate Dr Jonathan Doherty and the team at Copthorne Primary School in Bradford to examine the use of language for high achievement. Jonathan is currently researching oracy for NACE and is well-positioned to support the team at this leading NACE school to inquire into this subject at classroom level.
Theme 2: Rethinking assessment. If you have been thinking about the ways you currently use assessment, its position within teaching and learning, its effectiveness and value, you may want to join the Hub looking at rethinking assessment. This Hub is supported by NACE’s central team and led by Dr Ann McCarthy, who is examining the ways in which we can make better use of assessment to develop cognition, cognitive skills and learners’ metacognition. In this Hub participants will have an opportunity to examine assessment as learning and its place in cognitively challenging learning environments.
Theme 3: Cognitive challenge within the new Curriculum for Wales. The third Hub will be led by Alison Sykes and her team at Bishopston Comprehensive School. This provides an opportunity for those working in the Hub this year to continue their enquiries in this field, while also welcoming other schools wishing to examine cognitive challenge within the new Curriculum for Wales.
All three Hubs will open with an online launch event at 3.30-4.45pm on Tuesday 27 September 2022.
If you or a colleague would like to join a Hub or learn more about the programme, please visit the NACE R&D Hubs webpage for more information, and register here for the online launch event.
Tags:
cognitive challenge
collaboration
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curriculum
enquiry
leadership
metacognition
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Wales
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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
15 February 2022
Updated: 14 February 2022
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot outlines our research themes for this year, including opportunities for member schools to get involved.
As the first half of the spring term draws to a close, we know many schools are still struggling with staff absence – but things are starting to improve for many, and we are all looking forward to planning ahead over the coming months. Here at NACE, we are particularly excited to be developing our two key research themes for the year: assessment and language.
Rethinking assessment
The focus of our next member meetup, at New College, Oxford on 23 March, will be “rethinking assessment”. Spaces are limited, so register now if you would like to join us.
Ahead of this event, NACE Research and Development Director Dr Ann McCarthy’s latest article explores the question: “How does a focus on metacognition impact on assessment practices in the classroom?” Many people still view assessment as an activity which is separate from the art of teaching – simply a list of checks and balances required by the education system to set targets, track learning, report to stakeholders and finally to issue qualifications. However, those who are using assessment routinely, and at all points within the act of teaching and learning, understand the true power of assessment.
Read more:
Language in learning for high achievement
Our second research theme for this year is around the use of language in learning for high achievement. We are seeking to examine best practice in advanced comprehension, literacy and oracy, allied to high achievement, within our NACE member schools. We want to develop an understanding of the current backdrop to the development of comprehension, literacy and oracy skills in schools, including the effects of the pandemic on teachers and learners.
As part of this theme, we are keen to explore the key role of language across all subject areas – and this month we are focusing on the importance of language in mathematics. Having spent nearly 30 years teaching the secondary mathematics curriculum, I know the importance of language in this subject is too often overlooked. If we want to take our students on a pathway to being mathematical and thinking like mathematicians, we should build in language acquisition and precision reading at every stage of their learning.
Read more:
Get involved: share your school’s experience
The contributions of NACE member schools have been central to the first phase of our Making Space for Able Learners research initiative and will remain so as we develop the second phase of this project.
If you are interested in learning more about or contributing to any aspect of our research work this year, please contact communications@nace.co.uk.
Tags:
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cognitive challenge
CPD
language
maths
metacognition
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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
14 January 2022
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot shares an update on current NACE initiatives and opportunities in the year ahead.
I hope you all had an enjoyable winter break. I expect it already feels a long time ago, as many of us are continuing to face daily challenges due to the ongoing issues with Covid. We can only hope that the situation will improve quickly, and that we are within sight of an end to the pandemic. As we progress towards the spring, and hopefully a period of less disruption in our schools, I hope that we can begin to refocus all our efforts on improving learning and outcomes for all our students.
Challenge Award successes: celebrating challenge for all
At NACE, we continue to witness outstanding provision for all learners within our growing network of Challenge Award-accredited schools. As stated in the core principles which underlie NACE’s work, we strongly believe that addressing the needs of more able learners will raise achievement for a much wider group of learners in a school. This is one reason we are so pleased to see schools attaining and maintaining the Challenge Award, as a mark of commitment to high-quality provision for the most able, within a whole-school context of challenge for all.
In 2021, despite the pandemic, 17 schools and colleges were accredited with the NACE Challenge Award for the first time, while 20 achieved accreditation for the second, third or fourth time. At these successful schools, there is a consistent ethos of high expectations and aspirations, and the education of more able learners is a whole-school endeavour which is embraced by school leaders at all levels.
Understanding and sharing what works: opportunities to get involved
The contributions of Challenge Award schools have been central to the first phase of our Making Space for Able Learners research initiative, and will remain so as we develop the second phase of this project. We are focusing on two areas over the coming year: the role of language in learning for high achievement, and the effective use of assessment. Within the assessment strand, we are studying new and effective practices which enable teachers to understand how their learners are progressing on a lesson-by-lesson basis and communicate this to the learners, enabling them to develop their learning more rapidly in the future.
If you are interested in learning more about or contributing to any aspect of our research work this year, please contact communications@nace.co.uk.
We are also pleased to be reintroducing our face-to-face meetups, free for our members, which will focus on our research themes. There will be the usual opportunities to share effective approaches with colleagues through the “speed-sharing” segment: an agenda item that is always valued highly by our members. Our first meetup of the year, on the theme “rethinking assessment”, will take place on 23 March at New College, Oxford. Limited places are available; if you would like to attend, please register here.
Creating cognitively challenging classrooms: new modular courses
Returning to our core principles, we know that teachers are central to providing a challenging and enriching education for their learners, and their professional development is paramount. Following on from our conference in November ( recordings available now if you missed the live event), we are developing a new set of on-demand courses exploring key aspects in creating cognitively challenging classrooms. You can learn more and register your interest here.
Some of our operations team are currently working from home, so please contact us via email if you need an urgent response. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if we can be of help in any way, and we look forward to supporting you and your school during the coming year.
Read more:
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assessment
cognitive challenge
collaboration
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language
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Posted By Rob Lightfoot,
09 December 2021
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NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot shares key takeaways from this year’s conference, which took place online on 25 November 2021.
It was fantastic to welcome so many school leaders and practitioners to our 2021 conference – including representatives from across England, Wales and much further afield. The conference theme “Creating cognitively challenging schools” was designed to build on NACE’s research into cognitive challenge over the past few years – exploring what this looks like both in classroom practice and at the level of whole-school leadership and improvement.
The day’s keynote sessions explored the key principles of cognitive challenge and why we believe this should be a key focus for schools, as well as focusing on the importance of creating a language-rich learning environment – exploring the transformational impact this can have for all learners.
Alongside these plenary sessions, delegates participated in workshops focusing on how to put these principles into practice at the leadership and classroom levels, with strands for primary and secondary colleagues respectively.
There were many inspiring moments and invaluable exchanges during the day, with some key themes, common challenges and shared aspirations emerging. Here are 10 key takeaways to reflect on:
At the leadership level…
1. Responsibility for more able provision and cognitive challenge should be shared by all. The idea that it’s all up to the more able lead needs to change. The importance of developing cognitive challenge for the more able – and for all learners – should be shared, owned and understood by all as a non-negotiable.
2. Challenge should not be seen as an add-on, but integrated fully into all lessons. Placing the needs of more able learners at the centre of curriculum design and pedagogy will deepen the learning for all. Middle leaders are crucial to this process and, for larger schools, there should be an advocate for more able learners within every department. There is scope for Heads of Department to be more involved in the organisation of learning to support cognitive challenge.
3. Articulating and sharing the vision is key. The “why” of more able provision and cognitive challenge needs to be understood and owned by everyone in the school – and this will support the points made above and below.
4. High-quality ongoing professional development is crucial to supporting these goals, whether this is for existing staff to improve their teaching in line with the vision of the school or the training of new staff. Staff should not, however, be a slave to the chosen instructional model for a particular school. They should be encouraged to take risks too.
5. Enrichment has a role to play – but should not be the sole focus. Enrichment opportunities are important so learners can develop their skills in a variety of different ways, but having challenge at the heart of every lesson should avoid the need for academic interventions at a later date. Utilising every second of every lesson is key.
And in the classroom…
1. Finding the right balance between direct instruction, facilitating learning and activating learning is important but not easy. Delegates in the practitioner strands felt that the balance was not always right. Understanding the role of each approach within the context of cognitive challenge could help here, as could the use of flexible approaches such as “cutaway”.
2. At primary level, it was generally felt there was a tendency towards a greater level of direct instruction in the core subjects. There were more opportunities, within foundation subjects, to explore the other types of learning. This is due to the large amount of coverage in the core, but a balance needs to be achieved. “How can I show my learning in a variety of ways?”
3. At secondary level, the same applied to KS4 for more direct instruction and KS3 for a more varied style of learning. Again, the pressure over content appeared to be the reason for this – but our more able students need to be reflective and evaluative learners if they are to reach their full potential. “When do we stop direct instruction and let go?”
4. The “why” needs to be explained to other stakeholders too – particularly parents and carers. We can then all work to a shared vision.
5. Again, the need for high-quality CPD was raised as being crucial for ensuring cognitive challenge is at the heart of every lesson. The strategy for more able provision needs to be embedded at a whole-school level.
Read more:
Conference recordings now available to purchase for your school
If you missed the conference, or participated and would like to revisit some of the sessions or share them with colleagues, we’re offering the opportunity to purchase recordings of the conference keynotes and workshops, including:
- Keynote 1: Creating a culture of cognitive challenge
- Keynote 2: Creating a language-rich climate for learning
- Workshops Strand A: Primary leadership - led by NACE Challenge and Curriculum Development Director Christabel Shepherd
- Workshops Strand B: Secondary leadership - led by NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot
- Workshops Strand C: Primary practice - led by NACE Curriculum Development Director Dr Keith Watson
- Workshops Strand D: Secondary practice - led by NACE Associate and Challenge Award Assessor Rob Buck
- Closing comments: summary from each workshop strand
Cost for the full package: £199 (NACE members) / £249 (non-members)
Please note: recordings are of the main presentations only; breakout conversations and group discussions are not included. Handouts of the slides from each session are also provided.
Purchase the conference recordings for your school
To learn more about any of the themes mentioned above, or for information about how NACE could support your school, please contact communications@nace.co.uk
Tags:
cognitive challenge
CPD
leadership
professional development
research
school improvement
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Posted By Jonathan Doherty,
26 May 2021
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Dr Jonathan Doherty, Leeds Trinity University
What a treat it was to join in the recent NACE webinar, Understanding and teaching critical thinking: a cognitive perspective, run for NACE members in partnership with The Brilliant Club. Presenter Dr Lauren Bellaera gave us a fascinating insight into critical thinking and its importance in classroom teaching. Her presentation emphasised the importance of critical thinking in classroom teaching (Cáceres, Nussbaum, & Ortiz, 2020) and its links to higher attainment (Wicaksana et al., 2020), while her own research found that 83% of surveyed university instructors confirmed the importance of critical thinking.
Why should schools focus on critical thinking skills?
Many curricula around the world already emphasise “21st century skills” and critical thinking skills are among these; others include collaboration and social skills, creativity and communication, technology and media literacy. Why are these skills deemed so important? The consensus is that they are needed to better prepare today’s young people for a fast-moving information world in which such skills are required for success in school and in life. They are the indispensable currency for the twentieth century.
The P-21 Framework (read more here) is a combination of such 21st century skills, knowledge and literacies, that aims to provide a universal curriculum. The Learning and Innovation Skills section of the framework highlights critical thinking and problem-solving to help pupils effectively analyse and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs, to solve different kinds of problems in both conventional and novel ways.
A 2020 OECD publication aptly titled Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World? told us that schools need to help pupils think for themselves and with others. They need to help them develop a strong sense of right and wrong; to discriminate claims made and have a grasp of the limits of both individual and collective action.
Critical thinking has many erudite definitions, but the essence involves logically assessing information to make informed decisions: so essential today.
What is the most effective approach to teaching critical thinking skills?
In Dr Bellaera’s research the critical thinking skills that educators ranked at the top of the list were: analysis, evaluation and interpretation. Two questions immediately come to my mind: “Are the skills of critical thinking only applicable to more able pupils?” and “What is the best way to teach critical thinking skills in schools?” Fortunately there are answers to both!
All pupils benefit from lessons involving critical thinking because the foundations of critical thinking are the same regardless of the teaching conditions, the level or the curriculum area. More able pupils will benefit most from this due to the opportunities to extend their cognitive involvement and provide them with greater intellectual challenge, in any and all of the curriculum subjects. We know that a focus on the needs of the more able raises the levels of attainment for a much wider cohort (as stated in NACE’s core principles).
In the webinar, The Brilliant Club’s approach was illustrated through the work of The Scholars Programme. Research confirms that teaching critical thinking explicitly within subjects is best. In the area of metacognition, much good work is already underway to help pupils use metacognitive strategies to promote learning. In a similar way, teachers need to scaffold pupils’ critical thinking and make this explicit in teaching.
The webinar left us with some reflections and challenges to take forward. The greatest of these is to ensure that critical thinking is identified and its sub-skills represented both in pedagogy (and here I mean across age ranges and across subjects) and in assessment methods in the curriculum. Could this be our next direction of travel?
References
- Cáceres, M., Nussbaum M. & Ortiz, J. (2020) Integrating critical thinking into the classroom: A teacher’s perspective. Thinking Skills and Creativity 37
- OECD (2020) PISA 2018 Results Vol VI. Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World? Available at: https://www.oecd.org/publications/pisa-2018-results-volume-vi-d5f68679-en.htm
- Wicaksana, Y.D. (2013) The Use of Critical Thinking Aspects on Module to Enhance Students’ Academic Achievement, International Journal of Instruction 13
If you missed the webinar which inspired this blog post, watch the recording here (member login required) or explore our full library of recorded webinars here.
How does your school teach critical thinking skills? Contact us to share a case study, or share your experience directly through our community forums.
Tags:
cognitive challenge
critical thinking
curriculum
metacognition
pedagogy
problem-solving
research
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Posted By Holybrook Primary School,
27 April 2021
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Paul Wallis, Acting Assistant Headteacher, Holybrook Primary School
Evidence-based practice is huge – monumental – for education, as we all know. However, what is the actual impact on learners’ brains? This was the question that drove me to engage with the BrainCanDo initiative: bringing neuroscience and teaching together (at last?). I am currently participating in a Neuroscience for Teachers course being run by BrainCanDo, which brings together over 30 delegates from a diverse mix of 23 schools (spanning a range of phases, sectors and contexts). As we have progressed past the half-way stage of the programme, I find myself constantly pleasantly surprised at just what our brains are capable of.
The course started us off with work on the functions of different parts of the brain. This knowledge and understanding has underpinned all of the work we have consequently done.
With these foundations set, we are approaching different areas of learning and doing something we do not do enough of in schools: exploring! So far, we have worked on motivation/engagement, learning and technology as well as memory. The course has a real ‘start-up’ energy; we learn about the neuroscience behind some of the strategies we already use – such as retrieval practice – and the ones we really should be doing more of. Throughout the course so far, we have been given access to a wide range of strategies and tools we can use to elicit desired responses in our pupils’ brains. We have then had the freedom to go out and test what works, reporting back in between workshops. There is a real focus on bringing our expertise as teachers and leaders, marrying this with the neuroscience and having creative collaboration with colleagues.
Here are some key ideas I’ve found useful so far.
Reference values: the theory…
In our brains, too much focus on external motivators (the ought) creates a reaction that can be summarised as a being satisfied at the lack of a negative outcome. It is that feeling of, “I’m just glad I didn’t mess it up…” Instead of this, we want learners to work towards their own developed set of values and standards.
In one episode of the sitcom The Office: An American Workplace, the character Jim Halpert is tasked by his boss with creating a ‘rundown’ of his clients. Jim desperately seeks some guidance on what a rundown is, what it looks like and how to do one. He spends the day focused on second-guessing what it should look like in order to please his boss. In later seasons of the show, he starts his own business and gains the professional success he did not have in the prior role. Jim no longer has to seek the approval of the authority figure, he knows what he wants and has developed his own high standards for working. His focus is on the ‘self’ rather than the ‘ought’.
This example shows “reference values” at work: the conflict we all have between the ought and self – what we believe we should do, versus what we want to do. We see this all the time in the classroom: “Is this okay?” or “Have I finished now?”
Reference values in the classroom…
The aim of this strategy is to re-tune pupils’ focus from what they think we want them to do to what they themselves feel they want to achieve in the lesson. My school uses success steps to help structure learning, but I explored what would happen if I took these away strategically and asked my pupils what they felt success would look like in the lesson. I still gave them the learning intention focus but wanted to see what would happen if I handed them the compass and map for what success would look like.
Initially pupils responded with general comments such as: “Work hard” but once they knew I was not playing a cruel trick on them and that I didn’t have the “real” success steps hidden behind a curtain, the pupils began thinking for themselves and considering what they wanted to achieve. A great example I observed was in a lesson about algebra. One pupil explained that they knew algebra involved different operations so one area they wanted to focus on was recalling their written methods of calculation. If I did have a secret success step list somewhere, that would have been on it!
What next? Gamification and beyond…
Part of what many of our pupils find rewarding about playing video games are the rewards they gain from them. This could be an achievement unlocked on their Xbox or getting to the end of the level on Super Mario. Dopamine release is part of our brain’s reward system and is something video games are great at doing.
With the recent focus on remote learning and the rapid intertwining of education and technology, more and more work is being put into exploring the benefits of utilising these strategies. More and more schools are using online quiz tools such as Learning by Questions, Google or Microsoft Forms to present activities electronically, giving pupils instant feedback – just as a video game would. I also looked into the culture of games and how reward is presented. This involved creating short trailers to motivate pupils for online lessons, presenting challenges as ‘levels’. It will be interesting going forwards to consider how we can encourage a balance of dopamine-promoting rewards through these strategies.
The course concludes in June, with remaining sessions focusing on the neuroscience of decision making, mental health and wellbeing, and working with others/emotional responses. Watch this space for more updates from course participants.
Find out more:
Tags:
cognitive challenge
collaboration
CPD
enquiry
motivation
neuroscience
pyschology
research
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