David Didau’s book, “What if everything you knew about education was wrong” is great for getting teachers to question certain things which are a “given” in the education world. Inspired by the idea, I started thinking about various “givens” in the education world. One of these is that pupils experience a “dip” in performance in KS3. But where is the evidence for this? From what I can see, there seem to be three sources; progress data, Ofsted reports, and anecdote.
Progress data is unreliable as it is based on levels. Many secondary schools disregarded KS2 levels entirely, resulting in year 7 tutors having to explain to parents why their child’s level in English and Mathematics had dropped. Levels as a means of assessment have been discredited for some time now.
The second source seems to be an Ofsted report from last year mentioning the unsatisfactory teaching it had observed at KS3…
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The Echo Chamber 