With the summer 2018 Maths GCSEs finally behind us, I thought it would be nice to reflect on the experiences of teachers and students over the first two years of sitting of the new GCSE Maths specification. And who better to join me on this voyage of discovery than my very own Head of Department, Karen Wilkinson, and the Head of Maths at Edexcel, Graham Cumming. Settle yourselves down for an enlightening discussion on good and bad questions, tiering decisions, and much, much more.

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/gcse-maths-exam-special-graham-cumming-and-karen-wilkinson/ 

Tom Sherrington is a vastly experienced teacher and headteacher, blogger, speaker, and the author of one of my favourite books, The Learning Rainforest: Great teaching in real classrooms. In the episode we tackle all the big issues, from curriculum to assessment, lesson observations to different approaches to teaching. No matter what your subject, I think you will enjoy this one.

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/tom-sherrington-the-learning-rainforest/ 

After the researchEd in Rugby on 9th June 2018, Jemma Sherwood (@jemmaths) and I sat down to share our thoughts and takeaways on the sessions we had seen. We discussed when it is best to introduce algebra, things we have not borrowed from higher performing regions, knowledge organisers, marking, getting carried away with research, and much more!

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/conference-takeaways-researched-rugby/ 

I have been a huge fan of Harry Fletcher-Wood's writing for many years. He was a great inspiration for my work on Diagnostic Questions, and his innovative use of Twitter to summarise research findings is essential reading. I loved this interview. We structure our conversation around Harry's book, Responsive Teaching, and get into areas including writing lesson objectives, formative assessment, marking, feedback and much more besides!

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/harry-fletcher-wood-responsive-teaching/ 

In this special Conference Takeaways episode, myself and English teacher Jon Sellick reflect on what we learned from attending a workshop entitled Refining assessment and reducing workload, delivered by Daisy Christodoulou, which was all about the fascinating concept of Comparative Judgement. And just as you are getting sick of our voices, I am delighted to say that Daisy herself joins us to answer a few key questions, marking her return to the podcast following her very well-received 2017 appearance.

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/conference-takeaways-comparative-judgement-with-a-cameo-from-daisy-christodoulou/ 

Dylan Wiliam's 2016 appearance on the podcast remains the most listened to episode of all-time, and is always the one I direct first-time listeners to. And now Dylan is back to talk about his new book, Creating the Schools our Children need. In this episode we cover so much ground, including why decreasing class sizes is not as effective as you might think, why problem solving and critical thinking are not skills, how to harness the power of forgetting, and what is Dylan's view on how his work on formative assessment has been applied in schools. It is another classic!

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/dylan-wiliam-the-return-creating-the-schools-our-children-need/ 

Alison and Charlie work for NRICH, a website of rich maths activities and problems that I am sure most of my maths teaching audience have heard of and visited. But how can we get the very best out of NRICH? Are the activities only suitable for our highest attainers? And how on earth will my students develop fluency in key skills whilst doing them? It is these questions and more that I wanted the answers to, and Alison and Charlie certainly delivered!

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/alison-kiddle-and-charlie-gilderdale-nrich/ 

Lucy is the author of one of my favourites books of last year, Cleverlands, which documents her journey and the lessons she learned from visiting some of the highest performing education regions in the world. In this interview we dig deep into why regions such as Japan, Singapore, Finland and Canada do so well and what - if anything - we can learn from them.

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/lucy-crehan-cleverlands/ 

Jo Morgan (@mathsjem) and I spent four days at the BCME conference in April of 2018, and decided to record a podcast each night - it sounded a good idea at the time. Hear our thoughts on all things from variation, manipulatives, A Level teaching, tough GCSE questions, pub quizzes and Hannah Fry...

For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/conference-takeaways-bcme-day-4/