3 things worth knowing this week

* Make a success list instead of a to do list - This was a simple piece of advice from the book The One Thing. A to do list is a way of getting things done with the satisfaction of ticking them off, whether or not they were important or useful. A success list, on the other hand is a way of identifying what matters in relation to your objectives and doing the things which achieve those objectives. If you have a number of small ‘urgent’ tasks to get done or you need to spend some quality planning or thinking time to execute a policy which really matters to you and which will make a big difference. Which do you choose? The urgent or the impactful? Choosing the urgent gets jobs done, choosing the impactful changes things and achieves your goals. Of course, the first thing you need to do is identify those goals or as we say in the Resilience Communities, identify your mission and objectives.

* The EEF Toolkit has been updated with the accompanying comment that leaders find it hard to understand how to put evidence into action. That is possibly because, although these toolkits are brilliant there is just so much information and it is hard to know what works in your context. Their research indicates that, possibly, as a consequence many leaders rely at least as much on their networks as they do on the evidence. One thing to share from this update is the most common uses of pupil premium funding. Schools are most likely to focus on issues relating to English and literacy, attendance and social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing. The funding is most commonly allocated to targeted academic support and high-quality teaching rather than interventions. In case you were wondering if what you are doing is normal, now you know. To find out whether or not it is effective look at the evidence brief, as ever high quality teaching is number 1 on the list.

* Homework is good - This overview of impactful homework policies argues that homework has an overall positive impact on students and staff, when it is set; consistently within and between subjects, enables revision and consolidation, through 1 platform (e.g. Google Classroom) so students can find it, in a way that teachers are responsible for checking not marking and makes appropriate use of AI. With reference to this final issue Peps McCrae cuts through the debate saying; ‘whoever does the thinking gets the learning’. If you have not already begun using AI you are now in the minority (Teacher Tapp). At the end of the day both homework and AI are only useful if they enable students to think more deeply about what they are learning and do their best.

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