“Stronger connections can reduce the risk of suicide” – Movember Charity During the month of November, we see men all over the country growing mustaches and beards to raise money and awareness for men’s mental and physical health. This month, our Productionist, Mick will be growing a beard... View Article
We are excited to announce that our Learning Challenge Curriculum website has recently been updated and upgraded. The Learning Challenge Curriculum has been created with a strong sense of enquiry at its heart. The question-led units encourage pupils to research and present information taking full account of their ability to... View Article
Focus Staff will return to the office on 29th June. The office will be open 8:30 to 5:00pm Monday to Friday. Following the government announcement to close schools from Friday 20th March, we made the decision to postpone all scheduled events for the rest of the spring term and the... View Article
2019 has been an incredibly busy year and one of the busiest weeks we had was during Inspiring Leadership in June. This year saw our 5th year exhibiting and we had a fantastic time. We met so many wonderful inspiring teachers. Thank you to everyone who attended our stand and... View Article
Focus Video Hub- Online Video Training. In response to school requests and the current budget crisis in schools, Focus took the decision earlier this year to offer filmed versions of a selection of our courses. Teachers and heads have repeatedly described how supply teacher costs and reducing budges is impacting... View Article
I started working for Focus 25 years ago, okay perhaps I wasn’t officially working as I would have been about 15 years old and still at school, but I remember my parents setting up an inspection company and they wanted a logo designing and some ideas for names. My naïve... View Article
Focus News 2018 is coming to a close and it has been another busy year for Focus. We have released 9 publications, ran 50 courses with 793 delegates attending throughout the year and delivered 403 inset days in schools. We launched Inspection Coach with 2Eskimos which is an exciting website... View Article
Black Friday 2018 30% off publication orders over £35 Terms and Conditions: Focus Minis, pupil books and 2Eskimo / Teacher Profile software not included. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer / voucher. Discounts are applied to the full price of a product. Quote BLK18 Call 01457 821... View Article
Many schools have developed knowledge organisers, knowledge mats, or something similar, even before the first lockdown. These carefully identified the key vocabulary for each unit of work, listing the ten or twelve ‘Roman’ or ‘Brazilian’ words and phrases, alongside the key learning. These have proved to be very useful. They... View Article
The skills for ‘Character Education’ are suitably broken up into 6 areas Self Awareness Team Workers Being Resilient Commitment Problem Solver Showing Empathy These need to be taught and nurtured across all areas and ages. You may wish to view these as the ‘Learn to Live’ skills. We recognise that... View Article
Key elements of the subject leader role Key purpose Ensure that pupils make progress through each year group, acquiring and applying key knowledge, so that they at least meet the agreed age expectations in a subject. This is achieved by: securing high quality teaching; ensuring that planning meets the requirements... View Article
The following example is taken from How to Assess a Knowledge Rick Curriculum? Focusing on ‘sticky knowledge’ in science, history & geography & enhanced by art, DT, music, PE & computing One of the main objectives that Ofsted looks for when judging a school’s curriculum intent is ensuring sequencing, so... View Article
World Space Week This week is World Space Week. World space week takes part between the 4th October and 10th October. The theme for 2019 is “The Moon: Gateway to the Stars” to find out more visit https://www.worldspaceweek.org/ Earth and Space is covered in the Year 5 curriculum. Below you... View Article
This extract has been taken from Mastery and Depth in the National Curriculum by Clive Davies. You can view sample pages by clicking here. This publication is designed for school leaders who want to explore the concepts of greater depth. It is written in such a way that it guides the reader... View Article
The 25th February-3rd March 2019 is Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This is an international awareness event designed to promote understanding and fight myths surrounding eating disorders. The eating disorder charity BEAT have launched their “Breaking Down Barriers” campaign to raise awareness that eating disorders do not discriminate. Stereotypes exist suggesting... View Article
Head Teacher’s issue ‘I’m finding it difficult to create a coaching culture’ Background The following is a summary of a recent conversation with a head teacher. It captures some of the frustrations and ideas that schools have in trying to implement a coaching culture. The format of the conversation has been... View Article
Rethinking the Curriculum, the Learning Challenge Curriculum How introducing pre-learning activities can spark life into stale lesson plans Anfield Road Primary School in Liverpool is a recently amalgamated school, combined in September 2014 from the infant and junior schools of the same name. Eighteen months ago, Anfield Road Primary saw... View Article
How external advice, a curriculum revamp, and becoming an academy helped one school dramatically improve its Ofsted rating from special measures to outstanding. A school from Sheffield has revealed how a total rework of its curriculum has enabled it to move from ‘Special Measures’ to receiving an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating... View Article
Hopwood Primary School is in Rochdale. The school was judged outstanding by Ofsted. How the school has used Focus Education Over the last few years our use of Focus Education has grown from attending courses and purchasing publications to online updates, Finger Tips and consultancy. This year we have used... View Article
Miriam Lord is a large primary school in Bradford. Nearly all pupils are EAL and the proportion of children claiming FSM is well above the national average, as is the percentage of pupils on the SEN register. How the school has used Focus Education As a school we have used... View Article
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School is in the town of Leigh in Wigan local authority. The school serves children from a range of backgrounds and has been judged by Ofsted to be outstanding. How the school has used Focus Education Since 2003 the school have worked with Focus Education by... View Article
Westwood is in Oldham. All pupils live in a ward which is in the bottom 1% in the country in terms of multiple deprivation. All pupils are EAL learners and approx half the school is eligible for FSM. 98% of pupils enter the school well below expectations. Ofsted judged the... View Article
St Alban’s CE Primary School is in Camden. Most pupils are from minority ethnic groups and are EAL. Twenty six languages are spoken in the school. How the school has used Focus Education We have used Focus Education to work with our senior leadership team in helping us review our... View Article
As part of Sheffield’s overall school improvement strategy the Good to Great programme was designed to lead school transformation and facilitate school – to – school partnership work leading to improvement for pupils. How the school has used Focus Education Focus Education has provided consultancy to develop the Good to Great... View Article
This FREE download contains information about book scrutiny in primary schools. It includes the '7 strands of excellence' framework to support teachers in carrying out effective book scrutiny in classrooms. It also contains a summary explanation of book scrutiny and why it is necessary. Click the button at the top right of the page to download
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