Principal's Report

“Smart is not something you are, smart is something you can get”.  Dylan Wiliam

Dylan Wiliam is renowned in the world of education for his focus on teacher professional development and formative assessment. A fortnight ago, an admired colleague shared a podcast discussing his latest book Leadership for Teacher Learning. 

I was especially fascinated by his comments around growth mindset.  Wiliam was insistent that ‘every twelve year old child believes, if they want to, they can learn to drive a car and our real challenge is to get children believing that mathematics is just the same.’  Wiliam argues ‘smart is something you can get’ by framing the conversation around the importance of formative assessment and feedback. He insists too frequently children interpret feedback as the teacher being nasty or negative whereas more truly it is a reflection of the teacher’s own high standards and their insistence that students can reach grand goals.  

At College we want students who are hungry for feedback! Feedback not only sharpens one’s improvement but will be critical in each student’s preparation for their end of year assessment.

Dr Andrew Hirst