Author | Lightnews

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · 1h

RE the Curriculum and Assessment Review report as I trawl through it:

My message: hold your horses.

My other message: actually, continue doing what you know is needed by the pupils in your school - if they need a better curriculum now, get on with it.

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · 1h

The only Curriculum and Assessment Review headline that matters:

It's c200 pages of suggestions FOR THE GOVERNMENT, not for you, your school, your trust or your educational organisation.

We've seen government-commissioned reports wholly ignored in the past so don't read this and think it's gospel.

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · 19d

And being loud with it

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · 26d

I've been back on my blogging game since the summer holidays finished.

Here's my latest post, in praise of the humble intent statement (which you don't actually need but is very useful):

www.aidansevers.com/post/why-you...

Why You Don't Need An Intent Statement (But Why It Is Actually Useful To Have One)

Why don't you need an intent subject for your subject's curriculum? Because no one says you have to, not even Ofsted... However, whilst ‘intent statements’ aren’t a necessity they can help curriculum ...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Oct 2

How are your pupils' word hoards coming along?

Which words have you been teaching? How explicitly have you been teaching them?

What if you've focused on the wrong ones?

This week's post takes a look at why prioritising tier 2 words might be the way forward:

www.aidansevers.com/post/why-we-...

Why We Should Prioritise The Teaching Of Tier 2 Words

Tier 2 words are a really important part of academic language, even at primary level - assuming children will learn all the correct meanings of these words without them being explicitly taught them is...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 23

emphasis on 'you'?

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Reposted by Aidan Severs

Carl Hendrick @carlhendrick.substack.com · Sep 23

Does Tylenol Cause Autism? Of course not.

www.cremieux.xyz/p/did-the-hh...

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 22

Send this to someone who is developing their curriculum and/or doing work around vocabulary teaching:

How To Select Key Vocabulary For Your Subject's Curriculum

www.aidansevers.com/post/how-to-...

How To Select Key Vocabulary For Your Subject's Curriculum

Words are the building blocks of all learning. If we don't know what individual words mean, we won't understand the meaning of the phrases and sentences that they make up. Whether we read or hear info...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 17

Yes, I think institutions have the right and responsibility to provide CPD on excellent teaching, but to take away decision-making about how to use the strategies is demeaning.

I don't think many organisations do over-stipulate pedagogy though.

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 16

New blog post: www.aidansevers.com/post/one-thi...

Do you agree? Disagree? What happens in your school?

One Thing Your Curriculum Documentation Doesn't Need (Unless You Also Provide Lesson Plans)

Garbled title aside, this blog post is a very simple one. And the message is this:You don't need to mandate pedagogical choices.You don't need to spend your curriculum-writing time on telling teachers...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 11

My latest blog post is here - the first of 25-26.

www.aidansevers.com/post/one-com...

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 5

I wrote a poem
Probably been done before
I still wrote it though

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 4

The primary days are over! All three at secondary school for at least a year.

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Sep 1

Northern boy in London after kicking off the new school year doing some challenge in maths training for a lovely group of school staff.

Let's see what 25-26 holds! Good start ♥️

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 16

Send this to a teacher who loves spending their summer in school: www.aidansevers.com/post/what-sh...

What Should You Do To Get Your New Classroom Ready?

Summer's nearly here and you might be itching to get into your new classroom to spruce it up. But what should you spend your time on?

www.aidansevers.com

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 16

the perfect sequel to hits such as www.aidansevers.com/post/case-st... and www.aidansevers.com/post/case-st... and of course www.aidansevers.com/post/ks2-con...

Case Study: Continuous Provision and EYFS-Inspired Practice in KS2

Bringing an early years approach into KS1 isn’t unheard of – there are plenty of Year 1 classrooms where continuous provision has been effectively established. But, at my previous school the vision wa...

www.aidansevers.com

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 16

Hot off the press, end-of-term reading:

KS2 Continuous Provision: Gradual Release of Responsibility

The next part of my series on how schools might implement continuous provision in key stage 2, based on my experience of having done it.

www.aidansevers.com/post/ks2-con...

KS2 Continuous Provision: Gradual Release of Responsibility

No two weeks are quite the same when you're implementing continuous provision in key stage 2... Crucially there is a gradual release of responsbility which provides the necessary support for pupils to...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 15

Schools are thinking around their current assessment processes and looking towards what might be next and better...

Here's a few ideas:

www.aidansevers.com/blog/categor...

Assessment

www.aidansevers.com

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 9

absolutely belting top 3

Reposted by Aidan Severs

School Data Updates @jpembroke.bsky.social · Jul 7

It’s KS2 results day tomorrow. If anyone has any questions about accountability measures, which pupils are included and which ones aren’t, and how things are calculated, please do ask. I’ll be around all day.

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jul 2

New blog post!

One of the key challenges when designing and delivering continuous provision to any age group, but particularly in KS2, is ensuring that there is curriculum coverage.

Here I explain how this can be managed:

www.aidansevers.com/post/ks2-con...

KS2 Continuous Provision: Ensuring Curriculum Coverage

One of the key challenges when designing and delivering continuous provision to any age group, but particularly in KS2, is ensuring that there is curriculum coverage. By delivering masterclasses, sett...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jun 24

Haven't even shared last week's blog post either.

Here I am, writing stuff and just hoping that people happen to google that thing...

www.aidansevers.com/post/replaci...

Replacing Onerous Primary Assessment with Better Monitoring and Evaluation (Part 2)

In the first blog post in this series, I posed the following question:"What can subject leaders and school leaders do to replace onerous primary assessment practices with better monitoring and evaluat...

www.aidansevers.com

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Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jun 24

My website stats are telling me to make more effort to share my blog posts on social media.

So here I am, sharing my new blog post on social media.

Click, and make my stats happy:

www.aidansevers.com/post/continu...

Continuous Provision in KS2: FAQs

I've written previously about how, in the school where I was a deputy head, we developed a way of providing a KS2 version of continuous provision. If you'd like to find out more about what we did, rea...

www.aidansevers.com

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jun 18

it's shocking really isn't it? All of those support networks gone. And we wonder why we are in crisis.

Aidan Severs @aidansevers.bsky.social · Jun 11

Point in case, I have an autistic daughter (obviously classed as SEND) who is working at greater depth and will get SATs scores this month of 110+ for each subject!

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