EDI

Festival of Education 2023: What we learned

The 13th Festival of Education last week was a wonder. Two days listening to and conversing with educational experts left me with a head full of new ideas. This blog is too brief to do the event justice, but here are ten things I learned from my time wandering around the classrooms and marquees at Wellington College.

Date11/07/23

AuthorAnil Dawar, editor of AQi.org.uk

Wellington College in Berkshire hosted its 13th Festival of Education

Sorting my schedule for the Festival of Education was problematic. There were eye-catching speakers like Eddie Izzard, Chris Packham and Will Self. But what about the fascinating workshops I wanted to sit in on too?

Sacrifices had to be made. Sorry Will and Eddie!

Artificial Intelligence, the topic of the moment, dominated the agenda in many marquees. Professor Miles Berry of the University of Roehampton, managed to flip fears that AI is a cheater’s best friend by enthusing about its potential as a study aid.

Over in the main auditorium the Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, said her bottom line was that AI can have a role in quality assurance but was miles off replacing humans.

As for digitising assessment, Dr Saxton favoured a mixed approach using the best traditional approaches with some added modern innovations.

But, she made clear “we are not getting rid of handwriting any time soon.”

Dan Fitzpatrick, author of The AI Classroom, was walking through the college’s woodland, when I gently asked what he thought the future held. Children’s schooling, he replied, in the medium to long term would be chosen subject by subject from a menu of online schools by their parents because the traditional education system will be disrupted by the speed at which AI is advancing. Wow!

A short stroll away in AQA Venue 4 Venue 4 Alex Scharaschkin of AQA brought AI back to earth by likening it to actors on Casualty – ‘they can learn to use the language of doctors and sound like a doctor but they can’t perform an operation.’ So true.

A couple of hours later Daisy Christodoulou of No More Marking took to the same stage to talk with AQA’s Reza Schwitzer. Like Scharaschkin before her, Christodoulou kept AI grounded, arguing that ChatGPT is not much of a time saver because it still makes so many errors.

As much as the future of education and AI is fascinating and one we all need to watch, I did take in other topics during the two days.

Autism and education was the theme of Chris Packham’s talk.

The Springwatch presenter told us of his time at school in the 60s and 70s with undiagnosed autism.

His compulsion for order left him battling classmates so he could sit on the exact same chair every time, and unsymmetrical shadows cast on the wall of another class left him discombobulated.

Details of Packham’s school life were, at times, uncomfortable listening but hopefully his sharing them means others will now look out for signs of autism he expressed as a child.

In a tent backing onto the college cricket field Amanda Moorghen of Voice 21 revealed trials of comparative judgement to assess oracy are producing reliable results. With further research this could open the door for oracy to be more widely used as an assessment tool.

I found myself the only man in the talk about women leaders by Parm Plummer of WomenEd. There I learnt that women account for 75% of the education profession but only 40% of heads. And, the gender pay gap in teaching is 23%. That should make everyone think.

Nirvana Yarger of The Edge Foundation Youth Network kept the session on Project Qualifications topical.

Just a couple of hours after Sir Keir Starmer announced that oracy skills were to be a key plank of Labour’s education policy, Nirvana suggested that Project Qualifications could deliver many of these ambitions

My final word has to go outgoing Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman. Speaking with Schools Week editor, John Dickens, Spielman said she was broadly happy with how she has gone about her job over the past seven years.

She didn’t think single word grades for schools were wrong – although she spotted Dickens’ trap question and refused to give herself a one-word grade!

Spielman’s advice to her successor was ‘listen to everybody and get to know about the things you don’t already know about.’

That short sentence sums up my experience at the Festival of Education.

Assessment

What can this year’s GCSE entries tell us to look for in tomorrow’s results?

With GCSE Results published on 22nd August, Dr Chinwe Njoku looks into the underlying data on what subjects this year's cohort took and how this has changed from previous years.

Assessment

A-level maths students hit six figures – what’s behind its popularity?

On Thursday, more than 100,000 A-level maths students in England will find out their results – 11.4% more than last year. Why the upturn? Dr Chinwe Njoku, AQA Education Insights Lead and former maths teacher, was heartened by the news and keen to look at the story behind the data.

Education Policy

What comes after ‘urgent’ for the new Education Secretary?

After the burning issues are addressed, what should come next for the new Education Secretary?

Education Policy

Labour’s oracy plans: They need clear goals

Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants to boost students’ confidence by raising the importance of speaking skills – oracy. In this previously published blog, Reza Schwitzer, AQA’s director of external affairs, applauds the ambition but warns there needs to be clear goals

Education Policy

Through the looking glass: How polling the public can help policymakers learn about themselves

Public attitude data is key to effective policymaking. Proper polling can reveal what people think about existing policies and what they want for the future. But, if looked at from a different angle, it can also help policymakers question themselves and their assumptions about the public. In this blog, AQA’s Policy and Evidence Manager Adam Steedman-Thake, reveals the lessons he learned about himself while reading a recent public attitude survey.

Assessment

Assessing oracy: Is Comparative Judgement the answer?

Oracy skills are vital to success in school and life. And yet, for many children, opportunities to develop them are missed. Educationalists are engaging in a growing debate about where oracy fits into the school system. Labour has put it at the heart of its plans to improve social mobility and an independent commission is looking at how it is taught in the classroom. This renewed focus on oracy means it is more important than ever that teachers have a way to reliably assess and understand their students’ attainment and progression. Amanda Moorghen of oracy education charity Voice 21 explains how Comparative Judgement can help with that and why it may be a game changer.

Education

TV subtitles as an aid to literacy: What does the research say?

Jack Black is probably best known in educational circles for playing a renegade substitute teacher in School of Rock. But the Hollywood star has made a more conventional foray into education by backing the use of TV subtitles to improve child literacy. Stephen Fry and the World Literacy Foundation also want parents to use their TV remotes to get children reading. So, could this simple click of a button be a solution to boost pupils’ reading skills? AQA’s resident expert on language teaching, Dr Katy Finch, casts her eye over the research to see whether it stacks up.

Data Analysis

What is left behind now education’s Data Wave has receded?

Is data the solution to all education’s issues? About a decade ago the prevailing wisdom said it was. Advocates of this Data Wave argued that harvesting internal statistics would help schools solve issues such as teacher accountability and attainment gaps. As with all waves, after crashing onto the beach they recede, leaving space for another to roll in. In this blog, teacher, author and data analyst Richard Selfridge looks at the legacy of the Data Wave to see what schools can take from it.

International Approaches

Finland & PISA – A fall from grace but still a high performer?

Finland was once recognised as one of the most successful educational systems in the world. At the turn of the millennium, it topped the PISA rankings in reading, maths and science. But by 2012, decline set in. The last set of results showed performances in maths, reading and science were at an all-time low. In this blog Dr Jonathan Doherty of Leeds Trinity University outlines some reasons that may account for the slide.

Briefing

PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS: What actually are they and what do they tell us?

According to the latest PISA results, England’s science scores are still on a downward trajectory that started a decade ago. Yet TIMSS, another respected study, has science performances rising. Which of them is right? Is one more valid than the other? In this blog AQi examines three International Large-Scale Assessments and finds that, although they may look the same from a distance, get up close and you’ll find they are very different beasts.

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Festival of Education 2023: What we learned

What can this year’s GCSE entries tell us to look for in tomorrow’s results?

A-level maths students hit six figures – what’s behind its popularity?

What comes after ‘urgent’ for the new Education Secretary?

Labour’s oracy plans: They need clear goals

Through the looking glass: How polling the public can help policymakers learn about themselves

Assessing oracy: Is Comparative Judgement the answer?

TV subtitles as an aid to literacy: What does the research say?

What is left behind now education’s Data Wave has receded?

Finland & PISA – A fall from grace but still a high performer?

PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS: What actually are they and what do they tell us?

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Download a PDF version.

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