Gathering Momentum

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At the end of last term I was sent an e-mail by Mark O’Donnell from Broadwater School in Surrey. They have been using CASE/LTSS for a couple of years and I was wondering how they had been getting on. I enclose his reply below:

Hi Alan,

It’s going pretty well. I’m really pleased with the progress that the students have made after completing the Let’s Think lessons. This has been clearly demonstrated by the recent AQA transition tests that we got year 8 and 9 to complete at the start of the term. I’m not sure if you know anything about the test but it is largely based on the old Sc1 questions from science SATS papers years ago and

judges whether students have the skills in key areas to start KS4 and the new GCSE courses.Year 8 and 9 sat it at the same time as we are planning on doing a 3 year KS4 from next year and year 8 significantly outperformed year 9 with most of year 8 set 3 achieving higher scores in the test then year 9 set 2. Considering that they are a whole year younger as well I think this is remarkable and the only difference between the groups is that year 8 have been doing Let’s Think lessons from the beginning and year 9 have not.

I am really looking forward to catching up with Mark soon and will update you on their progress with Let’s Think.

Last week Mary Oliver, LTF Trustee and CASE Tutor/Researcher based at Nottingham University, sent round a paper highlighting the impact that the CAME materials have been having in Tonga.  A copy of this paper can be found in the ‘What’s new’ section of the website.

I feel the title for this post is apt because evidence is emerging from all over the world about the impact that the Let’s Think approach can have upon the thinking of children. This is not an easy topic to write about for the Let’s Think approach is underpinned by research (clearly shown by the findings emerging from Tonga) and this often raises more questions than answers. This is clearly shown by the findings of the EEF study into the updated CASE materials called LTSS. A summary of the findings and a link t the actual report itself can be found in the ‘What’s new’ section of the site.