Dear colleagues at the department,
Thanks for sending out those documents about the maths exemplification. They look lovely – although perhaps in the rush to get them out before the deadline, the proof reading went a bit astray. I guess it must have turned out to be harder to put together than you’d hoped.
Or maybe, like us, for KS2 your real focus has been on the high stakes Writing exemplification that will have such an impact on schools, teachers and school leaders. Doubtless you’ve been put in a difficult position having to pull something together in such a hurry, and with such a stringent list of criteria: it must be quite a challenge to find evidence for all the aspects required, particularly as some are quite uncommon in decent writing. We share your worry on that front entirely, I assure you.
And what an operation it must be to coordinate all the efforts of relevant people within the department and outside it to try to create something that will be useful and comprehensible. You must have quite the team – and all for the sake of that one little document.
That’s not to mention the technical detail on progress measures. No wonder you’ve had to leave half of it unexplained. Who really knows what the Writing outcomes will look like until we see the exemplification? But then… you do have control over that bit too, don’t you, I suppose?
In some ways, your situation is as bad as ours. I mean, as a classroom teacher in Year 6, I don’t have to be worrying about compiling all this evidence from a range of pupils across the country to try to exemplify the expected standards.
Although… in some ways, trying to compile that same evidence for every one of my pupils, might be seen to be even more of a challenge, one might think.
Why is it, by the way, that you use evidence from different pupils’ work? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to use the work of one child? And perhaps more representative?
But what do I know?
I also don’t have the worry of coordinating lots of colleagues to reach the final product. I will have the luxury of being able to reach those judgements alone, with just your documentation for company. But don’t worry – there’ll be plenty of people to check up on me afterwards. I’ll soon know about it if I get it wrong.
By the way – what happens if the moderator doesn’t agree with the judgements I’ve made for the sample? Sorry… I keep bothering you with questions, but… it’s just… the stakes are quite high for us.
Anyway, I should go. I’m sure you’re busy. It’s probably just like us: just before these big deadlines we end up working all hours at night and weekends. I bet you’re the same, aren’t you, trying to get everything ready for the end of the month? We all just have to work to these crazy deadlines that the department set and… oh… except… of course… you set your own, so I guess you can change them if you want. Which must be nice.
Well, I’m sure we’ll see it when you’re good and ready. At least we can be assured that if there are any “significant changes” coming up that we’d get at least a year’s notice. Although, you have to wonder… if all this isn’t significant….?
All the best
For those who think I might be a bit mean to the poor people working at the department (and you’re probably right), don’t forget my fanmail to them here.