Introduction

I reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. I’ve included both the review I sent in, and the lightly edited version that was published in the magazine.

My original version

Mapping a text to government standards – in this case the Early Careers Framework – is always risky. Even if the standards are sound, there’s always a danger that they will be changed at some point. For the most part the standards are good, if at times a little pedestrian. Thus the basis of Year One is sound, which is a good start. Year One provides mostly useful advice, from the perspective of several teachers and other educationalists. One of the ‘spreads’ is concerned with so-called ‘cognitive load theory’, which goes further than the Standards themselves. However, the focus is very much on practicalities in the classroom, and the suggestions are very good even if, like me, you find the concept of CLT rather dubious. The content, layout and presentation are so good that even if you are not a new teacher you would find this both useful and easy to navigate.

The version published in Teach Secondary magazine

Mapping a text to government standards - in this case the Early Careers Framework - is risky, since there's always the chance of something changing at some point. For the most part, the standards are good, if at times a little pedestrian. Thus, the basis of Year One is sound, which is a good start. The book provides useful advice from the perspective of several teachers and other educationalists. One spread focuses on cognitive load theory and goes further than the Standards themselves, but for the most part, the focus is very much on practicalities within the classroom. The suggestions are very good, even if, like me, you find the concept of CLT somewhat dubious. The overall content, layout and presentation is of such quality, however, that even veteran teachers will find Year One a useful and engaging read.