Dr Andrew Chandler-Grevatt

Andy is at heart a teacher of science and has taught in schools for over a decade, he is now a teacher educator and researcher. As an Advanced Skills Teacher, Andy developed a range of Levelled Assessment Tasks and other activities to support assessment for learning.

His passion lies in school-based assessment, supporting teachers and learners with being successful in school science lessons. He is the author of the successful Badger Science Assessment for Learning Key Stage 3 and 4 resources. Andy has worked with teachers from all over England and as far out as Kazakhstan. Andy completed his doctorate in levelled assessment in 2010 at the University of Sussex. He enjoys trying to understand how to best support learning and progression in the main concepts of science, predominantly through assessment for learning strategies, but draws on a number of contemporary learning theories.

In his spare time, Andy enjoys spending time with his family, gardening, wildlife, travelling and drawing.

Q&A with Dr Andrew Grevatt

What inspired you to write resources for teachers?

It started with me writing resources for my own classes and other teachers asking to use them. Then colleagues in other schools liked them, eventually the Level Ladders were recognised at an Ofsted conference. From that I had offers from publishers to produce the tasks commercially. Since then, what inspires me is a combination of feedback from teachers who use the tasks, helping teachers solve problems with assessment and learning in creative ways and working with other inventive authors.

What do you think is the most important thing when trying to engage students with work?

Science in itself is exciting and interesting to young people, so half the battle of engagement is done. As teachers, our job is to contextualise, enthuse and motivate our students to engage them with classroom activities. Students are more likely to be engaged if they understand why they are doing a task, appreciate the benefits of completing it and feel that they learn something new.

What initially first interested you in Science?

As far back as I can remember I have been interested in wildlife, astronomy, microscopes, chemistry sets and so on. I remember measuring tadpoles in a tank and seeing Halley's comet through a telescope at primary school, the first time I saw stomata under the microscope at secondary school and making aspirin in A-level chemistry lessons. This interest has continued and inspires the tasks I write.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers/authors?

For me, it started out as luck. However, if teachers find they have something new to offer, they should certainly contact publishers with their idea. The publishing process takes a while to get used to, but it is well worth it to receive that first book in print and get positive feedback from teachers who use your work.