Trying to apply educational research to students of all abilities and backgrounds
When I was appointed as the Lead Practitioner for our school in January my first job was to create a shared language for our schools teaching and learning policy. A lot had been achieved from September to January by the Assistant Principal in charge of Teaching and Learning; there had been a push on consistency... Continue Reading →
We had some friends over a few weeks ago and the conversation ultimately drifted towards education. They have a daughter who is in Yr 8 at the highest performing school within 15 miles of my house. It’s a faith school and also runs its own teaching alliance SCITT thingy. It has been outstanding in Ofsted... Continue Reading →
A teacher's time is education's most vital resource. In this series of blogs I explore some of the common aspects of classroom practice, give my opinion and what works and suggest some reasons why other things might not be worth our time. The aim is to share what I think are the most time efficient... Continue Reading →
Early on in my Head of Science career I spent a whole year with an action plan built around growth mindset theory. Although I spent a long time campaigning for my school to adopt it and not make it a series of posters about ‘FAIL = First Attempt At Learning’ and categorising thoughts as being... Continue Reading →
I was working with our head of RE recently. I was videoing his routine for stopping the class, which I had been told was very successful. When he wanted to stop his class discussion he would simply say "Silence in, three…two…one…now empty hands and track me." Brilliant! By Jacek Dylag https://unsplash.com/@dylu This is a back pocket... Continue Reading →
No Opt Out is part of the excellent Teach Like a Champion questioning flow that is used all the time. The combination of Cold call, wait time, right is right and no opt out is dynamite at increasing the think ratio in the classroom and helping students learn more. Here is a typical quick version:... Continue Reading →
OnePlus Nord. Our phone of choice Why film lessons? Recording videos is great, but also its totally cringe. I can vividly recall watching back my 10 minute explanation of the Bernoulli principle during my PGCE 20 years ago. The overuse of ‘yeah’ and my nervous rocking side to side. Aside from the embarrassment, filming yourself... Continue Reading →
Can't help a Star Trek reference, soz. Coaching is a common form of teacher development used in schools. The more open-ended coaching models like the rise model are often used to work with leaders while more directive instructional coaching models are preferred for working with teachers. Jack Tavassoly-Marsh identified two types of instructional coaching in... Continue Reading →
In this new series of blogs I aim to look at common aspects of classroom practice and describe the different ways they are done. I then want to suggest why some methods are better than others and make a case for my preferred method. This blog is not about why you must do retrieval practice.... Continue Reading →
I started my career in 2003 as a Biology teacher. While nowadays I spend more of my time teaching chemistry, I still love to get stuck into some biology. One of the unusual benefits of covid related staff absences last term was the chance to get back to teaching some biology when I covered the... Continue Reading →
Reflections on Education 