Our last episode attracted some really interesting feedback, so we've used that to cue us into this week's discussion. After setting out our stall last week with apocalyptic statistics about boys' education - we're now embarking on our mission to explore what we do,...
This presentation was made to an assembly of 15-18 year olds on the day of their receiving their results from a series of practice examinations. The quote can be attributed to Sir Edmund Hilary. Thanks to Cath Wilberforce for filming it!
Homework is one of the most fraught areas of secondary teaching. We know it's important, its impact is visible and its routines don't offend common sense. Yet in the daily reality of the classroom homework is so often reduced to an after-thought, a misery and a...
Albert Einstein defined insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet, inescapably, the English education system ignores this logic, and repeats the same tired strategies and the same ill-informed notions in and out of the...
I have set up a comprehensive student blogging platform for my classes. I have a blog for every class with a lesson stream that tracks and compiles the daily traffic of the classroom, I publish my year plans, samples of excellent student work, moderated exemplars,...
Sometimes things just don't go the way you'd hoped in a new school. Here is some advice for students and their parents about how to turn a bad situation around. It will not escape your notice that secondary schools run an elaborate scheme of rewards and sanctions that...
Here I write some of my thoughts as I head into the new teaching year. I recently received a message from a newly qualified teacher who was filled with anxiety about her first week at a new school. It got me thinking... We can go a long way towards alleviating the...