Recently, I published a blog on the EEF website on a ‘knowledge rich’ curriculum – you can find it here. I have republished it on my website for regular readers. A New Year’s Prediction: 2019 will be The Year of Curriculum. …
The Power of (Pushy?) Parents
Family comes first. With a heady mix of love and selfishness, ambition and hope, parents guard and support their children. It is no real surprise then to read in the latest Sutton …
When Incoherence and Compliance Trump Curriculum
How do children learn best? It is a complex question isn’t it. It is striking that as teachers we may be knee-deep in our pupils learning for most of the working week …
The Makings of Metacognition
In a couple of weeks, year 6 pupils will be sitting down to SATs examinations and in secondary schools, A Level and GCSE exams will start in earnest. Teachers everywhere are concentrating …
Unwrapping the Mystery of Metacognition
Today the Education Endowment Foundation has released their latest guidance report on ‘Metacognition and Self-regulation‘. I have been delighted to be one of the co-writers of this exciting report, alongside Eleanor Stringer …
The Problem with Pleasing Parents
Every teacher and school leader wants to please the parents of their school children. And quite right too. From a warm conversation at parents evening, to a celebratory phone call, it can …
How to Write an Edu-book – Part 2
In ‘How to Write an Edu-book – Part 1‘, I had the huge pleasure of sharing with everyone the approaches to writing an edu-book from two of the best edu-book writers around, …
How to Write an Edu-book – Part 1
I often hear the comment “I don’t know how you write books and do the day job“. And well, I usually agree and stumble over some comments about being very tired, but …
Girls, Girls, Girls – Peer Effects in the Classroom
(Image sourced via Pixabay.com) Finding the answer to school improvement troubles us all, and yet, sometimes the answers are sitting there at their desks looking straight at us. In short, having …
How could a text message transform literacy?
Just over five million adults in England are functionally illiterate, with the literacy skills equivalent to an eleven year old. Not only that, around half of the adults in prison are illiterate …