We all know the recommended dietary intake of 5-a-day for fruit and veg. Is it a simple shortcut to remind us to eat better because we need it. Now, the 5-a-day principle can extend more widely than that and convey a simple but powerful truth, breaking down a task into smaller, achievable parts can have …
Sometimes surveying a scene from a different perspective gives you a new, fuller understanding of things. For the last few months I have been writing about confidence and becoming a confident teacher. I have researched the hell out of it and talked to many people about the notion of confidence. In the past few weeks …
Sometimes a mythic tale stays with you and lingers in your mind years after the first reading. For some reason, the trials of Thor have stayed with me since their first telling at Primary School. There were three trials: drinking from a mead horn, lifting a cat and wrestling an old lady, with each trial …
It is that time of year already. It is once more unto the breach dear teachers – the hallowed summer holidays are ending. Get those work clothes cleaned and ironed. Unburden yourself of the summer to-do list clinging about your neck like an angry albatross (you probably didn’t finish it either). Eager new recruits await. …
Last week the Department for Education released their research on teacher workload. With little fanfare, it noted that teachers were working on average over fifty hours a week. Let’s not get started on the loosely titled ‘holidays‘ (make certain to annoy any teacher within a five mile radius with a comment vaguely resembling: “but at …
It is over a month in, the start of term vigour and optimism has waned for almost all involved, and everything begins to feel more like hard work. The ‘October blues’ phenomenon is something I have noted in my last few years teaching. As a subject leader, I have witnessed the spike in behaviour issues …
