Controlling the Controllables

This last year in particular has highlighted many of the things which are fundamentally wrong in our society. From requiring a well-known and passionate footballer to get those in power to sit up and take notice that children were going hungry, to needing to provide meals for children in them in the first place, the stark realities of the inequalities in the society in which we live are staring us in the face. Many people too seem have done well from the horrors of the pandemic and many others continue to sit comfortably on their privilege, safe in the knowledge that little will topple them from their thrones.

Does this make me angry? Hell, yes! Do I look to do what I can to change this? Without a doubt. Have I managed to kick those in power up the backside so they realise what matters? Sadly, not as yet, however much I jump around on my tiny platform.

What’s in a name?

spend a lot of time thinking and writing about what effective professional development is. You might even say it has become something of an obsession after many frustrating years of struggling to make sense of the opportunities presented to me in INSET and Twilight sessions.

A Peep Behind the Curtain

One of the things I love the most about my current role, and indeed the role I had previously where I led on CPD and Teaching and Learning, was the opportunity it gave me to see behind the curtain and catch a glimpse of what is happening every day in classrooms. As Professor Becky Allen…

Geography: It’s a piece of cake

Last night brought the first episode of a new season of The Great British Bake Off and with it much excitement. I love the show. I like the safeness, the comfort, the niceness. It is completely unchallenging. I also like the online reaction to it. The choosing of heroes and villains, the memes, snarky comments…

Dealing with Disadvantage

In her latest guest post Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner) grasps the thorny issue of the disadvantage gap. There is no doubt that, had I been born in the last 30 years, I would have at some point in my education fallen into the Pupil Premium category. By postcode alone, I was living in an area of…

Metacognition and Self-Regulation in the Classroom

In her latest guest post, Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner), Director of Improvement & CPD and English teacher, explores how the principles of the EEF’s guidance report on metacognition and self-regulation looks in the English classroom. Metacognition and self-regulation are without a doubt some of the latest buzz words in education. The 2018 EEF report on this…

Desirable but impossible

I am increasingly convinced that one the biggest problems we face in schools is a belief that because something is desirable it must be possible. I think we see this particularly when it comes to assessment, tracking and reporting. What do we want! I can completely understand that everyone would like to know what grade…

Building Schema to Make it Stick

This is a guest post from Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner), Director of Improvement and CPD at Seahaven Academy. Building Schemas in the English Curriculum ‘But we did this last week!! How can you not remember?’ We hear ourselves say this with annoying regularity and the urge to sit and quietly sob at your desk almost can be almost overwhelming at the end of a long day, week or term. This repeated cycle…

Teaching and the dangerous “culture of doing”.

The invisible nature of teaching well Many of the elements of great teaching are invisible to the naked eye. It comprises of the tiny adjustments we make in the classroom, there and then, in response to events as they unfold. These decisions are based on a combination of professional knowledge and experience. As our experience…

The Blagger’s Guide to… Marking

You know all those teachers who really love marking? No. Me neither. That teetering pile of books sits on my desk in silent reproach all week, just to be taken home for a tour of the back of my car, my hall, maybe the dining room table. There they wait, judging me as I sit…