Thinking Flexibly
Are we looking in the wrong direction?
The wrong deficit – are we looking in the wrong direction? In education we are often driven by deficit narratives; we look for what isn’t going well and then address these with precision, resources and often an uncomfortable and stressful fervour for fear of widening gaps or somehow being left behind. There are multiple resources…
Have your pupils missed the learning bus?
Have your students missed the learning bus? Imagine a school trip. Imagine you are in charge of the children on the school trip. One thing you know you’re going to be doing multiple times per day, almost obsessively, is head counting. You’re going to be checking you’ve got all the children with you; you’re going…
The gradual decline of effective teacher modelling – why tech can often hinder modelling
The death of modelling – why analogue teaching is the bridge to deeper pupil understanding. There’s an element of teaching that is dying, withering on the pedagogical vine, and it is one that holds the key to deeper pupil understanding, more effective teaching, and a dynamic, adaptive and responsive approach. Its bountiful harvest is sadly…
Powerpoint and IWBs – It’s time to reclaim analogue teaching
When was the last time you taught an individual lesson without using an interactive whiteboard, without PowerPoint, without pre prepared digital resources? When was the last time you did this for a full day? A full week? There is a definite default in classrooms across the country, and that default is a digital one. Spending…
Learning to be human- AI and learning
I Learning to be human 300,000 years. That’s how long we believe humans to have inhabited this earth. The first schools were reported to be in Ancient Egypt in 2061-2010BC. It is only in the last couple of hundred that we have been able to peek inside the human brain and body and begin to…
Why primary CPD needs primary expertise – avoiding “Secondary Lite”
Primary and avoiding “Secondary Lite” CPD. I led a session last week where the schools in attendance were focusing on primary pedagogy and the need for specific approaches across the developmental bandwidth from EYFS to Y6. In primary, we have children who have only just left toddlerhood, right through to those on the cusp of…
The liminal curriculum
One of the parts of curriculum design that often doesn’t get enough airtime is empty space. If a curriculum design is 100% full, and designed to fill every possible lesson, minute or moment then that’s a rather crushing conveyor belt curricular model. If we are to be responsive in our teaching, and sensitive in our…
The lost art of planning
On my travels, I speak to hundreds if not thousands of experienced teachers and school leaders and there’s a common conversation in an, “all roads lead to Rome” way, that always seems to crop up in most conversations. This is the seemingly, “lost art of planning”. When I first started training in the mid 90s,…
The other educator in the room
There is much written about reducing extraneous cognitive load. A quick google will reveal hundreds of posts, articles and research papers exploring the need to keep distraction and distracting environments to a minimum. Everything from seating to wall displays to lettering and layout is presented as a potential way to reduce split attention, distraction or…
“Knowledge rich” and childhood
If you ever hear me speak, you’ll know I’m a fan of knowledge rich but also a fierce advocate of childhood rich. If we have children who leave key stage one not knowing traditional stories, games, rhymes or not having taken part in rich opportunities to play, explore & develop, is this not just another…
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Thinking Flexibly 