Category Archives: Uncategorized

How we used to live There is a missing piece in the discussions around teacher education and research informed practice. That is the understanding of child development and its associated relationship with both broad pedagogical approaches and day to day teaching and learning decisions. As I write in Simplicitus, we take children in primary fromContinue reading “How we used to live – Child Development and CogSci”

Tonight it is the Eurovision Song Contest final, an unlikely place to look for leadership guidance. However, whilst listening to the radio yesterday, the UK entry from 1981 came on. I first remember hearing this in my Grandad’s kitchen when I was six, and as I reminisced, it reminded me of some key leadership approaches.Continue reading “Making your mind up – Eurovision Leadership”

Coming over the brow of the edu hill is the unexpectedly contentious conversation around oracy. Oracy is clattering into the educational discourse and unsettling the usually quiet pedagogical topic of what our pupils should be saying. With the recent focus on curriculum content and design, the subject of oracy has been relatively muted. Many schoolsContinue reading “Oracy – More than words.”

Recently I have been talking a lot about the development of vocabulary across the curriculum in training I have been leading, and during school support visits. Many curriculum documents contain carefully planned and selected vocabulary linked to the units being taught and many lessons contain opportunities for children to be exposed to a range ofContinue reading “Feeling the curriculum in your mouth.”

The importance of clarity in new leadership roles A single spotlight on stage is a powerful image. All eyes and focus are on the solo performer, illuminated, bathed in light, with all waiting expectantly for their next move. But the performer cannot see the audience. They cannot see what is behind them. They can onlyContinue reading “Spotlights and Floodlights”

I have a new job. And I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ve known this first day has been on the horizon for weeks but now it’s here I’m not entirely sure I’m ready. Tomorrow, I start a new job, after seven years in the same role. Tomorrow, I start as the parent of a secondaryContinue reading “No More Plimsolls”

In the same way it brings ice creams, day trips and, “phew what a scorcher” headlines, summer inevitably brings the age old debate about classroom display. Should one have a corporate approach to classroom décor; or a spartan mindset; or a room so highly decorated it is like the lovechild of Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen andContinue reading “Rightmove and the wrong sideboard. The classroom display debate”

There is a something deeply unsatisfying about a microwave meal. Yes, some may be nutritionally balanced; some may be a suitable option for those who are time pressed or lacking in the tools or know-how to create the dish themselves but no one, absolutely no one is ever likely to say: “I should like toContinue reading “A Popty-Ping Curriculum”

In two training sessions I’ve led this week, (ironically both using PowerPoint), I’ve momentarily had somewhat of an unscheduled rant about PowerPoint. I began teaching in 1998 when the only person to have a computer was the headteacher and the only board available was a chalk board or maybe (if you were lucky) a whiteboardContinue reading “Flight Attendant Teaching – The trouble with PowerPoint”

I’ve worked with early career teachers for decades now. I’ve worked as a mentor, an induction tutor, a trust NQT and RQT lead, an ECF facilitator and will be delivering keynotes for our local ECF provider next year as part of our region’s offer. But one of my favourite elements is working with our SCITTContinue reading “Getting off on the right foot”