Back to School Tips: Nikki Gamble

Oxford Primary

We asked Nikki Gamble for her top back to school tips, and here’s what she came up with!

Nikki Gamble

  • Aim to learn as much as you teach this year.
  • Be kind to yourself – no one is perfect 100% of the time.

  • Plan to read to your class for 10 minutes EVERY day. It’s the best reading lesson.
  • First aid kit: a really good poetry anthology will support hundreds of lessons.
  • Preserve your time – create life work boundaries and stick to them.
  • Choose stories wisely. It DOES matter what children read.


Nikki Gamble is the founder and director of Just Imagine Story Centre and Education Consultancy. Formerly a teacher and lecturer in teacher education, she is a consultant on the independent reading series TreeTops, and advised on the Oxford BookMatch book recommendation tool. Nikki is an associate at the London Institute of Education and serves on the National Committee of the UKLA.