Anhydrous, exothermic, fullerene, isomerase, medulla, monomers, ribosomes, titration, xylem… How many of these words do you know? For a scientist – or even a knowledgeable GCSE science student, no less – this list of complex words will trigger a wealth of background knowledge. For many pupils, however, the same list of words would likely provoke […]
By Sam Holyman As I settle down to my morning cuppa, one of the 100 million cups of tea that are likely to be drunk in the UK today [1], I wonder about how sustainable I am being, after I sling my used teabag straight into the black bin. Many of my friends collect their […]
By Sam Holyman Are you concentrating at the end of term? At school we are getting ready for the new academic year, sorting labs, stock taking and making sure everything is labelled. And concentration has become the hot topic of debate! We use the term concentration all the time, and in everyday life this gets […]
So, dyslexia runs in families and we are one of those families. Although my dyslexia is mild and wasn’t picked up until university, my son’s dyslexia gave rise to me fearing that he would leave primary school illiterate. In the inclusive secondary science laboratory, up to 10% of the students will have some degree of […]
Red is my favourite colour – it has been as long as I can remember. So, you’d think that my departmental policy of using only red ink to mark in student’s books would come naturally to me. But, I tend to flow around the class, using whatever pen or pencil is nearby to write in […]
Education is fast moving, with new ideas, recycled ideas, and changes in the political landscape which feed into curriculum change and inevitable examination changes. A rising hot topic is ‘stretch and challenge’, but what exactly is it? As part of the Teaching and Learning group in my school we have been exploring ‘Stretch and Challenge’ […]