By Alison Barber What makes school a place where teachers enjoy teaching and, consequently, learners enjoy learning? Research over the last ten years has consistently found that wellbeing and academic achievement are very closely linked. OUP recently commissioned an evidence analysis impact study to explore the links between student wellbeing and academic outcomes. As a student, a friend once […]
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We all know that learning a language requires perseverance over time, so helping students to develop this is key to their success. My years in teaching have been very varied. I’ve taught languages in primary and secondary schools and taught English and PE as well. Completing the gold Duke of Edinburgh award and returning […]
Read more Our students have had a mixed experience with regards to completing the Religious Studies GCSE. At one end of the spectrum, some have had their full timetable of live teaching throughout lockdown whilst some have had the curriculum set for them to work through independently. And then we may have students that haven’t engaged with […]
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If you’re new to the role of literacy lead, or just have an interest in approaching Literacy across the school I’d strongly advise beginning your journey with vocabulary – I have written two blogs on this (links below). It makes sense that before students can access texts, we teach them how to access words, and […]
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Geoff Barton outlines the discussion that took place during a recent ASCL webinar on the educational challenges facing students when they return to school.
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So, we are now in July, and according to the government, we are through the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and life is beginning to break out of lockdown. We have had about a quarter of the calendar year and more than ten teaching weeks away from our classrooms and we are starting to welcome […]
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Aprender a dudar es aprender a pensar (‘Learning to doubt is learning to think’). -Octavio Paz In March this year, school life as we know it shuddered to a halt, and as we write, when and under what guise it will fully return remains unclear. Over the past few months, teachers and students will have […]
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I’m on the “coronacoaster”: one minute I’m up and the next I’m down – it’s an emotional rollercoaster. Most of the time, I feel like it’s all fine and we are just in a new normal, but in the blink of an eye, I’m flying by the seat of my pants, heading down with the […]
Read more Head of Biology Amelia Kyriakides discusses the ways in which her department has adapted to home learning and how the strategies they’ve developed will continue to benefit her GCSE cohorts on their return to school. For many of us, adapting for home learning meant rapidly rethinking lesson planning. Quick decisions needed to be made based […]
Read more I think if there’s something that the partial school closures have taught me it’s about the aspects of the job that I take for granted. It’s easy to forget the enjoyment of actually being in the classroom, especially on really busy days with back to back lessons. There’s even something to be said about being […]
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