Expert Contributor | Schools Week

How to support young people with literacy difficulties

Less than half of teachers feel confident teaching young people with literacy difficulties, says Karen Wespieser, who offers some handy tips for teachers To mark Dyslexia Awareness Week, literacy charity Driver Youth Trust commissioned the teacher polling app TeacherTapp to ask teachers about how confident they feel teaching young people with literacy difficulties. The poll […]

Why we need to hear new voices in education

For a little under two decades as a teacher, I had never heard of, let alone attended, an education conference. The closest I got was the odd off-site INSET where I met with other teachers in my borough or surrounding boroughs. When I networked at these events, conversation revolved around what was happening in our […]

Julia Skinner’s top blogs of the week 24 Sep 2018

Julia Skinner will be looking out for the best blogs on school governance – so if you’re a governor, clerk or trustee, please share with your networks, and get blogging! Why blogging matters @5naureen There is a dearth of opinion pieces by governors or about governance. It is such a key aspect of school organisation […]

How goal theory can help you achieve your aims

Every month Stuart Kime trawls through his greatest research hits to offer practical implementation tips for using evidence in practice It’s mid-September, Sunday evening, Norwich. In search of a healthy, tasty post-train journey dinner, I head to Namaste, the place I consider to serve the best curry in the world. Closed. Hasty, hunger-induced and quasi-maniacal […]

Understanding how we learn: A visual guide

From the start the authors state that their main reason for this book is to “help open up the lines of communication between researchers, teachers and students”. Anyone would be hard-pressed to argue that they don’t achieve their aim. It begins with a destruction of the “learning styles” myth, which isn’t new for those with […]

How can universities best support their local schools?

An ambitious attempt to improve teachers and teaching in South Yorkshire is focusing on a collaborative approach to recruitment, development and retention, says Sam Twiselton With the government so caught up in Brexit that Labour is getting away with stealing the best schools policies from old Tory green papers, it seems like an opportune time […]

Peer review can’t be a form of inspection – don’t confuse them!

Make sure that you don’t mix up peer review with inspection, but do ensure that both are effective, valid and reliable, says Leora Cruddas I was interested to read “Three things the government must do to better support MATs”, Michael Pain’s recent article in Schools Week in which he talks about a reformed inspectorate and […]

The last thing schools need is more structural change

School leaders want to focus on pedagogy, the curriculum and the purpose of education. Politicians, should not bog them down with more structural change, says Julie McCulloch It’s a fair bet that most parents don’t think about schools in terms of organisational structures, of multi-academy trusts, regional schools commissioners, brokering, headteacher boards, and the rest […]

Jon Hutchinson’s top blogs of the week September 2018

Subject Knowledge @dodiscimus “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”, says Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. For teacher trainer Matt Perks, there are actually three main things underpinning all of the beautiful complexity of teaching: planning, behaviour and subject knowledge. This blog, which deals […]