Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

GLT launches National Inset Day for Education Community

Following the Government’s suggestion that schools take Friday 18 December as an INSET day to reduce the impact of school based staff contact tracing over Christmas, the Greenshaw Learning Trust is hosting a National Inset Day.

How your pupils can influence NSPCC decisions

The NSPCC is looking for 13 to 16-year-olds to join a Young People’s Board for Change. The board is an exciting opportunity to have a say in important work by the UK’s leading child protection charity.

Overcoming obstacles to become a deputy headteacher

I began my career working as a Level 2 teaching assistant the summer after I graduated from university with a degree in Contemporary History. Fast-forward seven years: I am now in my fourth term as deputy headteacher of the same school I joined in September 2013. At 27, I’ve been told that I was most likely the youngest deputy head in the local authority of Sandwell. On paper, it looks like I’...

Confessions of a COVID NQT

As a Newly Qualified Teacher, I appreciate that there are hundreds of challenges that we NQTs face on a daily basis: New school, new students, new responsibilities, yet same old dreaded observations. Throw into the mix a global pandemic to cut short your training year, and it's much harder looking for that golden nugget of a job (but on the plus side I have mastered the art of interviewing in ...

5 ways to avoid teacher-burnout

As teachers, a lot of us are guilty of cramming our ‘free-time’ with as many fun activities as possible. Donning our roles as partners, parents, carers and / or pet owners, we exhibit an almost misplaced guilt that maybe we’ve spent too much time on work recently, leading to a wellbeing-reducing, drastic need to overcompensate.

Free competition boosting Maths engagement during December

What a year it’s been – our lives have been turned upside down and spun around. We cannot help but worry for learners around the world. With lockdowns (yes, plural), school closures (although they never really ‘closed’, did they?) and constant change, 2020 can certainly be described as challenging. But, despite this, we absolutely do not want learners’ education to suffer – and we are pretty sure you feel the same.

Digital learning resources arrive FREE for UK schools

Education company EVERFI has launched four free digital courses in the UK, with more to come in the months ahead. All courses are linked to national curricula and have already achieved huge success in the US, with 2.8 million students having completed an EVERFI course in the last year alone.

How to beat the block/text coding problem

Teaching and learning to code can be a daunting prospect for many, and transitioning from block coding to text-based coding can often be a barrier to learning coding languages like Python. Python in Pieces aims to bridge that gap and has been designed to seamlessly transition students from block code, commonly used at Primary school, to the text-based coding that is required at Secondary school level and beyond.

Don’t cancel Christmas! Some COVID-safe tips for schools

Christmas is a huge part of this half-term. While preparing for it can be stressful, it contributes a great deal to the school community and wellbeing. Nativity plays, Christmas lunches, cards, pantomime visits, carol services, parties, discos, fetes, staff nights out are all difficult to do under COVID-19 restrictions, and there is a genuine fear from some staff, children and parents that Christmas could be cancelled.

Engage pupils with Science via play-based learning

What do Crystal Cities, Wonder Machines, and mysterious footprints in a garden have to do with science?

Maths mastery through stop-motion animation

Do you want your learners to be resilient, confident mathematicians with secure conceptual understanding and a love of Maths? Well, come with me to a land of stories and watch the magic unfold.

How we achieve whole-school MFL engagement

What is education for if not to make the world a better place? What do we need to do to understand one another? The answer lies in communication and understanding, and this is why at Chulmleigh Community College in North Devon, studying a language (French, to be precise) is a core subject.