Innovate My School - Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Latest articles from the Innovate My School community.

Image courtesy of supplier // Students working with Joko’s World interactive learning apps.

Meet 5 edtech projects about to change the world

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a leading international initiative driving innovation and collaboration in education, took to the stage at EdTechX Europe in London on 20th June to reveal the five latest projects that will join the WISE Accelerator programme. Launched in 2014, this initiative serves to support and share the development of young, innovative edtech projects with high potential for scalability and positive impact in the field of ...

Top tips to develop a positive school culture

As a school leader it is inevitable that you will be required to implement change. There are a range of possibilities for the change; the mundane to the kind of change that keeps you up for endless nights plotting, planning and organising. The big question is, how do you keep it balanced?

Image credit: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe // Group W Productions // Originally published on 10th March 2017.

The revision power hour

Too much to do and too little time. That’s what I hear from both teachers and students. Students of the new two-year A Level specifications are stressed out about having to know two years’ worth of content all at once. Teachers are trying to cram revising the whole syllabus into a few short weeks of contact time.

The leader who took control over school innovation

On Friday 7th July, Shireland Collegiate Academy in the West Midlands hosted their very own Innovate My School LIVE event. This was the first stop on a school budget-centric roadshow showing school leaders how to do more with less.

Get pupils to write their own songs!

By the time children finish at Primary school they will have written stories, poems, factual accounts, autobiographies essays and plays. But their own song? Hmm, possibly not. It just seems too difficult, too personal and, for many years, way beyond my comfort zone! And yet I’m aware children know hundreds and hundreds of songs. Their whole lives are wrapped in sound, from early nursery rhymes to the latest chart ...

Mission To Mars: Discovery Education launches school space challenge

As the first manned mission to Mars draws nearer, UK students are being offered a unique opportunity to join the race to the red planet - by designing a space habitation module for NASA. The challenge – the first of its kind in the UK – has been launched today by Discovery Education as part of a new national STEM education programme: Generation Beyond. Unveiled at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) ...

What it’s like to be a teacher with an anxiety disorder

We all feel anxious sometimes. Maybe it is going into a new situation such as starting a new job, or having to have a difficult conversation. The feeling of nervousness and anxiousness is completely normal, and an evolutionary necessity. However, for some people, like me, that feeling of anxiousness never goes away. You live with it day in, day out, and it can have quite a detrimental effect on your ...

Disney keeps kids active over summer

Change4Life, Public Health England’s campaign to help families lead healthier lives, and Disney have launched a range of new 10 Minute Shake Ups teaching materials. The initiative aims to help kids move more throughout the school day and across the summer holidays.

Image credit: Hector and the Search for Happiness // Wild Bunch // Originally published on 5th July 2017.

Why language learning matters more than ever

As the late, great Nelson Mandela once said, “If you speak to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you speak to a man in his own language, it goes to his heart”. And for me, at least, there are few better ways to express just how valuable learning another language can be - by opening hearts, we open minds and by opening minds, ...

Image credit: Smiling Mind // Originally published on 10th May 2017.

How edtech can boost good mental health

The BBC School Report recently found that 70% of surveyed 11-to-16-year-olds had experienced negative feelings in the past year, ranging from “feeling upset and unhappy to feeling anxious, frightened or unsafe”. The report also found that 73% of teachers would often or occasionally worry about a particular pupil’s wellbeing in their free time. However, a third of these teachers had not been trained in how to deal with pupils’ mental ...

Image credit: Pixabay // Originally published on 19th June 2017.

Teacher wellbeing is vital - here's what we can do

I've always had the privilege of working in schools where a network of teachers look out for one another and support each other's wellbeing in numerous ways. Even at moments when it seemed that the leaders didn't have wellbeing at the top of their list, the relationships between members of staff kept us all afloat in the more testing times. Although I think I have the ultimate responsibility for my ...

Starting your NQT journey as you mean to go on

Being an NQT (newly-qualified teacher) can be tough, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. You suddenly have a new class, new routines and a whole lot of responsibility to contend with. To feel confident and able, establishing clear routines from the start can go a long way. Below, we’ve set out some suggestions as to how Pobble might help you be effective in your teaching of writing from ...