When today’s young people leave education, they are likely to face stiff competition to get to that first rung on the career ladder. The quality, rounded education that schools deliver is key to preparing their students for a world beyond the classroom. But for a high-achieving school, it can be difficult to continue to raise the bar of achievement. That’s why I was so interested in the novel approach taken by Jerudong International School (JIS) in Brunei, where students are encouraged to drive their own progress.

How best to build pedagogic bridges across the world? We recently had a lively Skype conversation with Stewart Cook (Frances Olive Anderson Primary School in Lincolnshire) and Myassar Al Itani (Mohammad Shamel State School in Beirut) on their award-winning, transglobal partnership. The two educators were meeting at a Connecting Classrooms event in Amman, Jordan, and were keen to tell us about the power of such a collaboration….

Teachers and pupils alike are set to be inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Values with the launch of the Values Awards from Get Set, the official youth engagement programme of the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association. This initiative is building on the success of Get Set for Community Action, which empowered more than 18,000 young people to make real changes within their community Students aged between seven and 19 have until 2nd February 2018 to enter.

The Kindergarten Starters has embarked on a unique approach to teaching Social Studies - we’ve turned the UAE’s 47 museums into our very own classrooms. Students began the Museum Project by visiting the Sharjah Islamic Museum to gain a deep understanding of Islamic Art, inventions and culture.

Motivated by the writing and filmmaking efforts of classrooms across the country, this summer we’re hosting the very first LitFilmFest. This one-day event, taking place on Monday 19th June, will champion KS2 pupils’ writing and cinematic efforts, with winning classes shooting their films professionally before watching them on the biggest screen in Britain - the BFI London IMAX.

Charity ActionAid are offering schools a set of free resources aiming to give literacy lessons an inspiring lift with the help of an incredible, true story. ‘The Children Who Saved Their School’ includes reading, writing, spelling and creative activities, all telling the story of the children who fought to stop their school closing down, and won!

On the twelve days of Christmas, Nethermains Primary School gave to me...

Close your eyes and picture this: endless blue skies, heat shimmering in waves off the ground, the sound of cockatoos screeching at each other from the nearby palm trees, and a pine tree covered in tinsel and Christmas decorations. Something of a contradiction to most, but the only kind of Christmas I knew for a quarter of a century. The Christmas you see in the movies, with the snowy cottages and open fires and everything happening in the dark still doesn’t seem real to me.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is calling all Primary schools to take part in an Easy Peasy Pea Challenge, part of the ongoing Plant2Plate campaign. This project aims to help pupils to learn about nature and healthy eating. Any child can have a go at 'sowing, growing and showing' homegrown green peas, either in a window box or small growing patch. Every school that registers for the challenge before the end of April will receive a free Easy Peasy Pea Seed Kit. The kit includes a pack of Sugar Ann pea seeds, a simple growing guide and a tasty pea recipe card from Alpro.