The benefits of physical exercise on academic learning have long been documented, yet three years after Public Health England issued a report detailing the positive link between pupil health and wellbeing and academic attainment, young people’s participation rate in physical exercise is still falling.

The influence of a community is key to helping schools inform a child’s education. Schools often look to outside influences, such as parents and local organisations, to help stimulate new ways of thinking for a pupil. Many organisations and businesses develop an educational outreach programme in order to ensure that key issues, such as nutrition and healthy eating education, are established as an important part of a child’s education, with learnings that will benefit them later in life.

Saturday 17th March saw Primary teachers from across the UK head to the beautiful Medlock Primary School in Manchester for one of world’s finest education events: Primary Rocks Live. The sold-out (in under five minutes!) gathering’s attendees enjoyed 24 workshops, two keynotes, a live-streamed performance from the Teachers Rock Youth Choir, and ice cream.

When a school wins twice at one of the world’s biggest education awards ceremonies, the sector takes notice. Here, we sit down with Malcolm Drakes, executive headteacher of The Learning Federation, to see how Broadford Primary School has developed since its 2017 victory.

It’s both rare and refreshing to hear the words “intersectionality”, “systemic change”, “call to arms” and “rockets up asses” within the first half an hour of an educational training event. But at headteacher Hannah Wilson’s Flexible Working event at Aureus School on 10th March, we learnt that the education sector must become open to new ways of working if we are to recruit and retain the best staff.

Bullying is a difficult problem. Limiting mobile phones or blocking social media can reduce cyberbullying, but not anti-social behaviour in classrooms. Curriculum-based anti-bullying strategies are not usually the first approaches that schools consider, but they can have a major impact, and are likely to save you money! Consider these smarter, budget-effective timetabling approaches and reduce bullying in your school.

Rusul Alrubail is a literacy guru, TEDx speaker, writer, student voice advocate and social justice activist. Her tireless efforts in education are fuelled, in part, by her experiences as an Iraqi refugee. Now settled in Toronto, Rusul recently took the time to tell us more about her work and insights.

Until recently, ‘That Boy Can Teach’ was a whisper on the wind of education. Writing under a pseudonym, he quickly became a trusted, popular name in helping teachers and school leaders to reach their full potential (while being humble enough to balk at such a description). Now, however, Iron Man’s helmet has been removed, and Tony Stark - or rather, school leader Aidan Severs - has been revealed to the world.

For children with special educational needs (SEN), one of the toughest barriers to accessing the curriculum can simply be how intimidating the classroom can feel. With 70 per cent of those permanently excluded from school also being registered for with SEN, we need to do more to engage students to maintain their attendance and ensure that functional skills are developed among all students, no matter what their situation or environment.

‘Powerful professional learning helps children succeed and teachers thrive’ is the first message on the front page of the Teacher Development Trust website. Yet when we look at other countries that are seen as successful at education, commentators often focus on issues such as their culture (Finland or Estonia), teaching methods (‘Chinese Maths’ in Shanghai) or use of external tutoring (Japan or South Korea).