Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Case Study: Writing for film

During my primary-teaching career of over 40 years, I found that making films with pupils was a perfect way to increase engagement and progress through what becomes covert learning, as they get completely wrapped up in the excitement of having a real purpose for their work; a film premiere in their school or even the local community. For children who live in today’s digital age, it is the perfect way ...

Top 5 ways to get children learning outdoors

Using lessons to get children outside can provide an imaginative and fun way of teaching them about the world around us. From the history of the local area to the weather, here are five ideas on how you can use outdoors to offer new ways of teaching.

Christmas learning for SEN

Christmas is extremely motivating for many learners with SEN, and it can definitely be a time to mix learning with fun (good teaching should always be perceived by pupils as fun). Innovative uses of technology bring education alive and create a positive climate for learning. Here are my favourite resources for teaching SEN at Christmas:

An NQT’s guide to handling NQTs, part 2

As a sequel to her original piece on handling newly qualified teachers at the beginning of the year, Jane Basnett's former pastoral colleague, now an NQT, returns with thoughts on how we might support such teachers at this time of year This post has to begin with a huge thank you to everyone who has supported an NQT in their first few weeks of Proper Teaching. You might have given ...

Health & safety training for teachers

When it comes to health and safety, it’s particularly important for schools to be as prepared as possible. Drew Griffiths gives a concise rundown of what kind of training teachers should seek. All workers need to be aware of the safety risks associated with their jobs, but for some people this is especially important. For example, as well as protecting themselves from any dangers, teachers have to look after ...

10 steps to protect your school against cyberthreats

With 30th November marking Computer Security Day, it’s important for schools to know how to fully secure themselves against cyber-threats. Alan Mackenzie, a veteran e-safety consultant, talks us through the top 10 points school staff need to consider when it comes to staying e-safe. Security has been a hot topic this last couple of weeks, with the most reported story being that of the website hosting live webcam streams of ...

How we used mobile technology to help bring our school out of Special Measures

Earlier this year, Roscoe Primary School headteacher Amanda Anders spoke at one of our events, telling attendees how she brought her school out of special measures. Here, she goes into detail about the specific technology that allowed her and her colleagues to bring the school from ‘special measures’ to ‘good’ in four years. In 2009 Roscoe Primary School, Liverpool was placed in Special Measures. ICT was considered to be inadequate, and ...

Raspberry Pi interview: Laura Dixon, Computing At School author

Raspberry Pi is becoming more and more popular in education every day, but how can unfamiliar teachers begin using this technology in their work? Laura Dixon - Raspberry Pi expert, head of Computing at Royal High School and Computing At School author - was kind enough to answer some questions on the matter. We asked Laura Dixon a series of questions in order to illustrate how teachers can go about ...

What can Minecraft offer education?

It’s likely that the majority of British school pupils play video games. From smartphones to games consoles, there are a lot of games available to them. Here, teacher-in-training and gamer Matthew Banfield explores the possibilities that the incredibly popular Minecraft presents to schools. Working in education, you have most likely heard of Minecraft. This game has captured a generation, giving people who play the game an unlimited space to ...

How Google Classroom can help teachers

Plenty of teachers use Google apps in their classrooms, but is Google Classroom as widely used as it should be? Kings Monkton Private School teachers Adam Speight and Fiona Thomas explain how it’s been innovating their classroom this year. In 2006 Google introduced a product known as Google Apps for Education to the world. This product became a game changer, as schools no longer had to stick with using the ...

Making Golden Triangles

What is the Golden Triangle in education, and how can it aid school / parent communication? Dave Waddell explains. If you’ve never heard of what many an educational establishment’s marketing material calls ‘the golden triangle’, then you will certainly know what it is. Each corner is theorised as representing one of a given school’s three stakeholders: child, parent and teacher. Linked up, they constitute that triangle, the lines ...

10 steps to a digitally-enhanced successful school

It’s a brave new world for education, particularly with the growing popularity of portable devices and flipped learning. Teacher and digital strategist Jane Basnett gives her finest tips on how a school can fully embrace the future. A digital strategy must take into account what makes an excellent lesson, and will then plan to ensure that teachers make use of technology in a creative and meaningful way that enriches ...