Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Educational apps provide an engaging & inspirational learning experience

Over the past three years, there has been a huge shift towards tablet technology; with educational establishments quickly realising the huge benefits of tablet-based learning and teaching in the classroom. As a product development executive currently developing a range of apps, I have conducted a vast amount of research into educational apps and their benefits for pupils and teachers. I have found that apps provide teachers with the tools for ...

9 apps to help autistic children communicate

Having worked with many children over the years I repeatedly observed that the use of good quality ICT enhances teaching and learning in all subject areas. They are often motivated to learn not just how the software and equipment works but also the topic in question. Some areas that I am interested in researching are primary science education and the role that new technologies offer to help children’s understanding ...

Cyber-bullying – How headteachers can help

Anti-bullying week is upon us and schools will be taking action to highlight the effects of bullying and, more importantly, offer some solutions as to what pupils and staff can do about it. Helping individuals to understand that bullying is a serious form of abuse encourages them to speak out sooner, to seek help and to protect themselves and others from the devastating effects of bullying. The more traditional forms ...

Movement interventions help improve literacy skills for children

Received wisdom would say that the only thing which will improve reading skills in children with SEN is literacy teaching. However, recent developments in cognitive science suggest that it may be time to reconsider this perspective.

Kids - Going the distance

Andy Mouncey uses his experience as a professional sports coach and father of two young boys to explore the relationship between sport, endurance and how this impacts us as we grow older. Children, young people and endurance – yeah, that ole chestnut: How young and how far is enough? How to judge it? What’s the evidence? And what are the implications for later life? This is not a review of ...

Education and exercise: Scuba diving covers the curriculum

If you are reading this and already a scuba diver, you will only be too aware of the thrills that this exhilarating sport offers: a combination of intoxicating colours, weightlessness, adventure and being able to see a huge array of exotic marine life that others only witness in an aquarium. However, the list of benefits the sport can offer children and young adults extends far beyond these amazing sensory factors.

Love your data – it can work for you… really!

Mention the dreaded ‘D’ word in the staff room and many teachers will suddenly remember, ‘oh yes, there’s a pile of marking I must do… right now!’. It clears the room almost as quickly as the afternoon bell on the last day of summer term. A slight exaggeration maybe, but data should be embraced as it can enhance the performance of both students and school in simple and positive ...

Jugyoukenkuu: the Japanese art of teacher development

Jugyoukenkuu (or ‘Lesson Study’ as it is more widely known) is the Japanese art of teacher professional development. It involves the identification of an area of teaching that needs to be developed, by a group of teachers. The group then plans a lesson together (the research lesson) to address that area of need (with a particular focus on specific students to monitor their progress). One teacher then delivers the research ...

‘Team Teaching’ as shared experience

For many educators the professional experience can be a paradoxically lonely one. Teaching is all about communication and relationships, they spend most of their time with large groups of people, yet their position is unique and in many ways isolating. They spend class time as an ‘other’ in a large group of peers, conceptually if not physically alone, and when the classes leave and the work of planning and assessment ...

Why values can inspire a generation

The Human Values Foundation explores how values literacy is such a rewarding curriculum ingredient. As teachers in England continue to plan for the implementation of their new, inspiring and expansive curricula to take effect from September 2014, now could be an appropriate time to consider a curriculum ingredient found to have widespread, rewarding impacts on children, young people, teachers and other adults making up school communities, along with parents and carers. ...

Addressing bullying in the digital world

The recent survey by charity BeatBullying shows that children starting secondary school are the most concerned about being bullied. The research identified that 56 per cent of primary children feared they might be bullied for being too clever, or not clever enough. Forty-eight per cent surveyed were afraid that they would be bullied for not being good at activities like sports or for not having the latest phones or games. Fear ...

Creating a thinking classroom

As my teaching has developed over the past two years I have focused more and more on creating a thinking classroom. Beginning with learning mind maps in my first school to reading everything from Buzan to DeBono to Bloom to Costa, is it now a staple of my teaching. It is hard to believe anyone teaches without teaching critical thinking. The longer I teach, however, the more I realise that ...