Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Raise the curtain on student confidence

At St Andrew’s CoE School in Croydon, we are passionate about building strength, resilience and confidence in every student, in order to give them the best chance of success and fulfilment in life.

Image credit: CBeebies Bedtime Stories // British Broadcasting Company.

The power of story time in the community

Schools all want to have great communication with parents. They know the value and impact of partnerships which help to meet a child’s needs 24/7. It isn’t always easy to manage, however, as there just isn’t the time in the day, or even the week, to meet regularly with all parents. So what often happens is a stream of information coming from school to home, often with very ...

Images courtesy of author // Amazon bring Kindle Fires to the school.

Save time & money with your local community

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a community to work together to provide support and guidance, resources, and practical help. This is especially important when someone - a child, a family - faces challenges and are feeling lost and alone. Schools are, by their very nature, a community. Built of myriad parts, it has human relationships at its heart: teacher-pupil, SLT-teacher, head-governors, and so on. This ...

The question every teacher should be asking

I ask my friends “How are you feeling?” almost everyday. Not because I have to, but because I need to! Our lives are busy, complex and difficult, and to pass our friends by without a simple question would be unfriendly!

Community triumphs with the Northern Powerhouse [interview]

School leaders don’t come much more passionate than Leeds’ Chris Dyson. This Northern Powerhouse of a man - our words, not his - has been headteacher at Parklands Primary School for four years now. Chris is all about championing pupils and teachers, “selling the dream with a carrot, not a stick”.

Don’t want to stagnate? Open doors!

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents.” - Jane D. Hull The Open Doors programme is a cultural change we affected here at The Kindergarten Starters, with an aim to embrace the wider community and allow learning to flow in and out of our classrooms.

#Teacher5aDay: We Are In This Together!

A few years ago, I began to use Twitter to develop my pedagogy. Looking back, I believe it was one of most significant decisions I have made as an educator. We should not feel confined in our classrooms or institutes. Once I started using Twitter, it proved to be a big game-changer.

Images courtesy of Brockhill Park Performing Arts College.

5 top tips for starting your own school farm

Brockhill Park Performing Arts College is a large Secondary school sat up above the Cinque Port of Hythe, overlooking the English Channel. Every morning Brockhill students arrive at school dressed smartly in blazers and gather in friendship groups, some in the playground, others in the canteen - but that is where the similarities with other schools end.

9 ways to blend tradition with innovation

With a history as long as ours, it won’t come as a surprise that we’ve learnt a thing or two about teaching boys along the way. The past 175 years has taught us much about understanding boys and how to motivate them to perform to the best of their ability. We greatly value our heritage and traditions, and our school motto - ‘Supera Moras’, or ‘Never Give Up’ - ...

Images courtesy of interviewees. // Performing Arts at MCA.

Once upon a time in Manchester [interview]

After their big win at the 2017 TES Awards, we wanted to discover just how Manchester Communication Academy (MCA) capitalises on the city’s rich culture and history. We sat down with principal John Rowlands to find out more, and were soon joined by vice principal extraordinaire Patsy Hodson!

Image credit: Flickr // John Greenfield.

Smells like community spirit

I was recently asked to write about ‘Community’. My initial thoughts centred around community as both a collective and personal experience. Being part of a community is to be included and, in education, inclusion is something we (try to) personify to others. How we behave and relate to each other in school shapes our expectations of others and ourselves. How we shape our 'community' teaches others how to manage themselves. ...

Images courtesy of authors. Brett (front-left) and Maree (front-right) with their Galen VEX squadmates.

Our international adventures as robotics champions

Many schools struggle to get parent / community engagement right. The nature of teaching sees us thrown into a classroom with 20 or so students; when a bell goes, we move on to another class, and then to another. Our teaching is dictated by the bell. Unless collaborative time is factored into our busy days, we tend to work in isolation; sharing a few ideas as we pass by each other, or ...