Curriculum, explicit instruction, intelligent assessment, leadership and history
As a trainee and in CPD in the early part of my career, I don’t remember anyone ever using evidence to justify anything. We got homilies and truthism instead, compelling ideas communicated as fact. “Children will behave if the lessons are interesting.” “Everyone has one of three or more distinct learning styles.” “Teach [ ]
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield once said, “there is no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.” We would do well to listen to this wisdom right now. While everyone agrees schools need to be more inclusive, there isn t agreement on what this means, and while it might be understandable to think our SEND [ ]
Saying the SEND system is in crisis is no great reveal; it is proving ruinously expensive while failing to deliver either improved experiences or outcomes. One consequence of its long-term failure has been great antagonism between families and schools, with the idea parents must fight tooth and nail for the support their child needs now [ ]
Two years ago, at a conference I described the process my wife and I went through to get our daughter her EHCP. I used a phrase familiar to those of us with children who find life harder and need more help – those often identified as having a special educational need common advice given [ ]
Conversations about special educational needs are already tough and I predict they are about to get even more difficult. Two opposing paradigms are on a collision course. The first holds that developments in neuroscience are revealing powerful new insights about the way in which different human brains work, and as a result we are learning [ ]
A few years ago, in the Golden Era of Edu-Twitter, Berny Andrews and I suggested the Department of Education needed a team of philosophers. We were only half joking. Very often the success or failure of educational strategy and policy is not in technical formulation or implementation but in purpose, and purpose is always about [ ]
In 1429 a French peasant with no military experience led an army against the Anglo-Burgundians, driving them from their bastion and forcing them to retreat across the Loire River. At the age of thirteen she began hearing voices sent by God. They gave her a sacred mission to save France by expelling its enemies and [ ]
Six years ago, my wife and I learned our then one-year-old daughter Bessie had been born with a rare genetic condition called Williams Syndrome – it’s fascinating and you should look it up. It means with some very distinctive and charming personality features, Bessie lives with a life-long learning disability. This is not something gone [ ]
AI is stalking the world for problems it can present itself as the solution to – problems you did not even know you had. It will organise our calendars and write emails to our bosses and employees. AI will paint our pictures and script our film. It will write our poetry and letters to our [ ]
We all know teachers should have high expectations of pupils. Teachers who think their pupils can learn and do lots set more challenging work than those doubting their capacities and this leads to more progress. Nobody – quite rightly argues against high expectations. Officially you can’t even be a teacher if you don’t have [ ]