Ella Louisa Martin, New Horizons Children’s Academy, The Thinking School Academy Trust, UK Over the past three academic years, the multi-academy trust that I work for have embarked on a journey to develop our children’s understanding of themselves as learners. This has coincided with a drive to embed evidence-informed teaching and learning across the trust […]
Tristan Igglesden, Faculty of Education, Cambridge University, UK Introduction The demand for remote learning, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to the introduction of the Google Classroom learning management system (LMS) into the lives of over 150 million students (Google, 2021). However, most teachers had little time to consider the potential of this technology […]
Beth Greville-Giddings, Learning and Development Lead, Raleigh Education Trust, UK The term ‘learning environment’ includes many factors. Tapia-Fonllem et al. (2020) discuss the attributes of learning environments across five different dimensions: physical: spaces, furniture, decoration academic: curricular materials social: interpersonal interactions institutional: governance and administration wellbeing/ cultural: psychosocial environment. This review considers the physical […]
Claire Pass, MA Education, Leadership and Management; Co-Founder and Director, Dragonfly: Impact Education, UK Creating an effective learning environment means paying attention to both the macro-culture – across the whole school – and the micro-culture(s) of the individual classroom (Moore et al., 2017). This article will consider how both the macro- and micro-cultures of the […]
Johanna Thomson, Primary Link Tutor, The Tommy Flowers SCITT, UK; EAL Content Writer, Twinkl Educational Publishing Ltd, UK One and a half million students in England are English as an additional language (EAL) learners (The Bell Foundation, 2020a). Yet too often in school, being multilingual can be viewed as a barrier to making academic progress […]
Jacob Huckle, Head of EAL at an international school; part-time doctoral student, University of Bath, UK According to the latest school census, 19.3 per cent of students in England’s schools are learning English as an additional language (EAL), which is around 1.6 million students (Explore Education Statistics, 2021). Although there is no specific data, it’s […]
Colleen McLaughlin, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK Where are we now? The landscape of mental health and schools The lesson is that the goals of schooling must include social features as well as the transmission of information. (Rutter, 1991, p. 8) We have known for a while that school has a significant […]
Samantha Torr, Alpha Teaching School Hub, UK Context and demographics In line with increases in the number of EAL students across the country (Demie, 2017 DfE, 2015).), the ATSH has experienced a significant increase in students with EAL in schools within the areas that it serves. This has led to project involving 11 schools across […]
Kathryn Kashyap, School Improvement Adviser for Achieving for Children, UK My research question set out to consider how a group of Somali young people who had recently migrated and who might be considered to require ‘educational help’ (DfE and DoH, 2015) negotiated their learner identities at home and at school. To understand their lived experiences, […]
Ali Williams, The Grove, Orchard Mead Academy, UK Inclusive, supportive learning environments The Grove is home to a designated specialist provision (DSP) for students with social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH). There are 21 students working on-site and a further seven off-site. There are nine specialist staff, plus teachers from the main school at […]
Charlotte Mosey, Senior Lecturer in ITT/E, University of Derby, UK Jack Bryne Stothard, Lecturer in ITT/E and Teacher Education, Research and Innovation Lead, University of Derby, UK In-service teachers, due to time constraints, often have little time to thoroughly reflect upon their pedagogy, and as such it becomes increasingly difficult for innovative and inclusive practices […]
Caroline Bligh, Open University, UK Stephen Newman, Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University, UK With many children in UK schools currently learning English as a second (or, often, as an additional) language, the needs of those young learners are becoming a focus for many teachers. We argue that too much attention has been focused […]
Naveed A Khan, Kennesaw State University, USA Faced with a lack of funding and teacher shortages, many classrooms across America are becoming more crowded. Within this crowd, English language learners (ELLs) are among the fastest-growing group of students. Obtaining English proficiency is a critical skill to ensure these students’ future success in higher education and […]
Shona O’Callaghan, EAL/Dyslexia specialist teacher, Spain Introduction This study is an investigation into examples of good practice language-support strategies found in two differing EAL educational settings in Spain. Through a qualitative research lens, data was collated, validated and cross-referenced, with the aim of identifying similar good practice techniques occurring across settings. Data demonstrates a wide […]
Dr Helen Lewis, Department of Education and Childhood Studies, Swansea University, UK Dr Russell Grigg, Ministry of Education, UAE The learning environment refers to the range of physical, virtual and social contexts within which pupils acquire knowledge, skills and values. This article summarises the contribution that dogs can make in promoting and supporting an inclusive […]
Graham Smith, Director, The EAL Academy, UK The 2021 school census (DfE, 2021a) records 316 languages spoken by pupils and acknowledges that there are more. It tells us that pupils with English as an additional language (EAL) make up 19 per cent of the state school population in England, pupils with free school meals 21 […]
Robbie Burns, Assistant Vice-Principal, Bede Academy (part of The Emmanuel Schools Foundation), UK How can leaders support novice teachers to develop teacher–student relationships effectively? It is my view that we can learn much from the classrooms of expert teachers as described in research. In this article, I aim to clarify the nature and minimum purposes […]
Kyle Bailey, Head of Programmes and Partnerships, Ark Teaching School Hub, UK Matt Dunne, Director of Teaching School Hub, Ark Teaching School Hub, UK At both Ark and the Ark Teaching School Hub, coaching is at the heart of the work we do. We believe that it can have a transformational impact on our leaders, […]
Tiffany A Roman, Kennesaw State University, USA Rebecca V Frazee, San Diego State University. USA Christopher G Johnson, The University of Arizona, USA Introduction It has been argued that learning environments matter (Brooks, 2011), particularly in relation to the way in which learning spaces, technology and pedagogy intersect in the design of learning experiences for […]
Helen Bilton, Professor of Outdoor Learning and Play, UK Anastasia Rattigan, Senior Digital Learning Producer and Yen Tu Digital Learning Producer, University of Reading, UK Schools spend money and time on training their staff, commonly known as continuing professional development (CPD). But how often do they consider what might be the most appropriate learning environment for […]
