KULWINDER MAUDE, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, DURHAM UNIVERSITY, UK We know that teachers’ wellbeing is now at an all-time low, despite being a priority in the education policy agenda in England (DfE, 2021). High levels of anxiety, burnout and depression have been reported in teachers in England (Education Support, 2022; Gibson and Carroll, 2021). Although understanding […]
Olivia Page, Director of Professional Development, Education for the 21st Century, UK Education for the 21st Century (E21C) is a medium-sized multi-academy trust (MAT) of eight schools (four primary and four secondary), based in London and the south-east of England, with over 6,000 pupils and 800 staff. The trust has been on a journey of […]
Dena Eden, Director of Secondary English at Inspiration Trust Teaching is a profession where we rely on the support of a team and wider community while also preferring complete autonomy in our classrooms. Subject communities maintain this autonomy while also allowing us to feel both supported and motivated to improve. An effective subject community empowers […]
Lydia Roberts, Head of PSHE, Broadland High Ormiston Academy, UK As a teacher, stepping into leading and advising peers can feel intimidating. In a way, teachers are always leading – leading a classroom, leading learners and pastorally leading our tutor groups – and yet when we gear up to lead colleagues, we feel a distinct […]
ALISON TEAGLE, ST PAUL’S CATHOLIC COLLEGE, UK; ASSOCIATE FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX, UK The importance of teacher identity When did you first feel that you were ‘a teacher’? Can you recall when you first referred to yourself as a teacher when asked about your profession? How has your teacher identity changed over time? What impact has […]
SALINA VENTRESS, SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT LEAD FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING, AVANTI SCHOOLS TRUST, UK Avanti’s vision for education, outlined in ‘The Avanti Way’ (Avanti Schools Trust, nd), gives equal emphasis to spiritual insight, character formation and educational excellence. Developing a MAT framework for learning and teaching that could be implemented across all our schools, through the […]
JOANNA FARBON, HEADTEACHER, ICKNIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK In the 2022 white paper ‘Levelling up the United Kingdom’, a target was set for 90 per cent of pupils to achieve the expected standards in reading, writing and maths by the end of their primary education (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022). This target had […]
Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility, University of Exeter, UK Introduction All teachers aspire to reduce the barriers and unconscious biases that impede the learning of students from under-resourced backgrounds. Research shows that these impediments are multifaceted, consisting of cultural, material, educational and health-related factors that operate inside and outside the classroom. Explicitly thinking […]
DR ALEXANDRA SEWELL, SENIOR LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION DANIEL THACKER-SMITH, DEPUTY HEADTEACHER, E-ACT SHENLEY ACADEMY Bereavement, loss and grief As with most common psychological experiences, bereavement is subject to varying socio-cultural and academic definitions. A critical distinction between competing definitions is that bereavement follows the death of a person with whom the […]
You can listen to an audio version of this article above. Ciara Sims, School Partnerships Officer, ImpactEd Group, UK Discussions around improving attendance continue to dominate the education sector. Persistent absenteeism rates in the autumn term of 22/23 were at a record high of 24.2 per cent (Long and Danechi, 2023). There are few school […]
JENNY GRIFFITHS, TEACH FIRST, UK TOBY GREANY, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM, UK JODIE PENNACCHIA, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK JENNY GRAHAM, THE DIFFERENCE, UK ELEANOR BERNARDES, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM, UK Background Teach First’s work on whole-child development (Griffiths, 2023) suggests that individuals in inclusive settings, particularly pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, attain better academic and other outcomes (Gray et al., 2021). However, […]
Alison Futerman, Therapy Service Manager and Speech and Language Therapist, Eden Academy Trust, UK Gill Smith, Professional Development Service Manager, Eden Academy Trust, UK Dr Paul van Walwyk, Director for Schools and Educational Services, Eden Academy Trust, UK This case study reflects on the introduction and impact of communication bands within the Eden Academy Trust […]
Andy Silvain and Sarah Seleznyov, School 360, Big Education, UK In September 2021, School 360, a state primary in Newham, London, opened its doors to its first cohort of Reception-age pupils. As co-headteachers, we wanted some guiding principles to help to shape decisions taken about leadership structures, curriculum, pedagogies and assessment during the year spent […]
JAMES LEIGH, HEAD OF YEAR 12, HEAD OF FUTURES AND HISTORY TEACHER, READING BLUE COAT, UK I trust that I am not alone in believing there to be intricacies inherent in the necessity for staff to actively celebrate diversity in school communities, while also actively enforcing anti-racism. Indeed, since 2022, Keeping Children Safe in Education requirements […]
ALISON EASON, HEAD OF ADDITIONALLY RESOURCED PROVISION (ARP), CHALGROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK The typical primary school classroom, which is designed to stimulate children’s senses, may be overwhelming for an autistic child, who processes senses in a different way from their peers. Even the day-to-day sensory information that we routinely process, such as cooking smells wafting […]
MARK LESWELL, RESEARCH LEAD, SWALE ACADEMIES TRUST, UK In the evolving educational landscape, pupil premium (PP) remains a critical tool for reducing educational inequality. This article explores the multi-dimensional challenges and opportunities that PP presents, including the changing parameters of eligibility, the role of attendance and the importance of school leaders and teachers adopting evidence-based approaches […]
Jenny Swift, Light Up Edu-Leadership, France Introduction The evolution of positive psychology highlights the importance of schools going beyond wellbeing curricula that teach children how to practise mindfulness or gratitude, or staff programmes that focus on developing personal wellbeing through managing stress or increasing resilience. It signposts to the need for a more nuanced, multi-layered […]
You can listen to an audio version of this article above. RUTH NEWMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER, UK Introduction A large body of research illustrates the benefits of talk for learning (Mercer and Littleton, 2007; Wegerif, 2013; Jay et al., 2017), recognising that ‘Of all the tools for educational […]
JUAN FERNANDEZ, TEACHER AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER, UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID, SPAIN Educational research has identified different strategies to promote students’ learning. Integrating this best available evidence from research with teachers’ knowledge and expertise, while considering students’ unique needs and personal preferences, is usually considered as evidence-based practice (Galindo-Domínguez et al., 2022). Metacognition and retrieval practice […]
SARAH MCCARTHY AND EMILY K FARRAN, SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF SURREY, UK SUE GIFFORD, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ROEHAMPTON, UK Spatial reasoning – the ability to understand the properties of objects and how they relate to other objects – is important for supporting children’s development of mathematics understanding (Mix et al., 2016). Spatial reasoning […]
