After more than seven years at the Education Endowment Foundation, I’m stepping into a new chapter. It’s been a privilege to work alongside such a talented, purpose-driven team, deepening my understanding of how research evidence can meaningfully support teachers and improve outcomes for disadvantaged learners. Leading and
Where do teachers start when it comes to supporting students who struggle with reading and writing? There is so much written and argued about reading and writing, that busy teachers can feel a little lost about here to start or what to do. Many teachers can feel like King Cnut
Engagement matters to learning. Without it, students are unlikely to focus and invest in their learning. If teenage students in England are increasingly disengaged, we should want to know the causes and what can be done about it. In a recent large scale survey entitled, 'Mind the Engagement Gap:
I have spent more than a decade writing about vocabulary and working with a range of teachers across primary, secondary and colleges. Over that time, I've come to think differently about one of the most important, but tricky aspects of vocabulary instruction: deciding which words to explicitly teach.
Take the time to sit with Rebecca for a moment. It was in the school library that I sat across from Rebecca. At the end of a long autumn day – for us both – I attempted to spark her into life, nudging her to give her best effort to catch up
In the last fortnight, flashes of sunlight and daffodils have brightened the days, whilst government announcements and interesting new resources keep coming to light too. In this edition, I share my latest writing on 'levelled readers' and disciplinary literacy, along with a new video on why independent study
It can sometimes feel like primary school and secondary school teachers inhabit different worlds. It is no surprise then that teachers at different phases have diverging views and beliefs given their dissimilar experience. The saying goes that primary school teachers teach the whole child, whereas secondary school teachers teach their
What if your child struggles and falls behind their peers? When it comes to the topic of children struggling in school and education, parents can experience profound feelings of fear or worry, or hope and relief. Students can feel the same array of strong emotions whether they struggle or not.
There is a lot of warnings and worries when it comes to using AI in education. Teachers understandably worry that if ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar AI chatbots, do all the hard work and thinking, then students will opt out and learn less. The idea of 'cognitive offloading' each
