Teaching & Learning

Immerse yourself in the art and science of teaching and learning with a comprehensive range of blogs. Explore dynamic topics such as effective feedback strategies, impactful explanations, the art of questioning, and more. Gain valuable insights into pedagogical techniques informed by research evidence, along with an array of practical tips. These blogs are useful for teachers, leaders and everyone interested in education.

Arguing about English Post feature image

Arguing about English

Everyone has an opinion on the teaching of English, its curriculum, along with our national qualifications. Not just teachers: parents, policy makers, and pupils, all have an argument at the ready.  Of course, most of us have stumbled through an analysis of Shakespeare, or grumbled over the peculiarities of grammar

5 reasons why students fail with revision Post feature image

5 reasons why students fail with revision

Everyone has their own exam revision story of stress or failure. Whether it was an exhausting all-nighter, or the time you prepared for one exam question, but were asked another. Perhaps these experiences are why we are uniquely keen to understand better how to prepare students for exams (both teachers

The Magic of the Classroom Post feature image

The Magic of the Classroom

The school classroom is an amazing place. It is simultaneously filled with dazzling complexity and profound simplicity. It is at once driven by reassuring routines and constant surprises. As all pupils return to classrooms from the vagaries of the third lockdown this coming week, it will time for teachers to

Is it time to KO the Knowledge Organiser? Post feature image

Is it time to KO the Knowledge Organiser?

What if tools commonly used in the classroom threaten to inhibit the learning they were developed to support? Too often, a well-meaning teaching tool can get detached from the thinking which made it useful and so its original ingredients for learning are long lost. Commonly, after a couple of years,

We are 'Doing Curriculum' - so what are we stopping? Post feature image

We are 'Doing Curriculum' - so what are we stopping?

“From the teachers’ perspective, the education system is “noisy”: Teachers are surrounded by multiple and conflicting messages about what is most important to do. Furthermore, if they focus too much on any one of these important ideals, they may compromise their effectiveness with another.”  Mary Kennedy, ‘How does professional development

Curriculum Development and Teacher Development Post feature image

Curriculum Development and Teacher Development

“Curriculum development must rest on teacher development”  Lawrence Stenhouse, ‘An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development’ Paying attention to the careful, skilled development of your curriculum is essential business for every school. Though it has always been in view for teachers and school leaders, there is no doubt the focus

The Makings of Metacognition Post feature image

The Makings of Metacognition

In a couple of weeks, year 6 pupils will be sitting down to SATs examinations and in secondary schools, A Level and GCSE exams will start in earnest. Teachers everywhere are concentrating upon supporting our pupils to do their very best in challenging circumstances. Every teacher knows that the seeds

Top 10 Revision Strategies Post feature image

Top 10 Revision Strategies

Year after the year, the same pressures attend exam revision. Each year teachers try the old favourites, alongside a few new revision strategies to keep our students interested. Happily, we now have a wealth of evidence to support some revision strategies over others as we approach the revision stretch. We

10 Tricky Questions for Teachers Post feature image

10 Tricky Questions for Teachers

What if we were faced with uncomfortable questions about some of our brightest and best teaching and learning ideas? It would be uncomfortable and challenging, no doubt. Perhaps, though, such reflection on the potential of unintended consequences and unforeseen failures could prove both  revealing and instructive? With this thought experiment