A couple of years ago, I stumbled across 'Post Secret' which is an ongoing community art project, created by Frank Warren. The project involves people posting their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Selected secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits. One glance through the website or … Continue reading GCSE Creative Writing Exemplars: Post Secret ‘ I’m having difficulty coming to terms with my mediocrity’ →

If you’ve dared to read the comments on various news articles published over the past year, you’ll have no doubt seen some quite hurtful and unfounded comments about the integrity and practice of colleagues in the teaching profession during the pandemic. If you spent long enough scrolling through the comments, you would see how poor … Continue reading Staff CPD During and After COVID →

In this week’s episode, I teamed up with Aidan Sammons, Head of Psychology and Professional Coach at King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls.  Now that we think we might have mastered the technological challenges of teaching remotely, there are many questions that arise about the successful delivery of learning and how teachers might give … Continue reading TLA Meets: Aidan Sammons- planning effective feedback when teaching remotely →

At the bottom of the road near our school, there's a little cut-through called Crick Lane. It's a really helpful shortcut if you're aiming to avoid rush-hour traffic on the A41, but unfortunately it's also a fly-tipping hotspot. In spite of council efforts to clean this area regularly, they can't compete with the people who … Continue reading Year 10 GCSE Creative Writing Exemplars: The Crick Lane Chronicles →

I feel very proud to share the same corridors as an award-winning leader! Mick McCarthy is Head of Technology at King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls and was recently awarded the ENTHUSE Award for School and College Leadership in STEM. Mick has made excellent progress in transforming his department since joining the school; he … Continue reading TLA Meets: Award-winning STEM Leader, Mick McCarthy →

In this first instalment of 'The Learning Addict Meets', I met with Jon Neale to talk about how the Google Add-On 'Mote' can add value to your online feedback and help save time. In this session, Jon demonstrates Mote's features and explains how Mote can benefit teachers in a whole host of ways. What are … Continue reading TLA Meets: Jon Neale, Digital Learning Lead and Mote expert! →

Beyond using Microsoft Teams/ Google Classroom (other lesson streaming programmes are available!), there are a whole host of useful websites that can help to support the delivery of online lessons. Here a few tried and tested ones that you may find useful. 1.) Whiteboard.fi https://whiteboard.fi/ Great for: Any online whiteboard work- very useful with a … Continue reading 5 useful websites to support remote learning →

COVID19 has impacted our professional lives significantly. Many things we would just do as second nature- looking over a student's shoulder at their work, sitting next to them to give quiet feedback and support, circulating our classrooms all now require second thoughts and even a mental COVID risk assessment. With national lockdowns imminent (as of … Continue reading Remote Teaching- some thoughts and some possible models for implementation →

NACE Report Review- December 2020  The title of NACE’s most eagerly-awaited recent research report is very apt indeed- the question remains: do we truly make enough space in our schools for all of our learners to flourish? But what does it really mean to ‘make space’ to allow the highest levels of cognitive challenge in … Continue reading Book Review: ‘Making Space for More Able Learners’ published by NACE 2020 →