A close friend of mine, an English teacher who possesses the extraordinary power of making literature feel vibrant and dynamic, once inherited a notoriously boisterous Year 9 class. They were labelled underachievers, the kind of class that staffroom lore had already written off. The prevailing advice was to keep things simple with them. Choose “accessible” […]
Retaining Complexity: Challenging Students Without Compromise Read More »
The science department at my school recently made a bold and refreshing decision. Rather than approaching Years 7 to 9 as a prelude to the real work that begins in examination years, they reframed Key Stage 3 as an opportunity to create scientists. They asked themselves what it would look like if students arrived in
It began with a chance encounter. In the late 1920s, Ned Harkness, a shy boy who had grown up longing for classrooms where he could think aloud without fear, boarded a train that would change the trajectory of American education. By luck, he met Dr Lewis Perry, the principal of Phillips Exeter Academy. Curious about
The Harkness Discussion Method: Revolution, Relationships and the Power of the Pause Read More »
I fainted the first time I ever stood to speak in front of an audience. I was eleven years old, moments away from taking part in a local public speaking competition run by a community charity group. I remember the weight of the room, the polite hush, the hall lights pressing down on me, and
Oracy: The Journey of Discovering Student Voice Read More »
This summer I visited East Point Lighthouse on the red shoreline of Prince Edward Island, it was here that I heard the remarkable story of how the entire towering structure was picked up using a capstan and horses, then moved 487 metres east in 1885. The reason? Nautical charts showed the light at the tip
Moving the Lighthouse: Fidelity in Teaching and Learning Read More »
The staffroom was quiet after the bell. A colleague sat, head bowed over a new specification from a new exam board. After five years in teaching, she confided, “I am finding it so hard to explain this content. I do not feel like I understand it well enough myself yet.” The pressure of mastering unfamiliar
Staff Wellbeing Driven by Professional Collaboration: Finding your Work Best Friends Read More »
As a new school year begins, educators and school leaders are flooded with decisions. From seating plans and assessment systems to curriculum mapping and behaviour routines, the early weeks are charged with action. In this flurry of choices, we often rely on heuristics. There are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb to navigate complexity. Heuristics
Heuristic Traps: A Hidden Hazard at the Start of a School Year Read More »
Adaptive teaching relies on scaffolds. In fact, Alex Quigley has written about how necessary they are as part of the 4 S’s of Adaptive Teaching- Scaffolds, Scale, Structure and Style. Let’s explore further how we can best create and deploy scaffolds that enhance adaptive teaching. We do not want to fall into the trap of
Adaptive Teaching with Magnificiently Designed Scaffolds Read More »
An enriched curriculum enhances the content we teach with depth and complexity. There can be demand that we march through the curriculum, so how do we create opportunities to pause and make linkages? Often we think of curriculum as a mountain to climb, each step we get progressively closer to the top. The route up
Cultural Representation and Powerful Knowledge Read More »
What is the shift from differentiation to adaptive teaching? Alex Quigley made the argument that differentiation is dead, and that the nail in the coffin came from the 2019 Department of Education’s Early Career Framework. It was here that we finally see that differentiation has lost its usefulness as a concept, despite being so ingrained
Adaptive Teaching- Embracing the New Normal Read More »