On New Years Eve, The Times newspaper published an article entitled, “Make lessons fun to keep children in school, ministers told.” In the article, Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of ASCL, reportedly talked about “subjects, such as art, which provide an outlet for less academic students.” My experience of…
I have been thinking a great deal about teacher quality, inspired by the London researchED conference earlier this month. Since then, I have been planning my next book; here is the plan: This Much I Know About Truly Great Teachers (and what we can learn from them) The book begins…
In my last post I ruminated on what constitutes a great teacher, inspired by talks given at the recent National ResearchED conference by Pritesh Raichura, and Dr Raj Chande & Professor Rob Coe. Pritesh demonstrated all the teaching techniques and teacher qualities required for securing 100% attention in class, and…
Dave Williams was my A level English teacher. He changed my life. If I hadn’t been taught by Dave, I wouldn't have chosen to study English Literature at university. I thought of Dave yesterday, when I was at the researchED National Conference in London. I attended a…
From 9 pm to 10 pm on Thursday 9 April 1992, I was a teller for the Labour Party at our local polling station in Brighton. I had been working hard that week and hadn’t really kept up with what was happening in the polls. I took voters’ numbers,…
One of the joys of the Huh series has been talking with colleagues who are at the top of their game. Mary and I find, repeatedly, that they use metaphors and similes to describe what they do which are striking, original and illuminating. In AP Huh, our final book in…
In my last post, I reflected upon the sheer number of pupils who have a registered place in Alternative Provision (AP) (67,600) or are being home-educated (close to 100,000). I argued that mainstream schools will need to review how they tailor their offer for increasing numbers of pupils…
Mary Myatt and I have just signed off the proofs for our final book in the Huh curriculum series - Alternative Provision Huh. Interviewing so many disparate educationalists working in AP reminded me of Charlie Leadbeater and his book We-Think (2009). Fifteen years ago, Leadbeater wrote about the impact the…