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back to school

The Back to School Collection

2017-09-03T14:52:35+01:00September 3rd, 2017|Featured|

So, Monday morning looms and another term begins. For everyone stepping back into a classroom this week, chin up, don't work too hard, and remember, it's just a job. For those new to the profession - or simply looking for a bit of refresher - I wrote a series of back of school posts a few years ago and, having reviewed them, am still happy they represent a pretty solid approach to teaching. Here they are: Routines Relationships Literacy Planning Marking Here too are a series of 'Five Things" posts that will, I believe, be useful for all teachers: Reading Writing [...]

Back to School Part 5: Marking

2014-08-25T17:23:42+01:00August 24th, 2014|assessment, Featured|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. Marking is a chore. Whether or not it has a measurable impact of pupils' outcomes is arguable; that's not the reason we do it. The reason we spend so much time marking is a combination of we're [...]

Back to School Part 4: Planning

2020-09-02T14:06:11+01:00August 23rd, 2014|Featured|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. So far in this back to school series we've covered establishing clear routines, building relationships and an awareness of the need to make language and literacy explicit in lessons. This next post concerns itself with the time consuming business [...]

Back to school Part 3: Literacy

2015-01-04T18:28:17+00:00August 21st, 2014|literacy|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. It's all very well establishing all those routines and relationships, but sooner or later you'll have to teach them something. And whatever you teach, you'll also be teaching literacy. Every time you open your mouth you’re modelling how to speak; every time you ask students to [...]

Back to school Part 2: Relationships

2014-08-25T12:38:45+01:00August 20th, 2014|Featured|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. Once clear and sensible routines are in place, there's space for positive relationships to form; without them, we are merely fire-fighting. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, pupils prefer teachers they perceive as 'stricter' and want the reassurance of feeling safe, and knowing [...]

Back to school Part 1: Routines

2020-07-14T13:07:41+01:00August 19th, 2014|leadership|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. It's normally at about this point in August that the dull, nagging ache begins; the toad, September, squats over the summer. It's bad enough if you're returning to a school where you're well-known, but if you're starting anew or, [...]

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