Monzo: Turned their weakness into their USP
Monzo, like Wagamama, have turned their weakness into their ‘thing’ and we all love
Jeremy’s little red book
I have never seen a party leader hold and point to his manifesto as much as Jeremy. This explains why he is being so successful on the campaign trail.
Lost voices
In this General Election my vote, like so many others, will have no impact on how the country is run. This is not right.
The WHY of learning environments
What supermarkets, London 2012, Obama, The Great British Bake Off, routine and the colour yellow tell us about learning environments.
Growth Mindset – It can’t just be an assembly at the start of the year
Our school’s must be built with the growth mindset at their heart, it isn’t something that can just be tagged on or talked about in the first assembly of the year.
Do I still believe it?
At the start of the 2014-2015 academic year I thought it would be a great idea to reflect on my educational beliefs, those that underpin my daily activity. Now, at the end of the 2015-2016 academic year, I think it would be a great idea to see if any of these beliefs have changed.
Schools without a HOW
When schools do not have a ‘how’ they have a vacuum and this is very dangerous.
What I believe
At the start of the educational year it is a great idea to reaffirm and re-evaluate the principles that guide us in our daily teaching and leadership activities. What do you believe? What will you not compromise on? What do you stand by? What underpins your daily activity. Here, in some order of importance, is a collection of what I believe.
The most important building learning power muscle
One of the most important things that teachers can do in lessons to consolidate learning is to constantly encourage students to make links. Link to as much as possible of what they have learnt in that subject and also to what they are learning in other subjects. An analysis of how we learn seems to suggest that this is the most important building learning power muscle.
The Intelligence Wager
Much has been discussed concerning whether students can become more intelligent, i.e. whether they can increase their capacity to learn, as well just simply learn new things. I firmly believe that they can but regardless of the answer to this question the most important things is that we act as if they can and Pascal’s wager provides a good analogy as to why.
Raising Attainment
The biggest impact upon student attainment is the teacher that stands in front of them. There are numerous systems that can be put in place to raise attainment but what are most successful are those that improve that which has the biggest impact, the teacher. As such school leaders wishing to raise attainment should primarily concern themselves with improving the quality of these teachers.
Thoughts on Tough Young Teachers
This was a brilliant final episode. It really captured the highs and lows that teachers experience. The highs when a student screams ‘I got an A’ and the lows when our results aren’t as expected. It presented teaching as the drug it is, no matter what happens, you keep going back for more.
Motivating Staff: Lessons from a head-hunter
An engaging talk by successful headhunters, from Moloney Search, at the recent Prince’s Trust Institute conference, has highlighted what is necessary to motivate staff in the school context.
Stuck for an idea? Try the room next door
There is something simple that teachers can do to make them even better than they already are, it doesn’t take very long, it will have transformational effects and what’s more it can be done every day.
What is it? It’s walking around and watching others.
Tough Young Teachers – Review
I liked it. It didn’t focus on exposing vulnerable children but instead was a real, honest and accurate portrayal of the experiences that new teachers (as well as the not so new) encounter, the problems they face and the passion and enthusiasm that goes into solving them.
Why our brains need flipped classrooms
Providing content before the lesson increases student creativity and allows new ideas to be brought and used within the lesson
Engage Early
If students encounter greater content before the lesson then they will be more engaged in learning about it in the lesson
An Indian Education
My recent visit to Indian schools highlighted the transformational power that effective school leadership can have, how education can change lives, how a ‘different’ style of examination system can foster high level thinking skills, why teachers should act as a ‘distanced friend’, the power of Skype, how children can make their parents ‘live better’ and why we should focus on nature and heritage
Is your learning falling off the edges?
A spiral model of learning will stop new learning from dropping off the edges as it will continually develop and reinforce the links between current and new understanding
Education, cycling and marginal gains
To raise educational achievement you should identify all the contributing factors and continually seek to improve each one little by little
What motivates school staff? A lesson from Google
Empowering and encouraging staff to formulate their own ideas and to actually implement them will serve as the highest form of motivation
Teaching: The art of simplicity
Posing a series of simple questions actually helps us plan and achieve outstanding lessons
Spaghetti, marshmallows and assessment for learning
The marshmallow challenge highlights that AFL methodologies have most impact when they are intrinsic to lessons and not used as a ‘tag-on’
Impact! Impact! Impact!
When making decisions about educational provision they must be made by considering the potential impact upon learning and achievement and evaluated solely against this same criteria
It’s all in the question
Teachers should ask a lot of questions. Questions allow us to ascertain current understanding and to push students to the next level. As such they are most effective when they involve as many students as possible.