‘Preventable contact’ is the time teachers spend with learners in-between lessons to do such things as help them catch up and sort out under-performance issues. This can be exhausting. Imagine if your induction programme produced learners who could learn effectively, independently and with peers, in a positive, can-do culture; and where attendance and punctuality issues simply don’t exist. This session is designed to help you develop an unmissable, unforgettable induction experience for your learners. And as we’re currently uncertain about […]

It’s fascinating to watch my wife’s school (she’s a Reception teacher) wrestle with the creeping end to lockdown. Some manager in a (home) office somewhere in the academy chain has decided that each child should be given a zip-lock bag containing: a pen, pencil, crayon, a couple of building blocks and a small-world toy (or something like that). This is, of course, without reference to any of the reality of Reception-level education or the children in question. We suffer from […]

Fifteen seconds to really make you think #8: Expert learning strategies This 15 second video should really make you think about the extent to which you proactively develop your learners’ expert, independent learning skills. Do you ever write a learning outcome focused on this? From John Holt’s ‘How Children Fail’. Click the image to watch the very short video of the full quotation. Feel free to share with your team to start the conversation.. ‘The reason so many children in […]

Twenty seconds to really make you think – #7: Conditions for growth Provocative quote number 6. This 15 second video could be a profound challenge to your scheme of work. Step back for a moment – do you meet this challenge? From John Holt’s ‘How Children Fail’. Click the image to watch the very short video of the full quotation. Feel free to share with your team to start the conversation.. ‘There’s no telling what might be done with children […]

Twenty seconds to really make you think – #6: On assessment Provocative quote number 6. Could this 15 seconds of video change your whole view of assessment? From John Holt’s ‘How Children Fail’. Click the image to watch the very short video of the full quotation. Feel free to share with your team to start the conversation.. ‘It is not the teacher’s proper task to be constantly testing and checking the understanding of the learner. That’s the learner’s task, and […]