Chapter 53 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 53 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Brilliant analysis of the problems facing curriculum designers. Not seen a better ‘decomposition’ of the issue. Or a better use of the word ‘decompose’.

Coverage is not progress. Students struggle for 3 curricular reasons: lack of specificity, lack of systematicity, and lack of subject sensitivity. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Coverage is not progress. Students struggle for 3 curricular reasons: lack of specificity, lack of systematicity, and lack of subject sensitivity. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Lol

I obviously didn’t forget to paste the entire quote. There are character limitations on Bluesky posts. Repetition *does* involve making choices and mental action. And, depending on how checks for attention are enacted, also making inferences. 1/2

This feels like a straw man argument: “we shouldn’t be trying to hold our students’ attention to an information flow … we should try to prompt attention by having students act. Checking for attention *is* a prompt to action.

Chapter 52 of The Second Summer of Love this is, perhaps, my favourite chapter open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

It was ever thus?

Don’t let me down, gently Chapter 51 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

On punctuation: distinguishing between knowledge problems and practice problems open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 50 of The Second Summer of Love. Fiona’s back… open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Oh dear - it turns out that turning on the subtitles doesn't do wonders for children's reading after all. New and extensive research from @kathyrastle.bsky.social and Anastasiia Lopukhina. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

After a brush with the law, Luke is back in Brum. Reach out and touch faith - Chapter 48 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 47 of The Second Summer of Love A paean to pirate radio open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

NEW Freedom stifles creativity whereas constraint forces imagination to work. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

NEW Better schools, better teachers? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

WANT TO INCLUDE YOUR KID IN LITTLE BUT FIERCE? 2 of the 6 slots have been taken to have your kid (or a hero they've designed) included in the official artwork for Little but Fierce. Are they Little but Fierce...? www.kickstarter.com/projects/dcb... #littlebutfierce #dnd #ttrpg

NEW Better schools, better teachers? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

New chapter- The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

A fascinating read from David Didau. I’ve been talking about Sir Ken’s TED talk for years back when I was in the classroom and spent years exploring creative thinking with Year 7 classes. It’s one of the reason why I believe collaborative, creative storytelling is so important!

Do schools kill creativity?” It’s a seductive story. But creativity isn’t a free-floating spark waiting to be protected from schooling. It grows from knowledge, constraint, revision and judgement. Far from killing creativity, schools breathe life into it. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Pulled out of my long run on Sunday after 5k. Chat GPT advised me not to run. Saw physio (who made the same diagnosis as GPT: medial tibial stress) and gave me some rehab. Foam rollers are brutal! This is the longest I’ve not run since the summer. Feeling very antsy. Marathon in 6 weeks!

“High standards and inclusion are two sides of the same coin.” After reading the white paper carefully and discussing it during a SENCo forum this week, I’ve written on the shift in language, and what some of this might mean for schools in practice. moderncassie.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-sh...

New chapter of Second Summer of Love It’s all going Pete Tong open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

New chapter of Second Summer of Love It’s all going Pete Tong open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Just completed a trawl through about 30 Ofsted reports all released since Feb 26. With one exception, every setting with low attainment get needs attention for achievement and leadership and governance and every setting with close to average or above achievement gets expected or above for both.

ARE YOU LITTLE BUT FIERCE? Little but Fierce, the streamlined adaptation of 5th Edition for kids, is now live on Kickstarter! 

 Support the project to introduce TTRPGs to the next generation:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/dcb...

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Whole-text immersion at pace is a sounds like a great idea. It may build stamina, coherence, vocabulary. It may especially help weaker readers. Some thoughts on how we might respond to the evidence on ‘fastervreading’ open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Whole-text immersion at pace is a sounds like a great idea. It may build stamina, coherence, vocabulary. It may especially help weaker readers. Some thoughts on how we might respond to the evidence on ‘fastervreading’ open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Being a "warm demander" is a main drive for us this year, and this fits in perfectly ...

A lovely review in Teach Secondary for my Cabinet of Curiosity. “School life ought to consist of far more than just a utilitarian pursuit of exam grades” You can buy a copy here if you like books and think this is interesting: www.hachette.co.uk/titles/james...

NEW BLOG: We need to talk about oracy A taste of my ResearchEd talk yesterday learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/03/we-n...

We say we care about children. So why do we let them opt out? At researchEDBrum I taught a live lesson. One student wanted to opt out. I could have backed off. It would have been easier. Instead, I insisted they participate, as warmly as possible open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

It was so valuable to have a more reluctant pupil in the room (albeit unintentionally, I'm sure) as this is the modelling it's really useful and reassuring to see. Exemplar videos often show a leafy/half-size class where nothing's wrong - great for showing some things, but not everything.

We say we care about children. So why do we let them opt out? At researchEDBrum I taught a live lesson. One student wanted to opt out. I could have backed off. It would have been easier. Instead, I insisted they participate, as warmly as possible open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 43 of The Second Summer of Love It’s going to kick off… open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

A very interesting read. "Reading comprehension is not a single, detachable skill. It is the visible outcome of many interacting components: decoding fluency, vocabulary, background knowledge, inference, working memory, " #edpsychs

New study casts doubt on what reading comprehension is and how best to teach it. Is background knowledge less important than we thought? Is reciprocal teaching the way forward? Or is it a bit more complicated than that? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

New study casts doubt on what reading comprehension is and how best to teach it. Is background knowledge less important than we thought? Is reciprocal teaching the way forward? Or is it a bit more complicated than that? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 42 of The Second Summer of Love… where did it all go wrong? open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 42 of The Second Summer of Love… where did it all go wrong? open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

8 weeks out from Newport Marathon - half marathon in Bath today. Cold, rainy, windy. What could be better?

Do brain scans tell us anything about how to structure a curriculum? Should we be lead by what cognitive psychology indicates about how we learn or by what neuroscience suggests about how knowledge is stored? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Over the last year, we've built an innovative model of writing assessment that blends human & AI judgement. If you would like to see how it works & try it for free, sign up for our webinar next Wednesday at 4pm. We will give all attendees 30 free AI credits. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Chapter 41 of The Second Summer of Love… open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Do brain scans tell us anything about how to structure a curriculum? Should we be lead by what cognitive psychology indicates about how we learn or by what neuroscience suggests about how knowledge is stored? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

FREE webinar next Wednesday (8.40 AM UK Time) Using talk as a cognitive lever thinkforwardeducators.org/events/title...