NEW: Good schools make good trachers If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Latest chapter of SSOL out now open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

open.substack.com/pub/daviddid... The Problems of Practice ↓

open.substack.com/pub/daviddid... The Problems of Practice ↓

Chapter 13 of The Second Summer of Love has just dropped! open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Thanks for this David and @trivium21c.bsky.social . It was a really helpful overview.

The new Curriculum & Assessment Review is a curate’s egg: good in parts. There’s real promise in its vision for English but much depends on whether its promise of clarity helps students think more deeply, or just grind towards ticking a new set of boxes open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 12 of my novel, The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.” Policy-makers get plaudits; teachers get the blame; children pay the bill. New post: the consequences of being wrong open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

we should definitely impose silence on students, and I think Ben has elevated my descriptor. I use it to describe the point in "noise" at which interruptions will not disturb the room. I think using the language with students and actively teaching them what it means is genius

The bigots and ghouls of the racist right believe there is no place in the UK for this hero and his family; and they claim to speak for the silent majority, disgusting freaks that they are.

📖 Litdrive CPD 📖 Jekyll and Hyde: Continuing with this novella from yesterday's resource post, check out this exploration of 'Why the end of Jekyll and Hide is weirder than you think' with David Didau and Claire Woolzey 🐝 Link: buff.ly/MlmWhoZ #LitdriveCPD #TeamEnglish

Next up as I seem to be on an edu-podcast binge is David Didau #learningspy Interesting theme coming out from several now - Didau, Bibi, Goodrich, and Boxer also talks about this, not finding teaching easy or natural as a newbie. “Like a fridge to water” open.spotify.com/episode/6CaI...

@didau.bsky.social is spot on here: It’s not that teachers are talking too much... but that students are doing too little with what is said. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Barnaby Rudge is such a good read!

“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”. Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Caution required: much so called “dual-coding” does more harm than good open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”. Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 10 of The Second Summer of Love The Stratford Road Job Centre: where dreams go on the dole. Luke had hoped failure would come with guidance, maybe even sympathy. Instead, he got Glennys, patron saint of soap dodgers, and a job interview with Synapse Dynamic Communications. Whatever that is.

Just over a week until publication of my new book on the joys and power of curiosity - the perfect gift for someone interested in maths or politics or archaeology or physics or art or poetry - also ideal for anyone not yet interested in those things who should be.

A pictures worth a 1000 words, right? But when words and pictures pull in different directions, learning falls apart. My latest piece looks at where dual coding goes wrong and how to make visuals actually help students think. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

A pictures worth a 1000 words, right? But when words and pictures pull in different directions, learning falls apart. My latest piece looks at where dual coding goes wrong and how to make visuals actually help students think. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Telling students stuff is sensible. But if you’re *just* telling them, you’re not really teaching. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

This is why I find lecturing so unsatisfactory and unfulfilling.

Telling students stuff is sensible. But if you’re *just* telling them, you’re not really teaching. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Why do good ideas in education so often go bad? Because we keep falling into the same implementation traps: translation, turbulence, fidelity, measurement, and accountability. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Why do good ideas in education so often go bad? Because we keep falling into the same implementation traps: translation, turbulence, fidelity, measurement, and accountability. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Brava @msjasminemn.bsky.social! Great piece.

If there’s one king you’d think Jacob would remember it’d be Cnut

They've also studied the impact of keeping disruptive and violent pupils in classrooms on the rest of the class, right? I mean, surely they wouldn't just decide to base recommendations for the whole system only on the benefits for the few who cause disruption to others? Surely?!

Just posted Chapter 9 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

New essay: AI and the End of Teaching — on why school was already the best technology we ever built.” open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

New essay: AI and the End of Teaching — on why school was already the best technology we ever built.” open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

*NEW* Chapter 8 of The Second Summer of Love Morning in Moseley, 1989: fried egg sandwich going cold, washing machine mid-spin, Pebble Mill blaring, and six siblings shouting over “Lady in Red.” Somewhere beneath it all, Luke feels a bassline no one else can hear. open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

An odd week. Been unexpectedly stuck in hospital. But also found out I've got a contract for my second book which I'm very excited about. It wouldn't have happened without the substack so to celebrate here's a special offer link: 25% off for your first year. samf.substack.com/specialoffer

Just ran my first half marathon in 1:50: now I’m training for the full 26.2. Running, like writing, isn't about inspiration but discipline, structure, & carrying on when you’d rather stop. Couch to 5K Writing began with that idea: one step, one sentence at a time. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Just ran my first half marathon in 1:50: now I’m training for the full 26.2. Running, like writing, isn't about inspiration but discipline, structure, & carrying on when you’d rather stop. Couch to 5K Writing began with that idea: one step, one sentence at a time. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

*NEW* Bridget Phillipson’s Labour speech was full of warmth, sentiment and free breakfasts — but silence on the one thing that really matters: what children should actually learn. Breakfast fills bellies. Curriculum feeds minds. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

*NEW* Bridget Phillipson’s Labour speech was full of warmth, sentiment and free breakfasts — but silence on the one thing that really matters: what children should actually learn. Breakfast fills bellies. Curriculum feeds minds. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 7 of my novel, The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Excellent as always from Claire. This time, amongst other amazing things, nailing it on how art can patronise when it makes assumptions 👌

This is tomorrow! Still time to sponsor me. I’m Hoping to get it done in 2 hours.

This is tomorrow! Still time to sponsor me. I’m Hoping to get it done in 2 hours.

For the tiny number of you following my novel, The Second Summer of Love, we're onto chapter 6... open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Teachers love a good brain scan, but neuroscience tells us far less about teaching than we like to think. New 2025 studies show neuromyths still thriving in classrooms worldwide. It’s time to stop mistaking neurofolklore for knowledge. 🧠👇 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Bridget Phillipson and the Curriculum Question: breakfast or brains? www.youtube.com/live/FASKHwB... with me & @trivium21c.bsky.social

Teachers love a good brain scan, but neuroscience tells us far less about teaching than we like to think. New 2025 studies show neuromyths still thriving in classrooms worldwide. It’s time to stop mistaking neurofolklore for knowledge. 🧠👇 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory is a comforting myth dressed up as science: conceptually muddled, empirically empty, and educationally useless. We don’t need eight kinds of genius, we just need decent evidence. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Bridget Phillipson and the Curriculum Question: breakfast or brains? www.youtube.com/live/FASKHwB... with me & @trivium21c.bsky.social

The Scond Summer of Love Chapter 5 Dawn over Coventry. The music’s faded, but it’s still thrumming in their bones. Luke, Rich, and Eddie watch the sky turn a haunted blue and realise it isn’t just the night that’s ending. open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...