Exercise books are so temptingly inspectable. You can flick through & feel you’ve seen learning. But full pages, neat titles, coloured pens and polished paragraphs are, at best, proxies. The more beautiful a book is often the less evidence of learning it provides. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Exercise books are so temptingly inspectable. You can flick through & feel you’ve seen learning. But full pages, neat titles, coloured pens and polished paragraphs are, at best, proxies. The more beautiful a book is often the less evidence of learning it provides. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Later this month we have a webinar for teachers in Australia & New Zealand. We will share how our new AI marking system works & explain how schools in Aus & NZ can take part. We will also give you some free credits so you can try it out yourself! Register now. www.nomoremarking.com/events

Retrieval practice is everywhere but is it working? Wax on, wax off only works because Miyagi knows what the movements are for. Retrieval is no different: ritual needs meaning. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Retrieval practice is everywhere but is it working? Wax on, wax off only works because Miyagi knows what the movements are for. Retrieval is no different: ritual needs meaning. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

"Like many ideas in education, retrieval practice has suffered the peculiar fate of being simultaneously overused and underthought" 👇

Systems should be judged by what they do, not what they say they’re for. If inspection rewards performance, compliance and fear, schools will learn to perform, comply and fear. The alternative isn’t less accountability, it’s intelligent accountability: open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Systems should be judged by what they do, not what they say they’re for. If inspection rewards performance, compliance and fear, schools will learn to perform, comply and fear. The alternative isn’t less accountability, it’s intelligent accountability: open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Schools don’t just communicate intentions; they shape behaviour. Like a badly designed door or a desire path across grass, environments make some actions feel obvious. Environmental psychology helps us ask better questions open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Schools don’t just communicate intentions; they shape behaviour. Like a badly designed door or a desire path across grass, environments make some actions feel obvious. Environmental psychology helps us ask better questions open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

One of the advantages of our assessment model is that it uses AI to reduce workload BUT it also ensures every script is seen twice by a human. We can reduce the time it takes to assess a class set of essays down to about 15 minutes. It's all explained here. help.nomoremarking.com/en/article/h...

Exclusive: An experienced headteacher reduced to tears during a 'harrowing' Ofsted inspection has sounded alarm over the watchdog’s wellbeing protocols and new inspection framework schoolsweek.co.uk/an-inspectio...

Chapter 68 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 68 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

We know teachers vary in quality but teacher effectiveness isn’t an unvarying trait that can be plugged into to another school changed. Great teaching needs schools to nurture it. Importing expertise may create a possibility but it isn’t sustainable open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Ready or not, here’s another chapter of The Second Summer of Love? Chapter 67: Luke finally tells Nina about Fiona... secondsummeroflove.substack.com/p/i-dont-wan...

I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today on why a lot of the AI/jobpocalypse debate misses the point. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Schools haven’t changed all that much in 4000 years. In this post I argue that’s a good thing. I discuss evolution, evolutionary psychology, culture and make the claim that schools are the first — and most important — educational technology. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Schools haven’t changed all that much in 4000 years. In this post I argue that’s a good thing. I discuss evolution, evolutionary psychology, culture and make the claim that schools are the first — and most important — educational technology. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

We've just launched an exciting new post-16 writing assessment! We're going to use our AI-enhanced Comparative Judgement system to assess Year 12 writing at the start of next academic year. Read more and find out how to take part here. help.nomoremarking.com/en/article/a...

Chapter 66 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 66 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

This is excellent, although as an aside I worry a bit about people in power looking at principal coaching as the silver bullet to fix the lack of headship candidates in the system. I think it’s a good idea (if coaches are good enough, as @didau.bsky.social makes clear), but not enough to do that.

Huzzah

Coaching only takes you so far While good schools can multiplies coaching; a bad school absorbs it. If behaviour, curriculum, assessment and leadership are weak, coaching just tries to compensate for the system. Instead, we should coach principals. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Retrieval practice goes wrong when it becomes a ritual for teachers to perform. The aim is making knowledge available when it’s needed: recalled successfully, used purposefully, corrected visibly, and strengthened for elsewhere and later. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Retrieval practice goes wrong when it becomes a ritual for teachers to perform. The aim is making knowledge available when it’s needed: recalled successfully, used purposefully, corrected visibly, and strengthened for elsewhere and later. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

If you're a midlands based English teacher this might be the best decision you ever make. Immaculate behaviour. Incredible curriculum. High performance department. You would - however - have to work with me. DM for details and please share! mynewterm.com/jobs/138290/...

Chapter 64 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

A really interesting post. As someone who loves a spreadsheet, a useful cautionary tale sits here.

Good data can still lead to bad decisions. A behaviour log doesn’t show behaviour itself. It shows what’s noticed, challenged, escalated and recorded. My latest: The Problem with Patterns. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

The Take-You-Away. A Willerby Story. Any meal you've ever had in the place you had it, all over again. What would you choose? Whare would you go? open.substack.com/pub/willerby...

Chapter 62 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Schools are right to ban phones. But maybe a phone-free school should begin with culture, not expensive tech solutions. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 61 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Do MWBs have limitations? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

NEW BLOG: Oracy - talk is cheap but group work is costly learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/05/orac...

Latest podcast with me and @didau.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/DM_WyT2...

Enjoyed this.

I fundamentally do not like this man. Anyone who is incapable of talking about a crime or event without going ‘but what about THIS’ doesn’t care about either.

Schools need simplifications: labels, data, policies, maps. But the danger is that these tools start thinking for us. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Schools need simplifications: labels, data, policies, maps. But the danger is that these tools start thinking for us. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

An argument against ongoing assessment. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Writing transition isn’t a baton pass where primary hands over and secondary drops it. It’s a compatibility problem. Primary writing rewards expression, description and voice. Secondary writing demands clarity, explanation and disciplinary argument. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Writing transition isn’t a baton pass where primary hands over and secondary drops it. It’s a compatibility problem. Primary writing rewards expression, description and voice. Secondary writing demands clarity, explanation and disciplinary argument. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 59 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Enjoy reading @didau.bsky.social to watch his thinking. Don't agree with him on everything. But he's a generous sharer of how his ideas are shaped.

Questioning is so woven into teaching that it’s easy to stop noticing it. Weak questioning gives us the illusion of learning whereas effective questioning makes thinking visible, expands students’ horizons & provides feedback to teachers on how to Improve further. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Bonkers to see attention on making school dinner's healthier (when they are already far better than they were) when the real scandal is portion size which has got smaller and smaller.

I set out to run a marathon with a ludicrously ambitious goal, got injured, ignored advice, turned up anyway & somehow dragged myself round in 3:38:44. Marathons, like writing books, are about, stubbornness, & the willingness to keep going when plans fall apart. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...