We obsess over how to teach reading and forget to ask why. If literature trains attention, judgement and endurance, perhaps we should be more concerned with selecting books, that have the power to enrich, making time to read them, and stop over-explaining. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

We obsess over how to teach reading and forget to ask why. If literature trains attention, judgement and endurance, perhaps we should be more concerned with selecting books, that have the power to enrich, making time to read them, and stop over-explaining. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Carl used knock out a corker every year or so on his old chronotope blog but the discipline of writing regularly on Substack has demonstrated what a consistently superb thinker he is.

Happy Christmas! open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Happy Christmas! open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Can I ask a favour? Life has been really tough lately due to terminal family illness and I just haven’t had the spoons for decent self promotion. Could you please give the “Little but Fierce” kickstarter prelaunch page a repost (and maybe a follow)? www.kickstarter.com/projects/dcb...

Chapter 24 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

NEW Teaching metre as meaning open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

This is really fun from @didau.bsky.social - daviddidau.substack.com/p/teaching-m... Metre makes verse memorable (useful if you need to unspool reams on stage) - playing with it lets you catch the ear to make a point. I wrote about this trick in Hamlet: james-handscombe.co.uk/scholarship/...

NEW Teaching metre as meaning open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

My favourite non-fiction of 2025 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

My favourite non-fiction of 2025 open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

My favourite novels this year open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

My favourite novels this year open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Next chapter: here we come on the run, don’t know what we’re running from open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Professional scepticism is the disciplined habit of slowing down unscrupulous optimism before it does damage. Before rolling out the next shiny policy, ask: - What problem are we solving? - What would show this is wrong? - What will we stop doing if it fails? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Professional scepticism is the disciplined habit of slowing down unscrupulous optimism before it does damage. Before rolling out the next shiny policy, ask: - What problem are we solving? - What would show this is wrong? - What will we stop doing if it fails? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 21 of The Second Summer of Love open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

A discussion of the essay collection, The Value of a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum. Knowledge is not about status or nostalgia but access. Access to disciplines, to shared reference points, to the long human conversation that too many children are excluded from. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

A discussion of the essay collection, The Value of a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum. Knowledge is not about status or nostalgia but access. Access to disciplines, to shared reference points, to the long human conversation that too many children are excluded from. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

#FridayFive is just really happy. 1. More Than This. Roxy Music. 2. One Day Like This. Elbow. 3. Lucky Man. The Verve. 4 Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys. 5. Good As Hell. Lizzo.

The teacher guides are a genuine selling point. They go beyond activities and answers to explain the curriculum thinking behind each unit. They clarify key concepts, disciplinary reasoning, and why particular examples and enquiries are used. collins.co.uk/collections/...

It should be obvious that only relevant prior knowledge informs learning but somehow this isn’t on tot a great many very smart people. If we can’t see the underlying structure we end up mistaking not being able to see the wood for all the trees. . open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

It should be obvious that only relevant prior knowledge informs learning but somehow this isn’t on tot a great many very smart people. If we can’t see the underlying structure we end up mistaking not being able to see the wood for all the trees. . open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 20 of The Second Summer of Love: “You’re twisting my melon, man” Post rave pub chat with big sister open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Chapter 20 of The Second Summer of Love: “You’re twisting my melon, man” Post rave pub chat with big sister open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

This is excellent from David Didau @lutzfernandez.bsky.social @annabower.bsky.social daviddidau.substack.com/p/brave-new-...

David Didau and Carl Hendrick announced as keynote speakers at researchED Ballarat on 14 March 2026 Tickets: events.humanitix.com/researched-b...

We love to say we’re building a ‘love of reading’. The evidence suggests we’re doing no such thing. Pleasure doesn’t lead to fluent reading; fluency makes pleasure possible. Reading for pleasure should be an outcome, not a curricular aim. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

We love to say we’re building a ‘love of reading’. The evidence suggests we’re doing no such thing. Pleasure doesn’t lead to fluent reading; fluency makes pleasure possible. Reading for pleasure should be an outcome, not a curricular aim. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

“It makes sense to ‘celebrate’ one’s identity. It makes no sense at all to celebrate suffering from anxiety or being unable to read.” One last time for this: Ideologically driven approach to SEND fails to help “neurodiverse” pupils. open.substack.com/pub/andrewol...

NEW The psychology of belonging Psychology explains why children want to belong. It cannot explain what they must inherit in order to do so. Belonging is linguistic as much as it is emotional. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

NEW The psychology of belonging Psychology explains why children want to belong. It cannot explain what they must inherit in order to do so. Belonging is linguistic as much as it is emotional. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Also available here: pod.fo/e/35d19d

Our latest podcast (@didau.bsky.social and me) is here! It’s about belonging and not belonging and how far will schools go to satisfy Ofsted? www.youtube.com/live/Df5OPOy...

Belonging is Ofsted’s latest buzzword, but most of the noise misses the point. Children experience school through language, the medium that shapes every social cue. If we treat belonging as emotional, we will keep trying to solve the wrong problem. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Belonging is Ofsted’s latest buzzword, but most of the noise misses the point. Children experience school through language, the medium that shapes every social cue. If we treat belonging as emotional, we will keep trying to solve the wrong problem. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 18 You’re Gonna Get Yours open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

Autonomy sounds like liberation, but the Greeks had a clearer view: freedom wasn’t being unwatched it was upholding the law for your self. Now, in classrooms and staffrooms alike, that’s the promise and the price. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Autonomy sounds like liberation, but the Greeks had a clearer view: freedom wasn’t being unwatched it was upholding the law for your self. Now, in classrooms and staffrooms alike, that’s the promise and the price. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Chapter 17 - There she goes again racing through my brain open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...

We have a webinar for teachers in Aus & NZ on 2 Dec. You'll take part in some live Comparative Judgement of real students' writing, & see if you agree with the AI! We will also share details of our national assessment projects which DECIMATE workload! www.nomoremarking.com/events

Brave New World We haven’t ended up in Orwell’s nightmar but instead have drifted into Huxley’s. This piece draws on Neil Postman’s writing as well as new cognitive research to show how distraction is hollowing out the very capacities democratic life depends on open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Brave New World We haven’t ended up in Orwell’s nightmar but instead have drifted into Huxley’s. This piece draws on Neil Postman’s writing as well as new cognitive research to show how distraction is hollowing out the very capacities democratic life depends on open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

I listen to Its Your Time Your Wasting with @didau.bsky.social & @trivium21c.bsky.social but peaked too soon & listened to it Sunday. Been a difficult week to be honest. I've cried for about 20% of it. The other 80% I've worked. I did walk 10km Tues though.

#FridayFive is the feeling a sort of maudlin pre Christmas mood. 1. Goodbye England. Laura Marling. 2. A Long December. Counting Crows 3. Winter Valley Song. Fountain of Wayne. 4. Flume. Bon Iver. 5. Pocahontas. Neil Young.

NEW chapter of Second Summer of Love out now... Chapter 16 - “I try to discover a little something to make me sweeter…” open.substack.com/pub/secondsumm…

Thank you to @adamboxereducation.bsky.social and @laurastam for the final kick of inspiration yesterday morning to get this blog about mini-whiteboards finally out of my head and into the world. Mini-Whiteboards: A Long-Overdue Rant (and Love Letter) open.substack.com/pub/theeduca...

Why do some schools buck the national trend for disadvantaged pupils while others struggle to shift the dial? We Are In Beta have produced the most thoughtful attempt yet to answer that question. I dig into their findings,and consider what “best” ought to mean. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...