Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Deeply honoured that @didau.bsky.social shared my latest research on the 'Do Now' with his audience. Thank you, David, for the thoughtful engagement and for helping get these findings into the hands of more educators. substack.com/@daviddidau/...

Worth reflecting on: how teacher anecdotes shape engagement in the classroom. 👇 #education #teaching #edusky #uked www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/best...

The mother-in-law brought over the last few bits from her parents' loft. Science teachers of a certain vintage will know exactly what I asked for from this box!

Ben articulates this far better than I ever could

The Journal of Biological Education's latest editorial explores how curriculum reform can enhance the student experience of science education, and how we can build a biology curriculum that’s engaging, relevant, and achievable for all. Read the article: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

What work can I do while my child is at an after school activity? I know, I'll update the post-16 microbiology supply stash

“Vultures Circling Overhead, With Sean Bean”

Told both my yr11 groups today that the practical they were doing might be their last go at using a Bunsen burner and they were genuinely a bit sad/nostalgic

So I have written another blog, still under the file 'dull but useful'. This one is parents' evening. As with everything I write, take it or leave it as you please... philsalisbury.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/p...

'Alright pal, got plans for the #BigGardenBirdwatch?' 'Nah, just the usual... hang out of sight whilst she's doing the count, then touch down once the hour's over. You?' 'Classic. Planning some fly-bys with a few of the boys, but we'll only land one at a time.' 'Niiice.'

Made a new playlist

Will never get tired of making resources that other people will use, and leaving the occasional me-ism in anyway. Also thank you @phetsims.bsky.social

People need to remember that going to school is a kid's life. There's all this discourse on we're doing what's good for them (many years in the future) and neglect of the fact that kids spend much of lives in school. School is life, not an optimisation centre.

The Biologist's Tom Ireland goes behind the scenes at two of the world’s biggest biobanks – the San Diego Frozen Zoo and Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank - to explore their remarkable efforts to store and restore the Earth's biodiversity. Read the article: thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-fe...

It's beginning to look a lot like... Microbial Christmas! 🦠🧫🔬🎄🎅🏻🛷🦌☃️ 👉🏻 www.superbugs.online/superblog/microbial-christmas

Christmas veg courtesy of the allotment. If I could grow beetroot properly there would be some in a jar too, but alas...

The Greatest Do Now Ever™️ This is the story of how one teacher set out to create the greatest Do Now Ever, and he changed my teaching for the better. Please share if you can 🙏 carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/the-greate...

And how many of those are women whose employers don't/won't be creative with flexible working requests? I'd have been one of these statistics if I wasn't lucky enough to work in a forward-thinking school. It can be done!

As I said to my yr9 today having seen this at lunch, the Venn diagram of people who appreciate the work of David Baltimore AND know the words to Good Morning Baltimore must be fairly small. They had a tiny introduction to virus classification before we embarked on the microscopy RP.

Some food for thought…

Morning, A request for help: I recently moved up north (near Bolton) and I’ve been on supply ever since. I need a permanent job. Science teacher. 20yrs exp. Schools don’t always advertise on the TES so if anyone knows anyone, please pass this on? I’d really appreciate it!

If you added up everything that can supposedly be fixed in society with a PSHE lesson, you’d probably have enough to write a new verse to the tune of “we didn’t start the fire”.

The Microbiology in Schools Advisory Committee, MiSAC, announces its Annual Schools Competition. Find out about this and explore the fantastic microbiology resources at www.misac.org.uk

OK hear me out. Celebrity Traitors but with the cast of Slow Horses, all in character.

We've published our response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report and the Government's response today. We'd welcome views from our members. 👉https://www.ase.org.uk/news/ase-response-publication-of-curriculum-and-assessment-review

@physicsmrh.bsky.social !!!

I do think it’s so important that Times readers get to read about key curricular developments sooner than the people who’ll have to implement them.

8 chemists with disabilities who left their mark on history Scientists with disabilities ascended to the forefronts of their fields long before labs were accessible and civil rights were codified. #DisabledInSTEM #NDEAM cen.acs.org/careers/dive...

Trying to imagine what the reaction would have been if the Govt had casually announced they were replacing A-levels with no details, as they have done with post-16 vocational qualifcations today. Probably not total indifference.

Yet more vocational qualification reform, yay 🙄

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... If government are after parity of esteem for vocational quals, the process could be kickstarted by rebadging some A levels as V levels - for instance: Engineering, Business Studies, Law, Psychology, D&T, maybe some of the art subjects like Graphic Communication, etc

Bookmarking this for the next go round at B6 AQA!

Once you get dengue fever, you're at a much greater risk of severe disease if you ever get it again due to something called antibody dependent enhancement. So why did I choose to purposely be infected with dengue? Read my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social to find out. I'm quite proud of this one.

Antimicrobial resistance is projected to cause 39 million deaths worldwide over the next 25 years go.nature.com/42x5KHD

Come & work with us ... teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/jobs/teacher...

Very interesting read. Realised I've been doing a lot of (very useful) choral response for one word answers to do nows, by accident

Just saying. 🦠🍕 👉🏼 www.superbugs.online/pop-up-2025/...

Monkeys?! Come on Newsround 🤦

We are looking for a maths teacher! Please repost! Come and work at our school in the heart of the national forest 🌳 🏡 We believe that every child is capable of achieving in maths and we use faculty time for talking about and exploring maths teaching www.ashbyschool.org.uk/content/vaca...

New blog post ↓ Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson? #UKEd #EduSky #iTeachBio #SciTeachUK

Funny that.

Thinking very much about @johntomsett.bsky.social’s ‘Treat staff so well they don’t want to leave. Train them so well that they can.’ today. We still stand to make only two main scale appointments this year in our school of 1800 and both are for retirements. Long may it continue.

Why might we not see impact in schools when leaders work tirelessly to improve them? Are they in a Doom Loop? Spot poor practice, leap to conclusions, launch a new initiative without build up and see poor results - then repeat. Leaders must build momentum towards clear goals.

🧵 Our 7th annual review of the Teacher Labour Market in England, published today, reveals that a combination of high teacher leaving rates and poor recruitment into initial teacher training (ITT) is leading to shortages of teachers and increasing class sizes. #TLM2025 [1/11]

I will die on the hill that teaching a full timetable is the hardest job in the system and everything leaders do should be about making this as manageable, effective and enjoyable as possible.

🚨Incredibly excited to announce this job 🚨 Are you interested in driving the future of professional development? Helping teachers everywhere get better faster? We changed the game on retrieval practice, we're going to do it on CPD. APPLY HERE Please share if you can 🙏🙏