Without Teach First I might not be in teaching - I didn’t know what I wanted to do, applied expecting to move on after the two years, surprised myself by loving it. What an own goal this would be

For years I have nurtured and refined this list of books which I have mentally filed as "novels you absolutely can't go wrong with if you take them on holiday". I've shared it with many friends over the years but this is the first time I've published it: jmarriott.substack.com/p/absorbing-...

📣NEW BLOG📣 Cueing attention in time… AKA the three benefits of a good check for understanding. hobbolog.wordpress.com/2025/06/24/c...

#UKEd #EduSky "The redundancy effect may occur when the multiple sources of info. can be understood separately without the need for mental integration. Written or spoken text that simply re-describes a diagram that can be fully understood without the text provides an example." CLT p.141 1/?

🚨NEW POST 🚨 'Reading every day matters' Reading every day builds the brain of a young child. Reading every day is vital to school success. Reading every day can help rehabilitate people in prison. alexquigley.co.uk/reading-ever...

Want to remember more? Mix it up. Interleaving helps students retain and apply what they learn. https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/interleaving-and-why-it-works/

NEW BLOG: Managing attention in classrooms is a social justice issue hobbolog.wordpress.com/2025/06/02/m... #UKEd #Edusky #EduBlogUK

@robertshrimsley.bsky.social having fun as usual but there’s actually a serious point and aome good advice here!

It is 22 years ago today that my best friend, Nick Everton, died. He was 17 years old. Not much time to leave a mark on the world you would think. But those of us who knew him came away irreversibly altered by even the short time we shared together.... 🧵

1. A story. Please read. Reposts hugely appreciated on this. You'll see why in a bit. I was born in Pakistan and lived there until I was 4. My parents worked there as doctors. While we were there we were very close to a couple called Christine and Mike Miles.

Q. Why do distractions consume so much learning time? ↓

I wrote this about how to read and why. Books remain the best technology ever invented to understand life and the world. There is no alternative. Every book you read helps you build a richer picture of the entire world. jmarriott.substack.com/p/how-i-read

SUMMARY • The classroom is a distraction-rich environment, the costs of which are often more than we think. • Eliminating all distractions could improve learning by over 50%. • Leaders tend to underestimate this effect even more. 👊

Me thinking hard in the front row!

#CogSciSci What a day. Exploring pedagogy, CPD, curriculum, and meeting some brilliant people!

Why AI hype about personalised learning is (likely) overblown. A thread: ↓

Yesterday I contacted the #mentors I work with to suggest some blogs I have written in response to the mentor queries I have received at this time of year. If you work with #ITT beginning teachers in #PGCE #SCITT #TeacherEducation these may be of use. A 🧵 of 9 blogs for this time of year... 1/

NEW POST: A new study shows that silent thinking boosts learning, but only under specific circumstances. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/does-think...

I think about this poem a lot at the minute

“Teachers are not simply content explaining automatons, they are bridge builders between the known and the unknown, the misunderstood and the deeply connected. Modelling is the bridge that takes children across this cognitive chasm.” Well said!

Have recently begun using hand-drawn slides for our CPD sessions. I find it a more organic way to plan and illustrate what I want to say and I spend less time trying to create diagrams and illustrations.

“Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate…Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.”

‘Rather than simply asking, 'How can we improve educational outcomes for KS3/KS4/KS5/life?', we should also ask, 'Who or what else is shaping the educational journey?’ Excellent piece on why we should be cautious about assuming one model of learning rules them all.

SCHEDULE RELEASED #edusky Cogscisci Surrey is a month away! Here are the amazing talks we have to offer featuring: @adamboxereducation.bsky.social @drgarethbates.bsky.social @carlhendrick.substack.com @lambhearttea.bsky.social @hugheshaili.bsky.social @mrlockyer.bsky.social @mbdscience.bsky.social

1/ 🧵 How Do Children Start Learning to Write Before They Start School? Children often arrive at school with a surprising amount of writerly knowledge. Let’s explore how early experiences lay the foundation for writing. 🧠✍️

Thread. Tracking down statistics to show RFK misinforms on this as so much else. (And since when do we value your life only if you work?)

daviddidau.substack.com/p/applying-s... I’ve only seen David talk formally once & this is what he discussed. It resonates so deeply with me. I think we should all read this substack @didau.bsky.social #edusky #thisisAP

Nearly every medical advance we rely on would not exist without curiosity-driven research at universities and nonprofit institutes. Cutting these investments does not save money; it impoverishes our future. @ardemp.bskyverified.social 🧪 edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

This is high art

🌟Blog time 🌟 inspired by Pritesh Raichura on “checks for listening” 👂 blissful-dwalley1.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/a... #teaching #pedagogy #education

Precision. Because hopeful vagueness isn't (good) enough. teacherhead.com/2025/04/05/p...

*New post* In case you’re not on the other platform and missed it, here’s my latest post from over the weekend on school leadership. Still exploring my thinking. @bennewmark.bsky.social @mrsspalding.bsky.social @isaacmoore7.bsky.social birminghamteacher.wordpress.com/2025/03/30/e...

A while ago a lovely German man appeared at our church. He came a few times to look around during our Saturday opening hours, before asking if the piano abandoned in the corner worked. I told him it was horrendously out of tune, and the cathedral piano tuner had deemed it not worth sorting out.

I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.

It's revision time! But do you have a revision curriculum? New blog - Creating a revision curriculum Putting structure and clarity into the lessons before the exam (based on an old classic blog!) missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/29/c...

NEW The dangers of optimism: The best case fallacy daviddidau.substack.com/p/the-danger... H/T to @bethgg.bsky.social

Two core ideas underpin effective inclusive teaching: 1. Cognitive similarity 2. Instructional sensitivity Let’s dig into both… ↓

*NEW* It's always better to know learningspy.co.uk/featured/its... First blog in MONTHS

Only in America could a Ketamine-infused South African oligarch call a navy captain, astronaut and sitting US senator "a traitor" for supporting our allies and standing up to Russia...

The biggest short-term teaching problem is ATTENTION. Students who aren't paying attention can't learn. The biggest long-term problem is MEMORY. You can smash out the best lesson ever, but if you don't have a long term memory strategy you're wasting your breath.

Tickets for CogSciSci 2025 in Surrey launched this week. We can guarantee: ✅ Great speakers ✅ Great lunch ✅ Friendly atmosphere ✅ Lots of goodies Tickets from the link below Next 40 are £30 then it's £35 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cogscisci-...

🚨BANGING NEW EXPERIMENTAL STUDY on effective teacher development just dropped. Quick summary: ↓

🚨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 🙏🙏

Measles high infection rate is the reason we have not yet been able to eradicate it. That rate means you need a very high vaccination rate to prevent outbreaks. It is possible, but not with current levels of institutional distrust.

*New post!* Choral response & 'I Say You Say' are two techniques I use with high frequency during my explanations. Although they seem simple, there is a lot of thinking behind them. bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2025/02/08/c...

Already amusing myself with the "guess which of the descriptors is meant to be better" game for the new Ofsted toolkits.

This is how we feed 1000 street dogs a fresh home cooked meal every single day here in Thailand including costs and logistics… (1/10) 🧵

This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future". We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.

Wonderful story. Deservedly on the front page.