New Blog Post 📝 A fair amount of conversation is happening surrounding the causes of poor behaviour, however, what I wanted to highlight is the impact the poor behaviour of one pupil has on the other 29. Even just a few minutes has, collectively, a large impact. open.substack.com/pub/joel1201...

I can’t “like” this enough. When we focus on the small number who don’t behave, making adjustments, constantly accommodating them and allowing them to take all the attention, we are failing the others. The other children matter.

New Blog Post 📝 A fair amount of conversation is happening surrounding the causes of poor behaviour, however, what I wanted to highlight is the impact the poor behaviour of one pupil has on the other 29. Even just a few minutes has, collectively, a large impact. open.substack.com/pub/joel1201...

For those ~25% of teachers, January is usually a good time to have a look at TES. There are better schools out there. tes.com/jobs

As a science teacher, I like to tell stories from the history of science to enrich our classrooms with stories that complement the curriculum. I’ve always believed that to truly understand science, we have to look at the stories that live in the margins of the curriculum.

Some schools do a test at the end of every topic. For some, this can mean 10 tests a year, not including end of year. This may be trying to game the testing effect, but this isn't increasing outcomes as much as you may think. We test three times a year. open.substack.com/pub/joel1201...

** Announcing ** We are delighted that the brilliant Joel Kenyon will be speaking in the Science Strand at TTR Connect 2026! More Science strand speakers to be announced soon, join us in Manchester on Saturday 14th March 2026 here (for free): ttradio.org/connect2026

Since the downfall of EduTwitter, I now have many accounts that I use e.g. LinkedIn, Substack etc. Some I follow on one, but not the other. Can people post their profile to their accounts so I can follow you on them. I feel as if I am missing out. RT would be appreciated.

Some schools do a test at the end of every topic. For some, this can mean 10 tests a year, not including end of year. This may be trying to game the testing effect, but this isn't increasing outcomes as much as you may think. We test three times a year. open.substack.com/pub/joel1201...

First Substack Post📝 In order for me to identify where I could have improved in a lesson, I have created my own vision of my perfect lesson. Here I narrate through my perfect lesson and why I use it as a measure for all my lessons. Link below.

First Substack Post📝 In order for me to identify where I could have improved in a lesson, I have created my own vision of my perfect lesson. Here I narrate through my perfect lesson and why I use it as a measure for all my lessons. Link below.

Hi #EduSky! I am early with my #Saturday3 this morning whilst my family guests recover from jet lag. First up, is this post from @joel120193.bsky.social on using etymology in science which I meant to include last week. bsky.app/profile/joel...

✨Science teachers✨ What is one piece of science equipment that is expensive, but you think it's worth the price? E.g. Rubens' tube, cloud chamber etc.

When I have set a class questions to complete independently, I spend around 10%-20% of the time at the start standing at the front of the classroom. Seemingly doing nothing. I mentioned this to a colleague who asked "but shouldn't you be circulating?" No. 🧵

When I have set a class questions to complete independently, I spend around 10%-20% of the time at the start standing at the front of the classroom. Seemingly doing nothing. I mentioned this to a colleague who asked "but shouldn't you be circulating?" No. 🧵

New Blog Post 📝 Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson. Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy. inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...

I absolutely love having a brand new lab! This is now our third refurbished lab in 2 years and it has been a pleasure to teach and do Practicals with students

Does anyone have these AV1 robots in their school? They essentially are a camera in your lesson where a pupil streams from home. Personally, I would flat out refuse to have this in my classroom but I'm curious...

I've shared this before but always happy if it finds a new audience somewhere, and I hope the author would be too. It's pretty old but some students, particularly if they're linguists, love it.

A brilliant post. Disciplinary literacy isn't a literacy specific to a discipline; it is universal literacy as manifested in a discipline. Etymology and morphology taught across disciplines provides a linguistic schema which aids access to all subjects. Prefixes and suffixes are cross-curricular.

New Blog Post 📝 Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson. Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy. inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...

Are student loan repayments a graduate tax? In short, by 2030, yes. Due to the freezing of student loan thresholds until 2030, the national minimum wage will be £400 short of the threshold for repayments. This means anyone with a student loan in 2030 will be paying back 9% above the threshold.

What does the Budget mean for teachers? Not schools. Teachers. The biggest takeaway from this #Budget2026 that every teacher should be aware of is fiscal drag, on steroids. This will affect almost every all teacher. Apologies in advance, its a long one🧵

There is a lot of chatter regarding student loans going up. A lot of people are saying this means it's time to forget a degree and take an apprenticeship. THE AMOUNT YOU BORROW IS IRRELEVANT! /🧵

My view is that nearly all school science can be understood at first without the Tier 3 vocab. and the best order is: 1. Understanding 2. Add the vocab. dodiscimus.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/t...

I fully get that preteaching Tier 3 words before they're used is best for understanding. However, just looking at AQA B6, it is impossible to preteach all of these words whilst also teaching actual content. This is one topic out of 24 on combined... The curriculum is too big!

Heads of Department/SLT What do you do for pupils who have missed lessons due to being absent? Do you give extra work, catch up work, direct them somewhere etc? What does it look like? Would appreciate RTs for a wider range 👍

Does anyone else hate mnemonics? Why do I need to send Charlie's monkeys and zebras in tight lead cages? That's full on animal cruelty for the sake of the reactivity series. At that point, just remember the metals 🤷

New Hinterland Post 📝 John Dalton is often overlooked in atomic history, but his impact on our understanding of atoms was absolutely foundational. I explore his work as well as share an interesting, little-known fact about the man himself 👁️ inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/28/j...

New Blog Post 📝 Setting by attainment vs mixed-ability. It's a big debate in education. We moved to attainment setting and it has made a big difference! Here I explore the research, our rationale, and how we implemented a system that works for us. inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/22/m...

New Blog Post 📝 Setting by attainment vs mixed-ability. It's a big debate in education. We moved to attainment setting and it has made a big difference! Here I explore the research, our rationale, and how we implemented a system that works for us. inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/22/m...

Here’s a simple routine I use when reviewing 'Do Now' answers on MWBs. I narrate the approx % of students who got the answer correct, e.g., "About 80% of us have this right, great!" or "We are about 50% on this Q3" I do this for two reasons 🧵

New blog post 📝 I often reflect on my time as a teacher of 8 years and think back to the beginning. There are a lot of things that could have made the start of my career a lot easier. One of which being established whole school routines inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/02/w...

New blog post 📝 I often reflect on my time as a teacher of 8 years and think back to the beginning. There are a lot of things that could have made the start of my career a lot easier. One of which being established whole school routines inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/02/w...

Since the end of term, I've tried to stay off social media and been mildly successful. Now, after a week of INSET and Year 7 and 11 in today, I'm ready to get back into it all! Happy first day back for most of you!

GCSE results day today!! Good luck everyone, looking forward to hearing of everyone's successes!

Thank you so much to @alexjquigley.bsky.social for coming to visit us for our awards evening. Your speech to our pupils was sincere, insightful and exactly the message they needed to hear, especially coming from a former pupil. It was also a pleasure to finally meet you!

People, rightly or wrongly, are angry by the 1,000,000 pupils being excluded this year. However, I think about the 8,000,000 who haven't been excluded who are in lessons that are not being disturbed. If one pupil disturbs 30, for as little as 10 mins, that is collectively 5 hours of lost learning.

In Liverpool only 73% have had both MMR doses, one of the lowest in the country. In 2016, the UK was declared measles free. Now, Alder Hey has treated 17 children with measles in just the last month! The number of deaths is going to continue to increase. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

Love how “vocation” is just a fancy way of saying “we won’t pay you properly" because you get some imaginary moral pay back from the job you do. I cannot pay my bills in "deep sense of purpose."

Last year, I shared that at Dixons, teachers receive one day off each fortnight in addition to their PPA time. This is a meaningful step towards managing workload and wellbeing. But that’s just one element of a broader approach /🧵

Last year, I shared that at Dixons, teachers receive one day off each fortnight in addition to their PPA time. This is a meaningful step towards managing workload and wellbeing. But that’s just one element of a broader approach /🧵

New Blog Post📝 My view on what makes a great teacher has evolved. I overlooked subject knowledge and instead prioritised pedagogy, but now I see it as fundamental to great teaching! Here’s why it's so critical and why our CPD must reflect that. inquestion.co.uk/2025/07/07/w...

New Blog Post📝 My view on what makes a great teacher has evolved. I overlooked subject knowledge and instead prioritised pedagogy, but now I see it as fundamental to great teaching! Here’s why it's so critical and why our CPD must reflect that. inquestion.co.uk/2025/07/07/w...

This is a brilliant post from Alex which everyone should read! Schools are not designed to deal with the plethora of societal issues that arise at the school gate. However, there is one thing schools can do that improves the mental health of their students, not today, but in the future...

My social media over the past couple of weeks has been filled with parents and teachers complaining about schools being the worst places for kids to be 'nowadays' To me, this is an issue on multiple fronts. /🧵

Read this!! ⬇️⬇️

During our transition day, we told pupils that they were not allowed their phones in lessons or on the yard. They were in absolute shock when told that their phone would be confiscated off them if seen or heard! Why on earth did they think anything different?

My social media over the past couple of weeks has been filled with parents and teachers complaining about schools being the worst places for kids to be 'nowadays' To me, this is an issue on multiple fronts. /🧵

The most read article of the week was ‘Toxic Legacies: Mercury, Minamata, and Karen Wetterhahn’ by @joel120193.bsky.social 📚