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 📚

Does anyone have any sci-fi books recommendations aimed at 11-16 year olds? 🧪 We are introducing an absolutely amazing reading programme next year and I need some recommendations! 😁

Science teachers!! The Gatsby Practical Science Guide suggests ~50% of science lessons should have a practical element. I've already got a fair amount but it's always good to have more. Give me your favourite demos and practicals (and why you do them)

One thing I would like to add here is yes, there are organisations that provide evidence for educators but a centralised place that collates all of this (like NICE but education) wouldn't be a bad thing. The number of places we can get teaching/operational practices from is massive. For example:

Teaching is extremely predictable. I make bets with co-observers the whole time, and if I actually followed up on them I'd be very rich.

6/ I'm hoping to write a blog post on this soon but we need a National Institute for Educational Excellence. A central, non-governmental body to provide schools with rigorous, evidence-informed guidance. Because our students deserve a system built on evidence, not guesswork.

Its time for education to have its own version of NICE. The National Institute for Educational Excellence (NIEE). Our current system suffers from inconsistency, weak evidence bases, and a lack of professional infrastructure. Here's why this matters /🧵

ECHPs vary far too wildly. More often than not, I think "have they even been in a school!?" Some of the adaptations are non-evidence based. Many are focused on allowing the student to not participate in the lesson, defeating the purpose of the EHCP in the first place.

New Hinterland Blog Post 📝 Lab safety in schools is incredibly important, and whenever I teach this topic, I share the tragic story of Professor Karen Wetterhahn and her mercury exposure. Mercury is an intriguing element with a fascinating history🧪 inquestion.co.uk/2025/06/05/m...

New Hinterland Blog Post 📝 Lab safety in schools is incredibly important, and whenever I teach this topic, I share the tragic story of Professor Karen Wetterhahn and her mercury exposure. Mercury is an intriguing element with a fascinating history🧪 inquestion.co.uk/2025/06/05/m...

Great thread on evidence to support the effectiveness of annotating questions in the exam situation.

I made a revision Padlet with links to videos for my Year 7s (and others) to watch. They said they wouldn't watch videos if they: - Had an irritating voice - Were in black and white - Ran over 2 mins - Weren’t on YouTube, TikTok, or Twitch 🙃

As we head into End of Year exams season, it's worth revisiting a helpful technique: annotating exam questions. There's a growing body of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Here are some ways I use annotating along with some recent evidence. /🧵

Education is not a job factory. It's a school. inquestion.co.uk/2025/05/01/p...

As we head into End of Year exams season, it's worth revisiting a helpful technique: annotating exam questions. There's a growing body of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Here are some ways I use annotating along with some recent evidence. /🧵

I've just got access to Google Veo so here is a springer spaniel going skydiving.

Calling a raised hand a salute is a bit dramatic. I know a lot of schools where pupils raise their hands... www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

I am currently reading the Sutton Trust Opportunity Report, and here are some of my key highlights from the report. First of all, the impact that geography has on outcomes in the UK cannot be ignored. /🧵 www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/u...

I am currently reading the Sutton Trust Opportunity Report, and here are some of my key highlights from the report. First of all, the impact that geography has on outcomes in the UK cannot be ignored. /🧵 www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/u...

New Blog Post 📝 More Testing ≠ The Testing Effect Some schools are testing their students too much and are collecting so much data, it's completely useless. Here I go into what the testing effect is and tackle some of the misconceptions! 👇 inquestion.co.uk/2025/05/18/t...

This is absolutely brilliant research from @suttontrust.bsky.social I have had a quick scan but it really does highlight the disparities around the country. I'm gonna read more into this when I have more time but every school leader should read this, regardless of where they work!

I am currently looking into setting based on attainment or mixed ability for KS3. I feel that mixed ability sets aren't true mixed ability but are instead set based on behaviour. Therefore I lean more towards setting based on attainment... What does everyone else do?

New Blog Post 📝 More Testing ≠ The Testing Effect Some schools are testing their students too much and are collecting so much data, it's completely useless. Here I go into what the testing effect is and tackle some of the misconceptions! 👇 inquestion.co.uk/2025/05/18/t...

A common phrase used in education that I just will not find myself using is ✨ growth mindset ✨ It reminds me of those 'inspirational' quotes on Instagram that sound nice but mean nothing.