Due to the new and challenging GCSE expectations and how there is a culture of complacency within Heathfield students, we have been determined to light a fire inside our KS3 students with the intention that they won’t find a way to put it out, but instead it will burn brightly all the way to KS4.…
If someone had asked me or told me that I had to write a blog post for all to see, I may have broken out in a cold sweat. I would have smiled graciously and said thank you and of course but, inside, I would have immediately begun to think of reasons why I couldn’t. I’m…
It took me two goes to learn to drive. And I don’t mean two goes at the test. I gave up first time around in my late teens without even having booked a theory test. Now I don’t want to put it (all) down to the instructor at the time. He told me what to…
Our students are going to have to remember a lot. Our current Year 9 Geography class will have to hold the details of the Lesotho Water Highland Project in their heads, ready to apply it to a question in two years time. My Year 10 class are currently very knowledgeable about the problems facing the…
I’m a massive social media geek. Whilst I’m actually pretty bored of Facebook and – as a teacher – pretty terrified of its shifting privacy settings which have sometimes escaped my attention (CHECK REGULARLY, PEOPLE!) I can’t quite leave it in case I miss out on a birth announcement/charity campaign of interest/member of my…
In a previous school (and a previous life) I can fully admit I ‘worked too hard’. I lived to work rather than worked to live … but was I happy? Not really. I have always loved my job, and for some reason that annoys some people, but I don’t really care. I feel lucky to…
Literacy Across the Curriculum. Four words guaranteed to bring cheery staffroom conversation to a standstill and send teachers of every flavour into paroxysms of paranoia about their punctuation and spelling. It doesn’t sound like fun. It sounds like someone wants to crack down on wrongly-used apostrophes. It sounds like English across the curriculum. Worse still,…
Rolled up snow wash jeans, Adidas pumps, white socks, floppy fringes and terraces inspired shell suit jackets: our sixth formers seem to be resurrecting 80s casual in 2017. It feels easy to dismiss such fashionista recycling not as post- modern bricolage, but hackneyed and unoriginal. Could the same be said of that stereotypical “I’ve seen…
Technology in education is here to stay. There is no question about it. We live in a world that is reliant on technology in one way or another; you only need to ask recent passengers on British Airways about the reliance we have on technology. But the question to ask ourselves is how are we…
Quickly skim read the following: “I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands with so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such action which cannot otherwise but…
We have spent a lot of time this year looking at what makes effective teaching. This is certainly something we have embraced in the Geography department with us often asking the question “Is this an effective and efficient way to do this? Is there another way?”. When it comes to learning, there is always a…
If I’m completely honest, I’ve been dreading my spot on this blog. As part of the Pedagogical Team I obviously have a passion for teaching and learning and the finer points of pedagogical practice. The thought of committing my thoughts into written words on the page for public consumption is a little out of my…
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