Throughout my training, and indeed my life, I hadn’t heard of the idea of multimodal literacy. In my NQT year, I worked with an incredible teacher named Jane Bednall, and with my difficult class, she and I worked together on a multimodal project around the book ‘Mirror’ by Jeannie Baker. Jane’s masterful teaching showed a […]

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When I gathered my little bundle of gifts together at the end of the term, whilst I am grateful for the sentiment behind them and the kindness this reflects, I am more bothered about the cards. With regards the cards, if it just says ‘Thanks for teaching me’ or ‘World’s best teacher evahhhh’, I’ll smile […]

Read more "Make kids choose books even though everything thing else is easier and also good."

I have been an Assistant Headteacher for a term now. I left my first school at Easter and this new job is a step up and a step out of the comfort zone. I haven’t felt very able to write about it as I have been so immersed in doing it. I cannot believe it […]

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I was delivering an assembly last week, and was explaining to Year 3 and Year 5 all about our upcoming Careers Day. I told them how amazing it was that we had so many teachers in our school who had done so many things as well as teaching – we have writers, lawyers, a stand-up […]

Read more "5 Tips to be a Better Storyteller"

There are plenty of readings of Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Jabberwocky’ out there, ranging from the frumious to the tulgey. But whose is best? As the self-declared authority on all things mimsy, I declare this countdown to be perfectly valid. The Muppets Strengths: Strong borogove game. Better than average toves, though not slithy enough for my […]

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Part One of Two I am increasingly convinced that social anthropology is a useful discipline in the primary school. For pupils, this approach – which seeks deep understanding of culture without an ethnocentric lens – could enable them to develop criticality and analysis, whilst building their worldliness and appreciation of difference. For teachers, it can […]

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“Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.” Back when the platypus was first ‘discovered’ by scientists and recorded as a species, it was considered a hoax. Back then, it was fairly […]

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