This morning I got caught in traffic on the way to work. There had been an accident on the other side of the road and people were slowing down to take a look at what was happening.

As the traffic eased, I continued my commute to work. Minutes later I saw this… I pulled over to take the photo.

I had to.

It was stunning.

It got me thinking… too often we gaze at the broken but barely glance at the beautiful.

My partner teacher does this lovely thing when a student in his class gives him an ‘I don’t know’ response…

He simply says, ‘tell me something you do know that might be helpful’.

1/4 Yes, it might sacrifice a little pace in his questioning, but it has a big impact on the students self-esteem that is worth the seconds he loses to additional thinking time.

After seeing this in action this year, it’s rare that a student says ‘I don’t know’ a second time..

2/4

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about assemblies in primary..

1/14 Many schools I know dedicate at least an hour of their week to assemblies, some half an hour a day.

That adds up over the course of a year.. maybe 39 hours, maybe nearly a 100!

We’ve been looking at some of Jesus’ miracles in school over the past few weeks and I’ve noticed something I hadn’t seen before..

#ReflectingInTheQuiet Over 50% of the miracles Jesus carried out were born out of interruptions to his plans.

He’s going somewhere. He’s got something to do. He’s meeting with someone.

But he stops anyway.

Five tips for over-thinkers who struggle with making decisions.👇🏼 1️⃣ - Don’t plan for perfection.

If you aim for perfection, that all-or-nothing attitude will be a barrier to effective decision making. It takes away any potential for swift decisions to be made out of fear things won’t go to plan.

Why I love echo reading 👇🏼

1/18 Echo reading is a rereading strategy designed to help students develop expressive, fluent reading. The adult or confident reader reads a short segment of text and the student will echo it back.

2/18

Trying to think deeply about collaboration at the moment ahead of some work I’ll be doing in school.

Series of short threads incoming over the next few weeks.

Thread 1 on why collaboration is the way forward in a bigger world than ever. 🪡👇🏼

1/10 When the Wright brothers designed, built and flew an aeroplane for the first time in 1903 they were pretty much the only two involved.

2/10

In all the schools I’ve worked at there have been key traits that have tried to be instilled in the chn. Resilience, respect, kindness or independence etc.

But I think there’s one missing that isn’t spoken about enough- perhaps it’s really the only umbrella term we need .. Being intentional.

Intention is important in schools and applied in a variety of ways:

Quick #resultsday story. My friend worked hard at a levels, far more so than I did. He put in the hours, prepped and crammed. He just found exams really tough.

1/ So when it came to #resultsday, the grades in the envelope weren’t quite what he needed. He was devastated. I remember seeing him physically crumble from across the field at school. If I went over to him, I’d have had no idea what to say. So I didn’t. 2/

The pressure mounted on the shoulders of students during the lead-up to #resultsday is too much.

The pressure mounted on the shoulders of teachers making the decisions on those student’s grade outcomes is also too much.

Thinking of both students and teachers alike today.💛 The teenagers I know opening envelopes this #resultsday have worked incredibly hard to secure results they should be proud of.

The teachers I know who made the decisions in those envelopes have worked incredibly hard to support learners to achieve something they’re proud of.

Subject knowledge
Pedagogical knowledge
Student accessible knowledge.

Across the curriculum, I find different subjects leave me with room for improvement in one of the three above. It’s not always the same one

1/ I am very aware of my subject knowledge when teaching science- I know if I’m not sure of a concept I’ve got no chance of teaching it effectively or accurately, so often find myself brushing up via wider reading/videos prior to teaching.

2/

Saying it louder for those people at the back:

- TEACHERS WILL STILL BE TEACHING
- TEACHERS WILL STILL BE IN SCHOOLS
- TEACHERS WANT THE BEST FOR THE CHILDREN & COLLEAGUES
- TEACHERS DON’T HAVE SUPERPOWER IMMUNITY
- TEACHERS ARE SCARED The whole profession is left in a situation where we know that before we return to work in less than 48 hours there will be another round of significant changes to what we are meant to be providing.

...

I’m a huge fan of podcasts so thought I’d just put a few recommendations of some I have loved over the past year.. First up for laugh out loud moments and great comedians at work- @OffMenuOfficial

James Acaster and Ed Gamble are such a great combo, inviting celebs into their imaginary restaurant to pick their final meal.

A few glimmers of positivity from 2020 after a particularly hard day, hope they help a little:
- In 2020, scientists beat Polio in Africa.
-Sudan have made FGM illegal.
- death from AIDS, malaria and TB are down.
- 100 million more people got electricity this year. And if you love animals:
- Kenya’s elephant population has more than doubled in the last 3 decades.
- The tiger population in India has down the same in the last 12 years.
- and the population of the world’s most endangered primates- Hainan gibbons has tripled since 1970