Cultural Capital

Promoting Cultural Capital in a Cost of Living Crisis

Ofsted highlighted cultural capital in 2019 as an essential aspect of a child’s personal development. Based on Bourdieu’s studies in social mobility, it is seen in education as a way of creating well-rounded citizens of the future.

Schools have since developed unique ways of offering enrichment activities to support their pupils in growing cultural capital, but now with a cost of living crisis, it seems harder for schools to find room in their budgets for these extracurricular experiences.

Read More

Manage Challenging Behaviour

How to Manage Challenging Behaviour

Your ability to manage challenging behaviour in the classroom is one of the keys to success.

It’s important to remember that those pupils who present the most challenge are usually the ones who are crying out for support.

Here are some ideas that will help teachers looking for guidance when faced with challenging behaviour.

Read More

Phone Use in Schools

Mobile Phone Use in Schools

Pupils’ use of mobile phones in schools has created a surprisingly polarised debate.

According to The Independent, smartphone usage has increased, with nearly half of five to ten-year-olds owning their own phone. Once children are in secondary, you would be hard pushed to find anyone without one.

The question for schools is how to safeguard mobile phone use alongside any disruption.

Read More

Teachers Gifts

Teachers: Buying Gifts for Your Class

With Christmas coming up, you may wonder whether to buy a gift for your class.

Every school culture is different; in primary schools, it is not uncommon for teachers to give a gift to the pupils in their class, but even in secondary, you may want to gift something to your form group.

Of course, your budget will be limited if you are buying for 30 pupils in a class. It can be hard to find something thoughtful yet economical.

To help you out, we have put together a handy gift guide for teachers to help you choose appropriate gifts for your class.

Read More

Teacher recruitment issues

Why is there a teacher recruitment crisis in England?

Back in 2018, TES was already reporting a teacher recruitment crisis in England.

The truth is that now, in 2022, teaching has a real recruitment and retention problem in education across the country.

In this blog, we will look at recent research investigating the causes and suggested solutions to the recruitment crisis in teaching.

Read More

How Teachers can support Working Memory in Their Pupils

How Teachers can support Working Memory in Their Pupils

It can be challenging for teachers to find information about working memory, yet it is often an area that students struggle with.

For teachers who want to carry out working memory interventions, a piece of research by Westby published in 2020 shines a light on some valuable principles.

This post will highlight some of the ideas that Westby has researched to help teachers understand how they can support working memory better.

Read More

Social and Emotional Learning

Using Social and Emotional Learning to Build Resilience

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a vital area of education that is often neglected. Yet, when tackled positively, it can have an enormous impact on children.

Resilience is a term used more and more as the challenges and obstacles our young people face grow. It involves being able to adapt when encountering difficulties, make adjustments and take a flexible approach.

Read More

Reception to Year One

Improving Transition from Reception to Year One

While many teachers will insist that the transition from Year 6 to Year 7 is the big one, it is often at the other end of the school where problems occur.

The EYFS curriculum offers far more freedom than in year one, and the jump can be stressful for children and their parents. It is not uncommon for year one teachers to struggle with settling children into a year one routine.

So what can schools do about the issue of transition?

This article will explore ideas to transform the transition from reception into year one into something more positive.

Read More

Staff Induction – How to Welcome New staff to Your School

September is the time of year when many schools welcome new teachers and support staff to their settings. Getting your induction process right is critical in ensuring new staff feel valued and confident.

We all know that first impressions count. In many ways, induction is about making a positive impact and setting up new staff to succeed.

The difficulty is that there is often far too much time spent on delivering information compared to building relationships and making people feel part of a team.

Think about who is responsible for induction at your school. One person having ownership can make a big difference in how well it is carried out.

Read More