Blog of the Week Tom Sherrington – Getting Pair Talk Right. It’s not that complicated but it’s more than ‘having a chat’. Three golden rules. So valuable, but hard to get right. Tom gives us some really useful advice when implementing paired talk in our classrooms. Class Teaching James Crane – Are we being explicit about the means of participation in our classrooms? James summarises the what, they why and the how of the means of participation strategy when used at Durrington. Research School Blog Deb Friis – Looking at a new class through the learning behaviours lens Durrington ELE D ..read more

This blog aims to outline how we as teachers can ensure all pupils participate actively in all aspects of our lessons. It suggests ways that can be used to ensure pupils are aware of how we want them to participate in our lessons, thus ensuring lessons are not something to get through but something for our pupils to be a part of. The vignette below highlights the importance of this in the wider context of a classroom. This History teacher had spent time carefully planning the questions they would ask to check understanding. They wanted to ensure high participation and thinking ratio so planned ..read more

Blog of the Week Phil Stock – Social and Emotional Health: A Whole School Response Some great exemplification from Phil about how Greenshaw have codified a set of SEMH principles to develop a caring and supportive culture and reduce pupil absence. Class Teaching Jody Chan – Routines for attention Attention is getting a lot of attention at the moment. Here Jody describes some core routines for gaining and retaining it. Research School Blog Sam Atkins – Metacognition and self-regulation in geography Durrington head of geography Sam Atkins explains how he has been helping students ..read more

Blog of the Week Mason Davies – Using mini whiteboards to optimise ratio and make thinking visible in GCSE Economics Good exemplification is often what we need and Mason has explained in fine detail how he uses MWBs to increase think and participation ratio. Class Teaching Jody Chan – Routines for attention Attention is getting a lot of attention at the moment. Here Jody describes some core routines for gaining and retaining it. Research School Blog Sam Atkins – Metacognition and self-regulation in geography Durrington head of geography Sam Atkins explains how he has been helpin ..read more

Blog of the Week Pete Foster – Naked Explanation Lots of Pete’s blog are primarily focused on early career teachers, but are useful for all. This is one of those, on the master craft of teaching – explanation. Class Teaching Jody Chan – Routines for attention Attention is getting a lot of attention at the moment. Here Jody describes some core routines for gaining and retaining it. Research School Blog Sam Atkins – Metacognition and self-regulation in geography Durrington head of geography Sam Atkins explains how he has been helping students develop their metacognitive regulation. Other Useful ..read more

Attention seems to be in the pedagogical spotlight recently. Of course, since teachers have taught getting students to concentrate on what they want them to concentrate on has been something they’ve yearned for.  Rightly so – students can only learn what they pay attention to.  Tom Sherrington in discussing attention draws on the now famous Oliver Caviglioli infographic and explains that attention is the first step on the journey of thinking, remembering, retrieving and using information.  Peps McCrea says “attention is the gatekeeper of learning” and is “essential for informati ..read more

Blog of the Week Kat Howard – Leadership | What Do Expert Teachers Know, Do and Need? Kat pulls together lots of strands and neatly articulates the facets of expert teaching. Class Teaching Chris Runeckles – Providing useful feedback for subject teams Giving useful feedback to subject teams is a tricky part of whole-school secondary leadership. Here is an explanation of one way we try to get that right at Durrington. Research School Blog James Crane – Sorry sir, what was the question again? James looks again at attention and how mini-whiteboards can be a useful tool in ..read more

Blog of the Week Marc Rowland – Pupil Premium and SEND: learning without labels This blog is going to be printed, distributed and referenced an awful lot in the coming months and years. A great reference point for how we respond to the needs of pupils who need us most. Class Teaching Chris Runeckles – Providing useful feedback for subject teams Giving useful feedback to subject teams is a tricky part of whole-school secondary leadership. Here is an explanation of one way we try to get that right at Durrington. Research School Blog James Crane – Sorry sir, what was the question again ..read more

Leading teaching and learning in a large secondary school is a great job. One of its many complexities, however, is that subject pedagogy is not universal, in fact, it is extremely different. That means the people you are leading, in the shape of subject leaders (or curriculum leaders as we call them), have greater expertise in their subject’s pedagogy than you do. Why have someone like me leading teaching and learning then? Why not just allow curriculum leaders full autonomy and leave them to it? Well, that’s certainly an option, and not to do myself and my team out of a job, but in part I co ..read more

Blog of the Week Thahmina Begum – I’m really good at multitasking, Miss! Attention in classrooms is taking a lot of my attention recently. Thahmina articulates a couple of core problems and the associated solutions. Class Teaching Fahim Rahman – Vocab instruction in science Fahim explores some of the challenges he has found with vocab instruction in science and how he and the department have been overcoming them. Research School Blog James Crane – Sorry sir, what was the question again? James looks again at attention and how mini-whiteboards can be a useful tool i ..read more