Children with Sensory Disorders – The Signs Are There If We Look Closely
Children with sensory disorders exhibit consistent patterns of behaviours. As teachers we may not observe the pattern or join the dots of the behaviour into a pattern. Thanks again to … Continue reading
New Article on Future Proofing Your School in pDT Journal 21.1
In a rather bleak Christmas period, it was a treat yesterday to be contacted by Graham Handscomb, the editor of pDT (Professional Development Today), to say that my polemical article … Continue reading
Emotional Intelligence: Towards an Operational Definition For Learning
Many thanks to Daniel Sobel for bringing this table based on work by Daniel Goleman back to my attention. I first read it when completing the National Professional Qualification for … Continue reading
UK PISA Results: Not Much Change, But Some Worrying Developments
This week’s release of the international comparative data on educational performance (PISA) revealed a marginal improvement in performance of UK schools in Maths, but otherwise no breakthroughs in teaching and … Continue reading
What to buy the hard pressed educationalist in your life for Christmas… new insights in learning and teaching!
Wherever you live, the role of teacher and educationalist is never easy and seemingly getting harder. Give the gift of fresh insights to your teacher or educationalist this year, so … Continue reading
Revision: The Acquisition, Retention and Recall of Information For Examinations
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most insightful. This one came via Jon Tait on Linked In and he recognised something I noticed when students are revising. Often they spend … Continue reading
Labelling Learners: The Effects, Intended and Unintended
I am again indebted to Professor Amanda Kirby and Dr Mary Cleaton of Do-It Solutions for this really clear exposition of the pros and cons of labelling in the field … Continue reading
Future Proof Your School and Re-Examining Success Tour 2020
Following the publication of Re-Examining Success in February 2020, I shall be embarking on a speaking and support tour. The tour will encompass three related areas: Strategic briefings for senior … Continue reading
How to write an educational book: Future Proof Your School by David Hughes
I’m writing this, conscious that there are many teachers out there keen to write their own books on the improvement of learning in schools. Working with Julia and Di at … Continue reading
Edutopia and the George Lucas Education Foundation
One of our favourite go-to sites to catch up with innovative thinking is the George Lucas Foundation’s Edutopia. For someone who could conceive of the Star Wars universe, it was … Continue reading
Initial Teacher Training reforms in the UK
It has been very pleasing to see Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Education, Amanda Spielman becoming more vocal about some of the detrimental practises in schools. Aspects such as ‘Off-rolling’ … Continue reading
Good grades and a desk ‘key for university hopes’ | BBC News
Having a desk to work at, good grades and high expectations from parents, as well as being happy at school, are key factors in encouraging children to go on to … Continue reading
Re-Examining Success: A Step Change in Promoting Student Achievement
My new book on school culture change, Re-Examining Success, has a release date in time for the 2020 revision season: 12th February 2020! Available to pre-order from all good bookshops … Continue reading
Finland’s Formula for School Success
Whenever some latest report or statistics are published which outlines some shortcoming in learning and teaching in the UK I always look for inspiration from the experience of the Scandinavian … Continue reading
Never Underestimate Potential…
In researching for my new book, Re-Examining Success, I was forced to confront some unpleasant truths about my teaching career. Due to my personal circumstances, I placed a disproportionate value … Continue reading
The Thinking School: Some Insights from Kulvarn Atwel
In the midst of crises in recruitment and retention and teacher workload there are always people prepared to be innovative in searching for new learning paradigms. My partner, Jane, brought … Continue reading
How women students put a rocket up Cambridge | BBC News
Women’s long struggle to gain fair access to university is commemorated in an exhibition at the University of Cambridge library. What’s most shocking, perhaps, is that it’s all so relatively … Continue reading
Debunking the Dyslexia / IQ Myth
In other recent posts I’ve outlined the changes in definition of differences in learning brought about by neuroscience research. Increasingly, the traditional deficit descriptions applied to children who did not … Continue reading
Global Education Report 2019
In the NJ MED‘s 5th Annual Global Education Report this year, students, parents, teachers, educators, and taxpayers from 214 countries participated in the two-month international survey asking How They would … Continue reading
Future Proof Your School: Peer Review
Nothing is more valuable that a review from a fellow practitioner. I was delighted to read this vindication of Future Proof Your School today from Dr Morris Charlton, who praised … Continue reading
Calm the Chaos: Beneath the Surface of Misbehaviour
Reproduced with the kind permission of: Calm the Chaos Workshop.com It has been noted elsewhere that in their absence of choice and compliance culture, the use of uniform and uniformity, … Continue reading
Future Proofing Your School: Intelligence Report 1 – Cultural Log Jams to Sustainable Learning Improvement
This forms part one of a series of pieces exploring cultural log-jams and structural defects preventing sustainable improvements in learning and learning outcomes in schools. In my experience, there have … Continue reading
Social media has ‘little effect on girls’ wellbeing’ | BBC News
Getting enough sleep and seeing friends may have a bigger effect on teenage girls’ mental well-being than social media use, a report suggests. The finding comes in the government’s new … Continue reading
Learning Processes: Respond, Reflect, Review
A major strand in the development of learning will be seismic changes in the purposes and processes of assessment. This process is already underway. There is increasing disillusion with summative … Continue reading
Mothers with ‘controlling voice’ fail to persuade teenagers | BBC News
Mothers who talk to their teenage children in a “controlling tone of voice” are more likely to start an argument than get a positive response, according to researchers. The Cardiff … Continue reading
What’s Lost When We Rush Kids Through Childhood
A reductionist approach in many western nations has meant an undue emphasis on developing reading, writing and arithmetic as the foundations of success in learning. This in turn has led … Continue reading
