The problem with … people saying, ‘We all learn differently’…
… is that it’s wrong. Simple, unfounded nonsense. I know that even if I strongly disagree with a thing someone says, there’s often a nugget of truth in it -…
Why behaviour matters
Great behaviour is the best foundation for great learning. Ask the naughtiest student you know whether they agree, and they’ll nod wisely and say whatever the teenagers’ 2022 equivalent of…
The Good, The Bad and the Ofsted
Hinchingbrooke had an Ofsted inspection in November 2021. We received the final inspection report on Tuesday 4 January, and it confirmed that in Ofsted’s terms, the school remains ‘Good’. We…
The sound of silence
Learning in schools is often a noisy, messy business, and rightly so. We are social animals and we learn most things from other people, either by copying them (as babies…
Gifted, talented, more able and all that…
Labels are clearly handy, and they’re often essential. Anyone with a food allergy will attest to the importance of labels on food products, and, trivially, how would I find my…
The right balance between challenge and support
What is the right balance between challenge and support?
Picasso could really paint
My dad used to look at some modern art, growl and emit a few expletives, the essence of which was ‘That’s not real art!’ He would tut disapprovingly at the…
The problem with … teaching
‘… the job of teaching is so difficult, so complex, that one lifetime is not enough to master it’. Dylan William, Embedded Formative Assessment, 2011 The problem with teaching is…