Non-fiction Viviane Robinson Reduce Change to Increase Improvement: My brilliant colleague at the National Institute of Teaching, Paula, recommended this. It has been hugely influential in developing leadership approaches that are clear and simple, and is full of helpful and … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
The to do list of the school leader is daunting to say the least. Just glancing at standard job descriptions for those in leadership positions can prompt the question: how does one human being do all of that? It seems … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
Inspired by this tweet from Richard Tutt, I added Daniel Buck’s What is wrong with our schools? to my “to be read” list – and it did not disappoint. For good measure, I gave one of my absolute favourite books, … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
Throughout time, catchphrases have dominated the spaces children inhabit, seeping into their subconscious – we hope – for the better: honesty is the best policy! The early bird catches the worm! More haste, less speed! In the best schools I’ve … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
Like any fan of cognitive science in the classroom, Daniel Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School? is one of the “must reads” I recommend to anyone interested in how children learn. These days, I come across fewer and fewer people … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
Superb headteacher and sensible Tweeter Nat Nabarro tweeted this over the Christmas holidays: So, obviously, I went and bought my own copy. Clear Teaching is great. It’s a pithy synopsis of Direct Instruction: the main ideas, the controversies, and why … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
To my husband’s great consternation, I have purchased, perhaps predictably, a mini library for our ten month old baby. Of all these books (which he confidently numbers in the “hundreds”, but which I’d pitch at probably half that), there are … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
I am taking a risk, because I’ve only ever written about education. But the other major passion in my life is fiction. This was very nearly killed off during a four year undergraduate degree in English, after which I did … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
There has been a growing recognition over the past number of years of the critical importance of school culture, and an accompanying wealth of books attempting to tackle this (I use this opportunity to meekly link to my own 2021 … Continue reading →| Reading all the Books
Non-fiction Adam Boxer Teaching Secondary Science: a complete guide: Much like Craig Barton’s How I Wish I’d Taught Maths, Boxer’s book is only ostensibly about teaching Science. What I loved about…| Reading all the Books