Teachwire

25/07/2025

I’m lucky enough to be in my third year of leading on reading strategy, at a school that’s in its sixth year of embedding reading at the heart of what we do.

Last year’s Y11s were our first cohort to sit their GCSEs having experienced our reading strategy throughout their secondary education. Their results? The best in the school’s history, making us the most improved school county-wide.

We are now in the enviable position of fine-tuning our reading strategy. We’re building on and refining what we’ve found works, while discarding what doesn’t. Our key learning can now be summed up under five distinct headings...

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3IYsaKM

Andrea Miller sets out the five steps that Wey Valley Academy in Weymouth followed when seeking to embed an effective reading strategy...

25/07/2025

🚨 Final call! Entries for the Teach Awards close soon. If you’ve created something amazing for schools, now’s the time to shout about it! Enter now at https://bit.ly/3JDOl6r

24/07/2025

Outside of trying to differentiate themselves from female candidates in an interview situation, do any male teachers actually consider themselves to be role models for the adolescent boys in their classroom?

The term ‘role model’ connotes being exceptional at something, or somehow worth emulating. But is any male teacher worthy of being put on such a high pedestal?

Perhaps it would be more pertinent to ask whether we should pin and mount male teachers in a ‘museum of education’ as examples of a dying breed.

From an already low starting base, the numbers of male teachers in school classrooms are dwindling yet further. As recently noted by the Education Secretary, 28,000 teachers have been added to the UK workforce since 2010. Just 533 have been men.

Such is our rarity, the men’s toilets in a number of primary schools have become storage areas, or overspills for the ladies. The numbers of male teachers in high schools is falling sharply too.

Masculine qualities
Bridget Phillipson has talked of wanting to redress this gender imbalance by encouraging more male teachers into the profession, while at the same time having us blokes fulfil the function of helping to solve the ongoing crisis in masculinity.

As she puts it, “With toxic online influences on the rise, our boys need strong, positive male role models to look up to. At home, of course, and at school too.”

Yet it’s clearly not enough to just have a bunch of random extra men turn up at a school and expect the boys to put away their toxicity.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4kOuTE0

Gordon Cairns explores what it is to be a male teacher – and whether simply being one can provide teenage boys with a positive role model...

23/07/2025

Stop! Punctuation time. Give these offline and online games a go and sharpen up students' skills with that pesky punctuation placement… https://bit.ly/3X3Oo1w

Stop! Punctuation time. Give these offline and online games a go and sharpen up students' skills with that pesky punctuation placement...

22/07/2025

Shackleton’s Journey is a mesmerising non-fiction picture book focusing on themes of courage & endurance. This free download contains a PDF of cross-curricular KS2 ideas, including writing persuasive letters, model building, science experiments and more... https://bit.ly/3D5i4We

This Shackleton's Journey download pack contains cross-curricular classroom activity ideas, worksheets and extracts from the book...

18/07/2025

Is it morally acceptable to photograph people in pain?

In this lesson plan, this initial question inspires learners to start making deep thematic links between Power and Conflict poetry.

https://bit.ly/4kvbOGF

In this lesson plan, war photography inspires learners to start making deep thematic links between Power and Conflict poetry...

16/07/2025

These free Amazing Me resources from the Dove Self-Esteem Project are designed specifically for pupils aged 8 to 11 to help build body confidence and foster a positive self-image…

https://bit.ly/4lCPZ9q

These free Amazing Me resources are designed specifically for pupils aged 8-11 to help build body confidence and foster positive self-image

15/07/2025

There are lots of things to think about if you are considering training staff to deliver ELSA sessions.

1. Who will you train?
Think about staff best placed to deliver sessions. They need to be appropriately experienced and able to be released to deliver sessions.

2. Where will sessions take place?
Consider whether you have space you can dedicate solely to ELSA or a room you can timetable weekly for it. It needs to be somewhere quiet and confidential where sessions won’t be disturbed. (Sometimes ELSA support can include delicate conversations with pupils.)

3. When and how often will sessions be held?
Work out how often you can release staff, and which lessons you can spare adults and pupils from. ELSA work is incredibly important, but you don’t want the child to always be missing core lessons or their own break times.

4. How will you identify children in need of ELSA sessions?
Think about who will identify the children in need and how they will bring them to the attention of the ELSA or the SENCo. Also consider whether ELSA is the right pathway for them or whether they need a different approach or alternative intervention.

5. How will you inform parents before sessions begin?
Plan how you will communicate with parents about what ELSA is and why you feel their child would benefit from sessions. You can find a parent communication proforma at https://bit.ly/40TzVrA

6. How will you feed back to parents and staff when sessions have concluded?
Decide on the format you will use to tell teachers how sessions have gone and feed back anything relevant to parents, whilst also considering the child’s confidentiality.

7. Is everyone on board?
Determine whether the headteacher and senior leadership team are keen for ELSA to happen. Do they, and other colleagues, understand what ELSA support entails and why it’s important? If you have everyone’s backing, it’s more likely to be a success and to keep happening.

When you do the training course, you will get to understand exactly how to run your sessions and how to organise them each week in order to meet your identified objectives.

There is a huge amount of support and resources to do this, and you will find that the sessions almost naturally evolve week to week as you build a relationship with the pupil(s) participating.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/40dHZmT

Keeping you up-to-date with the latest on education, including great teaching ideas and current issues in education.

14/07/2025

⏳ Time's running out! Submit your entry for the Teach Awards and get your resources the recognition they deserve. Don’t miss out! Enter at https://bit.ly/3JDOl6r

11/07/2025

Three practical strategies can make sure children awaiting SEND assessment don’t fall through the cracks… https://bit.ly/3Id1eXz

These three practical strategies for schools can make sure children awaiting SEND assessment don’t fall through the cracks

10/07/2025

Some small tweaks to our practice can be the key to better learning, motivation and long-term happiness… Some small tweaks to our practice can be the key to better learning, motivation and long-term happiness…