How to Help Students Get the Most from Holiday Revision
How much Easter revision is too much for a secondary school student? How about seven hours a day?...
Education Blog
Sparking Trends In The Classroom With Google Trends
I spend a decent amount of time each week researching content for both our website and blog, as well as to stay on top of what's happening in education and this week has been no different. After browsing the usual sites and Twitter accounts, I found myself back at an old favourite; Google Trends. A couple of 'oo, that's interesting!' exclamations and a few "huh" noises later, I've managed to lose the best part of an hour clicking through different topics and metrics, fascinated by the sheer level of data. I was feeling inspired, but still had no topic to...
Award-Winning Customised Exercise Books
We’re thrilled to announce that our Customised Exercise Book product has won the well-established Education Resources Award 2018 for best general classroom resource, beating out Staedtler, Helix Maped, and Scanning Pens!...
9 Study Tips – Backed By Science
What is the best way to study? Whilst we all have our favourite tips and tricks, they are usually based on little more than what works for us. Of course, it is vital that your students find the right method for them, but are some tips more valuable than others? Here are 9 tips that, according to science, work....
Grief: A Layer Of Mental Health We Should Be Talking About
Does anyone know how to talk to a child about grief and loss? It's a sincere question, because I certainly don't have the answer. I can only use my own experience to inform my past-self which perhaps isn't as helpful as I like to imagine. One thing I wish I had known as a child experiencing grief was that talking about it doesn't have to be awkward, and it's not something that an adult will consider to be an inappropriate topic. The amount of resources out there is heartening; I hope that other people find them useful and supportive. Heads Together...
Group Exercise Ideas for Storytelling Week
Humans love stories. Even when we sleep, we create stories in our dreams. Stories influence almost everything we do – what we buy, what we do, and even what we eat. There’s a story to the potato that left the field and ended up on your fork, and nowadays, the plastic packaging will tell you all about it. Stories are everywhere....
NAO STEM Report findings
A recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) – Delivering STEM skills for the economy – has outlined a number of concerns with how STEM education funding and strategy is being conducted. Here are their major findings....
Pupil Premium Strategies #5 – Peer Tutoring
In this strategy, students themselves work to support each other in learning. A common example is an older pupil supporting a younger one with a particular subject area in which the former excels. Peer tutoring is backed up by extensive research and anecdotal evidence; it involves students themselves taking ownership of their learning experience by supporting their fellow students’ learning outcomes. ...
Pupil Premium Strategies #4 – Parental Engagement
This is the fourth in a series of blogs giving an overview of research-proven strategies that schools can adopt when budgeting their pupil premium – and how we can help. Previously, we discussed Collaborative Learning. Parental engagement, perhaps not surprisingly, has been found to be most effective when it is implemented in early education and deeper involvement is often easier to achieve with parents of very young children. Research shows that parental involvement is most successful when it is implemented based on existing evidence. As with metacognition and collaborative learning, it is considered one of the lower cost strategies that has a decent level of...
Pupil Premium Strategies #3 – Approaching Collaborative Learning
Often introduced at a primary school level to develop the skills related to collective learning, collaborative strategies involve encouraging participants to focus on how their own contributions shape the work of the group. More colloquially called group learning or group work, it's a low-cost strategy that can be flexible and adaptive....