School and education

Those of us in education do not need to be reminded of the wonder of books and the benefits of reading for pleasure.

Sadly, not all children embrace the joy of reading and so World Book Day (which, this year, takes place on 2 March) can be a great opportunity to increase their engagement and get them sharing books.

Help students to master the essentials of English and understand it's 'magic', and they'll quickly feel more confident as writers. Jill Carter, experienced English teacher and SPaG textbook writer, shares her favourite spelling, punctuation and grammar resources.

In my book, Are You Dropping the Baton, I painted a positive picture of what schools can achieve when they work closely together. However, it is with great sadness that I can see the gap has not narrowed over the past decades. Indeed, there are many signs indicating that it has, in fact, widened. We are now staring into not a gap but a chasm, and it is one that claims more victims every year.

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 15–21 May and will be on the theme of anxiety.

Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, the Week offers an opportunity for people to talk about all aspects of mental health, with a focus on empowering individuals to improve their own mental health and support others to do the same. The Foundation aims to explore the experience of anxiety, its effect on our mental health, and how we can all play a part in reducing anxiety in our communities.

Teacher, author and former journalist Emma Mahony charts her journey from frustration to success in supporting pupils with ADHD.

How can we help MFL students to move beyond comprehensible input and tackle more challenging texts?

Head of Geography and Fawcett Fellow Fiona Sheriff shares suggestions for marking World Environment Day 2025 in the classroom and outdoors, across the subjects and key stages.

Why does classroom management matter? Classroom management is essential for successful teaching and learning because it helps create a learning environment where students can focus without distractions, interventions or disruptions. It also means that students avoid cognitive overload as they don't have to think about what to do when: certain tasks becomes routine. A well-managed classroom also fosters a sense of trust between teacher and student, leading to higher levels of engagement from both parties. Ultimately, effective classroom management results in improved academic performance, stronger relationships and greater wellbeing for the whole class.

Classroom management is crucial to learning. We can plan a brilliant curriculum, utilise evidence-informed teaching strategies and have the most in-depth subject knowledge, but if pupil behaviour is poor, learning is unlikely to occur. Here we discuss aspects of classroom management that can help teachers ensure effective learning in their classrooms.

National Poetry Day takes place on 5 October. But why teach poetry to children? The reasons are many and diverse, including, of course, developing their reading skills, but in short, poetry allows children the freedom to express themselves. There is no 'right' way to write (or to interpret) a poem; children don't have to adhere to sentence structures or complex English grammar or punctuation rules, and so writing poetry can be an opportunity to build confidence and play with language. Indeed, research conducted by the CLPE in March reported that 88% of teachers say that children enjoy engaging with poetry and 89% reported that children enjoyed listening to it being read or performed. However, despite the importance of poetry in the |English National Curriculum, 61% of teachers have never had CPD on teaching poetry and 79% of classroom book corners have fewer than ten poetry books in their book selection. 

French, Spanish and history teacher Maud Waret discusses the damaging legacy of colonialisation, outlines the principles behind decolonising education and offers advice on what a decolonised MFL lesson might include.

History teacher and research fellow Teni Gogo recommends resources for teaching African kingdoms and focuses on a 20th-century alternative to defeated African empires: Yaa Asantewaa, Kwame Nkrumah and the founding of the independent nation of Ghana.

In this article, experienced teacher and author Megan Mansworth offers her 10 tips on one of the more effective classroom management strategies: teaching to the top. 

As teachers, we know that vocabulary development is the foundation of learning. It is widely acknowledged that children with a broad vocabulary are more confident, experience greater wellbeing and achieve better academic results. 

In their recent report, Voicing Vocabulary, Voice 21 revealed that following a two-year research project, students in participating schools made accelerated progress in reading as a consequence of a targeted vocabulary focus. The report shows us the importance of providing children with opportunities to learn new words and to use them in speech and writing. 

Writing isn't always students' favourite activity. At one end of the scaffolding spectrum, a blank page can be very daunting, but at the other end, copying from a sentence builder doesn't require much creative input on the learners' part. To achieve a happy medium – and hopefully happy, motivated students – I've selected some activities that provide a medium level of support and include a collaborative or competitive element.