A male House Finch standing on a wood fence rail with a beak full of dried grass. His back is to the camera and his head is turned in profile to the left. He has a very red head and a patch of red and orange feathers on his rump. He seems like a prize specimen.

Got in a walk at lunch and saw this handsome fellow with a beak full of nesting material. #finchfriday #birds

Beautiful!

A game of hide and seek, spot it?

I find it wild that if you’re verbally abusive to a police officer or a nurse you can be prosecuted, but we are saying that when it happens to teachers it’s not even appropriate to send a child home.

Removal Reluctance I had to remove a student for disrupting my lesson. But, like many teachers, my reluctance to do so meant I removed them too late. Here’s why, and what I should have done differently.

New post!

On removing students from lessons, and the pain and angst it brings.

Please share if you can :)

open.substack.com/pub/carousel...

The moon is looking pretty this morning.

A woolen cat cave with a cat sitting in it looking very cosy, with various colour options (for the cave, not the cat) shown underneath.

I need a human sized version of this. Now I know these exist for cats, a blanket fort just isn't going to cut it anymore.

That sky! So beautiful! I wish I had half this talent.

Alt text: sunrise photo over patchwork fields of the beautiful countryside that is the Somerset levels. The sky is a beautiful and dynamic combination of yellows, oranges, reds and purples giving the effect of really looking like it's on fire!

Fire in the sky this morning. Photo taken on Glastonbury Tor looking out over the Somerset levels.

An oak tree with two trunks like legs that grow together about halfway up before branching out into outstretched arms.

Today I found an Ent

The “Just Tell Them” Trap How direct instruction gets mistranslated as 'teacher talk,' lecturing and all sorts of other dull bobbins

Telling students stuff is sensible. But if you’re *just* telling them, you’re not really teaching.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Education researchers publish obviously false claims about internal exclusion. Part 1 How does anyone believe this nonsense?

In case you missed it: Yesterday's blog post.

Education researchers publish obviously false claims about internal exclusion. Part 1 andrewold.substack.com/p/education-...

Search Impact Stories Search the impact stories Database.

My list of cultural, ethical, legal, etc., articles was getting a bit long, and some of them overlapped, so I've put them in a database; it's easier to update and you can search by theme. It's a bit crude, but I'll refine it once I know how I want to use it!
www.advanced-ict.info/theory/impac...

Getting worse at teaching We talk a lot about how teachers get better at teaching, but don’t think enough about how teachers can get worse at teaching.

NEW POST

We talk a lot about getting better at teaching, but perhaps we don't talk enough about getting worse at teaching.

open.substack.com/pub/adamboxe...

I’ve given teaching my all. Now I’m told I don't belong here The thought that I won't be able to be treated as a citizen is disturbing

The points @msjasminemn.bsky.social makes in the body of the article are important.

Rhetoric around immigration has now moved against not only illegal immigration, but legal immigration.

schoolsweek.co.uk/ive-given-my...

I like this. I may use this myself if you don't mind.

Do you teach more than one subject? Do you try to bring them together? We're doing equations/graphs of circles in Maths this week, so we're also doing a programming task to draw a circle in Python. It's easy with Maths, but I'd be interested to hear about ideas for other subjects. #TeamCompSci

Physics too. Projectile motion is a good one. I don't teach much biology or chemistry but various DNA/genetics tasks and products of electrolysis for chemistry given the salt and whether it's aqueous or molten are a couple of things I've done with classes at GCSE.

Has gender balance in A-Level physics improved? - FFT Education Datalab We look at whether A-Level physics is becoming more popular with female students.

NEW: Has gender balance in A-Level physics improved?

This summer, 24% of those entering A-Level physics exams were female. Physics still has the second lowest percentage of female entrants of all A-Levels. - but that's the highest percentage for at least the last twenty years.

vist.ly/4bft7

What I talk about when I talk about running and writing Making connections between running, writing and reading Murakami

Just ran my first half marathon in 1:50: now I’m training for the full 26.2. Running, like writing, isn't about inspiration but discipline, structure, & carrying on when you’d rather stop. Couch to 5K Writing began with that idea: one step, one sentence at a time.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Nicely done!

What's the story Montessori?
Wouldn't you like to know?

#UkEd
#Edusky

New V levels and post-16 qualifications explained We’re transforming post-16 education so every young person can gain the knowledge and skills they need to get a good job, go on to university, or achieve other ambitions.  From 2027, new V levels will...

‘ V levels will be new Level 3 qualifications that offer a vocational pathway for students who want to explore different sectors before deciding where to specialise.’ educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/new-...

Frontiers | Research by autistic researchers: an “insider’s view” into autism. The autistic way of being This paper introduces us to an increasingly popular understanding of autism, but as understood and experienced by Autistic people: the descriptive theory of ...

Wenn Lawson, one of the originators of the theory, writes about Monotropism for Frontiers in Psychiatry.

"Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Autistic Commonality and the Illusion of “Quirky” — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM When I am talking about being autistic, I am not talking about being quirky. If you are, then we are not talking about the same thing.

Autism is not just about being "quirky," and those who claim otherwise should not be taken seriously as autism advocates, org representatives, by the media—or by anyone who wants to truly support autistic people. From @epballou.bsky.social via TPGA archives:

thinkingautismguide.com/2018/05/auti...

Ten questions concerning autism and auditory accessibility in buildings. Have you been distracted by the whine of an old fridge, the echo in a classroom, or the buzz of fluorescent lights? For autistic people, these sounds aren’t just small irritations, due to sensory h…

How can we improve auditory accessibility in buildings? Because "Thoughtful design can make schools, workplaces, and public spaces calmer, safer, and more welcoming. Not just for autistic people, but for everyone." From @craeioe.bsky.social:

crae.ioe.ac.uk/ten-question... #autism #neurodiversity

Has additional become the point? Saying the SEND system is in crisis is no great reveal; it is proving ruinously expensive while failing to deliver either improved experiences or outcomes. One consequence of its long-term failure …

New post.
Has additional become the point?
bennewmark.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/h...

The promise and danger of neuroscience With the advent of increasingly inexpensive access to brain imaging technology, neuroscience has entered a fascinating period of rapid advancement.

Teachers love a good brain scan, but neuroscience tells us far less about teaching than we like to think. New 2025 studies show neuromyths still thriving in classrooms worldwide. It’s time to stop mistaking neurofolklore for knowledge. 🧠👇
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Put Python Anywhere on the Web Python in the browser. No installation required.

Demonstrated use of stacks for recursive fibonacci - asked Copilot to create me a demo and so I thought I'd share for reuse! trinket.io/python3/e511... #TeamCompSci

I love random facts, especially when they involve physics 😁