I’ve published a new book! 🥳

It is pitched at new teachers. Short. Easy reading. Helps make sense of what goes on in schools.

Check it out.

share.google/hsTGxb7gkEFt...

Building a high participation classroom: key steps If they aren’t listening, they aren’t learning. But knowing where to start to build a high participation classroom can be hard, so we’ve mapped out the key steps.

New Post!

In many classrooms, lots of students aren’t listening, meaning they aren’t learning. Here we outline a few common mistakes and simple techniques for building classrooms where ALL students participate.

Please share if you can 🙏

carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/building-a...

The Department of Communication and Culture at Aston University are delighted to announce the launch of 2 new standalone, CPD modules:

🔹 Cognitive Poetics: aston.ac.uk/study/course...

🔹 Language and Literature in Education:
aston.ac.uk/study/course...

Reading comprehension is not a skill. It’s an outcome of what you know. Strategies plateau. Knowledge compounds.
lnkd.in/e-P9uNE2

25 quid for food, drink and 13 great pieces of scholarship? You’d be mad not to! Cheaper than staying at home (or you CAN stay at home and join us online)

Teaching Lit in the Lang Classroom
30 March: Uni of Nottingham

tinyurl.com/teachlanglit

Riz Ahmed's Hamlet — Julian Girdham The latest cinema version of Hamlet , featuring Riz Ahmed, is an intelligent and pacey piece of film-making.

(New). On Riz Ahmed's 'Hamlet'.

It's not 'Hamnet'.

www.juliangirdham.com/blog/riz-ahm...

Instruction? Don't forget about curriculum In education, as is the case in many other sectors, false claims, lethal mutations and biased bandwagonning have become ubiquitous.

Hello Bluesky 👋

My latest post is a bit of a plea

open.substack.com/pub/birmingh...

200: The Bicentennial Edition L.M. Sacasas, Thomas Harding, Maryanne Wolf, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Harpur, William Trevor, Fiona Benson, Claire Keegan, Marion Turner, Henry James, Neil Postman, Sylvia Plath and more.

The 200th edition of The Fortnightly.

@lmsacasas.bsky.social on our relationship with technology; Claire Keegan on Foster; Maryanne Wolf; William Trevor; Neil Postman; teaching and learning things from Tom Sherrington and @carlhendrick.substack.com & more

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/200-the-bi...

Put simply, teaching writing is about three things:

1. Modelling, as a writer-teacher, the things you want your children to do for themselves.

2. Providing loads of meaningful writing experiences.

3. Giving feedback as a sympathetic reader, writer and teacher.

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...

List of questions

NEW BLOG: Metaphor, Oracy, and Real Speech

learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/01/meta...

A question of homework in English Homework is one of those tricky things in school. The only people that seem to like it are pushy parents, who think every child should be do...

NEW BLOG: A question of homework in English

learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2025/11/a-qu...

@carousel-learning.bsky.social @adamboxereducation.bsky.social

NEW POST

Almost every school I know has a list of Teaching and Learning or curriculum "non-negotiables." But is that a good term to use in schools?

Please share if you can 🙏🙏

substack.com/home/post/p-...

191: Carob of Cyprus ink Molly Twomey, William Wall, Michael Longley, Culture Night, Fintan O'Toole on Easter 1916, Deborah Levy, Alan Jacobs, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emma Smith and more.

Fortnightly 191 is now out:

Molly Twomey, William Wall, Michael Longley’s final book, @fotoole.bsky.social on Easter 1916 with @ppfideas.bsky.social, teaching 'Othello' via @clanavtra.bsky.social, Deborah Levy, Alan Jacobs, @tom-richmond.com on AI.

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/191-carob-...

AI in Schools: Three Things to Get Right Making AI Work for Learning, Not Just for Efficiency

*NEW*
1️⃣ Curriculum: Does the AI understand your subject the way your best teachers do?
2️⃣ Instruction: Is “adaptivity” just pacing tweaks, or does it genuinely address misconceptions?
3️⃣ Assessment: Does AI support teacher judgment, not replace it? carlhendrick.substack.com/p/ai-in-scho...

Latest post:

1/
This year I’ve lived in the margins of others’ work: Willingham, Sweller, Chi, Counsell, Hirsch, Myatt, Sealy, Ritchhart, Cremin (and more).

They rarely align neatly. I needed a way to hold them together in my own head - not to claim the last word, just to orient myself.

190: All things begin in dreams Florence Knapp, Adrian Lester on Othello, R.C. Sherriff, Anne Enright and Joseph O’Connor on John McGahern, essays on Leaving Certificate English, Oscar Wilde's trials and more.

Fortnightly 190 is out:

Florence Knapp, Adrian Lester on Othello, R.C. Sherriff, Anne Enright and Joseph O’Connor on John McGahern, essays on Leaving Certificate English, Oscar Wilde's trials and more.

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/190-all-th...

Meet the three-year-olds helping anxious teens spend more time in school As school returns, we look at a scheme that pairs teenagers with toddlers from a local nursery in a bid to help increase school attendance.

This is just a lovely positive story for your weekend.

Meet the three-year-olds helping anxious teens spend more time in school www.bbc.com/news/article...

Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson? When teachers step into the classroom, we never act alone. There is no “I do”. Each of our actions is a response, a small arc, in a continual loop consisting of ourselves, our tools, and our students.

New blog post ↓

Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson?

#UKEd #EduSky #iTeachBio #SciTeachUK

So, can AI assess writing? Results of our big new Comparative Judgement AI trial

We've been sceptical about AI marking. Not any more!

When the facts change, we change our minds.

We think this is really big.

substack.nomoremarking.com/p/so-can-ai-...

A few years back I started a small distribution list for people interested in Teaching and Learning updates. It's now over 2000 people so I've moved it somewhere more substantial - if you're interested please sign up here! Retweets appreciated 🙏🙏

t.co/PSrg1sKWnp

It's half term, which means I have a copy of Primary Reading Simplified to give away.

Simply *repost* this post for your chance to win.

I will choose a winner at random this Saturday (22nd February).

🧵Getting people to learn is *hard*.

I'm trying to flip the way I think so that I make better assumptions about learning.

Here's how it's going (plea for help at the end)

I now see three learning DEMONS 👿👿👿
....

Article by Breda O’Brien: ‘big tech is bullying schools into using AI’.

Breda O’Brien in today’s Irish Times on AI, and the ethical and practical problems in Leaving Certificate Additional Assessment Components.
#edchatie

Coaching cut #2: 'When wouldn't you...' Coaching cuts: bite-sized tips for better coaching

🔥 New Coaching Cut 🔥
Adapting techniques to the lesson context is very important in teaching.

What question can coaches ask to develop this adaptive thinking?

Check out this week's tip and video clip!👇
bit.ly/4jWAJUK

Written by the awesome @mradamkohlbeck.bsky.social

Ofsted report cards ‘rushed and botched’, say insiders Watchdog whistleblowers say reforms have been 'cobbled together at ridiculous speed'

❗ Exclusive: Planned Ofsted inspection report cards have been 'cobbled together at ridiculous speed' with no underpinning research and concerns by experienced officials ignored, whistleblowers have claimed

Read more ⬇️

Norms are more powerful than rules. How to leverage this idea in school:

↓

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Primary Reading Simplified – A Practical Guide to Classroom Teaching and Whole-School Implementation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation ema... Session Overview Join us for this live, online CPD session where we are delighted to once again be joined by Primary Reading Consultant Christopher Such, who will deliver a 60-minute session focused ...

First, if you’d like to learn more about the approach to reading lessons at the heart of Primary Reading Simplified, @FFTEdu are hosting two *free* webinars this week in which I will talk about exactly this:

Tue 28 Jan - 15:45 - fftedu.org/3E82Lw1

Wed 29 Jan - 09:00 - fftedu.org/4au7y76

>>

But my students like written comments... Feedback that is accurate, helpful, and doesn't ruin your Sunday evening

Some appropriate reading for a Sunday afternoon - how to reclaim your Sunday afternoons from marking.

substack.nomoremarking.com/p/but-my-stu...