5 tips to avoid the pitfalls of pupil voice It’s common to ask pupils what they think about their teaching and life in school, but leaders aren’t always making the most of this information, writes Mark Enser

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Pupil voice is often used as part of quality assurance (by school leaders and external inspectors), but it is very rarely done well.

Here are 5 tips to make pupil voice work.

www.tes.com/magazine/tea... via @tesmagazine.bsky.social

More Testing ≠ The Testing Effect: What is the Testing Effect? The Testing Effect enhances long-term retention through retrieval practice, not frequent testing. Completing more tests doesn’t mean you’ll get the testing effect.

New Blog Post 📝

More Testing ≠ The Testing Effect

Some schools are testing their students too much and are collecting so much data, it's completely useless.

Here I go into what the testing effect is and tackle some of the misconceptions! 👇

inquestion.co.uk/2025/05/18/t...

🔥 15 hottest edu-research papers from the last 15 weeks:

(all open source 🔓)

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Managing your pupils cognitive load, can avoid them becoming easily distracted. Check out these 7 strategies from research to help you in those first few weeks of term.

Go to http://impact.wales for more info on the professional learning we provide for teachers and schools.

Applying systems thinking to school leadership Part 1 A system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets

daviddidau.substack.com/p/applying-s... I’ve only seen David talk formally once & this is what he discussed. It resonates so deeply with me. I think we should all read this substack @didau.bsky.social #edusky #thisisAP

It's revision time! But do you have a revision curriculum?

New blog - Creating a revision curriculum

Putting structure and clarity into the lessons before the exam (based on an old classic blog!)

missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/29/c...

Do you enjoy FREE things? 😆

I mean, who doesn't? So, check out our free posters to liven up your classroom!
www.innerdrive.co.uk/our-posters/

Sherlock Holmes and Covert Thieves of Attention - The Effortful Educator Teachers should think a little more like Sherlock Holmes in their classroom to improve attention and learning.

The obvious distractions in class are...obvious. But what of the more covert distractions that maybe teacher and students are unaware of?

And are these distractions 'contagious'?

theeffortfuleducator.com/2025/03/03/s...

#edusky

Top 10 Revision Strategies Year after the year, the same pressures attend exam revision. Each year teachers try the old favourites, alongside a few new revision strategies to keep our students interested. Happily, we now have a...

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'Top 10 Revision Strategies'

I've updated one of my all-time most popular blogs on 10 evidence-informed revision strategies:

alexquigley.co.uk/top-10-revis...

Classroom Seating and Student Achievement - The Effortful Educator How does the classroom seating arrangement impact student behavior?

I was recently asked about how to choose seating arrangements in the classroom.

My response was to consider the goal of the lesson. This should drive the seating.

Here’s the research I referenced:

theeffortfuleducator.com/2024/10/10/c...

Why are we holding out for more professional development time (even though school leaders say they can’t manage it)? Professional development is the strongest lever school leaders hold for increasing long-term student outcomes.

Why are we holding out for more professional development time?

Professor Rob Coe delves into this important topic and explores the benefits of investing in continuous learning and growth for teachers.

Read it here 👇
https://buff.ly/3CZaFYg

#EduBlogShare

About - 100% Assessment Assessment insights for schools. Click to read 100% Assessment, a Substack publication. Launched an hour ago.

🚀 Matthew Evans @head-teach.bsky.social and I have launched 100% Assessment, a Substack dedicated to exploring assessment in schools.

We'll be posting weekly insights for everyone, from teachers through to Heads and Assessment Leads.

Find us here - 100assessment.substack.com/about

Why children SHOULDN’T be using AI to do their homework I had hoped to see out my life in education without having to write about artificial intelligence (AI). I guess it was never very likely. It would seem that AI is suddenly everywhere. Or if not act…

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What role should AI play in the homework that pupil's do? Whatever way you cut it, I suspect it should be very little...

teachreal.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/w...

I really wanted to do this at my last school, but SLT just couldn’t see a world without them!

Your regular reminder from a very smug deputy head that our first GCSE and A Level cohorts to go through their Key Stages with no target grades got their results last summer and they were some of our best ever as a school. Maybe you're worried unnecessarily about the risk of putting them in the bin.

The Transfer Window: Can we Teach Metacognition in Isolation? Should we dedicate curriculum time specifically to metacognition?

The Transfer Window: Can we Teach Metacognition in Isolation?
Should we dedicate curriculum time specifically to metacognition?
researchschool.org.uk/bradford/new...

Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking This OA book proposes a way forward to effectively teach knowledge and complex cognitive skills in school and achieve equitable opportunities.

It’s here! Our new open access book on curriculum written by Tim Surma, @paulkirschner.bsky.social, @dylanwiliam.bsky.social, @timsurma.bsky.social, Nuno Crato, Elizabeth Rata, John Hattie, Claudio Van Hees, Michiel Wils, Jasper Nijlunsing and me. Download it here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Writing your ITT assignments I’ve had the genuine pleasure of marking ITT assignments for a couple of years now and am currently studying myself, so am in the position to be both giving and receiving regular feedback at Master’s level. As such, I see a lot of common mistakes made by ITT students whilst writing their assignments – and probably make many myself too. With the aim of helping those about to undertake an ITT in the new academic year, I have put together some ideas based on my experiences to act as a guide. Don’t

It’s ITT assignment season.

I wrote this whilst marking for our local SCITT/University using my experience of reading assignments and writing my own as an EdD student.

Please share with trainees if useful: www.researchtoclassroom.com/post/writing...

#UKEduBlog #UKTeacher #AcademicSky

IQ, neuroscience and other useless concepts Well, in the classroom at least

NEW FREE POST IQ, neuroscience and other useless concepts
Well, in the classroom at least

fillingthepail.substack.com/p/iq-neurosc...

Exit tickets: encapsulating tasks and retention An exit ticket is a short task which shows how well all students have understood the lesson’s key ideas.  Exit tickets are simple but powerful: designing and using them can help us refin…

Exit tickets keep popping back up. I know I addressed them a few months back, but I keep walking back into them when I'm visiting schools and talking T&L.

I dug out this Harry Fletcher Wood blog to reflect a little more... ⤵️⤵️

About 8 years ago, @siobhanleahy50 and I prepared a Quick Reference Guide for Embedding Formative Assessment. It's now out of print, so the copyright has reverted to us, and we are free to share it with anyone who wants it: bit.ly/EFAQRG (pdf).

Do your pupils struggle to learn new vocabulary? Try out these 7 strategies ⬇️

Follow us for research-informed professional learning & resources for teachers. www.impact.wales

What are the 3 most effective & useful learning strategies supported by research?

🧠Retrieval practice or quizzing
📅Spaced practice
✏️Combining visuals & language

Get in touch if you would like to know more about professional learning informed by research enquiries@impact.wales

www.theguardian.com/teacher-netw...

On building relationships Recently, I heard a teacher say how good they were at building relationships in their classroom. They suggested that their subject (PE) meant they found it easier to do so and that as a result the …

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On building relationships.

drcastelino.wordpress.com/2024/11/30/o...

Curricular problems, pedagogical solutions I’ve got quite a few views on education that could be described as controversial. But there’s one view that seems to raise eyebrows more than others. I don’t think that good teach…

I wrote this some months ago and have avoided posting it for some time.

Here's why I think we spend too much time worrying about pedagogy:
inthenameofrigour.wordpress.com/2024/11/24/c...

This blows my mind!

Differentiation or Differentiated Instruction My part in its downfall

NEW FREE POST Differentiation or Differentiated Instruction
My part in its downfall

fillingthepail.substack.com/p/differenti...