Q&A: Why are a child’s first 1,000 days so critical for brain building? Many parents think the school years matter most for neurological development, but a UVA expert says the biggest gains start much earlier.

"During the first 1,000 days, the brain builds itself at a breathtaking pace, forming up to a million neural connections per second..." news.virginia.edu/content/qa-w...

Ditching Differentiation? - Evidence Based Education It’s fair to say that the term ‘differentiation’ has had its day in education (or at least in England). At one point, it was considered to be an integral element of lesson planning, design and…

Ditching Differentiation?

"It’s fair to say that the term ‘differentiation’ has had its day in education (or at least in England). At one point, it was considered to be an integral element of lesson planning, design and delivery to ensure all learners were involved..."
By Kate Jones

S10 E11: Learning to read vs. reading to learn, with Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D.

I like the sports analogy: athletes train to build strength and stamina; when teaching reading, shorter, more challenging texts build comprehension strategies, and longer, more straightforward texts build reading stamina.
open.spotify.com/episode/4T3D...

Poor Proxies for Effective Feedback - Evidence Based Education Over a decade ago, Rob Coe and other researchers at the Sutton Trust authored What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research (2014). In this influential review, the authors identified…

"The first time I encountered the concept of ‘poor proxies’ was during a presentation by Rob Coe in 2016 at the Festival of Education at Wellington College.

This was a significant moment in my professional development. It challenged assumptions I had previously accepted..."

Rob Coe et al at the Sutton Trust (2014) identified ‘poor proxies’ for learning; indicators that may lead observers to assume learning is taking place, but in actuality may not be related to learning. The idea of poor proxies can also be applied to feedback. evidencebased.education/resource/poo...

🚨 Giveaway! 🎉 5 copies of my new book Questioning for Teaching & Learning. 💡 To enter repost this post! 🗓 Winners announced Monday 5th January 2026 at 6 pm UK time. Happy new year all. Here's to a healthy & happy 2026!

Racially motivated attack on Ukrainian girl 'linked by campaigner to Reform UK's anti-migrant rhetoric' Martin Shipton A racially motivated attack on a 14-year-old Ukrainian girl in Caerphilly is being linked to the anti-migrant rhetoric of Reform UK in the recent Senedd by-election. Polina Rudakov was ...

nation.cymru/news/raciall...

Why do we stop singing when we reach secondary school? New data suggests singing is much more common in primary and private schools than in state secondaries.

BBC News - Why do we stop singing when we reach secondary school?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Modern take on The Mabinogion rescued from destruction A modern take on the Mabinogion with 11 stories of enchanting prose, and with endorsement and a foreword by Michael Sheen, has been given a new lease of life. More than 1500 copies of hit children’s…

The Mab - a modern take on the Mabinogion with a foreword by Michael Sheen, has been given a new lease of life after being rescued from destruction

What do we really mean by “I got my best writing…”? download this article As teachers, we’ll often describe a certain unit as producing our ‘best writing outcomes’ – but what do we really mean? Do we mean it looks impressive to outsiders? That…

What do we really mean by “I got my best writing…”?

writing4pleasure.com/2025/07/16/w...

Evan Davis: Why so many people break 20mph speed limits After receiving a speeding ticket, Evan Davis explores why so many people have broken 20mph limits across the country.

BBC News - Evan Davis: Why so many people break 20mph speed limits - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Exploring confusion around modelling: “I do, we do, you do” vs “Guided and Independent Practice” In the last couple of days I’ve seen a couple of resources posted online that made me question my understanding of the idea of ‘I do, we do, you do’ and how this fits with ideas o…

Interesting exploration of 'I do/we do/you do' and 'guided - independent practice' from Tom Sherrington. If things feel too linear and straight-forward, they probably need more thinking! All the details matter.

teacherhead.com/2025/11/21/e...

#Poem for #RemembranceDay #RemembranceSunday

#poems #LibrarySky #EduSky #BookSky #poetry #TeacherSky #poetrylovers #PoetrySky #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity #teachers #literacy @schoolreadinglist.bsky.social #kidlit @troikabooks.bsky.social @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social

S10 E3: Finding fluency at the heart of comprehension, with Doug Lemov - Science of Reading: The Podcast In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Doug Lemov,  former teacher and school principal, to discuss how teachers can identify when disfluency is actually t...

www.buzzsprout.com/612361/episo...

Inclusion ‘by design’: why it matters and how to do it With the new Ofsted framework taking a broad view of inclusion, it’s even more important to make teaching inclusive ‘by design’ and not by accident, suggests Alex Quigley

Excellent to see this article in Tes by Alex Quigley on the ‘Five-a-day’ approach to teaching pupils with #SEND, a framework for inclusive practice that should give hope to a profession working incredibly hard to deliver lessons inclusively.

lnkd.in/eT3EqjZr

Ukrainian refugees hurt by petition to close down scheme that helped them Martin Shipton Ukrainian refugees who have settled in Caerphilly have been hurt by a petition that suggests they should not have been allowed to seek refuge in Wales, according to a prominent member o...

Ukrainian refugees who have settled in Caerphilly have been hurt by a petition that suggests they should not have been allowed to seek refuge in Wales, according to a prominent member of their community ✍️Martin Shipton

The Struggle with 'Writing Stamina' After some grim national writing results last year, and lots of conversations with school leaders about their post-Covid teaching and learning priorities, writing is high on many schools’ priority lis...

💡'The struggle with writing stamina'

Are we addressing issues commonly related to writing stamina?

- Limited handwriting fluency
- Running dry of ideas
- Errors increase in pupils extended writing.
- Motivation is low to keep going with a writing task

alexquigley.co.uk/the-struggle...

On Monday 20th October, I'm running an online session with the brilliant @joshuaseigal.bsky.social all about raising the profile of poetry in the primary classroom. It will start at 3:45pm and end at 5:00pm. More information here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-dont-lik...

A photograph of Nicola Davies, appointed Children's Laureate Wales 2025 - 2027. She is outdoors, and is smiling into the sky.

‘I want all children in Wales to experience the pleasure of reading, the superpower of writing, to find their own voices as creative change-makers & advocates for a fairer, more sustainable future.’ Nicola Davies, new Children's Laureate Wales 👏 #KidlitUK
booksforkeeps.co.uk/nicola-davie...

Agreed.

On S4C on BBC iPlayer. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photo of Geraint Thomas in the Tour of Britain stage 6 between Newport and Cardiff.

Exciting to see the @tourofbritain.bsky.social pass the end of my street earlier. #Cycling #TourOfBritain #GeraintThomas

Are we living in a stupidogenic society? The cognitive muscles we no longer exercise

Obesogenic societies make it easy to be overweight.

Are we living in a stupidogenic society - one that makes it easy to be stupid?

And if so, what can schools do about it?

Latest on our Substack

substack.nomoremarking.com/p/are-we-liv...

Yes! Learning as the vehicle, personal development as the goal. It's highly likely that this kind of model for qualifications would also help to narrow the disadvantage gap and be far more useful than the existing Welsh Bac. #EduSky #Teachers #Curriculum #Education #CurriculumForWales #GCSEs

Is there a better example than Duolingo of how you can have performance without learning, and how performance can actually impede learning?

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/dyR5GpJ...

These stories are horrendous but we can't pretend this isn't happening.
www.instagram.com/reel/DJbKDW9...

Celebrating aspects of the DfE’s Writing Framework: We can finally move on from the book-based approach to writing download this article On the 8th of July 2025, the Department for Education published its non-statutory guidance document: The Writing Framework.  The mission of The Writing For Pleasure Centr…

Celebrating aspects of the DfE’s Writing Framework: We can finally move on from the book-based approach to writing

writing4pleasure.com/2025/07/10/c...

Thank you for sharing this. It's given me lots to think about. Also, the link to your amazing list of 'mentor texts' is invaluable. 😊