Best Practice

Learn more about primary education and leadership best practice with our range of in-depth articles written specifically for UK primary school leaders.

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How well do you know your cognitive bias?

Cognitive bias can present itself in many forms and can hamper your school’s work to raise attainment and close the gaps. Fiona Aubrey-Smith asks whether cognitive bias is holding you, your colleagues or your school back

A guide to parent councils

One way to improve parental engagement, involvement and communication in your school is via a parent council. John Jolly from the charity Parentkind explains more and offers some tips

Tackling period poverty: Primary school roll-out

The government has agreed to fund free sanitary products in schools to help end period poverty. Chris Brown looks at what the research says and how schools might approach implementation

Planning for school security

Headteachers are very much aware of the need to protect pupils and staff. However, navigating the guidance and legal obligations can be difficult. Suzanne O’Connell looks at new online advice to help those responsible for policy and practice

Ten ideas for using research in your school

How do we engage teachers with research? And how can we turn this engagement into impact? Alex Beauchamp offers 10 principles for developing research-informed professional learning

Recognising pupils’ feelings and emotions

Learning to recognise feelings and emotions is an essential part of growing up, but it will not necessarily come naturally. Shahana Knight looks at how we can help support our pupils to spot, identify and manage their feelings

CPD: Books on the balcony...

School leaders can find inspiration and solutions if they build reading for professional development into their schedules, says Yvonne Gandy

RSE: Asking young people

Who better to ask about what is needed from relationships and sex education than the children themselves. This is what the Sex Education Forum has done and the findings are revealing. Lucy Emmerson explains

Concern over Ofsted’s deep dive expectations

The deep dive is the method being used by Ofsted inspectors to explore the intent, implementation and impact of the curriculum in schools. But is the approach proving too much for subject leaders in our primary schools?

Reflections on year 6 reading attainment

The key stage 2 national curriculum tests can give us far greater insights than just a scaled score. Sarah Gibb explores what individual question data can tell us about which skills pupils successfully demonstrate in year 6 and which areas prove more challenging

A case study of Ofsted's EIF in action

Greenmount Primary School was one of the first schools to be visited under Ofsted’s new Education Inspection Framework. Headteacher David Griffith speaks with Suzanne O’Connell and shares his experiences of the Section 8 inspection before offering his advice to other schools

RSE, health education and parental consultation

Parental engagement with statutory relationships, sex and health education is a vital component of a successful curriculum. Leah Jewett offers her advice to primary schools ahead of September 2020

Ed-tech in 2020 and beyond

Ahead of Bett 2020, Caroline Wright looks at BESA’s latest research findings on the state of ed-tech in UK schools and the challenges faced by the sector, not least when it comes to teacher training

Are you going to Bett 2020?

Thirty-five years ago, Dominic Savage co-founded what is now known as the Bett Show. He looks ahead to Bett 2020 – which runs from January 22 to 25 – and what the future of ed-tech holds

January’s priorities for new headteachers

Continuing her series offering support and advice for new headteachers, National Leader of Education Helen Frostick considers what we should be prioritising at the beginning of the spring term

Learning environments: A question of light and air

With the darker days drawing in and winter upon us, Fiona Aubrey-Smith considers two issues that do not often make it to the top of school improvement plans – light and air

Improving your pupils’ retention and retrieval

A project to boost the working memories of children in years 3 to 6 has proved a success for Liphook Junior School. SENCO Nicky Parrott takes us through what they did and how it worked

Raising ambitions for Pupil Premium children

How can we move beyond ‘off-the-shelf’ strategies for Pupil Premium work in our classrooms? Sean Harris finds out how one primary school went about raising its pupils’ ambitions

How we created an inspiring school library

This is the story of how a small team created a new, woodland-themed library at Halberton Primary School. Christine Campion explains

Getting subject-specific CPD right

The role of subject-specific CPD and curriculum development in effective teaching is vital. Maria Cunningham looks at the research and some best practice approaches

Internal audits: Specialist teacher review teams

One multi-academy trust has introduced a system of specialist teacher review – or STaR teams – to help guide internal performance audits. CEO Louise Smith explains more

Suggestions for Pupil Premium approaches

Drawing on tried and tested practice from her own London primary school, as well as national examples, National Leader of Education Helen Frostick looks at some key tenets of Pupil Premium work

Discussion is a key step towards maths mastery

Mathematics Mastery has developed a framework to help teachers use language and communication to increase pupils’ enjoyment, confidence and attainment. Joe Sarchet-Winters breaks the approach down into five tips to enable pupils to confidently articulate mathematical ideas

Teaching climate change

EduCCate Global and a group of Teaching Schools in Derbyshire are supporting teachers to train in climate change education in order to equip children to handle an uncertain future on a warming planet. Headteacher Fiona Cowan explains more about the project and her school’s climate change curriculum