Looking after your teaching voice As a teacher, losing your voice can be debilitating and is an ever-present risk given how much we talk day-to-day. Do you look after your voice? Nikki Doig offers some practical tips
A responsive, research-informed CPD cycle Designing and implementing an effective, research-informed CPD cycle for your school requires five steps. Alex Beauchamp explains
The four Cs of effective teaching assistants Professional collaboration between teachers and teaching assistants is crucial to high-quality lessons and teaching. Matt Bromley outlines his four Cs for creating outstanding working relationships 2 comments
CPD in the EAL classroom As schools become linguistically and culturally diverse, it makes sense to ensure that teaching staff are adequately prepared. Silvana Richardson looks at CPD to enable teaching staff to work effectively in diverse multilingual classrooms
Recruitment: Selling your school Primary schools with 200 to 600 pupils are the most common school type in England, making for a crowded recruitment market. Imogen Rowley outlines how you can refresh the way you advertise this year and ensure your school stands out
The challenges facing primary science education Primary science education faces some key challenges since it was overhauled in the national curriculum reforms, including questions over how well ‘working like a scientist’ is promoted and how confident teachers are to deliver lessons. Deborah Roberts explains
Making school-to-school CPD collaborations work The benefits of schools working together to deliver effective CPD can be far-reaching. Maria Cunningham looks at some practical steps schools might take to overcome the barriers to school-to-school CPD collaboration
Addressing secondary traumatic stress Secondary trauma occurs when the act of supporting a traumatised young person becomes traumatic in itself – and it is a danger that teachers should be aware of. Darren Martindale advises
Ofsted's Education Inspection Framework: Finally moving in the right direction? The consultation over Ofsted’s draft Education Inspection Framework is almost at an end. With its new focus on curriculum breadth and balance and with the chief inspector speaking out against teaching to the test, the framework has been broadly welcomed. What are the key talking points?
Retaining our new and experienced teachers With more teachers leaving the profession than joining, improving retention rates is crucial to tackling the on-going supply challenges. The government has recently announced new plans to boost teacher retention, particularly with additional support for new teachers. Dorothy Lepkowska reports
How do you choose your CPD ‘experts’? Many schools work with CPD experts to support staff development, but what should school leaders be looking for when forming these partnerships? Maria Cunningham advises
Supporting EAL learners in your classroom Continuing our series on supporting learners with English as an additional language, Emma Parsons recommends strategies and resources for teachers and support staff to use in class and offers her suggestions for CPD and sharing good EAL practice within your school 3 comments
Workload reduction: What will 2019 bring? In 2019 there will be a new Ofsted framework, the introduction of a mental maths test and the return of Baseline Assessment is on the horizon. So what hope for Damian Hinds’ pledge to support schools to tackle workload?
Making job-sharing work How can flexible working conditions, such as job-shares, improve the recruitment and retention of teachers? Caroline Cafferty speaks to headteacher Angela Pagett to get her perspective on job-sharing in a primary school setting
Reflections on recruitment Getting it right is absolutely imperative. Get it wrong and that has a tremendous impact on productivity, morale, workload and outcomes for children. Rachel Jones offers her reflections on the recruitment challenge
Using video as part of CPD The impact of video feedback on teacher-led CPD in Ross Newman‘s schools has been notable. Here, he explains how video feedback was implemented and offers some tips for other schools
Staff wellbeing: Showing your vulnerability Julian Stanley talks about the importance of schools leaders showing vulnerability and the positive impact this can have on staff
New year, new roles, new networks As the new year begins, the importance of having supportive professional networks around you is clear. Fiona Aubrey-Smith gives us some suggestions
Coaching: More than just a queue of questions Investing more time in coaching approaches to professional development could pay dividends for your schools, says assistant principal Laura Mackay. She offers some tenets of good practice
Case study: The power of coaching Having both experienced significant challenges within their early days of headship, Louise Gohr and Helen Morris first connected through the power of coaching and spotted an opportunity to lead their schools using this life-changing approach
How are schools using evidence-based strategies? Do you go by intuition, by what your neighbouring school does or what you’ve always done? Or, do you use the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit to guide your decisions? Recent research has outlined what schools are using and why. Suzanne O’Connell reports
Supporting your EAL learners In a new series focused on supporting pupils with English as an additional language (EAL), Nic Kidston and Katherine Solomon discuss how schools can learn more about who their EAL learners are and how they can be empowered and supported to fulfil their potential
Teaching assistants’ role in managing behaviour Research has shown that fear of ‘overstepping the mark’ can stop teaching assistants from managing behaviour. Dr Emma Clarke outlines some of the issues uncovered during her research and suggests ways in which schools, teachers and teaching assistants can support effective behaviour management 1 comment
The links between teacher wellbeing and CPD Does your school’s CPD provision help or hinder teacher wellbeing? Megan Williamson considers the links between effective CPD and teacher wellbeing and offers some practical advice
Ensuring effective career development for your staff A good career development strategy is crucial to retaining staff but can be challenging to get right, especially in a primary school. Maria Cunningham offers her best practice advice
