Richard Southward

We Need a Revolution in Professional Learning   In this new paper by Professors Stuart Kime and Rob Coe they make the case for a different approach: one that protects time, builds expertise and looks carefully at whether professional learning is improving practice. Download here 👇 buff.ly/PI6sE1W

Explicit instruction or inquiry-based learning? Perhaps that’s the wrong question. A new conceptual replication again shows that the order matters, as does what students already know. wp.me/p2nWPo-6cB

The Observer interview with Lucy Powell is worse than I feared. This is just untrue. Really poor to just be wrong about this stuff. archive.ph/2026.09.06-0...

People are starting to write the obituary for England's "knowledge-rich" era. Before we bury it, I wanted to check something - was it ever really alive? enserm.substack.com/p/the-knowle...

💡 NEW POST 💡 'The End of the Knowledge-rich Era' alexquigley.co.uk/the-end-of-t...

There is something to @benjaminjriley.bsky.social 's ways educators see the "science of learning". I think the SoL is a term more popular in the US. This post could have been the same in the UK as a way educators talk about "cognitive science". buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/the-scienc...

"Let's talk about motivation In the Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review Element 2.3 suggests that students who feel motivated to study, learn, engage and succeed are more likely to do so. " Blog by Faye Morris

A reminder that a grade 4 is a standard pass. That doesn't mean grades 1-3 are fails. A fail is less than grade 1. There are students who will be over the moon with a grade 1-3, so let's be mindful of that in the language we use on Thursday. If someone can get the media on board too, even better 😆

In a village in Somerset is a grave that represents a remarkable story of reconciliation, compassion and friendship between Germany and the United Kingdom. In 1940, RAF Spitfires shot down a Junkers 88 that crash landed on the shore near Porlock... (1/4)

Ever wondered what expert thinking actually looks like? Modelling your thought process can help students see the decisions, questions and strategies that sit behind successful learning. 🧠 https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/teach-modelling-thought-processes-for-students/

● The Wrong Ends of the Constructivist Stick The middle way isn't a mix of "some telling and some exploring". It's a distinct pedagogy in its own right, just one that few people are aware of. Read about it in my new post: christianmooreanderson.com/teaching-wit...

NEW POST ↓↓↓ ● Teaching with the wrong ends of the constructivist stick christianmooreanderson.com/teaching-wit...

I understand how pen & paper exams can look like anachronisms in an age of AI. Recent comments by the new education secretary indicate as much. But we shouldn't mistake adult ways of working with how children learn. Writing by hand has countless benefits: alexquigley.co.uk/learning-by-...

How do we guard against people selecting routes based on their situation in society?

@labouruk.bsky.social This is an unnecessarily dichotomous way to view young people. At school the both have and lack a range of skills / knowledge to varying degrees. This rhetoric is clumsy at best.

I've weighed in on the great vocational education debate. From what we can see of the govt plans, I think they will repeat mistakes of the past. Also, we need to retire the phrase "parity of esteem". It's not helping. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/the-proble...

Just migrated my bsky account over to Europe and eurosky's servers, run by a nonprofit: New handle: @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social Wasn't hard doing this: move.eurosky.tech

Supporting neurodiverse students doesn't always require big changes. Sometimes it's the small, intentional adjustments that have the biggest impact. Read our blog for practical ideas 👇 https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/support-neurodiverse-students/

Evidence Informed? My recent speech from ResearchED on why I'm so worried about our direction of travel and why once again we may need to fight for evidence informed education. bennewmark.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/e...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... An oracy framework for England’s schools: linguistic justice edition Open access and out now in Educational Review

If all the decent people left X it would be over for it.

A teacher in our community is planning tutor-time sessions on misogyny and toxic masculinity, and would welcome advice and resources that have worked for you. If you've tackled this with pupils, what would you recommend? Please share below 🙏 #pastoral #TutorTime

Early stroll. Clouds crowd the sky. The pleasure of chewing apple pips. A faint and fading rainbow. Someone whizzes by on a bike, trying to outcycle the weather. Birds swirl like tea leaves in a cup.

I just wanna say, several Prosecco’s and a very stressful game down, white nationalists will never take away what England is Watching this game, with my black dad, white step mom, and mixed race brother and sister on the edge of our seats remind me of this We are England, nationalists be damned

Sports Day. Back when I was HoD I had an NQT who was a Y8 form tutor. A Polish girl called Martha moved into her class. Martha was a perfectionist who found peer relationships tricky. She needed everything to be perfect and predictable which is, I think, why she preferred adults.

'Students must always ready history with an eye to the author'. When it comes to teaching Discipinary Literacy, some say History is 'the' subject where this applies most. How do we apply this in the classroom? Check out our brand new guide: researchschool.org.uk/greenshaw/ou...

My answer: not one pedagogy. Three, working together. Dialogue. Enquiry. Cognitive science. Each one converts knowledge into something pupils can actually think with. Pull any one out and the other two stop working properly. open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...

Really cool (and somewhat freighting) work on Gen AI use and highschool performance in China. Homework Scores rocket up, time spend doing homework collapses, then predictably exam scores are way down. Results show bimodal response ~75% see scores drop, the other 20-25% keep doing the work.

If we want learners to thrive, teachers need to give them less freedom in the classroom, according to evidence gathered by science writer David Epstein

New post out: "The gap that never closes" I've spent much of my career trying to reduce the rich/poor gap in education. Nothing's worked. Which has led me to the conclusion that we're thinking about inequality the wrong way... (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

This means SEND data can be misleading, in that very often you are comparing apples with pears. Also, some schools game the system and inaccurately categorise some children with SEND if they know their attainment will be strong. All this leads to inaccurate judgements.

NEW CURIOS Free section discusses research into teaching resilience. fillingthepail.substack.com/p/curios-of-...

Ben’s busy and left us to play. Best songs to sing along with friends: 1. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody 2. Wonderwall, Oasis 3. R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Aretha Franklin 4. Islands In The Stream, Dolly & Kenny 5. Waterloo, ABBA #fridayfive

They discussed how the current approach to school admissions is contributing to social selection in our state comprehensives, and the steps we should be taking to tackle this issue. 🎤 Listen to the episode: insideyoured.buzzsprout.com/1874905/epis...

We know teachers vary in quality but teacher effectiveness isn’t an unvarying trait that can be plugged into to another school changed. Great teaching needs schools to nurture it. Importing expertise may create a possibility but it isn’t sustainable open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

“Every child deserves to feel seen, valued, supported, and empowered to succeed. Every child deserves to know that they matter” #Inclusion #SEND pgs-educators.co.uk/index.php/20...

New post: High expectations, high support on the great work of Charlotte Bunyan and colleagues @theeducakers.bsky.social substack.com/@marymyatt/n...

Schools haven’t changed all that much in 4000 years. In this post I argue that’s a good thing. I discuss evolution, evolutionary psychology, culture and make the claim that schools are the first — and most important — educational technology. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

New post! ● Direct Instruction’s Limits: ⇒ A Nuanced Look at Engelmann’s Ideas #EduSky #UKEd christianmooreanderson.com/direct-instr...

Top five favorite sporting moments. 1. Rudisha delivers on all expectations in 2012 in a 800m final in which everyone runs a PB. 2. Ivanisevic wins Wimbledon as a wildcard in 2001. 3. The Lionesses being football home in 2022. 4. Derek Redmond. 5. Cathy Freeman unites Australia in 2000.

The DfE needs to monitor the distribution of pupils with SEND across schools because some are facing ‘unsustainable’ pressure while others are not developing their inclusive practice, says @thenfer.bsky.social research

Great teaching is built through daily habits, not big initiatives. Embedding Formative Assessment helps refine questioning, feedback and student ownership. Book a support call: https://outlook.office365.com/book/SSATEmbeddingFormativeAssessment@ssatuk.co.uk/ #education

✍️ "The attainment gap is cause by a variety of factors in the home and at schools – many made worse by the Covid pandemic and cost of living crises. Poverty undeniably plays a major role." Learn more about the attainment gap in our breakdown ⤵️

A pleasure to run this webinar, "Developing a Metacognitive Curriculum", for LLSE tonight! Developing a curriculum that deepens and advances student metacognitive skills is paramount - but precisely how to do this? Less obvious!

You feel guilty having a sick day, you feel guilty if you can’t help a student at lunchtime, you feel guilty about how you’ve taught a lesson – can you overcome it? Gavin Simpson explains how to handle ‘guilt’ as a teacher

The inimitable @carlhendrick.substack.com takes a measured look at short-form video as a learning tool, giving a fair shake to its potential advantages (ex. motivating learners about a new topics). Still, it’s primarily a cautionary signal. This section, whew. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Most leadership teams aren’t short on effort—they’re stuck in the wrong mode. R-Mode = reacting, responding, running the school I-Mode = slowing down to think and improve it Even 5–10% of protected I-Mode can change everything. Read more 👉 buff.ly/UDo80B7 #EducationalLeadership #SchoolImprovement

Mathematical misconceptions are numerous and commonplace, so how should we look to minimise them in our classrooms? The REACT planning framework can help educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blo...

Episodic memory is often dismissed, but it can be a powerful lever for deeper learning. From trips to role-play, meaningful experiences can boost semantic recall. @jonesedu.bsky.social outlines some techniques for how #teachers can use it well: buff.ly/GjHCPrM #teaching #schools #edusky