Jan 1, 2021New Years ResolutionKeep. Lose. Develop. The key ingredients to surviving in the classroom long term. Factor them into the start to the spring term and work to make the process integral to your way of working so that by the end of the year it is second nature. You will reap the…2 min read2 min read
Dec 13, 2020Merry ChristmasI had an interesting chat with my class last week when one asked me what I wanted for Christmas. My answer of “nothing” clearly bamboozled them. The thing about children is that they are naturally curious and my answer most definitely caught their attention. “Why not” tumbled from the mouthes…2 min read2 min read
Nov 29, 2020Thank goodness they don’t realise……I teach in the SEMH sector. After a really challenging week I am so glad that most young people just conform at school. Imagine if they realised what they could actually get away with? Imagine the nervous breakdowns mainstream staff would have if they found themselves teaching in our sector…5 min read5 min read
Nov 22, 2020Worth a try!Worksheet Relays — cut a worksheet into multiple pieces and leave it in a heap on the other side of the classroom. Team relays, collecting one piece at a time and sticking the sheet back together. You’d be surprised at how much of the sheet they actually read whilst trying…2 min read2 min read
Nov 15, 2020Underpinned by KindnessNo matter where you are or what you do, kindness can make a difference. In some circumstances, particularly high pressured ones, the difference is even more powerful. I currently work in an SEMH provision with young people from some very challenging backgrounds and who may be in some very difficult…4 min read4 min read
Nov 14, 2020Egg-stravaganza!The first thing I heard across the airwaves this morning was an call from a TA who was on gate duty. Robbie had climbed over the gate to get into school. Crazy, right? You’d think that climbing out of the school would be more likely but this is in fact…3 min read3 min read
Nov 2, 2020SpeechlessYou have a deadline to meet and a pile of work that requires internal verification. You have left yourself ample time to complete the task, allowing for the fact you have to be reasonable to the member of staff from whom the work has come. The programme for the internal…3 min read3 min read
Nov 1, 2020A blast from the pastWhilst sorting through some paperwork I stumbled across my notes from one of my first few weeks in an SEN setting. Suffice to say I was on a swift learning curve. To be fair, if you haven’t spent time in one of these settings it reads like fiction. …2 min read2 min read
Oct 18, 2020The Gift of Cross CountryMost people will have an opinion on the topic of school cross country. For many it was a cold and unpleasant experience. My memories of cross country at school include the PE teacher getting a good telling off from a local resident as thirty of us stamped mud off our…3 min read3 min read
Oct 14, 2020What do you do?It always amuses me when people ask what I ‘do’ because I always get that look that says ‘seriously?’ Well I’m a teacher. I’m also a farm hand. I deal with young bulls and young humans. The two are really quite similar. They both need firm boundaries which are consistently…3 min read3 min read
