Maths, Inquiry, Maths Programs and Finding Your Way Forward

Maths and the IB PYP do not always feel like they are comfortable partners. It’s an uncomfortable truth to read and acknowledge, and yet, speak to any number of PYP teachers across the world and you’ll find that finding a way to be student led, inquiry based, and yet confident you are equipping every child … Continue reading Maths, Inquiry, Maths Programs and Finding Your Way Forward

Thinking Skills: Working towards in IB ATLs

Back in October 2019 Mark and I shared our work to break down the Research Skills ATL based on a combination of IB guidance, Principles to Practice, the amazing work of other educators and the experiences we were having in our own school. The work proved to be very popular and, hopefully, helpful to many. … Continue reading Thinking Skills: Working towards in IB ATLs

No more homework? Finding a way to support learning at home that builds skills and understanding without killing creativity and fun

In the face of a growing sense that homework is not effective for improving learning outcomes in primary age students, many teachers are facing the somewhat difficult question of what to do now.  We take a look at the evidence, and the way forward from here. Does Homework Work? Evidence on homework is at best, … Continue reading No more homework? Finding a way to support learning at home that builds skills and understanding without killing creativity and fun

Round Up: Best Education Books of 2019

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning that I may make commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Education publications move fast, and keeping up with new reads and great authors can be challenging at best! Here we round up some of the best releases … Continue reading Round Up: Best Education Books of 2019

Showcasing Learning in the PYP

It’s about 7:30 in the morning on a Wednesday morning in November and parents who usually drop their kids at the gate are slowly but surely filtering into our school auditorium.  Myself and our leadership team are busy greeting parents and directing them one way and their very excited, dressed to the nines kids another. … Continue reading Showcasing Learning in the PYP

Community Engagement: Using Seesaw to help families get involved in learning

Community engagement and building the learning community has been the focus of a lot of discussion, debate and development in the past couple of years - especially with the rise of EdTech. There are many reasons for this, but the changing face of engagement is strongly influenced by two things; Social media - we're used … Continue reading Community Engagement: Using Seesaw to help families get involved in learning

5 High Impact Teaching Strategies to Support Student Growth

High Impact Teaching Strategies are a set of reliable practices which can be used to shape teaching and learning in your classroom. There are, of course, many more high impact strategies you can use too - but for today we’re focusing in on these 5. The thinking behind High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) is to … Continue reading 5 High Impact Teaching Strategies to Support Student Growth

Goal Setting: Starting with strengths not deficits

The process of goal setting is pretty well embedded in schools across the globe. We know that we make better progress when we have a clear outcome in mind and set reasonable goals to grow - and in an industry which can be slow to implement change, we've largely accepted this as a good practice … Continue reading Goal Setting: Starting with strengths not deficits

5 Steps to Build a Community of Researchers

This weekend we shared our presentation on Building a Community of Researchers with the IB Global Conference. We shared our work to develop a continuum of research skills and the steps we're taking to use this to build a community of researchers. You can view the presentation here: Building-a-Community-of-ResearchersDownload Here are the steps we've identified: … Continue reading 5 Steps to Build a Community of Researchers

Improving the Way we Reflect: Reflecting on ATL Skills

A few months ago we set about redesigning the way we give feedback.  Whilst rubrics, standards and criteria are valuable tools to help students understand where they are at this moment in time, the link to growth isn’t always clear for every child (or teacher). Working with a few teachers we began devising, trying out … Continue reading Improving the Way we Reflect: Reflecting on ATL Skills