Blog

GCSE and A-Level Science Reform Is Coming: Here's the Timeline Teachers Need to Know teach & tell Jun 21, 2026

If you're anything like me, there are certain conference slides that instantly make you reach for a pen.

At the AQA Science Conference 2026, that slide was a timeline stretching all the way from 2026 to 2034.

We've known for some time that curriculum and assessment reform is on the horizon for GCS...

Read More...
We've Been Teaching the Scientific Method Wrong. Here's What AQA's Research Says Instead teach & tell Jun 21, 2026

For years, many of us have taught practical science using a familiar framework.

Ask a question. Form a hypothesis. Change one variable. Measure the outcome. Draw a conclusion.

Ask students to describe the scientific method, and you'll usually hear some version of exactly that.

But what if that is...

Read More...
AQA A-Level Biology 2026: The Essay Topics I'd Be Preparing Students For teach & tell Jun 15, 2026

The 25-mark essay in AQA A-Level Biology has a reputation.

For some students, it's the question they dread most. For others, it's an opportunity to pick up valuable marks by showcasing knowledge from across the specification.

As teachers, it's also one of the trickiest parts of the course to prepa...

Read More...
A-Level Biology 2026: What Teachers Should Focus on for Paper 1 and Paper 2 teach & tell Jun 15, 2026

Every year, around this time, A-Level Biology teachers start asking the same question:

What should we be prioritising before the exams?

Now, let's be clear from the outset.

This is not about predicting the exam.

No one can do that.

But what we can do is look carefully at historical patterns, id...

Read More...
What My Conversation with Henry Exham Made Me Think About Flipped Learning teach & tell Jun 15, 2026

As teachers, we often find ourselves battling the same problem: there never seems to be enough lesson time.

Curriculums are packed. Exam specifications are content-heavy. Students need more practice, more feedback, and more opportunities to apply their knowledge. Yet many of us still spend a signif...

Read More...
How Canva AI Is Transforming Teaching (And Saving Teachers Hours Every Week) teach & tell Jun 12, 2026

If you're still spending hours creating PowerPoints, worksheets, revision lessons, and classroom activities from scratch, it might be time to rethink how you're working.

Over the past year, AI tools have become increasingly common in education. Some have been overhyped. Others have created more wor...

Read More...
Are Lesson Observations Damaging Teaching? Rethinking Feedback and Trust in Schools teach & tell Mar 27, 2026

Lesson observations are meant to improve teaching.

But what if, in many schools, they’re actually doing the opposite?

High-stakes lesson observations can often lead to performative teaching, increased anxiety, and a breakdown in trust between teachers and leadership. Instead of supporting professi...

Read More...
How to Step Into Senior Leadership in Schools: Skills, Experience and Interview Tips teach & tell Mar 17, 2026

If you’re thinking about moving into senior leadership in education, qualifications alone won’t get you there.

The reality? Stepping into roles like Assistant Head or Senior Leader requires a combination of leadership experience, strategic thinking, confidence, and the ability to communicate impact...

Read More...
The Future of Teaching Is Here: How Canva Education Is Transforming Classrooms teach & tell Mar 17, 2026

At this year’s BETT conference, I had the chance to meet Sarah Cooper and Curtis Scott from The Sixth Form Bolton—and honestly, I was blown away.

Their session on Canva Education wasn’t just inspirational. It was practical, strategic, and laser-focused on one thing: improving teaching and learning ...

Read More...
How I Got Out of Teaching (And Built a Business Alongside It) teach & tell Mar 08, 2026

This isn’t a “quit teaching overnight” story. If you’re side-eyeing your career this January and wondering what life could look like beyond the classroom, this is for you. My journey took six years—six years of juggling full-time teaching, parenting twins, and building something on the side. I did n...

Read More...
Cracking the Code: The Neurobiology of Student Attention Mar 08, 2026

Have student attention spans really collapsed…or have classrooms changed faster than young brains ever could?

If you’ve ever stood at the front of a classroom thinking, “I’ve planned this well… so why have I lost them already?”, this post is for you. Today, we’re unpacking the neuroscience behind a...

Read More...
Flipped Learning: Reclaiming Lesson Time from Chalk and Talk Mar 08, 2026

Be honest—how much of your lesson is you talking, and how much is your students actually thinking?

If you’re like many teachers, a lot of lesson time is spent on what I call chalk and talk: explaining, modelling, checking understanding, and sometimes re-explaining. And while that’s necessary, espec...

Read More...
1 2 3 4 5 6