Edapt provides edu-legal support for school staff in England and Wales. We feature a range of blog posts from teachers and educators every month.
Katie Ashford is an English teacher in a secondary school in London. These are her individual views. As we all know, being a teacher is tricky. There are so many plates to keep spinning every lesson that sometimes, when we aren’t looking, they come crashing down around us. Is my learning objective clear and measurable?…
We asked Laura McInerney for her views on the rules of education reform. Laura was a teacher for 6 years in London and is the co-founder of Teacher Tapp. Last night I had a dream about a faceless nameless education secretary. In the dream I invited him to watch a play I was directing. The…
This blog post comes from our anonymous blogger working in a secondary school. The other day one of my Year 8 students said something disconcerting: ‘If you’re so smart why didn’t you become a lawyer or a doctor? Why are you just a teacher?’ This ‘just’ has haunted me for weeks. For that little just…
Every Easter the education sector holds its collective breath, waiting for the next politically driven diatribe to be launched from the teaching unions’ conferences. “It’s not our fault”, comes the cry from the unions, responsibility for our actions lies with the Secretary of State and his political meddling. True in part, but such tirades, and…
Emma is a Science teacher in a secondary school in north London. Her views expressed here do not represent the views of Edapt. The idea of differentiation can be overwhelming and often seems too much to tackle for every lesson with a full teaching schedule. I went to an after school professional development session…
We asked Laura McInerney to give us her thoughts about teacher professionalism and voice in the current school climate. Who owns the Moon? Everybody. On 10 October 1967, all major United Nations members signed the Outer Space Treaty stating that from thenceforth all celestial bodies would belong to the “common heritage of mankind”. Two…
Adam Lewis is a History and RE teacher working in a secondary school in North West London. Me: So, how did you feel having all of that power? Student: I liked it. I could do whatever I want and get away with it. Me: Do you think that is a good thing? Student: (after…
When we surveyed Edapt subscribers last year, we asked them if there is anything they’d like to see us so differently. One teacher said: “Get us together to create a vision of the perfect education system. Rather than tinkering views here and there, Edapt should stand for something big…” I was reminded of this comment…
The Department for Education (DfE) has quietly published a survey which confirms many teachers are ignoring work-to-rule directives laid down by teachers unions – because they join unions primarily for protection and support in the workplace. The findings of the NFER Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey” Understanding union membership and activity” (link here) published on the…
With grey January turning colder and greyer and the papers full of bad news, we thought we’d come up with ten reasons to be cheerful: 1. If you search google for ‘teaching “best job in the world”’ you get over 4,680,000 results 2. Only 6% of pupils are taught by teachers who are less than…
