Author Archives: Mark Richards

1. How To Settle into Your New School 

   6 September 2024 2:28 pm Leave a Comment

   Starting a teaching job in a new school can be exciting and daunting in equal measure.

   It can also be pretty challenging – whether you are a newly qualified teacher or the new Deputy Head – not least because all eyes are on you; students and staff!

   Here are a few top tips for how to settle into your new school.

   Set Yourself Some Goals

   It’s a fresh start and a clean slate, so your new position in a new school can be what you make it. There are always going to be a few variables and factors that you can’t do anything about, so focus on what you can influence yourself.

   It’s always a good idea to set yourself some goals and plan ahead for where you’d like to be in your new role in six months, a year, or two years. Whether these are formalised as a part of the performance management process or are personal, targets and goals are always useful to have.

   Get To Know the Students

   The students are what any school is all about and you should get to know as many of them as quickly as you can in your new school.

   Obviously, the kids you have in front of you take precedence but make a point of chatting to and taking an interest in the students you encounter on the corridors or in the canteen, or on the yard when you are on duty, for example.

   It will help you feel less of a newbie and make your new school feel like a comfortable new home.

   Build Relationships

   As we said above, the students are the whole point of a school but what really makes things tick are the positive relationships teachers build with them.

   But, or course, these are not the only relationships you need to build in a new school.

   There are your colleagues in your department or faculty; the senior leadership team; catering staff; cleaners, and caretakers.

   All of them play a vital role and are part of the team.

   You should build relationships with them all.

   Have a Presence Around the School

   Whether you are a classroom teacher or are starting a leadership/management position, you should try to be visible around the school.

   Your classroom is your kingdom and if you have the luxury of your own office, it’s a sanctuary – but you shouldn’t hide away in either.

   The school day can be frenetic and fast-paced but it’s still a good idea to visit the main staff room daily, to chat to people, and – as above – to start building those all-important relationships.

   A brew and a chat at lunchtime or at the end of the school day can be really therapeutic.

   Importantly, it will also make you feel a part of the whole-school.

   Final Words

   Of course, ultimately, whatever your role is, the priority is ‘doing your job.’ However, whether this is focusing on delivering the best lessons you can or fulfilling whatever other responsibilities you have, there is always more to teaching than simply doing your job.

   Becoming an active member of the school community will not only help you settle into your new school, it will also make you feel that you belong there too.

2. Planning Ahead for the New Academic Year

   26 August 2024 11:33 am Leave a Comment

   Exam results are finally out – and before you know it the start of the new academic year will be upon us. But with only a week of the holiday still to go, it’s a good idea to start planning ahead for the start of term.

   Rest, Recuperation and Recharge

   First things first, what we’re not advocating in any way here is that you should be working solidly over the next week; far from it.

   Hopefully, by now you’ve had adequate time to recharge the old batteries. And if you haven’t, you still need to. Probably the best preparation for a new academic year is to be fully refreshed and recharged.

   Reflect on Last Year

   Now the dust has settled, it’s worth reflecting on how things went last year with all your classes.

   You will obviously need to look very closely at any exam groups you had and once you know their results, it makes sense to do all the analysis as soon as you can. You can guarantee that you will be asked questions about it come September, so this is another way you can stay one step ahead. Get yourself prepared!

   Set Goals

   Think about what you want to achieve in the next academic year and how you are going to get to where you want to be.

   It’s always good to have something to aim for. It will keep you focused and on track.

   Planning

   Hopefully, you will already have your timetable for September. If you have, it is well worth getting lessons for first couple of weeks planned now. This will make the start of the new term much easier to handle.

   It’s also a good idea to look at your timetable and work out a marking schedule that fits in with it. Keeping on top of marking can be really difficult if you approach it in a haphazard way.

   Plan Your ‘Me Time’ From September

   Self-care often goes out of the window once you are back into the thick of things. You owe it yourself, your loved ones and your students to look after Number One throughout the year.

   That might mean planning a night off in the week; booking holidays or weekends away, going to the gym, or spending more time with the kids. It doesn’t matter what it is, just as long as it’s something that will be good for your wellbeing.

   The fastest way to burnout is to not look after yourself, so you should think carefully about how you are going to do so from Day 1 in September and set yourself some ‘New Term Resolutions’.

   Final Thoughts

   Ultimately, the key to success in the new term is to stay one step ahead. Things are likely to come thick and fast once September comes. And if we’re being honest, it doesn’t really let up for the rest of the year.

   That’s why planning ahead to stay ahead is so important.

3. Why Schools Need to Equip Students with Critical Reading Skills

   21 August 2024 1:28 pm Leave a Comment

   The riots that we saw recently up and down the country following the horrific murders of three girls in Southport were shocking and senseless. They were also a timely reminder of how dangerous misinformation can be; how posts you see on social media, in particular, cannot necessarily be trusted, and how destructive a ‘gang/mob’ mentality is.

   It also pushed sharply into focus how important it is to assess the things you read or hear in a critical way before believing everything.

   This is why it is vital that schools equip students with critical reading skills.

   The Danger of Misinformation

   The dictionary definition of ‘misinformation’ is as follows: ‘false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.’

   Immediately following the Southport attack, misinformation spread online about the attacker. It was said that he was an asylum seeker. That he was a Muslim, and that he had come over to Britain by boat. A false name was also posted online.

   All of this, of course, proved to be untrue. However, the damage was already done.

   The day after the attack in Southport, rioters took to the streets of the town. An angry mob attacked a local mosque, causing serious damage to its wall.

   Elsewhere in the town, a Mini Mart was targeted. It would seem that the only reason this particular shop was attacked was because its owner was an immigrant – a man of Sri Lankan heritage. The shop was bricked and then looted with £10,000 worth of stock stolen.

   Similar violence spread across various towns with Muslim communities, hotels housing asylum seekers, and immigrants in general becoming the main targets. In the ensuing days looting and damage to property also became widespread. Gangs and mobs set cars on fire and fought nightly battles with police.

   The aftermath of the destruction

   More than 150 people have already been sentenced for offences relating to the riots. The majority have been sent to prison with the average jail term being two years. Several young people have also been sent to Young Offenders Institutions.

   Communities have come together in a remarkable way to repair the damage done by the riots. Similarly, several fundraisers have been set up. For example, a carer in Middlesbrough (an immigrant) returned home from a 12-hour shift to find his car burnt out and overturned. The fundraiser was set up to buy him a replacement vehicle raised more than £65,000.

   The Need for Critical Reading

   It would be wrong to blame all the recent unrest on misinformation spread on social media. It is clear that there is a sizeable number of people across the country who hold a strong anti-immigration sentiment.

   However, it is undeniable that it was the misinformation that spread online that sparked the riots. Furthermore, there have been countless further examples of misinformation all over social media platforms in the last few weeks.

   For example, a community library that was attacked in Liverpool. One ‘reason’ cited for the attack was the ‘fact’ that children’s reading books had been replaced with copies of the Quran. Of course, this was complete nonsense and not true at all.

   Elsewhere online, certain posts claimed that there were 2 million asylum seekers currently staying in British hotels. The most recent official data is for September 2023 and the figure stands at 56,000.

   All of this shows just how important it is for schools to teach young people that social media may disproportionately feature exaggerated or inaccurate information.

   It is important that students are given strategies to critically assess the bias, reliability and accuracy of what they read online.

4. Top 5 Tips for Prepping Your Next Tuition Session 

   26 July 2024 1:01 pm Leave a Comment

   Private tutoring is a different beast altogether from whole class teaching, but one thing is exactly the same: if you want your student(s) to get the most out of a tuition lesson, you need to prepare and plan the session.

   And, as Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

   Here are our top 5 tips for prepping for your next session…

   Plan What You Want to Do

   Of course, there’s no need to produce a formal lesson plan, but you still need to be clear in your mind what you intend to during the session.

   This planning needs to be fluid and certainly not set in stone. Sometimes you will find that the student wants to spend time on something that might have come up in a lesson at school during the previous week.

   And just like in a classroom, the ability to be able to think on your feet and adapt a lesson plan as you go along is really important.

   But – all things considered – planning beforehand is still the secret to a successful lesson.

   Check Your Resources

   You have no safety net in terms of your resources if you are private tutoring in a student’s home.

   There will be no running off to the photocopier, or into your colleague’s classroom next door if you have forgotten something you need for the lesson.

   Therefore, it’s important that you check everything in advance. Make sure you’ve got all the resources you need and that you can easily access them before the lesson.

   It’s always worth having a back-up plan too – a Plan B. This gives you the option to change your approach during the lesson, should you want or need to.

   Objectives and Outcomes

   Again, there’s no need to write lesson objectives and lesson outcomes – or share these with the student you are tutoring. In most schools, this has become an expectation and an accepted part of a lesson.

   But one-to-one tutoring is different and should be different. If a tutoring session essentially just mimics a normal school lesson then what’s the point?

   It would just be giving the student more of the same: more of what obviously wasn’t working for the student in the first place. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be there.

   That said, any tutoring session still needs to have an objective and an aim to it. The outcome, of course, is how you can see that your aims have been met by the student.

   Extension and Extra Activities

   It’s always worth having some extra activities and extension tasks up your sleeve for a tutoring session.

   The nature of one-to-one tutoring means that you only have one person dictating the pace of a lesson. This a great thing, of course. It means that if a student is struggling with something, you can really take your time with them to ensure that they do ‘get it’.

   On the other hand, with only one student to focus on, there are occasions where you can fly through material – a lot quicker than you could ever do with a whole class.

   And, finally – there will always be times when whatever you have planned simply isn’t working. There could be a variety of reasons for this.

   You can’t really legislate for this. Sometimes, it just happens.

   So, it’s useful to have something else that you can move onto seamlessly, if it does.

   Personalise

   Last but not least, prepping for a tutoring session should always involve you asking yourself how you can personalise the learning for your student.

   What are their learning styles?  What type of activities do they respond to the best?

   It’s the thread that runs through all of the above.

   Follow the above tips and your next tutoring session should be a breeze!

5. Making the Transition Between High School and College

   3 July 2024 10:43 am Leave a Comment

   With the GCSE exam season over for another year, students can feel both relieved and proud. It’s no small feat. GCSE exams are undoubtedly one of the most challenging periods of time that many young people will have had to face in their lives to date.

   We don’t want to scare anybody here… but life does have a habit of throwing all sorts of challenges at you. These can come left, right and centre – at all sorts of moments.

   They come at you thick and fast. And hot on the heels of the exam period and results day comes the transition between high school and college.

   So, we thought we’d put together some key pointers about making the transition to college life seamless and straightforward.

   First Things First: You’ve Done It All Before

   First off, it’s worth thinking about this: you’ve seen and done it all before!

   Okay, so that’s not strictly true – but you have gone through (and survived and thrived) the transition from primary to secondary school.

   Whichever way you look at it, the move from primary school to ‘big school’ is way more traumatic than the move from high school to college.

   Yes, you are bound to be a bit nervous and possibly a little anxious. However, that’s completely natural and to be expected.

   There’ll be a few weeks of semi-confusion as you get to know your new surroundings. But once you’ve found your bearings, you’ll be as right as rain.

   Things Are Done Differently at College

   Although most young people know it already, many are still thrown a little bit. Which is understandable by just how differently things are done at college.

   Obviously, there’s no uniform. There will no teachers waiting on corridors to tell you to take your coats off. Yep, you are finally treated like adults!

   The thing is – although all of this is great – it also means that you expected to act like an adult too.

   And while colleges offer a great range of support and guidance for their students, it doesn’t really compare to the level of support most students get at high school.

   There will always be somebody to see and somewhere to go if you need some help, but you are expected to stand on your own two feet much more at college.

   The Challenge of A Levels and T Levels

   Another worry that many students have about starting college is a simple and obvious one:

   Will I be able to cope with A Levels?

   Most students will be moving up from Level 2 qualifications to Level 3. Of course, these are . bit more demanding. Which is why many students find the initial step up a bit of challenge

   The vast majority go on to cope comfortably with the higher level of work. But you will need to apply effort and determination if you are to succeed at this level.

   But you’ve got this!

   Enjoy college and good luck!

6. How Can Tutors Deal with the Summer Drop-off of Tuition Work

   14 June 2024 8:36 am Leave a Comment

   Anybody that has dipped their toes into the world of tutoring for at least a year may well have learnt the hard way that the work that is available during the summer holidays drops off, the Summer drop-off is real.

   In fact, ‘drops off’ is a massive understatement to be honest… it falls off a gigantic cliff!

   You can go from having literally no free time to fit in any more students to having none at all in virtually an instant – and that means your income takes a serious hit.

   Planning For a Summer Drop-Off Is the Key

   The key to dealing with the Summer drop-off is planning for it in advance. After all, you do know it’s coming. And the Summer holiday’s are important – we talk about exactly why that is here.

   In many ways, tutoring is no different from several other sectors and industries – it is seasonal.

   The retail sector is largely reliant on Christmas sales; pubs depend on ‘beer garden weather’ in the summer – and the tourism industry largely shuts down between November and March.

   Tutoring is the same. You have to get it while you can because July and particularly August are likely to be barren periods.

   One way to deal with this is to do what these other sectors do – try to make a much as you can when you can so that you have enough saved to cover the quieter months. Make sure you also take the time to learn how to budget across the year!

   Take On Other Work

   Another option is to take on other work and look for different income streams during the summer months.

   For tutors, the most obvious thing that springs to mind has to be exam marking.

   Of course, the timing of exam marking fits in quite nicely with the drop off in tutoring. In fact, it’s almost perfect.

   As exams run from May to June, the marking period essentially runs from May to July (and maybe just into August).

   There will be a bit of a crossover with your ‘normal’ tutoring commitments at the start of exam marking, but – depending on the subject – you’ll probably find that the busiest marking period begins around the same time as the tutoring begins to drop off.

   The other great thing about exam marking is the experience you gain from doing it.

   Make no mistake, nothing puts you in a better position to be able to help and support the students you tutor than having the inside track on what examiners want to see.

   Not only that, as there are exams in every subject, it doesn’t matter what your specialism is – there is work out there for you!

   The Element of Risk Brings Rewards Too

   Finally, it’s important that we end on a positive note.

   Moving from a comfortable salaried job to the world of self-employment can be a daunting prospect.

   Unless your self-employment is largely made up of long-term contract positions – which, of course, as a tutor it almost certainly isn’t – you need to be mindful that your monthly income is likely to be variable.

   You need to be prepared for it to go up and down. And as a tutor – seriously down in the summer.

   There is always an element of risk but if are comfortable with this, it gives you the freedom to try different things and take on new challenges.

7. Top Tips for Revising English Literature Anthology Poetry

   10 May 2024 1:14 pm Leave a Comment

   If there is one component of the GCSE English Literature course that fills most students with dread, it’s the Anthology Poetry unit.

   And to be perfectly honest, it’s not hard to see why.

   If you are studying the AQA course, there are 15 poems to study; for Eduqas things are even more challenging with a whopping 18 to get through.

   What Does the Exam Question Ask Students to do?

   When it comes down to it in the actual exam, students will only ever have to write about two of these poems. One of the poems you have studied will be printed in the exam paper. You will need to write about this poem and then choose another poem you have studied to compare it with.

   But because you have no idea which poem will feature in the exam, there’s no way you can cut corners in any way. You really need to study all the poems.

   That might not sound too bad…

   Until you remember that you are not allowed to take an anthology into the exam!

   In days gone by, students could take their annotated anthology into the exam. Then, for a few years, students were given a ‘clean’ unannotated anthology. Now, since 2015, students are not allowed to have an anthology in the exam at all.

   This means that essentially this component has become little more than a test of a student’s memory.

   But All is Not Lost!

   Fear not though, all is not lost.

   While there isn’t a simple hack or way of avoiding the fact that you are going to have to remember a load of quotes, there is a way of focusing your revision, so that you just concentrate on the really important stuff.

   So, here goes:

   1. You should be able to summarise each poem in a sentence or two. Even better, narrow it down to a couple of key words/themes.
   2. Choose a key quote for each poem. Approach this as if you could only use one quote per poem – the absolute best one – that sums up the whole message of the poem.
   3. Try to learn another 4 (minimum) important quotes. Aim for quotes that cover a range of ideas – not just 4 quotes that basically say the same thing.
   4. Identify one of two methods – poetic devices, language, or structure – that each poet uses to get their ideas across.
   5. Identify which poems go well together and provide the best comparisons.

   Follow the above 5 steps and you will be well-prepared for the demands of the exam question.

   Finally, bear in mind this last point…

   When it comes down to quotes, it’s never simply about how many you have got. The most important thing is what you do with them. Make your quotes work for you. They should never be more than a line long – and if you can narrow them down to a few words – or even just one word – all the better. They will be a lot easier to remember this way, and you will dazzle the examiner with your understanding of the most important words that a poet has used.

   You can do this! – And with that we will leave you with 5 more tips for the secret to success during exams.

8. Parents! How to Help Your Kids Handle the Pressure of Exam Season

   11:22 am Leave a Comment

   As exam season kicks off, it’s time for cool heads and calm.

   For students, exam season will be (for many) the most nerve-wracking, stressful, and downright horrible few weeks of their young lives so far.

   For parents, it can be an extremely difficult period too. It can definitely be a really stressful time for Mum and Dad as well – although don’t expect too much sympathy from your son or daughter!

   When parents are stressed and teenagers are stressed, it can make the home a volatile environment, so the big question for any parent is:

   How do you help your kids (and yourself) handle the pressure of exam season?

   Stay Calm!

   You might not feel calm – or anywhere close to it – but regardless of whatever happens over the next few weeks, it is vital that parents stay calm. Now is not the time for falling out and family rows.

   Maintain routines and boundaries… but be prepared to bend a little

   By this point, most students – either on their own or in collaboration with you – will have worked out a revision timetable.

   With a bit of luck, they will be using it already and will stick to it (most do, when it comes down to it). As a parent, it’s part of your role to ensure that your child keeps to the routine of their revision timetable. You might need to gently reinforce the importance of this. You do need to be firm about things but there’s no need to be overbearing.

   A ‘we’re in this together’ approach will always work best. Now, more than ever, the family needs be a team working towards a shared goal.

   It’s also important to be prepared to bend a little, if necessary.

   In an ideal world, the whole exam period will go perfectly and go absolutely swimmingly. However, we all know that life has a nasty habit of not panning out like that!

   A bad exam – or one your child feels went badly – can really dent a young person’s confidence and throw them (and everything) of course.

   Nobody knows your child better than you do, so instinct and intuition is likely to kick in when necessary. They might need a night off or a day out with the family, a shoulder to cry on, or just a bit of space.

   Praise, reassurance and support

   Parenting a teenager can sometimes be an unforgiving and thankless task.

   But, though it feels like the complete opposite of this sometimes, deep down all teenagers need praise and reassurance, and your complete support.

   If they feel supported, they will respond in a positive way! Mind have a good article delving into exam stress, give it a read so that you can understand more how your child may be feeling.

   Reward, reward, reward!

   You may have seen stories in the media recently about parents paying their kids for good exam results.

   Some reports have suggested that parents up and down the country will be shelling out as much as £150million in total as reward for exam grades.

   Now, of course, for many families this isn’t really an option, and some might view the whole idea as simply wrong, or nothing more than a bribe.

   However, while most teens will work hard of their own accord, sometimes a little bit of extra motivation works wonders – and we’ve spoken about it before here. Ultimately it can help to reinforce the link between the value of hard work and money.

   Cash, holidays, driving lessons… there are many ways to incentivise the whole business of exams.

   If it works for them, it works for you!

9. How to Instil the Importance of Exams Upon Your Students

   26 April 2024 11:57 am Leave a Comment

   How do you instil the importance of exams upon your students without putting the fear of God into them?

   This conundrum is one of the biggest challenges facing teachers today in the classroom.

   It’s a real problem because of 3 factors: the nature of teenage life, human nature in general, and the nature of schools.

   The Nature of Teenage Life

   Young people, it’s worth remembering, go through a lot of change and upheaval during their teenage years. Their bodies are developing; their emotions and minds are developing; and they are beginning to find themselves and their identity.

   There’s a lot going on, a lot to handle, and an awful lot to deal with during your teenage years.

   Not least the pressure of exams.

   Human Nature

   The psychology behind our actions and behaviour is extremely complex. However, when it comes down to it – in certain aspects – human nature is really straightforward.

   When we are faced with pressure, some people seem to thrive on it – even seeing it as some kind of incentive. In essence, we rise to the challenge.

   On the flipside, many of us seem to do the opposite when faced with pressure. We find it really difficult to cope with. In essence, we buckle under the challenge.

   That can manifest itself in several different ways. We might try to deny the importance of something or put off dealing with the issue head-on – kind of hoping that whatever it is that is causing us the pressure or stress will somehow magically go away.

   Which, of course, it never does.

   Part of our ability to deal with challenges in our lives comes from experience.

   This makes dealing with pressure especially challenging for teenagers. For more help understanding what’s going on inside the teenage brain, check out this BBC article.

   The Nature of Schools

   Schools exist under the lingering and looming threat of Ofsted. Not only that, schools are at also the mercy of government decisions and education budgets. All of this piles pressure onto schools.

   Under constant pressure to continually improve exam results, the pressure school leadership teams feel feeds down to curriculum team and subject leaders. This, in turn, is passed onto classroom teachers.

   And – you’ve guessed it – teachers then pass this pressure down to their students.

   Teachers are feeling it, so the students they teach feel it too.

   It is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.

   So, What’s the Solution?

   In all honesty, there are probably at least another couple of blogs waiting to get out (possibly even a book!) on this topic. We’ve actually posted another blog ourselves on the matter. But to keep things short and sweet here, let’s leave it with this:

   Just because exams are important doesn’t mean that we have to talk about them all the time.

   We don’t have to mention exams in every lesson or every assembly.

   Learning, exam preparation, and performance in exams all have a process. Refine those processes and have faith in them.

   Think how an athlete responds after a disappointing result or performance. They don’t panic or make any knee-jerk reactions; they trust in the process that got them there in the first place.

   Trust in the process is the key.

10. Why is PPA Time Important on a Teacher’s Timetable?

    17 April 2024 12:07 pm Leave a Comment

    It doesn’t really matter what stage of their career they are at – PGCE student or veteran with 20 years of experience in the classroom – all teachers will agree on one thing…

    There is just simply never enough time!

    There is never enough time to do all the work you have to do. There’s never enough time to do all the work you think you have to do. And there’s definitely never enough time to do all the work you’d like to do.

    And it doesn’t matter how much you try to work smarter rather than harder.

    It never seems to make any difference.

    That’s why PPA time is so important on a teacher’s timetable.

    What is PPA and What is it for?

    Planning, preparation, and assessment (PPA). This time is a statutory entitlement for all teachers in England and Wales who work under the STPCD (School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.) Therefore, it applies to most teachers who work in state schools.

    PPA time is non-contact time that is allocated on a teacher’s weekly timetable. The statutory requirement is that PPA should amount to at least 10% of their teaching timetable. The National Education Union has more resources on their website if you want to find out even more about PPA.

    During the allocated PPA time, teachers cannot be directed by school leaders or managers to do any particular tasks. Teachers should be free to use the time to plan lessons, mark work, or to catch-up on any other work.

    Why is PPA time so important in a teachers timetable?

    Hours that teachers work and the holidays they get have always been a source of misunderstanding among the general public – and misrepresentation in the media.

    Comments such as, ‘All the holidays teachers get!’ or ‘I wish I could just work from 9-3!’ echo in teachers’ ears.

    Only if you are a teacher yourself – or live with one – do you truly understand the number of hours that teachers have to put in outside the classroom.

    This is why PPA time is absolutely vital.

    The idea that all a teacher’s planning, preparation, or marking can somehow be rattled off in a couple of PPA periods a week is an absolute nonsense.

    In reality, it isn’t even enough to scratch the surface.

    It’s also fair to say that the way PPA is delivered across the nation’s schools is inconsistent. Many schools do allocate more PPA time to their teachers than the statutory requirement. For those who do, this time is seen – as it should be – as absolutely sacrosanct.

    However, in some schools there is still an unwritten expectancy that ‘if duty calls’ then PPA time could be either taken away, rearranged – or that teachers might still be directed to do other tasks during their PPA time.

    All in all, though, while PPA time is not perfect and not enough… it is something.

    Yes, it only goes some way in lessening a teacher’s workload. However, it goes a long way in terms of its benefits for a teacher’s wellbeing. For more advice on how to better your wellbeing as a teacher, check out this blog post.

    Even if it just gives a teacher the opportunity to catch their breath during the hectic school day, PPA is well worth it.