Debs Richmond
@debsrichmond.bsky.social
Secondary science teacher • Biology specialism • 16 years' experience • ECF facilitator with local teaching hubs • ITT & ECT mentor • Former Head of Biology • Interested in pedagogy and T&L
'Many part-time teachers find themselves caught in an annual cycle whereby their employers insist that they must be available full-time to meet the demands of a short-notice timetable' https://schoolsweek.co.uk/its-time-to-make-part-time-possible/
It’s time to make part-time possible
Part-time staff face huge challenges, including often having to maintain full-time availability
schoolsweek.co.uk
We can’t always know what a child is going through, writes trust leader David Clayton, who says his own childhood experience has shown him the need to make schools ‘sanctuaries’ for those suffering trauma in silence
What my ‘hidden’ trauma taught me about belonging in schools
We can’t always know what a child is going through, writes trust leader David Clayton, who says his own childhood experience has shown him the need to make schools 'sanctuaries' for those suffering…
tes.com
This was an interesting read. Experienced teachers and novices differ but exactly how? It's not much to do with knowledge and everything to do with judgement and decision making in the classroom. From Pedro De Bruyckere. theeconomyofmeaning.com/2026/02/27/w...
What makes an expert teacher? Evidence from 45 studies
A meta analysis of 45 studies shows where expert teachers differ from novices. Less in knowledge, more in skills and classroom judgment.
theeconomyofmeaning.com
I was facilitating an ECT session this week and the topic of 'should we avoid cold-calling anxious/nervous students?' came up in discussion. @didau.bsky.social addresses this complex issue very eloquently. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
What are we really doing when we let students opt out?
How low expectations protect adults and diminish children
open.substack.com
EXCITING OPPORTUNITY We are looking for teachers to help us with a Top Secret AI project. It will take 35 minutes only, and it should be pretty interesting! If you teach science, geography, DT, English or psychology (KS5) and can help out click 👇 forms.gle/c1gvLrz7Cfah...
Exciting new AI project
A couple of years ago, Carousel worked with over 50 teachers and researchers to investigate the use of AI in auto-marking student work. That project resulted in the publication of a peer-reviewed pape...
forms.gle
🚨 NEW POST 🚨 ‘The psychology of SEND labels’ “Receiving a diagnosis with a name and a status that medical experts validate can give children and adults a story, and an explanation, that renders their experience comprehensible.” alexquigley.co.uk/the-psycholo...
The psychology of SEND labels
What if your child struggles and falls behind their peers? When it comes to the topic of children struggling in school and education, parents can experience profound feelings of fear or worry, or hope...
alexquigley.co.uk
Liking the reflections in @thosethatcan.bsky.social book 'Real Lives of Teachers' "Perspectives on Change: How do you feel about change in general? Do you thrive on it and seek it out? Do you accept it and take a pragmatic approach? Do you need time to process information before you respond to it?"
Why do we treat writing as the only 'proper' evidence of learning? While this is a post based in a primary setting, there is much to consider from a secondary perspective. open.substack.com/pub/coolcurr...
Why do we treat writing as the only ‘proper’ evidence of learning?
‘You don’t get better at writing by doing more writing’ - a quote from a Headteacher that has never left me. This is a bit of a long exploration of writing but I hope you will stick with it...
open.substack.com
New Blog Post 📝 Over the years I have received a lot of terrible teaching advice, but I have also had some brilliant pointers. Some of the best advice I have had has been seemingly insignificant changes to my practice. Here are five examples. open.substack.com/pub/joel1201...
Stand Still, Narrate and Stop: Small Classroom Changes with Big Impacts
Forget the lentils and stopwatches. From frontloading to the power of 'we,' here are some tiny, intentional changes that can transform classroom culture.
open.substack.com
I really enjoy these blogs from @victoriacrooks.bsky.social I am an experienced ITT mentor but reading these blogs always adds a little something to my practice.
Victoria Crooks@victoriacrooks.bsky.social · 8mo ago🚨NEW BLOG🚨 Finding it hard to evaluate your lessons? This blog is for #mentors and #ITT beginning #teachers who find it hard to analyse their own teaching and the learning actually happening in the classroom. uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2026/02/13/l... #TeacherEducation #TeacherMentoring
We're getting to that point when #ITT beginning #teachers start moving away from #planning as their lessons ramp up. This means it's time for a reminder that they may not be putting their efforts into the part of the lesson that really matters. uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2022/04/22/s...
Setting the albatross free: Teaching without PowerPoint
Photo by Katerina Holmes on Pexels.com As a young teacher beginning my career just after the turn of the millennium, my first classroom was fitted with the ultimate in modern technology – a roller …
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
🚨 Giveaway! 🎉 5 copies of my new book Questioning for Teaching & Learning. 💡 To enter repost this post! 🗓 Winners announced Monday 5th January 2026 at 6 pm UK time. Happy new year all. Here's to a healthy & happy 2026!
New Post: ianfrosteducation.com/2026/01/01/t...
The practice of writing cards (saying thank you, better)
One of my former bosses would, every time he visited my school, make a clandestine card drop on my desk, which I’d discover only when he was driving off into the sunset. The card was simple, the ha…
ianfrosteducation.com
I just wrote this for a project I am working on and it basically sums up the last 4 years of my life working in school improvement
‘The right colleague working alongside you is a delight. They add capacity, lighten the load, bring joy, create flow and make you feel anything is possible.’ - I love this @raesnape.bsky.social The Headteacher’s Handbook. ❓Who on your team does this? ❓Which leader do you do this for? 🧵5/n
Top ten names that would make a decent baby name if it wasn’t already the name of a medical condition or medication… 10. Amnesia 9. Rubella 8. Codeine 7. Malaria 6. Paxil 5. Alopecia 4. Bonjela 3. Aphasia 2. Typhus 1. Chlamydia
I’ve written a long blog here that comes out of various things that I’ve worked on with other people this term. It’s about accents... again! Sorry, not sorry. englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/pride-a...
Survey of teachers and accents
EMC's Dan Clayton explores the implications of a survey looking at teachers and accents
englishandmedia.co.uk
My @uonsoe.bsky.social #ITT #historyteacher s visited their new Teaching Practice schools today ahead of starting properly after the holiday. Enjoying hearing their reflections on moving placement & having a pupil perspective from my eldest who met one in their lesson today!
A shape-sorter understanding: Why mentees find changing teaching placements so hard
We’re approaching that time in the ITE year when our students prepare to move to a new school setting for their second teaching practice. Having just settled into their placement school, havi…
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
New Blog Post 📝 Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson. Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy. inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...
Chlorine is Green, Zoos Have Life and Kings are Killed: Using Etymology in Science
It started with a happy accident. I had finished a lesson with my Year 8s and, surprisingly, we had powered through the material with 15 minutes to spare. My plan for the next lesson was to introdu…
inquestion.co.uk
The @theeef.bsky.social has released updated guidance on Metacognition & self-regulated learning - one of its most widely used evidence resources. Explore the update here: educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-ev...
Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning
Apply metacognitive strategies in the classroom.
educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk
When teachers thrive, students do too. Explore the blog on staff success and how to support your team 📘⬇️ https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/staff-success/
Cracking blog here on one of my bugbears. The standard practice of expecting trainee teachers to plan *and* teach lessons is not a good way to train people. #Edusky open.substack.com/pub/dremanue...
Lesson Planning Is Not the Basics: Why We’re Training Teachers Backwards
I’ve been teaching secondary school students for over a decade, and in that time, I’ve dived deep into many aspects of teaching.
open.substack.com
🚨BIG day on the BLOG🚨 MY 100th POST‼️ Never thought I'd get to 10, let alone 100.😮 A new blog for #ITT #ECT #mentors #coaches on setting meaningful targets for their #mentees. Particularly helpful for #ITAP follow-up! uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/03/s... #TeacherEducation
Setting granular targets for beginning teachers
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com Saima’s teaching practice placement is well underway, and she is getting used to the pattern of her teaching week and her regular mentor meetings. Things …
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
How the teaching of adults varies from the teaching of children. More specifically the teaching of teachers i.e. teacher CPD. "... adults bring prior knowledge, seek relevance and want agency in their learning"
Jon Severs@jonsevers.bsky.social · 12mo agoMost CPD fails to understand a teacher's context and it doesn't meet a teacher where they are in that moment in terms of knowledge or need. A didagogy model fixes those problems. This is the view of @samgibbs.bsky.social and Andrea Bean They explain why below. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
www.racheljohnson.org.uk/articles/wha... How to make meetings meaningful by @rachelpixl.bsky.social
What do others do... Meaningful Meetings - Rachel Johnson
The good, the bad and the ugly Meetings matter because they tell the people in them something about our priorities, our character, our attitude to them (and their time) and how brave and bold we are....
racheljohnson.org.uk
And another on the challenges some #ITT beginning teachers face when #TeacherTraining is not quite what they expected and they don't feel how they anticipated they would feel about their new endeavour... uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/10/08/r... #TeacherEducation #EduBlogUK 2/2
Recalibrating Your Teacher Identity: When Your Past Success Doesn’t Fit Your Current Experience
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com I feel like a failure At some point every year I will have a conversation with a beginning teacher who confesses that they feel like a total failure. “…
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
