Did you know there are nine levels of qualification? And that a grade 3,2, or 1 at GCSE is a Level 1 qualification? The Secretary of State apparently didn't. 🔗 mbdsciencepolitics.substack.com/p/its-a-pass...
Claudia Lewis
@mbdscience.bsky.social
Lead Practitioner | writer | chaotic trad | educational highwayman | likes/follows ≠ agreement | views mine
There are videos circulating of protestors repeatedly harassing and attempting to intimidate a foreign-born professor, because of where he's from and because he did his military service there. Can someone better versed in these things please explain why this isn't racism?
Today was the first time the community came together since the Yom Kippur terrorist attack in Manchester. I wrote about it. mbdsciencepolitics.substack.com/p/the-first-...
I resent that the self-righteous dismissal of Jewish lives by people who believe they are Good and Right and has made me feel such anger in my heart. Nothing "stopped in its tracks". Everything outside the Jewish community carried on as normal, with vigils and speeches just another item in the diary
Today was the first time the community came together since the Yom Kippur terrorist attack in Manchester. I wrote about it. mbdsciencepolitics.substack.com/p/the-first-...
I tracked the temperature in my classroom and the science office over the day. Highest temperature was 28.4°C. Blue denotes a lesson.
What is the difference between prerequisite knowledge and checks for understanding @mbdscience.bsky.social has the key definitions
I hate eating breakfast, but I can't go through to lunch without something, so I'm trying to find a healthy mid-morning snack to tide me over. Today, I made omelette muffins. We shall see if they do the trick.
At the beginning of the year, when asked which football team I support, I told my students I support a regional National League team, and now the boys give me weekly updates on how they're playing.
Two Jews can't even be shot dead outside a Jewish museum after attending a Jewish event without Woo EduTwitter retweeting posts implying it was a set-up by the Israeli government.
We will never be able to teach students 'grit' while we're prevented from asking them to do anything evenly mildly unpleasant. Until I can set homework with a high pass mark, and a detention for failing to meet it, without getting pushback from parents, there will be no grit.
Woooo! 🥳
CogSciSci@cogscisci.bsky.social · last yr.SCHEDULE RELEASED #edusky Cogscisci Surrey is a month away! Here are the amazing talks we have to offer featuring: @adamboxereducation.bsky.social @drgarethbates.bsky.social @carlhendrick.substack.com @lambhearttea.bsky.social @hugheshaili.bsky.social @mrlockyer.bsky.social @mbdscience.bsky.social
🚨New post🚨 We need to make sure our students are not trying to be passive learners. We must make the horse drink. mbdscience.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/y...
You can lead a horse to water…
Learning is an active process. Too often, I encounter students who believe they can simply sit, passively in a lesson and absorb what is being taught, without having to do anything. And to a degree…
mbdscience.wordpress.com
🚨NEW POST 🚨 It's been a while, but I'm on a cross-country train, so what better use of my time than to blog about feedback. mbdscience.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/n...
Not all feedback is created equal.
“A lot of the same students were putting their hand up. Try cold calling or turn and talk.” Giving feedback is a vital part of leading, but – as with many parts of leadership R…
mbdscience.wordpress.com
Want to see an awesome list of speakers for this year's #cogscisci in Surrey #edusky? Check the thread below for updates on speakers
a cartoon character with a candy cane and the words sensational below it
ALT: a cartoon character with a candy cane and the words sensational below it
media.tenor.com
I see Fazackerley has written her regular Observer column dumping on schools.
AI for planning is the equivalent of thinking it's ok for children to talk as long as they "get the work done."
Claudia Lewis@mbdscience.bsky.social · 2y agoOne of my concerns about the use of e.g. ChatGPT in teaching is how easy it is. It's the looking up the answer of teaching. Why think hard about the best way to explain something, why find an experienced colleague and ask their advice when you can just type your question into a box and get an answer
One of my concerns about the use of e.g. ChatGPT in teaching is how easy it is. It's the looking up the answer of teaching. Why think hard about the best way to explain something, why find an experienced colleague and ask their advice when you can just type your question into a box and get an answer
This is beautiful! Homework instructions that are supportive, encouraging and bursting with high, manageable expectations!
Claudia Lewis@mbdscience.bsky.social · 2y agoI'm trying to get my students into good habits with their Carousel homework - to not race through the flashcards - so I'm trying the following instructions, and so far the students seem to be engaging with the flashcards much better and doing less cramming!
I'm trying to get my students into good habits with their Carousel homework - to not race through the flashcards - so I'm trying the following instructions, and so far the students seem to be engaging with the flashcards much better and doing less cramming!
I'm not saying airports lie or that some people don't know how to queue, but I arrived at the airport and within 10 minutes I was through security and in a departure lounge. And that included getting swabbed.
The three biggest myths in education: The system requires a third of students to be sacrificed to the GCSE gods. Knowledge is stickier when you work it out yourself. Discipline is bad for children.
Now, I understand why a maraschino cherry is placed inside the pineapple ring...
"She states that “only 14.9 per cent of teachers were identified as being from an ethnic minority background" [implying this needs rectifying]" Only 18% of people in England and Wales belong to an ethnic minority* background. 3.1% is not a worrying disparity. www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
How racist are British schools?
Kalwant Bhopal presents school as a terrible place to be an ethnic minority in her book Race and Education. The evidence suggests otherwise.
newstatesman.com
One of the parents at results day asked me which child was mine and I'm just going to go cry about the fact I apparently look old enough to have a 16 year old child.
I taught GCSE science to every one of our students entered for combined science*, so I have never been so invested in a cohort's results and boy have they done themselves proud 🥹🥹🥹