Does congratulating yourself give you a shiver of revulsion? Do you have someone who sees it as their life’s mission to shower you with praise? Not everyone has either of those - and it’s more important than you might think. peerreviewededucationblog.com/2026/04/20/w...

Why we all need a grandmother in our heads – no tener abuela

No tener abuela is a light hearted comment made by Spanish speakers to someone who is self-congratulatory. It roughly translates to someone without a grandmother to provide the congratulatory prais…

peerreviewededucationblog.com

Does congratulating yourself give you a shiver of revulsion? Do you have someone who sees it as their life’s mission to shower you with praise? Not everyone has either of those - and it’s more important than you might think. peerreviewededucationblog.com/2026/04/20/w...

Why we all need a grandmother in our heads – no tener abuela

No tener abuela is a light hearted comment made by Spanish speakers to someone who is self-congratulatory. It roughly translates to someone without a grandmother to provide the congratulatory prais…

peerreviewededucationblog.com

Fascinating to hear lessons learned by a headteacher from the new Ofsted inspection system.

Please repost 🙏 Older teachers are at the bottom of the list when waiting to find out their pension details. Please sign this petition to help raise awareness! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

Petition: Issue new guidance on teachers’ early retirement rights

The state pension age will change to 67 in 2028 and therefore minimum early retirement age will change to 57. Teachers with final salary pensions who started teaching before the pension changed to car...

petition.parliament.uk

Have you ever heard of academic press? New blog! peerreviewededucationblog.com/2025/06/14/t...

The big idea that’s affected how nearly all schools in England are led and run

In 1996, Roger Shouse sat down to pen an article for the journal, The Social Psychology of Education. He wanted to examine tensions between two visions of schooling. One stresses social cohesion (i…

peerreviewededucationblog.com

How great to see it said that there is no ‘right’ answer for all schools, teachers and pupils but - to quote- “As always, the right answer is not in tribalism, in all of one idea and none of another, but a sophisticated blend of both worlds.”

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · last yr.

Have you ever heard of academic press? New blog! peerreviewededucationblog.com/2025/06/14/t...

Have you ever heard of academic press? New blog! peerreviewededucationblog.com/2025/06/14/t...

The big idea that’s affected how nearly all schools in England are led and run

In 1996, Roger Shouse sat down to pen an article for the journal, The Social Psychology of Education. He wanted to examine tensions between two visions of schooling. One stresses social cohesion (i…

peerreviewededucationblog.com

Interesting to read Ofsted inspectors clearly favouring purchased schemes of work over those developed by a school.

Predictions yes. But also pupils viewing ‘how to do questions’ videos where they’d be better revising content, revising using generic sites like Seneca which don’t cover our exact syllabus but sound plausible, study skills YouTubers… surprised this year how much kids want to rely on online not me

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · last yr.

TikTokTipsters profiteering on the high stakes gambling nature of GCSE exams is where we are now in 2025. Read my comments in The Observer.

TikTokTipsters profiteering on the high stakes gambling nature of GCSE exams is where we are now in 2025. Read my comments in The Observer.

An extra push for our fascinating survey into how Year 11s have revised for their exams. Early results are truly astounding. If you could share, we would most appreciate it. 🙏

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · 2y ago

👀We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.👀 If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering. Retweets 🙏 forms.office.com/pages/respon...

👀We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.👀 If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering. Retweets 🙏 forms.office.com/pages/respon...

New post⤵️ ▸The fad's purpose is what it does◂ ...and not what its authors thought it would do Educational fads seen through systems theory (AKA cybernetics). Please share (tough for bloggers recently) #UKEd #EduSky #EruditePedagogy #Cybernetics cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiol...

An (edu) fad's purpose is what it does

Not long ago a drive emerged against "fun" lessons. The push was to rid the focus on fun and return it to subject knowledge itself. Soon followed the argument that students had to accept boring lesson...

cmooreanderson.wixsite.com

For my secondary school crew…

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · 2y ago

👀We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.👀 If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering. Retweets 🙏 forms.office.com/pages/respon...

👀We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.👀 If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering. Retweets 🙏 forms.office.com/pages/respon...

🔥80% of teachers reteach content if pupils don't know the answers during a cycle of retrieval practice.🔥 Why bother using retrieval practice to elicit the testing effect if you then waste the gained time reteaching the answers? Read more here 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Bridget Phillipson speech to set out need for more male teachers in school. Will she announce sweeping reform of the bursary system & allow primary, & subjects like drama, to access funds that enable more deprived/career changers to become teachers? www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Primary tests in the future will be replaced by AI, NHS-style, 'screening' which checks for dyslexia, discalcula & other difficulties as part of evaluation of their reading & maths. Will we still over prep for these screening checks? Check lexplore.com/en-gb/ for starters.

I’ve taken my children through 16 different GCSE specs so far and every one of them needs a slightly different interpretation and focus. And my experience suggests that how well you understand each one can be a bigger factor in grading than subject understanding.

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · 2y ago

Having to learning ten GCSE exam cultures is inefficient use of curriculum time. Homogenize the individual exam systems and drive more learning of new content.

I have a colleague who teaches 4 subjects across GCSE and A-Level, and told me recently how the word 'evaluate' means something slightly different in each of those contexts...

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · 2y ago

Having to learning ten GCSE exam cultures is inefficient use of curriculum time. Homogenize the individual exam systems and drive more learning of new content.

Having to learning ten GCSE exam cultures is inefficient use of curriculum time. Homogenize the individual exam systems and drive more learning of new content.

Whether you are for or against institutions spending money on preparing senior leaders for the risk of Ofsted, there's no escaping it's big business.

Join us for an AWP offsite reading with @blackoceanbooks.bsky.social and Saturnalia Books on Thursday 3/27 @barhenryla in Echo Park! 📖🎤🗣️ ➡️ News | Burnside Review #awp #awp2025 #losangeles #awpoffsitereading

🔥Warning: repeated quizzing can dull students' ability to transfer taught knowledge to unseen exam questions.🔥 journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

More details of new Ofsted inspection process revealed* 😱Re-inspection within months if any area deemed in need of improvement 😱 🏃‍♂🏃‍♂ 😨Someone in your provision will be given the 'Ofsted wants' power 😨 🙊🙉🙈 What could possibly go wrong? www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

OAK holding back growth in UK educational resources market says BESA. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Tory then Labour led DfE reaps reward for sustained defunding of arts subjects. Stark contrast in DfE bursaries by Labour government in next post. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Every single theme needs to be led by an SLT member, metrics collated, plans coordinated, risk reduced. The workload spend is absolutely massive. I'm SLT and it's made me look at my pension forecast...

Dr James Shea@englishspecial.bsky.social · 2y ago

Ofsted proposes to triple down on high stakes regulation of sector. Every category is a high risk area that will require a designated SLT, oodles of money to be spent and bags of stress splashed across a profession stampeding for the door. schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-schoo...