General

Having been forced to study Jane Eyre in Year 6, Megan Dixon knows all too well how easy it is to turn children off books by making them read a text they find profoundly uninteresting

Teaching assistants are often left to handle the most challenging students with little help and no training. Some experience aggressive behaviour daily – a situation that is untenable, says Adele Bates, who has some practical suggestions to minimise flashpoints at school and empower support staff

Teachers must be wary of the scourge of ‘pedagimmickry’, which can waste precious time, says Richard Holme

Mixing a national curriculum and an international one is a tricky task, but this head thinks she’s finally cracked it

Meetings aren’t many teachers’ favourite part of the job and unnecessary ones are even worse. Here’s how to spot an extraneous appointment

When Amy Forrester decided to try out a blanket designed to comfort those with sensory conditions, she had no idea how much she would love it

Bringing structure to our extracurricular activities boosts the children’s wider development, explains this leader

Teach First is calling for the doubling of PPA time in disadvantaged schools to narrow poverty-related attainment gap

Confusion reins over the role of teaching assistants – but new research gives us the opportunity to get the best out of this valuable resource, writes Jon Severs

A Bangkok-based school has got rid of its uninspiring charity committee in favour of focused community outreach projects where students take the lead, as Greg Threlfall explains

Despite there being plenty of research around how best to use teaching assistants to improve pupil outcomes, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through in schools, argues Rob Webster. However, a new study from his team is attempting to change that by offering a blueprint for what should – and should not – be in a TA’s job description

While teachers increasingly appreciate the importance of getting students to ‘think about thinking’ – and how to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning – children’s metacognitive skills are notoriously difficult to assess. But new research could change all that, finds John Morgan