iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I think about 8 or 9 years ago a switch flicked for me that said "just use them all the time" and I never looked back... I had "assessment rich classroom" in my head in that every activity I planned for assessment and what I would do with that assessment

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Reposted by Sam Blatherwick

Cass & Anna - The Educakers @theeducakers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It's been nearly a year since I last published a blog about Mini-Whiteboards and how I feel about them. Since then, as a school, we have done lots of work on routines around our use of MWBs. Have a read of my 2.0 blog to see our Agreed Consistencies around this brilliant classroom tool.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I think the normals shouldnt have a prize pot and that they should all just get a flat fee, the aim of the game is the fun of the game

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I think generally I see this opinion from people who work in smaller schools. I've worked in a large school all my career and before we adjusted this the email culture was horrendous

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I don't agree with you I don't think it's about workload, it's about burnout.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

in my opinion this is not arbitrary knowledge and can be constructed and remembered from the construction

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

the examinations system (specifically maths, as that is all I know) that gove inherited had such low expectations. when you look back at textbooks from that era it is astonishing how low the bar was at foundation.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

whatever you think of this, tomatoes in the fridge is an act of wanton vandalism

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a fab sequence of questions

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Left over jacket potatoes. Sliced about half an inch thick. Fried. Always worth throwing a few extra potatoes in the oven for when you're having jackets.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am aware of one where a parent asked for the contact number of a parent in a different year group, but not saying it was so that they could have it out with them because there had been a fight between their kids during the school day

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am aware of a primary school one where parents downloaded a photo of a member of staff from the school website and used AI to mock her up as Miss Trunchbull. This was reported to the school & the school removed the staff photos

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am aware of one where they claimed that the school were hypocrites on uniform because this parent knows "for a fact that the head of maths [ie me] turns up to work in shorts every day"

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

For me the thing about the football club one is at least the coach is in the chat!

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

parents of children in a class at school who are all in a whatsapp group together

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

absolutely horrendous occasionally I get parents complain to me and assure me that they KNOW I have had complaints about an issue that this parent is first to complain about

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I can't see how parent whatsapp/social media groups linked to classes/schools have any positives whatsoever

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I started out in 2009 and in my experience the quality of maths education is so much better. The amount of systemic gameplaying with exams back in that era was horrendous as well.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

100%, but depressingly i think because it doesnt fit into their narrative about education & it is a thing that reflects enormously well on certain bogeymen and the previous government

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I mean I dont see why they couldn't ask something like this but in reality they havent asked many modulus function questions, let alone ones like this. @drbennison.bsky.social good to copy in with AQA qs

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Yeah AQA is just solving from graphs 👍

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Which exam board still has solving? I never square... would like to demo my approach but an example Q would be good

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yeah and thanks to the LSA for letting everyone know! 🤦‍♂️

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Reposted by Sam Blatherwick

Dr Cath Feely @cathfeely.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Last night, an exhibition I've been working on was launched at Cromford Mills in Derbyshire to mark 250 years since building of 2nd mill (blue print for cotton factories worldwide) and early industrial housing. It's open all weekend, with lots of activities. Critique my graphic design efforts!

Exhibition panels printed on cotton fabric hanging in pairs down a mill building from wooden ceiling beams. On the front panels the date 1776 and 'Why did cotton come to Cromford' are legible.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

gotta love recipes that require you to have the oven at a certain temperature "preheating" for nearly an hour before you need use it

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

this one is so bad I dont know how you recover from it!

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I was at a non league game a few weeks ago and this was definitely not the rule. There were long throws but they were rushed.

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If they actually understood percentages they could make the drops look far worse too.

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Reposted by Sam Blatherwick

Tom Gough @mister-gough.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Y9 enjoyed reviewing linear equations in #mathstoday with this from the legendary Don donsteward.blogspot.com/2012/02/line...

donsteward.blogspot.com

linear equations cross-puzzles

ideas and resources for mathematics teachers of 10 to 16 year olds

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

In addition, it is easier to deal with and makes fewer mistakes if the gradient is negative and/or fractional which comes up much more frequently at A - level

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

at a-level (and hey this may be the case at gcse too) you get marks for any correct equation of a line no matter what form. therefore if you simply sub into this then you get the marks first whereas the y=mx+c method you only get this at the end. You may not like this reason as it is spec focused

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

As an aside, I have a million thoughts but no conclusions on y - y1 = m(x - x1)

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So maybe we need to exacerbate the equivalence? The decimal multiplier feels isolated from their method, but in fact if we think about the partition... £200×1.40 £200×1 + £200×0.40 £200 + 40% of £200 & maybe i havent worked on that clarity? it feels remote?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

just to be clear if I came across as dismissive, what you are describing is what I have done my entire career (including this afternoon!)

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

In my head this makes total sense though as those old procedures feel more concrete. Unless you're convinced that a more efficient procedure is not witchcraft you're not going to stake your qualification/reputation on it

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

but what if we *started* with the new procedure & then linked it back? my concern is that if Ss think something i am doing is pointless, do they wholeheartedly engage with it?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

*completely* agree & that's prompted my thinking. as I havent started with a compelling case to use the new procedure am I creating initial resistance?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

However am I certain they bought into that? Almost certainly not? Feel like they are falling into the same old pitfalls and wonder if the traditional pathway you describe is holding back understanding on this?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Fair enough I was reteaching (i think? It's been at least a year for them and I wasnt their teacher last year) this in #mathstoday and got challenged on "why would I do that when I can do this (find % and +)?" I said "it's so we can tackle more sophisticated percentage techniques"

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My issue is not so much that, they just want to do "find 40% and then add it on" rather than "×1.40"

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

what if we taught reverse percentages first would students have a more compelling reason to engage with multipliers?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

How do we feel about AQA penalising students who put 1x instead of x? 🤔🤔🤔

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

takes the heat off the farage panto tho?

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Sam Blatherwick @blatherwicksam.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I miss the days where I used to get my wife to drop off the papers by hand 🤣

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