Ah, the famous closing credits to Flash Gordon, and sadly there wasn't another one so that really was the end, so does that mean today is the last blog post? An absolute classic, and if you think different, you're wrong. All together now, FLASH, ah ahhh ah! Well, yes, is the short answer. This is the end of what I initially conceived as my memories of teaching but ultimately became a bit more than that.

I have always loved activities week as a teacher. You get to go out on trips, and help the students experience new things and yes, see them in a different light1. They also get to see you in a different light, which is no bad thing. What people don't seem to realise about activities week is the sheer amount of organisation and paperwork that goes into it.

Or, how year 10 finally grow up and realise there is a big bad world out there which they are about to join... Work experience1 is one of the things schools are cutting back on, whilst still offering it in some capacity to year 10 students (and year 12). By cutting back, I mean work experience used to be two weeks, but is now only one in many schools I know of.

*or don't worry folks, the heat wave will be over soon1. Ah Sports Day, that annual event despised by many teachers and students, but equally adored by others. At my previous school, we2 tried to make Sports Day a more exclusive event by including sports such as Ultimate Frisbee3 and Rounders. Of course the usual track and field events ran alongside it, culminating in an afternoon of students cheering on their mates as they ran the relays and sprinted around the track.

Social Media is in the news in the U.K. again. The Government has introduced legislature to ban social media for all under 16s, starting from Spring 2027. Australia paved the way for this, but now many other countries are joining in and looking at either banning or severely curtailing social media use for teenagers1. Note I'm not talking about countries…

A very good friend of mine is currently doing some work as an invigilator1 and last week, when we were in the pub, he started to tell some stories about what he'd seen. Our conversation lead to a bigger issue for our young people today, and what we, as teachers can do about it: resilience, or the complete lack of it.

It's the final half term1! Think back to September and how long ago that was, and yet simultaneously just like yesterday. Bloody time, messing with our heads and our sense of things - who needs Doctor Who? Anyway, now, in secondary schools2, the exams are in full swing and when you look at your timetable, something weird happens.

To resign or not to resign, that is the question. Except, it isn't, because if you're reading this on Friday at 3:30 when it's released, it's already too late: the resignation deadline has passed. Found this on: Teachers have to give at least a half term's notice to end their contract1, and now, with only one half term left, it's too late.

It doesn't seem like that long ago that I wrote a blog about mock exams1. Many schools now have multiple mock phases, some even starting in year 10, but now, finally, with the actual GCSE exams in full swing, the end is here. Sounds ominous doesn't it? The end is here. The end is nigh. The end is nowhere near, to be honest, it's just a bunch of exams.

Ah, parents! Who'd be one? It's about the only thing in adult life you don't need a license or test to do. Just about anyone can be a parent1, but does that mean everyone should be? That's not for me to decide2, but if you are going to be a parent, you should at least try to, you know, …

This time of year is a difficult time for teachers and students. The sun has started shining1, but students are about to do their exams and you are out of time2. It happens like this every year. You start counting down to the exams, comfortably in double figures of lessons then you come back after Easter and bang!

And we're back! Did you miss it? The thirty seconds you got to catch up with your work buddies? The rush of thirty (or more) faces looking at you, waiting for you to fill them with your knowledge and expertise? The feeling of panic when you see the queue at the photocopier? Relax, it's the summer term. The sun is shining…

Oh thank God for that! Right now you are probably too exhausted to celebrate the achievement of making it through another term, but you should. Switch your laptop off. If you're a particularly keen1 member of staff, remove all work email from your phone: no notifications, no sneaky reading them. Have some time off. You have earned it. Have some chocolate - why not?

What a shit title. The Manosphere. What the hell does that even mean? The world of men? Hasn't it always been a man's world? When I sat down to write this today, I'm fresh off watching the acclaimed documentary 'Into The Manosphere' by Louis Theroux. It's advertised as an expose of the world of male influencers1, or at least those that push toxic masculinity to the point of making a shed load of money from it.

The Memory Shades Review delivers creature feature thrills and psychological depth. Prisoners, ghosts, and something beneath the soil.

There's two weeks to go until the Easter holidays, and it seems everyone I meet in schools is on their knees. I talked about burnout a couple of weeks ago1, and given it's now later in the term, the burnout is in danger of turning into long term sickness due to stress. Nice bit of rhyming slang for you...

Frequent readers of this blog will know that a major part of my new role is to coach teachers and work with them to improve practice. I am not arrogant enough to think I know everything about teaching1, but I do believe watching others teach is a sure fire way to improve what you do. The easiest place to be in any classroom is the rear of the room, watching what's going on.

It's that time of year when we start thinking about possibly moving schools and looking for a new job or challenge. Teachers usually have to give half a term's notice before resigning and the job market starts to ramp up from now, ready for next September. It has been over twenty years since I was last interviewed, until this morning…

You've been back a week since half term! A whole week at work after a whole week off - you must be flying high, right? Energy levels at the highest they've been since September, lessons going brilliantly, students finally accepting you and their behaviour is impeccable, right? Wrong. So, so wrong. Why the hell do we all feel so knackered? Why is the kids behaviour the worst its been all year?

Doesn't it? The average human lives for around 2,240,543,592 seconds, which a mind-bogginly large number. The average UK student spend 117,000 seconds per week in school, or 56,160,000 seconds over an education from 5 to 16 years old. Huge numbers that lack meaning, much like the phrase being bandied about in school 'Every Second Counts.' It's a lovely sounding statement though isn't it?

A word has been bandied about in education over the last few years, and I think it's one that has been much misunderstood - by everyone from support staff, students, parents, teachers and most of all, of course, SLT. Consistency. Nicked from Memedroid. Possibly my new favourite website. But what does that actually mean in a classroom? Mine? Yours? Everyone else's?

In England this week, the government have announced new guidance suggesting that all mobile phones should be banned during the school day and teachers should be encouraged not to use theirs in front of students. I have some views on this, so here we go. A recent study1 of over 10, 000 12 year olds found that 31% of them were more likely to be depressed than non-phone owning peers, 40% more likely to be obese and 62% have sleep problems.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you'll know I work with other teachers helping improve classroom practice amongst other things. Occasionally a few of these teachers will look at me like I know all the answers, and the simple truth is I do not, and never have. It's pretty easy to sit at the back of a classroom and see what is going right or wrong.

What's this? Another post about parents evening? Well, yes, there's more than one in a year you know... There is a particular hell to the parents evening at this time of year. Why oh why is it now? Returning after Christmas always feels tough, as the Christmas holiday is not restful at all. All that enforced cheers, spending time with families, too much alcohol, too much cheese, not enough sleep, too much alcohol, stress about money and too much alcohol takes it's toll.

Yep, it's January which only means one thing: back to work. With any luck, the first day this term was an interminable inset day, where you can perhaps play back to work bingo and get all the important questions out of the way. How many times did you hear any of this: How was your break? Feels like we've never been away doesn't it?

Merry Christmas – you made it! Definitely time for a beverage of your choice1. So, how was the last week for you? Did you have to keep students engaged up to today? Did you decorate your clas…

Merry Christmas - you made it! Definitely time for a beverage of your choice1. So, how was the last week for you? Did you have to keep students engaged up to today? Did you decorate your classroom? Give out Christmas cards to everyone in your tutor group2? Play carols during tutor time? Or maybe 'Fairytale of New York' with changed lyrics…

Yeah, it is, really. No, no come back.... One week of the longest term in the school year left. The Autumn term is usually fifteen weeks long, which is unfeasibly1 huge. For year 11 and 13, they are halfway through the year. Unbelievable. The summer term can also be as long, but let's face it, the sun is shining (sometimes…

Full disclosure: this wasn't going to be this week's topic, but something happened yesterday. I am luck enough to work with teachers to try and improve their practice, and work with small groups of students. Yesterday, a cool, enthusiastic teacher asked me a very important question whilst we were discussing ways to avoid burnout and stress. "How do we fix the profession?"

The first week Open evening and other shenanigans The grind starts…. Performance Management Lesson Observations It’s all over. After 31 years, I’m hanging up my chalk1 and trying …

By now the year 11 (and possibly year 13) mocks are over, or very nearly over and so our focus turns to more important things - namely, how the hell are we going to improve these results? This is a fundamental problem with teaching and I have no clue how to solve it. We need students to improve their results because it makes the school look good in league tables…

Is there a word1 more likely to cause stress and panic amongst teachers than OFSTED? We get a phone call, up to 48 hours before arrival and then they're in, looking at everything and anything they want. Then they disapper, and providing everything is okay, they disappear for three years. They are switiching to a new framework now, which means apparently, fewer inspections right now and none in the week before Christmas…

You are now most likely entering the time of year where everyone's favourite evening of the school calendar happens1. Yep, it's time for the first parents' evening of the year! People do though.... Parents evening should be a time for you to give feedback to parents as to how their child is getting on. Every child. It should be a space for you to be honest and truthful, which may include telling a parent how their child spent the lesson throwing glue sticks at the ceiling to see if they would stick, or doing zero work and then looking affronted when you remind them you're meeting their parents and the report won't be good.

At some point in the next couple of weeks, or possibly already, year 11 will start their first round of mocks. Before I go any further, I should say the majority of my experience was in a 11-16 school, so if you also have year 12/13 mocks then I feel for you, and particularly your marking load. Solidarity, and all the tea…

It's the holidays. What the fuck1 are you doing reading an education blog? Get outside, play with your kids, read a book, watch a film, do something else. Look! It's outside! Until next time.

It's half term! One half term down, five to go. No, wait, come back, don't go cry in the corner... Have a beverage of your choice - you've earned it. When we reached this particular half term, my overriding feeling was always relief. This one is always a monster. We go from the light evenings and reasonable temperatures of September to end up here: wet, windy and dark October.

A few years ago, there was an advertising campaign which had celebrities naming a teacher who had inspired them. I can't remember much about it1, apart from Bob Hoskins growling someone's name. There's also a video on YouTube of Ian Wright meeting his former teacher guaranteed to melt the heart of anyone except the biggest cynic. Take a look below.

Nope, not the Cameron Diaz film, which I admit I found pretty funny, although I am easily pleased1. The reason for all the lesson observations and performance management shenanigans is down to bad teachers. Nothing improves a blog like a random picture of Cameron Diaz2. In an earlier post I said that bad teachers are on the decline and I absolutely stand by that.

The first week Open evening and other shenanigans The grind starts…. Performance Management Lesson Observations It’s all over. After 31 years, I’m hanging up my chalk1 and trying …

Ten years after the wolf war begins, a London mishap changes everything in David Watkins' thrilling end to The Originals series in The Originals Rage review.

Following on from last week's musings on Perfomarmance Management, let's take a look at the other bit to PM - having a lesson observed. Lesson observations are weird. They are undoubtedly nerve wracking, but they shouldn't be. See, the problem is teachers work in isolation most of the time. Sure we have the 30 (or more!) students looking at us, but we rarely have other adults in the room.

Ah, is there any other two word phrase designed to invoke a mixture of fear, disgust and feelings of inadequacy in a teacher than ‘performance management’? The process involves looking at your performance (clues in the name!) over the past academic year. It is meant to look at the training you recieved, your job description, […] Performance Management (PM)

Ah, is there any other two word phrase designed to invoke a mixture of fear, disgust and feelings of inadequacy in a teacher than 'performance management'? The process involves looking at your performance (clues in the name!) over the past academic year. It is meant to look at the training you recieved, your job description, a lesson observation (or more), results for key stakeholders…

So I had some feedback from people1 reading this and as a result, I'll do less footnotes this week, promise. Okay, with that out of the way, let's get on with the grind. You've been back in school three weeks. What's that? No, really, you have. The summer seems a lifetime ago (and it was), your tan has gone, you don't know what it's like to have free time and your life is ruled by bells.

Ah open evening - one of the highlights of the academic year1. Children come to look around 'big school' and get excied about the range of activities teachers have cobbled together to show them. These activities are designed to get the children to be students, so they are invariably exciting and fun.2 In some cases, schools will decorate the corridors with plants to make the whole place look less like a prison.

A school year starts something like this: Day one: 9am start (earlier if you're really unlucky). You've just had the worst night of sleep you've had in the last six weeks, possibly ever. You turn up early, because you want to set a good impression1. The staff room/hall/wherever you're meant to meet is full of people with quickly fading tans chatting about their holidays and what a shit night's sleep they just had.

No, this isn't a review of the splendid Adam Nevill book... Today is my last day at a place I have worked since January 2005. I have taught for 31 years, so two thirds of my career has been in one place. To say today has be emotional would be an understatement of biblical proportions. This is the side of teaching that no-one really sees: the thanks we get at the end of term (or in my case, the end of a career).

Better late than never, right? The endless cheese fog has lifted and I'm gearing up to returning to work tomorrow - the same day my eldest leaves us to return to university. Normal life will resume, which is depressing enough, and I'm doing dry-ish January. What the hell is 'dry-ish' January? Well, I have set myself the goal of being a little fitter and losing some weight this year and the fastest way to do that is to cut out booze (for a bit).

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