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Heather Fearn

@heatherbellaf.bsky.social
738 followers 254 following 62 posts

Director of curriculum and assessment for MAT.

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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thank you Stuart!
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Stuart Farmer @stuartphysics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Another excellent post by @ensermark.bsky.social on the also excellent Curriculum Reform Handbook from Learning First’s Ben Jensen and @heatherbellaf.bsky.social. Good advice for curriculum-makers at all levels from classrooms to government agencies.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is a super summary of some of the most practical messages, for any curriculum writer, in our new Learning First, Curriculum Reform, Education Leader’s Handbook. Thanks @ensermark.bsky.social
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Today, we launched our Education Leader's Handbook for curriculum reform. The report draws on evidence and experience working across systems to provide something new and hopefully very practically useful for those wanting to implement a knowledge rich curriculum. learningfirst.com
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m so pleased to see published our Learning First report: Curriculum Reform: An Education Leader’s Handbook Some sections are highly practical, to support curriculum writers. Whether at systems level or in schools. learningfirst.com/research/cur...
learningfirst.com
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Will share.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Depends where you are looking from. 😂
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It’s all relative. I might think we’ve not really had a knowledge-turn - plenty of reasons to question it. Then I see other countries and where they are. That experience has totally changed my perspective. We absolutely have had a knowledge-turn.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Such a useful summary.
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Jonathan Mountstevens @mrmountstevens.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Spot on from @joshvallance.bsky.social. The direction of travel is very worrying and threatens much progress made in recent years.
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Learning First @learning-first.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Developing quality curriculum is incredibly complex. Teachers, school and system leaders are focusing on curriculum reform to improve learning and equity. Heather Fearn offers practical insights in her session at our upcoming conference in Sydney. Join us lnkd.in/dDq-i7v5
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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Large dataset from chess.com shows much better improvement from deliberate practice than from game play. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
New report on AI in schools from @learning-first.bsky.social finds that students are using AI but ‘as a surrogate to which they can delegate their thinking’. learningfirst.com
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Woke up this morning at 5.30 am with my heart pounding because I’d dreamt it was the morning of my history A level. I’d forgotten to revise.
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Bill Wilkinson @drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Shot to nothing after a late resignation for promotion - but my amazing school are looking for a head of science if anyone in the South West is interested in a move and/or promotion. Deadline is, erm, tomorrow! RT appreciated... www.eteach.com/job/curricul...
eteach.com
Teaching jobs and Recruitment - Eteach
The Eteach Group is an EdTech software and services company, dedicated to providing education recruitment solutions for teachers and support staff to connect directly with schools online and find the ...
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
This conference is going to be a real treat for Australian curriculum reformers, whether working at systems level or in schools. www.linkedin.com/posts/heathe...
linkedin.com
This conference is going to be a real treat for Australian curriculum reformers and I’m excited to be involved. There are speakers from research, policy, and practice, including some of the most… | ...
This conference is going to be a real treat for Australian curriculum reformers and I’m excited to be involved. There are speakers from research, policy, and practice, including some of the most res...
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
It’s got to be said. We need to wake up. open.substack.com/pub/mrandrew...
open.substack.com
The oldest hatred is back, and I am absolutely done with this shit. Get angry and then get angrier.
If the West cannot stand with its Jews when they are threatened, blamed and smeared with recycled blood libels, then we are dead as societies.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I’ll be @researchedbrum.bsky.social sharing international curriculum insights. See you there!
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Stuart Lock @stulock.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Either humans learn in the same way or they don’t. If we are going to have a coherent perspective on SEND then those deciding need to decide which position they are taking. It can’t be both.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Is there anything I thought I came up with myself that I won’t one day stumble on in a 2017 @michaelfordham.bsky.social blog? It’s like that Keynes quote. Today its this particular schema depiction.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Yes!
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Isaac @isaacmoore7.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
These are big numbers. Subjects come first, expectedly.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
There have been 1,038,405 unique downloads of @Ofstednews subject research reviews and subject reports. In school, we learn through subjects and we improve the quality of children's education by improving that subject teaching. This is the reality these numbers speak to. Enormous demand!
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
I’ve used a Freedom of Information request to find out how many unique downloads there have been of the @Ofstednews subject Research Reviews and Subject Reports. How many downloads do you think there have been of these subject docs?
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
My little spring garden under the oak. Final phase.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Yes, subjects need their own take on CURRICULUM using the 'cogsci revolution' - not just pedagogy. I'm not so keen on the drive to leap just pedagogical, rather than curricular, insights using cog psych which happens even in this article. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
tes.com
Why subjects need their own take on the ‘cogsci revolution’
While the use of cognitive science research can aid teaching, it needs to be filtered and combined with the unique demands of individual subjects, argue Mike Hobbiss and Paul Cline
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Much love in Australia for Ofsted’s research reviews and subject reports. Used by some everywhere I go. I’m thrilled and so proud of our team that put together these seminal documents that enable new discussion of quality edu, by subject, that takes account of what we now know about cognition.
documents.to
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
I have to be about the luckiest curriculum geek. I’m now in Sydney’s Blue Mountains for Learning First’s Curriculum Implementation Conference with states systems leaders all talking curriculum. It’s a truly exciting time in Australian education.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Yes. First time I’ve read an article on Ofsted that gets what sits behind inspection reliability and validity.
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Barry Garelick @bg987.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
A bird with true conceptual understanding of what it means to fly. @oldandrewuk.bsky.social @mayak46.bsky.social @katharinebeals.bsky.social @paulkirschner.bsky.social @carlhendrick.substack.com @paulkirschner.bsky.social @nsachdeva.bsky.social @heatherbellaf.bsky.social @gregashman.bsky.social
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John Dickens @johndickenssw.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
I’ve been digging into the quality of EHCPs, plans that parents are dragged through court sometimes to obtain, and that are bankrupting councils What’s actually in them? Are they good quality? Personalised? Include interventions backed by evidence? Are they fully funded? The answer often is no
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
The SW investigation might be the most important one they've ever run. It's an incredible piece of work and the results are truly shocking. Everyone should read it.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
New blog! ‘The Teachers’ knowledge that has no name’. What should we call this knowledge? heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/t... With special thanks to @michaelfordham.bsky.social
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
It does so matter!
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D H @iawngont.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Your final bit on the importance of co-planning highlights why schools serious about curriculum and T&L need to devote as much time as possible to subject team meetings, and to ensure 90% of the time is spent discussing it (and not ESPO, data, behaviour, and other ephemeral asides)
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Why does crucial teacher knowledge have no name? What should we call it? heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/t...
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Not sure that's so relevant. The point here is that whatever your Rome, you need to know how to get there.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
All these sound good!
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Yes. I liked that. Colleagues wanted something with the sense of 'journey' in it.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Yes.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Yes, I'd say it depends on the subject asto how many roads might lead to Rome. I guess my point isn't about what variety in component content might be considered a route to expertise (though a fruitful discussion). Here I'm making a simpler point that such knowledge is a necessity for teachers.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Thanks! Definitely agree. It's funny when you think about it - how far lack of this knowledge isn't the the explanation reached for and instead it's often assumed more training in generic teaching activities is needed. That's why I think this form of knowledge needs a name!
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MrGreenw00d @mrgreenw00d.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Outstanding blog. Detailed explanation of why so many of the trainees I've met with excellent academic credentials struggle to explain complex/abstract material. They don't know what the students should already know or what they need next.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
I like 'deconstruction' in that it describes the process as well as the intended knowledge coming from that deconstruction. I do think we need a useful and intuitive term for *what* knowledge is arrived at via this process.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Makes sense.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Yes agree. It's funny how far it is taken for granted that teachers will know what pupils need to learn, step by step, when there is no good reason to presume they will.
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Yep!
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Heather Fearn @heatherbellaf.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
New blog! ‘The Teachers’ knowledge that has no name’. What should we call this knowledge? heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/t... With special thanks to @michaelfordham.bsky.social
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Mike Hill @michaeldoron.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Thank you to everyone who came to our second Ark Soane History conference yesterday. It was such a joy to see so many history teacher colleagues together. As always, I’m proudest of our pupils who were so keen to help and talk about history. What a lovely day. #Soane25
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