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Every classroom is different, but one thing that they all have in common is the variety of skills, interests and abilities in each group of students. Some learners are naturally academic, and excel at retaining and reproducing information. Others struggle in a traditional classroom environment. In these mixed-ability classes, it can be a challenge for the teacher to adapt their lessons in order to make sure that every student has adequate time and input in order to achieve their potential. Personalisation offers a solution to this problem.

With young people spending more and more time online, cyberbullying is becoming a serious issue. Read on to find out how you can prevent cyberbullying in your school and what to do if it does occur.

Is there a place for feminism in the classroom? It’s often mis-defined as a desire for women to be viewed as superior to men, when in reality, it’s a call for gender equality and freedom from repression. Put like that, it’s not so much to ask really, is it? As such, it’s vitally important that we’re instilling these values in young people, values that they’ll take with them into their adult lives – into the workplace, and society as a whole – so that they, in turn, will educate the generation that succeeds them.

Decades ago, play was something that happened in the school playground during break time. The classroom was emphatically not a place where pupils expected to play games or have fun. Teaching techniques were firmly teacher-centred, focusing on direct instruction. Teachers were the all-knowing source of information and gave lectures or presented information to a class of passive students. Drilling, where students repeat what the teacher says verbatim, and rote learning (memorisation) were key teaching techniques.

±õ²ÔÌý³¾²â previous blog post, I explored the challenge of starting students on a journey that leads to deeper, more independent learning by means of open-ended questions. The point is a simple one: if we are going to equip students to be confident, independent thinkers, we are going to have to acclimatise them to the realm of open, challenging, controversial and ambiguous questions – the very questions that tend not to be asked in written examinations, which, as a rule, tend to favour responses that can be learned and matched to a mark scheme.

The lesson starts with a slide showing names of cities from around the world. ‘Which of these are capital cities?’ the teacher asks. Hands shoot up, answers are called out, and a list of capital cities emerges. Once the right answers have been found, the class moves on to a different task.

Would it surprise you to learn that the biggest single influence on a child’s education happens outside the classroom?

Integrating technology into your classroom - We have more technology at our fingertips than ever before, which has the power to radically transform the classroom. But is it actually changing the way we teach?

Dyslexia in the classroom can bring up some teaching challenges. We spoke to Martin Bloomfield, trainer at , who is  in the field. His specialist subject is international and intercultural perspectives on special educational needs, and he has many years of experience offering dyslexia awareness workshops to schools and businesses, as well as experience teaching learners with dyslexia.

With many schools already seeing the benefits of a mastery approach to mathematics in Key Stages 1 and 2, thoughts are now starting to turn to Early Years. So what exactly is mastery, and would it be appropriate for an Early Years setting?