We need a more holistic research base, drawing on multiple disciplines to ensure our approaches are efficient, effective & aligned with children’s development. This is not just for early years either; this is for anyone working with young children or advising on how to teach them

Emma Turner FCCT Once upon a time, teacher training actually cared about how kids develop—how they think, grow, and absorb knowledge. That foundation was essential. You couldn’t teach effectively without understanding the stages of cognitive and emotional development. Now? That’s been thrown out

There are five institutions in Wales offering music degrees. Of these, only Cardiff and Bangor have scholarly offerings, accounting for 77% of undergraduates doing such degrees. Royal Welsh College is for professional training of performers. timeshighereducation.com/opinion/cardif…

Before ResearchEd, Geoff Petty was one of the strongest advocates for evidence-based teaching, but his approach was fundamentally different. He did not treat research as a rigid set of instructions to be followed without question. Instead, he saw it as a starting point for

I've just been asked to supply keywords for an article with the editors since 2023 - I added up. I currently have 6 pieces of academic writing in the hands of editors, some going back well over a year. Is it only my impression, or is the process becoming even slower?

Here's a 🎶 twist on Coldplay's thumping #VivaLaVida we're calling "Puppets on a Kremlin String?" It reflects on the grotesque disrespectful media spectacle hosted by #Trump & #Vance yesterday at the White House. In solidarity with Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський 🇺🇦 #SlavaUkraini #Dontabandonthem

Today I was one of two primary colleagues in a room full of secondary staff and was totally shocked at how some (not all) totally disregarded my opinion or shut me down completely 'because I'm primary'. A leadership course by the way...

Interesting - I’d like to know more

An aspiration for a university that would be free to depart from the current academic fashions - thank you Alexandra Wilson for this excellent piece.

I’m hearing from ever more parents of primary school aged children that their children really don’t like school. They say that it’s boring, that they have to sit for long hours listening. Parents say that young children are taught things which they, their parents, have never

The Greens now have nearly 200 more councillors than Reform. This is not something you'd be likely to guess from all the copiously salivating media coverage of Farage & his crew of billionaire-backed far-right chancers.

Suffering and Sorrow; the Only Permanent Food of #Afghan Women Under #Taliban Rule Poverty and severe restrictions have pushed elderly #women and children into carpet weaving workshops. These women say that the Taliban have not only deprived them of working in offices but

Brandolini’s Law (also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle): The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

Just completing a final reporting form for a funder. Why are statistics - in particular %s - so poorly understood? To ask for %s is meaningless unless related to a baseline value.

Due out soon! New edition of Debates in Music Education edited by Chris Philpott and Gary Spruce. I was very pleased to work with them in contributing a couple of chapters. routledge.com/Debates-in-Mus…

It’s not just the cost of attending events and travel and per diems but also the loss of income - all part of the calculation we make in deciding whether or not to attend/particpate

Thought for the day. For all the ‘improvement’ pressed upon teachers, retrieval, rosenshine, I do/we do, starters, do now’s, TLAC, scripted/standardised lessons… It’s not delivered any significant improvement. I say this after decades watching from within the classroom.

A typically excellent and well-judged essay from Kathleen Stock’s back catalogues on how the culture of philosophical questioning has evolved over the last generation – to my own instincts, obviously for the worse. kathleenstock.substack.com/p/cocooning-ph…

Will the identitarian Höcke-AfD take over Europe’s most powerful country? How to act to prevent it? And what is the role of Trump & JD Vance? These issues matter, a lot. The situation is serious. Many listeners agree: our talk with ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Rory Stewart

Do not close your eyes. But also: Do not lose heart. Act, because the future of our children is at stake. A democratic European peace or back to darkness. And be inspired by the great Europeans who created the miracle we must now defend. Monnet. Adenauer. Spaak. Havel.