It feels like barely a month goes by without seeing another blog or report about teachers are walking away from the profession and the recruitment and retention crisis. I'm not judging: I was one of them. After four years at the front of a classroom, I put away my interactive whiteboard pen for the last time and went back to journalism. It's been a...

Dear students, Thank you. You may not know it, but you're fantastic. As the teacher, it is my job to create an environment that's as conducive to learning as possible. This may include considering seating arrangements, presentation of material, my attitude in class, how I handle discipline etc and, as much as I consider all of these aspects of the ...

I wrote the following letter to one of my classes a few years ago. I've removed a few specific comments – feel free to share this with anyone you see fit. Hey guys/gals, You are awesome and I want you to know that. You are a special group and I want to leave you with a few pointers/ideas/life lessons. This is a general list – don't take any of it t...

"Can we make these reports a bit shorter? I didn't read it."  Carol, a recent addition to our governing board, peered expectantly at the chair while the rest of us looked something between aghast and infuriated. The chair faltered in surprise while Mr Frank, the careers advice lead – who had spent hours of his own time writing the report, on e...

I recently taught a PSHE lesson to a year 8 group on the assumptions we make about people. I started with the word "Australian" – students said common judgements were that they would say "g'day", wear cork hats, like beer, wear shorts, have barbecues all the time and be good at rugby. Then we moved on to "American" – apparently they like burgers, a...