Dear colleague
Here are some links that I hope you find helpful:
Two new webinars: New Ofsted Framework: Curriculum and Teaching in the new EIF
Primary: Tuesday 7th Oct 3:30-4:30pm on The Teachers’ Collection (for schools with a subscription)
Secondary: Wednesday 8th Oct 4-5pm on Myatt & Co (access with a school or annual subscription)
Ofsted’s latest toolkits provide an opportunity for schools to pause, reflect and ask the right questions of themselves.
In these webinar for school leaders and teachers, I’ll be focusing on the Curriculum and Teaching strand and exploring the big questions:
- Is the curriculum ambitious for all pupils?
- Is it taught well in every subject, year, and phase?
- Do pupils build the foundations they need for success in learning and in life?
- And crucially: How are disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND, and those facing other barriers considered in curriculum design?
- Can leaders and teachers explain why the curriculum is shaped as it is?
- Do teachers present key concepts clearly?
- Do teachers adapt teaching without lowering expectations?
- Do pupils revisit and deepen key ideas so that knowledge sticks?
- Is progression clear across subjects, year groups, and phases?
TDT National Conference, London on Tuesday 21st October
TDT’s conference this year focuses on how leaders can create conditions that inspire agency, professional growth and joy in teachers, so that they stay in the profession and thrive. With keynote speeches from Jaz Ampaw-Farr and Christian van Nieuwerburgh, a chance to feed back to the DfE directly on the NPQ Review and a first exploration of TDT’s new research Teacher Development: The Landscape in 2025 report. More info and booking here.
Worldview Wednesday is a great resource from Krys McInnis. It has been created to help Religious Education teachers at every level make lessons more engaging, inclusive, and impactful by confidently bringing diverse worldviews to life in the classroom. In my view the resources are useful beyond RE, well worth taking a look.
Resources for Black History Month 2025
FOBBS is a unique educational platform that helps teachers seamlessly embed inclusive content into the curriculum, starting with the rich stories and achievements of Black Britons. With ready-made resources, quizzes, and gamified features, FOBBS makes it easy to inspire pupils while meeting curriculum goals.
Just in time for Black History Month 2025, we’re releasing a brand-new resource pack to support powerful, and engaging lessons. Access normally costs £99.99 per teacher per year, but we’re offering you the exclusive offer of £75 per teacher per year if you quote MARY.
Find out more at fobbs.uk or email kayleigh.oliver@fobbs.uk to get started.
At the Inspire Partnership Headteachers’ Network meeting on Tuesday 14th October, I’ll be talking about how to think about inclusion for curriculum and teaching in the new Ofsted Inspection Framework. For more info, email Rupinder rbansil@inspirepartnership.co.uk
The ‘How to Lead It’ guides for primary subject leadership are now available and a series of webinars will be hosted by Jon Hutchinson, the series editor. They’ll dig into the how, what and why of the job, as well as subject specific nuggets of wisdom. The first webinar on Wednesday 15th October includes all the authors of the book series. More info here.
The Primary Task Design Network Meetings by Karl McGrath are well worth checking out. The first is 'Design Thinking For All Learners' on Tuesday 14th October, cost £10, link to register here (with additional ticket options for larger groups).
These sessions are grounded in practice and research designed to be immediately useful for teachers who want to strengthen task design across their curriculum.
Emma Lewry will be running a free webinar on The POWER of CHOICE from the COOL Curriculum. She will be digging into the research behind choice as a concept for children in KS1 classrooms including the positive impact choice can have on well-being, involvement and knowledge retention. Plus, sharing practical strategies that educators can implement the next day to inject joy and purpose into the curriculum.
Thursday 9th October at 4pm, link to register here.
Thinking Deeply about Primary Education Conference Cardiff
A gathering of great primary practitioners sharing practice on Saturday 27th September 8:30-14:30 St Peter’s R.C. Primary School, Cardiff.
Tickets here. Hope to see you there.
Building Teams with Lekha Sharma and Sam Crome
We're delighted to have two of the sharpest thinkers on culture and team building! Their self-paced course ‘Building Teams’ is now on Myatt & Co. They answer some of the questions they receive about what it takes to create a setting where there are high levels of trust; how to think about building trust when it has been eroded; how to be patient, plus plenty more. It’s a lovely energetic conversation between Lekha and Sam, and I learnt a lot! A new session is released each week, available with an annual or school subscription.
Finding my Voice: A whole school approach to oracy and personal development
If you are looking for light touch, high impact ways of developing oracy and personal development in your contexts, you’ll find these ‘Bites’ on Finding my Voice helpful.
For example, What makes me shine? This lovely provocation for pupils from Christian Foley is one of the prompts to support personal development in primary. And a neat provocation from Manny Awoyelu on the power of an idea.
And if you’d like to explore the programme, there’s a 14 day free trial, to Finding my Voice and you can sign up here.
Finally, if you aren’t already using Teacher Tapp, then do give it a try! Daily questions, quick to answer and if you’re a nosey parker like me, fascinating to see the answers!! You can download the Teacher Tapp App here.
If you think there’s someone who would appreciate this update, you can forward the link here.
Until next time
Mary