Teaching & Learning Coordinator - Teaching Expertise

When teachers and students work together, they can learn a lot about learning. In a 'Learning Together' project at seven schools, students and teachers researched the link between pupil behaviour and learning

Interactive technology can enhance teaching and learning. Tom Donohoe shares the results of a research project that boosted mental maths ability in his school

What is 'ability grouping', why is it necessary and what is its potential impact on students? Kate Wall explains

Do you know your way around educational employment law? Does your school's pay and remuneration package meet or exceed minimum standards? Tamara Ludlow gives a legal overview of essential information for both leadership teams and staff

Decision making is the focus of this week's Learning and Thinking Skills, as we continue our exploration of developing 'independent enquirers’

This free resource comprises of 10 traditional playground games for you to print out and use to enhance and enrich playtime

How can you help students evaluate information effectively? Anne de A'Echevarria provides some answers as part of our in-depth focus on developing ‘independent enquirers’ – the first of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework

Penrice Community College has developed a system of empowering students and raising achievement through coaching, Barbara Green explains. This article also includes two students' perspectives on the programme

Jenny Fox Eades describes how focusing on students' strengths is an ideal way to implement positive psychology in the classroom

Author: Edited by David Mitchell

Living Geography draws from recent, school-focused research to guide and support you in providing a concept based geography curriculum that is relevant, purposeful and exciting for young people. It is written for all those involved with the teaching of secondary school geography

School business managers and bursars can play a key role in ensuring their schools establish efficient and effective visual learning environments

Graham Handscomb and John MacBeath put forward the case for teacher enquiry and benefits of research engagement for professional learning

What does inclusion really mean? Liz Todd, author of Partnerships for Inclusive Education: A Critical Approach to Collaborative Working (2007), examines the term

You can monitor policy and promote community cohesion at your school using a number of effective initiatives. Mary Martin, deputy principal and director of training and research at Comberton Village College, Cambridge, explains her methods

Gender equality is a complex issue for schools, writes Michele Paule, as she looks at the gender equality issues that schools and curriculum mangers have had to address since the gender equality duty

Now looking at the value of enquiry tools when organising and making sense of information, Anne de A'Echevarria continues to explore the process of developing ‘independent enquirers’ in Learning and Thinking Skills

This e-bulletin focuses on thinking tools for promoting emotional engagement and ownership - again focusing on the first of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework, developing ‘independent enquirers’

Pupils' challenging behaviour tops the list as the most stressful part of teaching; but can it be managed by teacher training? The effects of CPD on behaviour management are investigated by Elizabeth Holmes

After introducing enquiry, Anne de A'Echevarria helps students develop their own understanding of what enquiry is and how it might be structured using resources and practical activities, as a continuation of our in-depth focus on developing ‘independent enquirers’

Author: Julie McGrane

The Engaging Parents Toolkit aims to help you to raise achievement in school through better communication with parents, by focusing on the type of parental involvement that has been proven to impact on pupil achievement the most; talking at home

New technology has made virtual schooling an option for pupils unable or unwilling to attend the 'real' thing. Sal McKeown discovers what's on offer

Carol Hodge offers some ideas for activity based cross-curricular learning within an International Primary Curriculum (IPC)

What role does emotional intelligence play in children's learning, and how can teachers use it to improve pupil's behaviour?

In 2006, 12% of children in care achieved A*-C GCSE grades, compared with 59% of all children. The education of looked-after children is the responsibility of local authorities, says Anne Clarke, and there is no one-stop solution to meeting their needs

Playing games and focusing on positive learning and motivation can transform a classroom environment for the better. Consultant Jenny Fox Eades outlines the lessons that positive psychology can teach us

How can a virtual learning environment (VLE) in your school be used to raise pupil attainment, while complementing other school initiatives? Deputy heads Paul Ainsworth and Josephine Amith have some suggestions

This Learning and Thinking Skills provides suggestions of how to introduce the idea of enquiry to young learners using practical ideas and classroom resources, as the first in our series taking an in-depth focus on developing ‘independent enquirers’ - the first of the six skill areas of the PLTS framework

This resource explains the relation between the application of a wide range of teaching strategies and effective learning in the classroom

This resource is ideal for the subject leader or teacher and provides a comprehensive guide to dilemma-based learning, and how it can develop thinking skills in the classroom

Author: Edited by Dr David Leat & Dr Kate Wall

Many schools now have teaching and learning coordinators and teaching and learning groups who are tasked with keeping ahead of developments and to facilitate teaching and learning across their school. Those professionals will find Learning & Teaching Update invaluable

'Teaching thinking' raises key questions and concerns about how something as complex as 'thinking' can be described in order to make it accessible and visible for colleagues and students

What is your wish-list for the kind of skills you would like your students to leave school with? This issue explains the QCA's framework for Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) and provides ideas on how you can apply this in practice

In this issue we explore ways of utilising PLTs to further the development opportunities in your school. We also take a close look at changes in the world of geography teaching and learning.

Demands for a more creative curriculum are emerging thick and fast, but what do we mean by this and how might it be achieved in teaching? Rachel Lofthouse reports

Is your voice being heard at school? Elizabeth Hartnell-Young explains how a project undertaken by a team at Nottingham University revealed that teachers and students have a lot to say about the learning process, and that they should be heard

Can music have beneficial effects in the classroom? Teachers in a Warwickshire school set out to test theories that Mozart's music stimulates learning, as Dr James Haughton reports

School size is a key factor in student achievement, according to a Channel 4 documentary, but Pam Woolner disagrees with its theories about school environment

Play-based learning can take a key role in the teaching of science and can encourage scientific enquiry skills, says Robert Sinclair

Teaching primary languages is easy and fun when using fairy tales, activities and illustrations

Meditation can help create calmer and more relaxed classes as well as help a school achieve great SAT scores, says Kevin Hogston

How can eradicating detention lead to a decrease in challenging behaviour? Geraldine Rowe describes how her discovery of choice theory caused her to rethink her approach to discipline

With 20% of children leaving school with lower than expected literacy levels, additional support is needed. Reading Recovery, a reading intervention programme developed in 1993, offers exactly that, say Rebecca Jenkin and Isobel Goss read more

How can outreach work effectively engage hard-to-reach community members? Partnership working and forward thinking has been successful in breaking down barriers to participation, as Nazia Hussain, project manager for Keighley extended schools cluster in Bradford, explains read more

What impact will Every Child Matters have on CPD in schools? According to Steven Coombs and Mike Calvert, it will be huge; and schools need to be ready read more

How would you feel about a student critiquing your teaching style and lesson plans? Involving students in the teaching and learning process can promote agendas relating to student voice, believes Trevor Brittain

Jason Wood describes a groundbreaking project in which two Cornish schools carried out research comparing the views of SEN students and their peers on ECM outcomes read more

Virtual learning enviroments (VLEs) can support delivery of the extended schools core offer, explain deputy heads Paul Ainsworth and Josephine Smith

Developing a common understanding of pedagogy is intrinsic to ensuring continuity and progression along all stages of an individual's learning journey, advises a recent DCSF booklet

David Leat examines the nature of 'facts' and considers why it is important that teachers and pupils really understand what a 'fact' is

Thinking skills can never be crossed off a teachers 'to do' list, argues David Leat. Here he challenges some emerging dogmas about objectives and lesson planning