Neil Bates and Robert Bowry have chosen to tackle the issue of curriculum coherence by including local history, both as starting point for new students joining the school in Year 7 and as a golden thread running throughout their Key Stage 3 curriculum. In this article they explain the rationale for their plans, focusing not only on the powerful…

As part of her department's effort to diversify the history curriculum, Paula Worth began a quest to research and then shape a lesson sequence around the Inkas. Her article shows how she allowed the new topic and its historiography to challenge and extend her own use of sources, particularly oral tradition. Only after wrestling with traces of oral…

Making a passionate case for teaching Black British history in the secondary school curriculum, Hannah shares here the personal journey she has travelled in planning for Black British history in her curriculum. She cites her inspirations and offers striking examples to illustrate her rationale and approach to teaching this history. Hannah…

The author believes that "learning is doing," especially in science. The best way she can describe what she did, and the piece of advice she wants to pass on, is "make it active and mix it up". By describing how she went about teaching this lesson, she hopes she has conveyed how doing one's research (online for a start) and…

There has been research on grouping pupils by ability for most of the twentieth century since Whipple carried out a study of the effects of special class placement on a group of high aptitude 5th and 6th graders in the USA in 1919. Since then hundreds of studies have been undertaken and there have been many literature reviews and syntheses of…

In deciding whether to choose a real event from which to develop children's mathematical understanding, it is crucial to have a clear appreciation of what mathematics pupils need to learn. In this article, the author looks at the issue of "context"--the positives, and negatives for the learner. He describes a project in which the context…

It might be said that physicists experience life somewhat differently from other people. Whether turning a corner in a car or observing a sunset there is an inherent need to understand, as well as to appreciate, the beauty of everyday life. There is no better an example of this than the rides in a children's playground. The playground holds a…

It has long been understood that children's interest in science generally declines during the transition from primary to secondary school. The English government's "Every Child Matters" agenda states that pupils should "make a positive contribution" and "achieve economic wellbeing", and so there is a need to develop a…

The "silent starter" is an idea that the author was reminded of during Christopher Martin's session at the ATM conference in 2011, entitled "Big Ideas". This was a nice idea for introducing, or practising mappings, but it was not the first time the author had encountered this powerful teaching tool. The idea is best explained…

This article discusses how the author has developed and managed a collection of exciting resources that aim to aid transition from primary to secondary school by tackling science topics through historical contexts. Working with teachers at both primary and secondary level, the Double Crossed project has designed two exciting cross-curricular…

The author discusses the Learning Futures programme, a partnership set up between the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Innovation Unit. The two organisations had previously worked together on the Musical Futures project that had involved radical new approaches to teaching and learning in secondary school music. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

The setting: the science classroom. The characters: you and your students. The scene: Your students acting out scientific discoveries, modeling a frog's life cycle, mimicking the transition from liquid to solid. This is "dramatic science", a teaching approach that uses acting techniques to explore and develop young children's ideas about…

Over the years the technology behind displaying the image of the unit circle has changed, but the defining features remain constant. The key question for the author as a teacher is this: are the relationships embodied in the image simple, memorable and rich enough to be grasped by any KS3 student at his school? It needs to be simple enough to…

In this article, the author describes a way of motivating learners to solve and reflect upon mathematical problems. The author wanted to find ways to help the Y6 class with their KS2 SATs, but more importantly she wanted to develop their interest and skills in solving mathematical challenges. She spent some time working on the idea of a "…

The basic contention that a more imaginative, creative, and challenging approach will result in better achievement in SATs--in other words, if the children enjoy their science they will do better--was the basis of a project at Oxford Brookes University. The project was devised to encourage and enable the participating teachers to develop a…