"In our school this year, we are focusing on raising the attainment of boys in relation to their female peers. This is by no means anything new; the gender gap is an entity that has plagued school results for as long as I can remember (and probably long before that). I should say that our boys perform better than national averages, but do not perform as well as the girls.
You might be sat there in the same position. You've got an interesting situation in your school, where girls are outperforming boys, it features prominently on your School Improvement Plan (SIP), and you've read all the new books on the subject etc."
"Strong relationships between teachers, parents and students at schools has more impact on improving student learning than does financial support, new research shows.
Social capital is the name scientists give to the network of relationships between school officials, teachers, parents and the community that builds trust and norms promoting academic achievement."
"In the week when the OECD published their latest report, noting that educational disadvantage starts from the age of 10 (click here to read the story) across many countries, and widens throughout students' lives, it is clear that many societies still have a lot to do. Whether the disadvantages are down to family circumstance, race, gender (identification), wealth and socio-economic background, or a distinct lack of opportunity and belief in oneself - what can education and educators do to help bridge the divide that allows opportunities for some, more than others?"
"This is a superb site and download where you can make 3D animated cartoons by selecting your props, characters and locations and then use blocks to programme how things move and interact in a similar way to MIT's Scratch. You can upload your creations to the website to share. There are a set of challenges to try and you can even remix animations designed by other users."
"At the time of publication, it was leading up to 100 years since the cessation of fighting at the end of the First World War. The destruction of life, lands and families finally ceased for a couple of decades and bringing to mind the conflict of modern-day young generations is still important as lessons can be learned from those tragic battles."
A collection of coding platforms and tutorials from Microsoft, including Minecraft, micro:bit, and many more. Tutorials range from beginner levels to advanced and use both block coding and text coding.
Girls who play video games are three times more likely to choose physical science, technology, engineering or maths (PSTEM) degrees compared to their non-gaming counterparts, according to new research from the University of Surrey
"Failure happens. We should come to expect it and dealt with it when it happens. But learning to welcome failure? That is a big ask and one which many of us are not comfortable in doing. Yet there is a growing movement of educators who think that failure is not only a learning opportunity but something which should be celebrated. How does this fit into a schooling system which has been intolerant of failure from both staff and pupils, and punish those who attempt to reach higher and but don't succeed?"
"There is a wealth of video content available online that can help the teaching and learning process, but some of the main issues of using online content within the classroom include inappropriate advertising, inappropriate recommendations, and the dreaded school firewall or slow internet connection. Yet, gaining access to such video content can really help to explain certain concepts, with opportunities to include footage, clips or teaching points in the lesson."
"A University of Alberta education researcher who achieved dramatic results with early assessment and intervention to help Grade 1 and 2 students with reading difficulties says there's still a chance to help these students in Grade 3.
George Georgiou, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, along with his collaborators Rauno Parrila at Macquarie University and Robert Savage from the University College of London, started working with 290 Grade 1 students from 11 Edmonton public schools in 2015-16."
"A great quiz site where teachers create questions and input the answers and then the players choose from 20+ games. Create class lists and view analytics of performance."
"Microsoft has announced a range of learning tools products, training and research updates designed as part of a pledge to build a better future for those with dyslexia, so that every dyslexic child is understood and given the right support to realise their potential."
"Students perform less well in end-of-term exams if they are allowed access to an electronic device, such as a phone or tablet, for non-academic purposes in lectures, a new study in Educational Psychology finds.
Students who don't use such devices themselves but attend lectures where their use is permitted also do worse, suggesting that phone/tablet use damages the group learning environment."
"An online maths resource where you choose a topic than choose the old one out from the three options. Topic include angles, odds and evens, fractions, primes, shapes and more."
Y5/6 Teacher on Mersea Island, Colchester - Sharing ICT & other School resources on twitter & my websites http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com. Twitter @ICTmagic