Category Archives: Blogs

Edapt provides edu-legal support for school staff in England and Wales. We feature a range of blog posts from teachers and educators every month.

Why are you just a teacher?

This blog post comes from our anonymous blogger working in a secondary school. The other day one of my Year 8 students said something disconcerting: ‘If you’re so smart why didn’t you become a lawyer or a doctor? Why are you just a teacher?’ This ‘just’ has haunted me for weeks. For that little just…

Easter conferences: time for teaching unions to resurrect themselves?

Every Easter the education sector holds its collective breath, waiting for the next politically driven diatribe to be launched from the teaching unions’ conferences.  “It’s not our fault”, comes the cry from the unions, responsibility for our actions lies with the Secretary of State and his political meddling. True in part, but such tirades, and…

Differentiation less daunting

Emma is a Science teacher in a secondary school in north London. Her views expressed here do not represent the views of Edapt.   The idea of differentiation can be overwhelming and often seems too much to tackle for every lesson with a full teaching schedule. I went to an after school professional development session…

Who owns teachers?

We asked Laura McInerney to give us her thoughts about teacher professionalism and voice in the current school climate.   Who owns the Moon? Everybody. On 10 October 1967, all major United Nations members signed the Outer Space Treaty stating that from thenceforth all celestial bodies would belong to the “common heritage of mankind”. Two…

What’s the role of ethics in education?

When we surveyed Edapt subscribers last year, we asked them if there is anything they’d like to see us so differently. One teacher said: “Get us together to create a vision of the perfect education system. Rather than tinkering views here and there, Edapt should stand for something big…” I was reminded of this comment…

Teachers don’t like industrial action: DfE survey confirms Edapt’s findings

The Department for Education (DfE) has quietly published a survey which confirms many teachers are ignoring work-to-rule directives laid down by teachers unions – because they join unions primarily for protection and support in the workplace. The findings of the NFER Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey” Understanding union membership and activity” (link here) published on the…

Top ten reasons to be cheerful (if you’re a teacher)

With grey January turning colder and greyer and the papers full of bad news, we thought we’d come up with ten reasons to be cheerful: 1. If you search google for ‘teaching “best job in the world”’ you get over 4,680,000 results 2. Only 6% of pupils are taught by teachers who are less than…

Parents evenings and the difference between supportive and pushy

Our anonymous primary teacher blogger describes the build up to parents evenings …   ‘Haven’t you just had a holiday?’ ask my non-teacher friends. It’s been a nearly eight week half term – no, I have not just had a holiday. Myself and the children were very much ready for a break because they were…

TAs worth their weight in gold

The following blog post is from our anonymous blogger in a primary school. TA, LSA, HLTA, Support Assistants – I have had some worth their weight in gold and I have worked with others who just seem like an extra member of the class to deal with.  There is nothing better than a TA who…