Latest from the blogs

By NCS graduate, Georgie Burgess, from Birmingham.

I’d really recommend volunteering. I started by taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme in the summer after my GCSEs, and have continued volunteering through sixth form and my university studies. Giving back has changed my outlook on life. It’s also a great way to try out new things and push yourself to do whatever you can.

What was good about the NCS scheme? It gave me the opportunity to get involved in a local community project, addressing a real social need but in a supported and structured way. We decided to ask the public to sign a petition to raise...

I became a teacher because I realised that I wanted to be free to plan my days, to work with young people in a vibrant ever-changing environment and because I wanted to do something that might make a positive difference.

I have worked in primary and secondary schools and have also spoken at hundreds of conferences, so you could say I have taught teachers too. Essentially, the job has many similarities throughout all age ranges. The key characteristic is one of connecting with others, engaging them in a compelling process that helps them to think, enabling them to learn something new.

When I started teaching I worked in a large secondary school. Every day was different and exciting but there were plenty of challenges too. When I look back, I remember the highs and lows of exhilaration when things went well as well as the exhaustion that came just before a holiday. I remember pupils that I taught and their delight and...

Part of becoming a teacher is observing teachers and children in schools. If you’re on a teacher training degree programme, this will happen on a regular basis. But, is everything you see good teaching?

Neuroscientists have been trying to figure out how our brains work for decades. This includes how we learn. Some teachers will tell you they use ‘neuroscience’ based techniques. But beware, there are some bad teaching methods and brain myths still being used in some schools that aren’t backed by any scientific evidence.

In this blog I’ll look at some myths about the brain, look at those discredited teaching methods and explain how we know they don’t work.

We only use 10% of our brain!

This is a common ‘fact’ that’s false. We use all of our brain nearly all of the time. How do we know?

• Studies of brain damage - If only 10% of the brain is normally used, then damage to other...