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Decision Making Through Wisdom: A Back-to-School Reflection

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As another school year begins, many educators find themselves experiencing a familiar contradiction. We are excited. Excited to meet new students, reconnect with colleagues, implement new ideas, and begin again. But alongside that excitement, there can also be uncertainty. Will this year be better than last year? Will I finally become more organised? Will I create better boundaries? Will I make the impact I hope to make? The beginning of a school year naturally creates a sense of possibility. It feels like an opportunity for a fresh start. However, it can also create unrealistic expectations. We set ambitious goals with the best intentions, but when reality inevitably becomes more complicated, we can quickly interpret challenges as personal failures.  Perhaps the challenge is not that we need more motivation.  Perhaps we need more wisdom. The Space Between Emotion and Action Teaching is an emotional profession.  We care deeply about our students, our colleagues, and the w...
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How important it is to differentiate? And are there benefits from doing so?

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Recently, I was chatting with a colleague. What began as a conversation about our roles and job satisfaction  quickly shifted to something much bigger that impacted us both: what does success actually look like for neurodiverse students and those with learning needs? In some schools, students are supported to access the curriculum with scaffolds, accommodations and other supports (e.g. EAL, MLL or Support Teachers) in place. While in other schools learners are placed in alternative provision within the school community. Both approaches, it could be argued, have their merits, but what resonated with us was the belief that the real future of learning isn’t about separating students into tracks. It’s about making the curriculum flexible enough so that every student can engage meaningfully. This is where differentiation comes in. Too often, it’s seen as something we “do for” students who struggle. But the evidence suggests it’s far more powerful than that. Research on Universal Desig...
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Whats in a name? Academic Support, Learning Support, SEN Teacher

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In recent years, the conversation around inclusion in schools has evolved. Many institutions have experimented with new support roles designed to help teachers, directly or indirectly, implement inclusive practices more effectively.  Here, I want to think about a new role, or change of title of an old one, something akin to an 'Inclusion Coach'.  But what exactly could this role entail, and how would it fit alongside other established positions like instructional coaches, dean of academics, dean of students and/ or student life? The term “inclusion” itself is debated. Some academics argue that using “inclusion” risks narrowing the role to supporting only students with formal diagnoses, whereas contemporary thinking suggests a broader, more fluid commitment to equity and access for all learners (Florian, 2014; Ainscow, 2020).  At its core, an inclusion coach could bridge the gap between inclusion policy and practice. Drawing on models such as instructional coaching, cognit...
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