Pete Sanderson's @LessonToolbox Blog

Hexagons. Who knew that bees had the secret to understanding the connections between ideas, concepts and facts? I have been using hexagons with groups of children and teachers over the past year but it took me a while to get it. I had seen them on social media posted by teacher heroes like Russel Tarr … Continue reading →

I originally chose the opening line of this blog as “I have a terrible memory”. On reflection the opposite may be true, I have an amazing memory, play any episode of Blackadder series 2-4 (series 1 never really did it for me) and I will quote you every line from every character. If you ever … Continue reading →

How many times have you heard something like this? You plan a test, exam or assessment for your class, give them some homework or an independent learning activity to prepare them and a student in the class shouts out “…but you can’t give us homework, we have to revise!”. Many students struggle to grasp how … Continue reading →

How does teaching and learning improve in your school? How open are colleagues to being coached to improve? Are teachers disengaged or anxious at the prospect of being observed? The following is an effective way to approach staff to begin the process of addressing their areas for development. It will show how to establish coaching … Continue reading →

I have been very lucky in my teaching career to work in a variety of schools in Bradford, Peterborough and Leicester. All these organisations have a diverse ethnic mix of students, and my experiences in them have helped form tried and tested ideas about effective ways to support EAL students. I recently invited a specialist … Continue reading →

Teachers the world over have their own way of rewarding children for good questions, attempting answers, having positive attitude to learning and being helpful, happy and ambitious. It isn’t rocket science, just find an explicit way of showing students that they are moving in the right direction; names on the board, gold stars, house points, … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago I visited Hinde House school in Sheffield to look at how they have been successful in raising attainment in Maths. One of the (many) great ideas I saw was a numbered feedback system where marked work was annotated with “T” numbers. These numbers corresponded to posters on the wall showing different … Continue reading →