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When students feel that a piece of work is truly theirs, everything changes. They invest more time, care more about the outcome, and persist longer in the face of challenges. This isn’t just anecdotal observation, it’s grounded in a well-documented psychological phenomenon known as the endowment effect.

In classrooms across the world, teachers are faced with a growing challenge: how to support learners whose academic lives are shaped by trauma. These students may not wear their experiences openly, yet trauma quietly informs how they behave, engage, think, and learn. To respond compassionately and effectively, we must first understand the science of trauma, and then translate that understanding into attuned practice.

Moving Beyond Deficit Models in Support Systems for Students In educational settings, neurodivergent students are too often viewed...

In every classroom, sports field, boarding house, or corridor, a quiet yet powerful form of teaching is always taking place: how adults regulate their emotions in front of children. Before young people can self-regulate, they must experience what it feels like to be co-regulated. Emotional containment is not innate, it’s learned through presence, attunement, and repetition. And it begins with us.

Meaning-making as a Driver of Effort and Attention In the increasingly complex and attention-fractured world our students inhabit,...

In classrooms where rigour is revered, the line between stretching students and stressing them is fine, sometimes razor-thin. How can we cultivate deep learning without tipping into anxiety, disengagement, or burnout? Enter desirable difficulties - a concept from cognitive science that offers a powerful lens for designing learning that is challenging but not crushing.

We live in an age of complexity. Systems are fast-moving, interdependent, and constantly evolving. Hierarchies are flattening. Expectations are rising. And wellbeing - emotional, mental, organisational - is under strain. In that context, coaching is not a luxury. It’s a leadership imperative.

We celebrate excellence in schools. We reward high grades, praise flawless lessons, and hold up achievements as symbols of success. But what happens when the pursuit of excellence becomes a compulsion? When perfection, not progress, becomes the goal?

At the heart of every effective, intentional, and resilient educator is something deeper: a personal philosophy of education. This isn’t just an academic exercise, parroting a school's motto or a required paragraph on a teacher training application. It’s a compass, a source of strength, and a powerful driver of change.

Wonder is not fluffy. It’s not a “nice-to-have.” It’s a neurological and psychological state that primes the brain for deep learning. It’s curiosity activated. It fuels intrinsic motivation, increases dopamine, and opens neural networks to new patterns of thinking. In short: wonder changes the brain.

Education is not a box to be ticked, nor a flatpack to be delivered. It is a space to be crafted, thoughtfully, purposefully, and with the needs of every child at its heart.