John Murray

Want a READING INTERVENTION series that is easy to use and achieves results? Then take a look at my brand new series Reading Rocketeers. FREE LESSONS to try out: johnmurraycpd.co.uk/resources Just click on each book to preview. 📕🚀 Supported with high quality CPD. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A MIT professor taught the same lecture every January for 40 years, and every single time it was standing room only. I watched it at 2am and it completely rewired how I think about communication. His name was Patrick Winston. The lecture is called "How to Speak." His opening line hit like a truck: your success in life will be determined largely by your ability to speak, your ability to write, and the quality of your ideas in that order. Not your GPA. Not your pedigree. Not your IQ. How you speak is what separates people who get heard from people who get ignored. Here's the framework he drilled into MIT students for four decades. He said never start with a joke. Start by telling people exactly what they're going to learn. Prime the pump before you pour anything in. He called it the "empowerment promise" give people a reason to stay in their seats within the first 60 seconds. Then he broke down the 5S rule for making ideas stick: Symbol, Slogan, Surprise, Salient, and Story. Every idea worth remembering hits at least three of these. The part that floored me was his "near miss" technique. Don't just show what's right show what almost looks right but isn't. That contrast is when the brain actually locks something in permanently. His final rule before any big talk: end with a contribution, not a summary. Don't recap what you said. Tell people what you gave them that they didn't have before they walked in. I've used this framework in pitches, interviews, and presentations ever since watching it, and the results are not subtle. Patrick Winston passed away in 2019, but this lecture is still free on MIT OpenCourseWare. One hour, watched by millions, and it costs absolutely nothing. The most important class MIT ever put on the internet isn't about code or math. It's about how to make people actually listen to you.

"Trump, the Mar-a-Lago golfer, is the only bull in the world who walks around with his own china shop. When a clown takes over the Palace, he doesn't become King. It's the Palace that becomes a circus" French senator Claude Malhuret once again nails it. You won't hear a better indictment of Trump and his Gulf war than this. Well worth 5 minutes of your time My English s/t 👇

✨ Exciting news! From September 2026, Jerry Clay English Hub will offer support for Reception year as well as KS1, 2 & 3. Strengthening early literacy from the very start. 📚 Complete the short form to receive further information: forms.office.com/e/0X33fEyZZw #EnglishHubs

After Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu won gold, Canadian skater Keegan Messing noticed the Japanese flag was not raised and stepped in to hold it up himself, a simple act of sportsmanship that turned a medal ceremony into a moment of unity

It's that magical time of year when private jets descend on a Swiss mountain village to discuss climate change and poverty! Anyway, here's my annual reminder. I'll stop posting this when they stop avoiding the real issue: their own massive tax avoidance 💰

This guy literally revealed a 2 mins meditation that will change your life:

If you missed Thursday's online webinar for the launch of the National Year of Reading (with the keynote delivered by @TeresaCremin), you can watch it here. @Literacy_Trust youtu.be/OT5misrfNIA?si…

To celebrate the start of 2026 and The Year of Reading, I've copies of Reading Rocketeers to give away. 📗🚀 For your chance to win one of these 5 books, just **retweet this tweet** I'll pick the 5 winners at random on Saturday, January 31st. Good luck! johnmurraycpd.co.uk/reading-interv…

Gary Lineker, "I actually think that 80-90% of the country just want to get on with their lives, be friendly with their neighbours" "They don't look at people of different religions, skin colours, beliefs, traits, and think badly of them" "I think we're divided deliberately to distract" Concur on all accounts - most people just want to live and get on with life, if only our politicians created a stable and ambitious enough approach to life so we could do that, without having to call out their repeated and monumental short-failings

China just turned the night sky into a masterpiece of precision and intelligence. 🌌 What struck me most about this is how seamlessly innovation turns into art. A drone show in Chongqing just broke the Guinness World Record with 11,787 synchronized drones, creating breathtaking 3D animations that looked closer to CGI than real life. No human pilots. No delays. No crashes. Every movement guided by AI and GPS, choreographed with perfect timing. To me, this is far more than a light show. It’s a glimpse into how technology, creativity, and coordination can merge to shape a new era of expression and innovation. When intelligence takes flight, it doesn’t just illuminate the sky — it redefines what’s possible. Could this be the moment where technology begins to turn the world itself into its stage? #AI #Innovation #Technology #Drones #Automation #Creativity #China #Engineering #FutureOfWork #DigitalArt Credits: longliveai

Dyslexia has travelled a long way from its original meaning. What began as a rare, specific visual-perceptual difficulty has gradually expanded into a broad label for almost any struggle with reading or writing. This piece is a useful reminder that precision matters. When we understand the real cause of a pupil’s difficulty, we can actually help them.

Holy hell. Graham Linehan on Triggernometry just explained exactly how entire societies get taken over — using a party game invented in the Soviet Union. It’s called Werewolf. You get a card. Most people are villagers. Two people are werewolves. At “night” everyone closes their eyes. The werewolves silently pick someone to kill. Morning comes. A body is revealed.Then the debate begins: “Who are the secret werewolves among us?” The werewolves lie with perfect confidence. They accuse the loudest truth-tellers. They play the victim. They sow doubt, division, guilt. Villagers start turning on each other. Every day the villagers vote to hang one person. Most of the time… they hang another innocent villager. The werewolves almost always win. The game was created in 1986 by a Moscow psychology student to prove one terrifying thesis: “An uninformed majority will ALWAYS be defeated by a tiny, coordinated minority that shares hidden information and has no problem lying 24/7.” Linehan’s unspoken question hangs in the air: Are we the villagers right now? Who woke up this morning and silently chose the next victim? Watch these 60 seconds. Then look around the room. Full hair-raising episode linked in bio. Sound on.

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@Alibrarylady @poetrybyheart @nikkigamble @TeresaCremin @BooksForKeeps @uksla @booksfortopics Of all the CPD courses I run Poetry in the primary classroom is by far my least requested by schools, despite the huge benefits it can bring to the curriculum and students. It def needs more emphasis imho. Thanks for sharing this 👍

With the present focus on #readingforpleasure let's not forget poetry! @poetrybyheart has opened its annual advent calendar of seasonal poems to share, learn and enjoy. One for every day in December. poetrybyheart.org.uk/showcase/8

Decades of studying and teaching emotional intelligence, condensed into a single page:

Ever wondered where your tax money actually goes? 💷 @BBCNews broke it down by imagining we each handed the Government £100. Here’s how that £100 was spent in 2023–24: £22 → NHS £6 → Defence £10 → Education £10 → Debt interest £11.40 → State pensions £4.15 → Working-age welfare (PIP, Universal Credit, health support) £0.50 → Asylum system £0.70 → Overseas aid What strikes me most is this: immigration dominates headlines and public debate, consistently ranking as one of the nation’s top concerns — yet the asylum system accounts for just 0.5% of public spending. A reminder that sometimes the loudest issues aren’t the largest ones. #Budget2026