Dr Ashley Compton (she/her)

We are encouraging maths teachers of students from EYFS to university, maths ed researchers, maths consultants and anyone else involved in maths ed to take part. If you have something to share - good practice, research, an issue to discuss - go to BCME.co.uk.

@HelpfulTeacher_ I coach gymnastics. There is a huge amount of differentiating going on. There is also a lot more than demonstrating. There are explanations, questioning, formative assessment, self-assessment and feedback.

Teaching is a simple job, overcomplicated by simple people When a kid goes to a gymnastics class 🤸‍♂️, or a swimming lesson 🏊‍♂️, learns an instrument 🎷, the teacher demonstrates and the class follows Very little differentiation, or micromanagement What does that tell you?

@Karen_karenelee I think she looks great and entirely professional here.

@Jo_Marney @TheGreenParty She is wearing professional clothes - not a track suit and baseball cap. They just happen to be colourful.

If your brain surgeon turned up to work wearing a tracksuit and a baseball cap, you would lose faith in his competence. Same when a national politician turns up to work dressed like Andy Pandy’s sister. #HannahSpencer @TheGreenParty

@PaulBushen @MichaelRosenYes Reading for Pleasure is also a big aspect of primary schools. To reflect your words - Why do secondary teachers think they know about all phases of education?

@MichaelRosenYes reading for pleasure is a secondary school programme - the comment is not about under fives. why do non-teachers think they know about schools?

So all the millions who've sat reading 'Dear Zoo' and 'The Gruffalo' with their pre-readers don't realise that their pre-schoolers should really be waiting till they're taught how to read before they 'appreciate' the books. Lols.

Are schools preparing to fight the last war? paulltnt2013.blogspot.com/2026/03/are-sc…

@TPLTD Perhaps the fact that ITE has been told for years now that the ‘research’ supporting the CCF/ ITTECF must be presented to the students without question or challenge may be contributing to this.

Only 28% of graduating teachers are seen to be able to judge the quality of evidence with confidence.

@elonmusk Do you say that for children killed by guns in the US?

How many more children must die before action is taken? Enough is enough. Act now.

@YvetteCooperMP @UKLabour @ABZayed @FCDOtravelGovUK Have you condemned the bombing of a school in Iran?

I have just spoken with @ABZayed to express our solidarity with the UAE. The scenes in the Palm Hotel in Dubai are awful. The UK condemns these indiscriminate Iranian strikes. British nationals should follow @FCDOtravelGovUK for the UAE gov.uk/foreign-travel…

@UKLabour Your attacks on the Greens show this is all about you trying to get in rather than caring about the people.

The choice in Gorton and Denton is as simple as this: Unity - with a Labour MP who will get things done. Or division - with a Reform candidate who has proven time and time again that he isn’t fit to stand up for this community.

The BBC just released a new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, the classic novel by William Golding. It's beautifully made, but it's still telling the wrong story. A few years ago, I went looking for the *real* Lord of the Flies. I wanted to know: has it ever actually happened? Have kids ever been shipwrecked on a deserted island? It took me a year of research, but I found it. In 1965, six boys from a boarding school in Tonga stole a boat, got caught in a storm, and drifted for eight days without food or water. They washed up on 'Ata, a remote, uninhabited island in the Pacific. They stayed there for 15 months, and what happened on that island was the exact opposite of William Golding's novel. These boys set up a small commune. They built a food garden, stored rainwater in hollowed-out tree trunks, created a gym with improvised weights, and built a badminton court. One of them, Stephen (who would later become an engineer) managed to start a fire using two sticks. They kept it burning the entire time. Of course they fought too. But then they argued, they had a rule: go to opposite ends of the island, cool down, then come back and apologize. As one of them told me: ‘That's how we stayed friends.’ Back home, everyone assumed that the boys – Luke, Stephen, Sione, David, Kolo and Mano — were dead. When they were finally discovered by an Australian captain named Peter Warner, he radioed their names to Tonga. After twenty minutes, a tearful response came back: ‘You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it's them, this is a miracle!’ Peter commissioned a new ship, hired all six boys as his crew, and named the boat the Ata, after the island where he found them. They remained friends for the rest of their lives – Peter and Mano even became soulmates. I tracked them down, and it became one of the central chapters of my book Humankind. Here's what struck me most: William Golding (the author of Lord of the Flies) was a troubled man, an alcoholic who once said ‘I have always understood the Nazis, because I am of that sort by nature.’ I think he was projecting his own darkness onto children. And we turned it into a lesson about human nature that we teach to millions of kids around the world. I think the real lesson is the opposite. When real children found themselves alone on a real island, they didn't descend into savagery. They cooperated, they took care of each other, they survived. I'm not saying that the Tongan castaways were representative of all kids everywhere. But I am saying that every kid who has to read or watch the fictional Lord of the Flies also deserves to know what actually happened when it played out in real life. Stories are never just stories. We become the stories that we tell ourselves.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🟩 Tactical.Vote recommends voting GREEN to stop Reform!

🏆 Delighted to share that my MathsThroughStories.org initiative has been announced as a joint winner of the USD 10,000 Math Power! Prize, awarded by the mEducation Alliance. This recognition affirms our innovative research-based maths learning approach: mathsthroughstories.org/news/dr-nattha…

🏆 Delighted to share that our MathsThroughStories.org initiative has been announced as a joint winner of the USD 10,000 Math Power! Prize, awarded by the mEducation Alliance. This recognition affirms our innovative research-based maths learning approach: mathsthroughstories.org/news/dr-nattha…

Hello teachers. Today I recorded 35 poetry workshops for you to use with your classes. 10 are for Early Years, 25 for KS 1,2 and Year 7. These are to go with the 11 that are already up on our channel. Thanks to @ApplesAndSnakes for support.

Use of Sun and Stick for direction. ✍️ 1. Place a stick upright in the ground. 2. Mark the tip of the shadow cast by the Sun. 3. Wait 15-30 minutes, then mark the new shadow tip. 4. Draw a line between the two points — this line runs East-West. 5. The first mark is West; the second mark is East.

@howie_hua I saw 6 in the outer hexagon. 6 in the middle hexagon and then a single hole in the centre. Double 6 +1=13

How would you count these holes?

@hopkinsmmi @LEGO_Group Looking good!

Christmas project coming along … @LEGO_Group

Gosh, this is the bravest I’ve ever seen the DfE. It will be an onslaught that makes the Big Listen look tame. Take part here. 👇 smartsurvey.co.uk/s/4QVXFA/

Your baby understands more than you might think. And this is especially true when it comes to language. I’ve written extensively over the years about the gulf between receptive language (that which we understand) and expressive language (that which we can speak), but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any better illustration than this fantastic video, shared with me by @PMArslanagic. In it, her 10-month-old daughter - whose current expressive language is limited mostly to “dada” - correctly identifies 8 African animals, none of which are yet a part of her spoken vocabulary. It’s an amazing illustration of the order in which we acquire language (receptive before expressive) and a powerful reminder that our little ones are taking in the world more extensively than we sometime give them credit for. (This can cut both ways, incidentally, so never assume they aren’t taking in adult content/discussions just because they’re too little. Once that expressive language catches up you might be surprised to discover just how extensive their adult vocabulary can be. 😃). And kudos to grandma, who enabled this - not by drilling our hero on animal names, but by narrating their joint playtimes. Just fantastic!