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I've updated the 'About' section of my blog. It was 8 years old and so perhaps overdue. heatherfblog.wordpress.com/about/ via @HeatherBellaF
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Heather Fearn
27.4K posts
Heather Fearn
@HeatherBellaF
Curriculum and assessment. Lots of tweets about schools, my garden and my dog.
Surrey Katılım Ekim 2012
1.3K Takip Edilen7.2K Takipçiler
@daisychristo @BradleyKBusch Mixed feelings at the Fearns.
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When I wrote I Can't Stop Thinking about VAR in 2024 I didn't know that one of the decisive moments of the 25-26 season would involve a hugely contentious VAR decision that might end relegating West Ham - and that I would be in the ground to see it.
But yesterday's match showed all the flaws with VAR I list in my book - plenty of which we were promised would never happen.
- Re-refereeing a match using repeated scrutiny of slow-motion replays - which are proven to alter our decision-making
- The meaning of "clear and obvious" being as clear as mud
- Lengthy stoppages interrupting the flow of the game and killing the joy of spontaneous celebrations
- TV viewers knowing more about what is going on than fans in the ground
- All of the above happening and still massive inconsistencies in how basic rules are applied
Of course Arsenal fans will be delighted with the final decision. I get that. I would be too in their situation. Maybe an unlikely string of VAR calls will go for us in the final games of the season and save us from relegation, and I'll be delighted too.
But regardless of that, is anyone really delighted with the system in general? Eight years after it was introduced in the 2018 World Cup, has it really improved the game?
amzn.eu/d/0c2ovpQ0
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Heather Fearn retweetledi
Some wonderful sense from @PCSnow1604 about the best environment for students with trauma: calm, predictable, adult authority, routine. But ‘trauma-informed’ so often dissolves into endless permissiveness, low expectations, and inconsistency. Which is the *opposite* of what they need. pamelasnow.blogspot.com/2026/05/cognit…
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@C_Hendrick @rastokke @PamelaSnow2 Seen this? Wheldall, Kevin, and Laraine Bradd. "Classroom seating arrangements and classroom behaviour." In Developments in educational psychology, pp. 181-195. Routledge, 2013.
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This is a hugely important piece by @PamelaSnow2. A very insightful application of cognitive load theory to neurodivergence and trauma-informed classroom practice. To the best of my knowledge there is no research on this topic and this has really illuminated my understanding on the topic both as a researcher but more importantly as a SEN parent. I do hope Pam explores this area further. #c7030752390466458101" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">pamelasnow.blogspot.com/2026/05/cognit…
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One way or another you're right about the result. I do remember an urgent need for training to address the notion that adaptive teaching was some new magic - when really all the old assumptions about differentiation were just being reused. The idea that you could just 'change the activity and keep tbe curriculum' drove me mad. That's just learning styles dressed up with a new name.
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@HeatherBellaF It could be, but I vividly recall that one paragraph being shared over and over and getting gazillions of likes!
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In January 2019, Ofsted released the research underpinning the (now defunct) Education Inspection Framework.
In it, they slammed "differentiation" and promoted "adaptive teaching."
They cited research, which is great, and in broad thrust, I don't think what they said is wrong.
BUT
They did not really fully define either term.
They did not provide much by way of exemplification. The example they used for "adaptive teaching" was
"by providing focused support to pupils who are not making progress, is likely to improve outcomes"
Ok, what does that mean? In class? Out of class? Booster or intervention sessions? LSAs? Who knows!
That report was a summary, so as far as it goes that was all fine. But now we have a situation where off the back of it we have moved wholesale as an industry from a set of practices that sucked, to...what? A term which can mean absolutely anything to anyone.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6034be17…
Adam Boxer@adamboxer1
I actually think "adaptive teaching" is a worse term than "differentiation" It's certainly no better
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Heather Fearn retweetledi
See inquiry learning versus explicit teaching, for example.
Matthew Zeitlin@MattZeitlin
one of the most midwit ways of thinking is thinking that categories aren't "real" just because there's ambiguity at the borders between them
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This was my childhood too. Then years as a history teacher covering the Holocaust because of, what felt like, a purely theoretical future risk. How could we have lost that time - and have arrived where we are? mrandrewfox.substack.com/p/the-oldest-h…
Elizabeth Atherton@ElizAthertonSop
@BarbaraRich_law Couldn’t agree more, Barbara. Growing up in north London next door to 2 synagogues, going to schools alongside many Jewish children, and all of that being completely normal, I am totally stunned and appalled by what is now taking place here. It’s a disgrace.
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So much insight on teaching writing in this post.
Ends with the Q: ...are you mistaking curriculum failure for student inability?
[Answer: Yes, most of the time the answer is yes.]
David Didau@DavidDidau
What primary & secondary school leaders need to know about effective writing transition Writing transition isn’t a baton pass where primary hands over and secondary drops it. It’s a compatibility problem. Primary writing rewards expression, description and voice. Secondary writing demands clarity, explanation and disciplinary argument. Same word. Different conceptions. open.substack.com/pub/daviddidau…
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Heather Fearn retweetledi
This new study on setting will be controversial. This analysis from @profbeckyallen is clear-eyed, measured and provides some much needed clarity to a problem that has been far too dominated by politics and weak moral arguments. Link in reply ⤵️
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This conference is going to be a real treat for Australian curriculum reformers, whether working at systems level or in schools. learningfirst.com/conference
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@daisychristo My then 16 year old son, desperate for a job, was steaming with anger at the raising of the minimum wage rate for 16/17 year olds. He realised how much it reduced the likelihood of him getting a summer job.
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Further to this - I read an analysis today showing that it costs a third more (!) in real terms to employ a young person today than six years ago.
What is more likely to be causing youth unemployment?
a) Youth employment is a lot more expensive.
b) Schools have exams.
@jujulemons
Daisy Christodoulou@daisychristo
This in today's Guardian is an example of what I mean about politicians ignoring Wales & Scotland. Alan Milburn wants to reduce youth unemployment by getting schools to focus less on exams & more on soft skills. He doesn't mention that Wales & Scotland already do this, and have more NEETs than England. theguardian.com/education/2026… substack.nomoremarking.com/p/do-knowledge…
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Heather Fearn retweetledi
It's become common lately to hear people say that rising attainment in English schools has been bought at a terrible cost - that of rising mental health problems.
How true is this? Is it fair to blame Gove-era curriculum & exam reforms for increased anxiety & unhappiness?
I dig into the international data to see what it can tell us...
substack.nomoremarking.com/p/do-knowledge…
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My list of people who have had a profound impact on my teaching:
Doug Lemov
Daniel Willingham
Christine Counsell
Thanos Gidaropoulos
Dawn Cox
Dylan Wiliam
Efrat Furst
Paul Kirschner
Ruth Ashbee
Daisy Christodoulou
Carl Hendrick
Anita Archer
David Didau
Tom Bennett
Heather Fearn
And that's just off the top of my head!
Sean Morrisey@smorrisey
We don't talk enough about indirect effects on student learning. There are many others, but these 5 individuals have had a profound impact on my teaching. My students are better off because of them. E.D. Hirsch Margaret McKeowen Elfrieda Hiebert Daniel Willingham Craig Barton
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@DamCou I'm freshly shocked by the wall to wall commentary being so totally unrelated to the actual stated motives and circumstances of this war. Colossal ignorance thanks to zero interest in understanding reality.
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Hard to believe from social media, where Trump is bogged down in a years-long quagmire, but we're only one month into the US campaign in Iran. If things ultimately work out well, Starmer will, of course, begin a frantic spin back in the opposite direction.
Tom Harwood@tomhfh
Strangely, this Trump-style war video has disappeared from the Prime Minister's TikTok account. Unfortunately for him, I downloaded it. It's easy to forget how different the comms were in the early days of the war. He has only latterly leaned in to (helpful) political criticism that his delay and inaction was in fact pacifism. Initially he tried to sell the image that he was a man of action.
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@JonOwenDI I’m not sure how important ‘curriculum’ is. Kids following instructions. Yes. Teachers being precise & concise. Yes. Teaching for memory. Preempting common errors. Yes.
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Also lots of teaching pilots how to build the aircraft. Teachers don't need to know teaching theory. Just implement a curriculum that works.
Barry Smith@BarryNSmith79
Education similar. Lots of talk of research. Jargon. Very superficial. Show me your classroom. Your school. Show me something that really works. No jargon required.
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Yes. I think that nervousness to embrace English as a subject, arguably even multi-disciplinary subject, is the problem. Knowledge-rich messages have cut through to highlight the chimera of comprehension skills but not to correct the abandonment of English language and literature as worthy objects of study for their own sake - so English thrashes around trying to be what it is not.
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@HeatherBellaF I agree. I guess the issue is also that English is part academic discipline of English literature and part catch-all teaching of literacy (with the latter dominant at primary). This hybrid nature makes it prone to be co-opted for other ends.
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A bigger Q for knowledge-rich curriculum design and that is the role of English (or English Language Arts) when it is *subjects* which provide coherent organisation of knowledge for teaching.
Can or should English provide a supplementary or replacement science or history curriculum?
Natalie Wexler@natwexler
It isn't always easy to tell if a curriculum truly builds knowledge--especially if it's been misleadingly labeled. Please join me on a dive into one of those curricula: Benchmark Advance. @KnowledgeMatrs @karenvaites The difference is important. nataliewexler.substack.com/p/how-can-you-…
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@Suchmo83 That's the point I make in my subsequent tweet - forcing English to become subject teaching with text chosen for coherence building knowledge in other subjects.
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@HeatherBellaF The issue is accentuated in many American schools where the ELA block often dominates the timetable considerably more than the equivalent over here.
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I like this way of describing reading in, say, history or science compared with English. For science or history the text is transparent - you aim to see through it to the subject content it explains. In English the text is opaque. It itself needs attention - the word choices, syntax, structures etc. etc.
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@Suchmo83 Yep. I think so too. But that is not, and can't be, coherent knowledge building of that content over time, sited in English rather than those subjects. Nor is reading, to learn about science or history, the object of study in English.
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@HeatherBellaF It's a battle I continue to fight. It risks becoming the vehicle for everything and nothing.
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I'd argue it's a category error to think the job of English is to sequence and deliver content knowledge of other subjects. English is to induct students into the disciplines of English. It's not a rival version of science or history even if it can support through serendipitous content links with the wider curriculum.
I'm not advocating a tour of genres and content links can be great but English needs to know itself: what it is and what it is not.
Heather Fearn@HeatherBellaF
A bigger Q for knowledge-rich curriculum design and that is the role of English (or English Language Arts) when it is *subjects* which provide coherent organisation of knowledge for teaching. Can or should English provide a supplementary or replacement science or history curriculum?
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