Nat Parnell

Good teaching has always been, and will always be, essentially: explain well, check understanding well, practise lots. Oh and do 'little and often' revision. Almost everything else is just snake oil we love to tangle our teaching up with.

@suttontrust Thanks. Why wouldn’t you want to show grammar schools?

📍 Our interactive map, updated with new data, offers rich insights into the socio-economic makeup of school intakes across England. Use it to see how schools represent their local community, including pupils on free school meals and those with SEND ⬇️ suttontrust.com/school-admissi…

@jones206 @lemire This was only activated here in the UK in the last few weeks. Until then we have had an annoying ‘clippy’ type chat bot. While others have Claude Code…

@lemire Turn on "edit with copilot" which let's it just do the edits directly in the file. It's the default experience for a lot of people already and will soon be the default for everyone.

I am in Microsoft Word. I press Copilot. I ask for a table. The AI can't modify the Word document so it creates a new document in the cloud. It then allows me access the document through a link. Presumably I am supposed to go there, copy the table and put it in my Word document myself. Who designed this ? This is so obviously a low-effort implementation that I am baffled. It is almost as if they wanted to fail. Why can't Microsoft see that having direct access to Microsoft Word is an incredible edge that they could leverage to embed the AI directly? It is almost comical.

@mike_reeves I've sent a couple of emails to info@uniontheology.org over the last month. No response. Could you have a look please. Thank you. Nat Parnell

The persistent and seductive appeal of discovery learning, despite its limitations and failures, reflects a mix of cognitive biases, ideological commitments, and cultural narratives rather than any strong empirical support. kirschnered.nl/2025/03/30/the…

Absolute respect for my boss. What a legacy he leaves. The values I feel he role models most to me: Optimisim, Belief in Others, Courage and genuine Humility. Thank you, Rob, for the hundreds of thousands of young lives you have influenced so much, directly and indirectly.

Wonderful two days @westcountryST23 . Learnt lots about ops & structures. Visited 5 fab schools for learning walks. I’ve never been in a Trust that absolutely insists you challenge & give EBIs! Great to say goodbye to education legend @ReHaring ❤️ @HelesSchool @EggbucklandCC

@AJRAllModCons @westcountryST23 @ReHaring @HelesSchool @EggbucklandCC @IvybridgeComCol @unleashing_me @plymouthcc @LorraineHughe20 @JeffoA28 @Douggie954 @TeachLeadAAli @embarkfed @CSTvoice Was great to see you.

@StevenPWalsh the field of education has become more concerned with ideology than effectiveness sometimes the old ways are the best ways

@GCSE_Macbeth Then you can just get on and teach, not waste everyone’s time with convoluted classroom management that doesn’t work anyway.

@GCSE_Macbeth You work in a school that had a central system for warning and removal. And use the system.

The thing where boys can't leave each other alone in class and are constantly turning around to laugh at each other, get a reaction, mess with each other's desks etc. How do you stop them doing that?

“There’s a reason we don’t teach discovery based swimming.”

✨ We’re hiring! ✨ Westcountry Schools Trust (WeST) is seeking a dynamic Chief Operating Officer to join our Executive Leadership Team. Plymouth, Devon Closing date: 5 Jan 2026 Permanent, full-time mynewterm.com/jobs/3547/EDV-…

@Strickomaster Works best on a tablet or computer.

@Strickomaster I made an app pulling out the interesting bits: …2024-25-242617092274.us-west1.run.app

School funding inequities 26/27 - look yours up: …2026-27-680238338038.us-west1.run.app

@kateowbridge @norchcity And (remembering how) reading with them and filling in the parent book. That was useful. All those set as homework.

@kateowbridge @norchcity I’m not sure I agree about Primary. I’ve helped all four of mine over the years with tables and spellings each week. Agreed: make a volcano is pointless but regular learning homework really helps seal the ‘joint responsibility’ side of learning and it has been nice time to spend

Those who wail that they want something more 'radical', as if this is an end in itself, should reflect - if they can summon the self-awareness - that their own experience of a tiny subset of atypical schools provides no basis for a reform of the nation's schools. 9/

Thank God it's not back to 'shift happens'