These ‘at a glance’ revision notes are intended to give AQA A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the four parts of the breadth study: “Russia in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment”: Establishing authority, 1682–1707 Increasing the glory of Russia, 1707–1725 The epoch of palace coups, 1725–1762 Catherine the Great and Russia, 1762–1796 They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These revision notes are intended to give AQA A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the four parts of the breadth study: “Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy”. Monarchs and Parliaments, 1603–1629 Revolution, 1629–1649 From Republic to restored and limited monarchy, 1649–1678 (A-level only) The establishment of constitutional monarchy, 1678–1702 (A-level only) They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These revision notes are intended to give AQA A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the four parts of the breadth study: “Spain in the Age of Discovery”: The forging of a new state, 1469–1516 The drive to ‘Great Power’ status, 1516–1556 The ‘Golden Age’, 1556–1598 Spain: The ‘Great Power’, 1556–1598 They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These revision notes were created for my students and were intended to give them a comprehensive overview of th four parts of the Tudors AQA A Level breadth study specification: Henry VII, 1485–1509 Henry VIII, 1509–1547 Instability and consolidation: ‘the Mid-Tudor Crisis’, 1547–1563 (A-level only) The triumph of Elizabeth, 1563–1603 (A-level only) They were especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson wasn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills meant they were missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. They found these notes certainly helped reduce the time it took them to catch up with their peers, and also they enjoyed using them as a checklist of topics to go into further detail. Hopefully these help to save your students (and you!) some time in the run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These revision notes were created for my students and were intended to give them a comprehensive overview of th four parts of the Crusades AQA A Level specification: The origins of conflict and the First Crusade, c1071–c1099 The foundation of new states and the Second Crusade, c1099–1149 The Muslim Counter-Crusade and Crusader states, 1149–1187 (A-level only) The Third and Fourth Crusades, 1187–1204 (A-level only) They were especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson wasn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills meant they were missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. They found these notes certainly helped reduce the time it took them to catch up with their peers, and also they enjoyed using them as a checklist of topics to go into further detail. Hopefully these help to save your students (and you!) some time in the run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

This series of five slides is designed to be printed off and stapled together in the top left and given to students to work through in roughly an hour. The question they will be working on is the following 8 mark WJEC Religious Education GCSE question: Explain from Christianity and Islam attitudes to the use of contraception. On the first page, students are given a very simple model answer an are tasked with explaining how it could be improved. On the second and third pages, students are given indicative content that could be included and are tasked with highlighting key information from both Christianity and Islam’s viewpoints on the issue. They are then, on the third slide, given a better model answer. They will read this and explain, given the information they now have in their heads from the previous two pages, how it could be improved. Finally, they are given space to write their own answer to the 8 mark GCSE question without looking at any notes. My students really liked this because it was clear and the tasks were ‘chunked’ into easy to digest pieces. There was a clear structure to the lesson which needs minimal teacher input since the instructions are clear on each page. Lined paper isn’t needed either - it’s all self-contained. By the end of the lesson every single student had made progress and, crucially, felt better able to answer 8 mark questions under timed pressure. Hope this helps, thanks for looking and hopefully it’ll save you some time in the hectic run up to exams! :)

This is a document I made for our more inexperienced staff who had some anxieties around parents evenings. It isn’t overly long to read and digest (it’s two sides of A4) so it didn’t cognitively overload them but they really appreciated it. I emphasised that it was intended as a reference and a guide and they obviously weren’t meant to memorise all the responses (and also I explained how I couldn’t anticipate every scenario!) but it certainly helped ease their anxieties and make sure they were confident in their interactions (as well as communicating in the right professional tone etc.) I got some great feedback from staff on it so I thought I’d share it and I hope it saves you some time in terms of producing something that staff can really use. I also found it a useful starting point for more experienced members of staff who perhaps needed a little reminder of the importance of interacting with parents friendly but in a professional manner, no matter how parents might present! It isn’t exhaustive but it was really useful in terms of conveying to our staff the tone and manner we wanted them to communicate in, so I hope it’s just as useful for you too! Thanks for taking a look :)

These notes were created for students studying the WJEC / Eduqas AS Level Religious Studies specification and are designed to be ‘at a glance’ revision notes that act as the basics of what each student needs to know about Islam Theme 3 (Religious Life) for their exam. For students who are predicted lower grades than their peers, I have found this resource is invaluable in giving them ‘slimmed’ down content for Theme 3 and these notes allowed them to tackle revising the topic without the fear of drowning in lots of content. For my more able students they used these for self-quizzing and as a starting point for making their own very detailed notes (an important part of revision in itself). Thanks for looking and I hope this saves you a little bit of time in the run up to exam season! :)

These notes were created for students studying the WJEC / Eduqas AS Level Religious Studies specification and are designed to be ‘at a glance’ revision notes that act as the basics of what each student needs to know about Islam Theme 2 (Religious Concepts) for their exam. For students who are predicted lower grades than their peers, I have found this resource is invaluable in giving them ‘slimmed down’ content for Islam Theme 2 and these notes allowed them to tackle revising the topic without the fear of drowning in lots of content. For my more able students they used these for self-quizzing and as a starting point for making their own very detailed notes (an important part of revision in itself). Thanks for looking and I hope this saves you a little bit of time in the run up to exam season! :)

These notes were created for my students studying the AQA A Level Religious Studies specification and are designed to be ‘at a glance’ revision notes that act as the basics of what each student needs to know about Religious Experience for their exam. For students who are predicted lower grades than their peers, I have found this resource is invaluable in giving them ‘slimmed’ down content for religious experience and these notes allowed them to tackle revising the topic without the fear of drowning in lots of content. For my more able students they used these for self-quizzing and as a starting point for making their own very detailed notes (an important part of revision in itself). Thanks for looking and I hope this saves you a little bit of time in the run up to exam season! :)

This in lesson resource is designed to get students to engage with the WJEC markscheme. Each side of the handout has a 5 and 8 mark question on it respectively, and a model answer to accompany it. Students are presented with both indicative content and the markscheme and their task is to re-write the answer that is given, but to improve it given the available information. My students found this task particularly engaging and useful as they didn’t feel like they were starting with a blank canvas, they were looking to improve an example that has already been created for them. In this way the task is very accessible and low stakes. Thanks for taking a look :)

This PowerPoint is designed to use with students who need complete and concise notes on Kantian Deontological Ethics for their A Level exams The Powerpoint covers the following areas: Immanuel Kant’s account of what is meant by a ‘good will’. The distinction between acting in accordance with duty and acting out of duty. The distinction between hypothetical imperatives and categorical imperatives. The first formulation of the categorical imperative (including the distinction between a contradiction in conception and a contradiction in will). The second formulation of the categorical imperative. And also Issues, including: clashing/competing duties not all universalisable maxims are distinctly moral; not all non-universalisable maxims are immoral the view that consequences of actions determine their moral value Kant ignores the value of certain motives, e.g. love, friendship, kindness morality is a system of hypothetical, rather than categorical, imperatives (Philippa Foot). My students found them really useful and they are written in a way to make sure the entire specification is covered as far as Kant is concerned. Any questions just ask and thanks for taking a look :)

This Powerpoint covers everything students studying AQA A Level philosophy need to know about Utilitarianism, according to the specification. It is purely informative and you could adapt it to include written discussion questions, or simply use it as a prompt for class discussion during the course of your teaching. It also doubles as a handy revision aid. It’s all laid out clearly and neatly to reduce cognitive load and to ensure the information contained within it is as accessible as possible, My students really appreciated the format and the real world examples offered to help cement their understanding of these concepts. Topics included: Normative ethical theories What is normative ethics ? Utilitarianism The question of what is meant by ‘utility’ and ‘maximising utility’, including: Jeremy Bentham’s quantitative hedonistic utilitarianism (his utility calculus) John Stuart Mill’s qualitative hedonistic utilitarianism (higher and lower pleasures) and his ‘proof’ of the greatest happiness principle non-hedonistic utilitarianism (including preference utilitarianism) act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Issues, including: whether pleasure is the only good (Nozick’s experience machine) fairness and individual liberty/rights (including the risk of the ‘tyranny of the majority’) problems with calculation (including which beings to include) issues around partiality whether utilitarianism ignores both the moral integrity and the intentions of the individual.

This resource will be useful to anyone teaching students how to answer a GCSE essay question in Religious Studies. The focus is on the statement: ‘All Muslims should fast during Ramadan’. It gives the indicative content under the question so students know what should be included in the essay, and it is followed by a model essay which students are then encouraged to mark, using the markscheme that is attached at the end of the second page. I created this to be used as a quick way for students to learn how best to structure a two-sided essay, and show them how a detailed answer could also be a concise one. Hopefully it saves you some planning time! Thanks for taking a look :)

This PowerPoint presentation is ideal for an assembly or a talk to parents of any exam cohort. It could also be used for an hour’s lesson if students were to try different techniques as they are introduced on the screen live. We actually also used it for Staff CPD to help them guide students revision lessons - it worked really well and staff appreciated having guidance to ensure the tasks they are setting in revision lessons are valuable. It is simple and clear and grounds all the suggested techniques in the cognitive science research into which revision techniques actually work and why, It means students can have confidence that the revision tasks they are completing actually have a high chance of making knowledge stick and ensuring they retain key information they will need for their exams. It has worked really well with our students and hopefully it can save you a little bit of time reinventing the wheel. Thanks for taking a look :)

This booklet was created with our Year 8s in mind - and served as their Christmas English Language examination. It covers: Section A simple verbal reasoning connectives spelling Section B creative writing composition / literary devices / authorial techniques. It fit nicely into an hour and we found in terms of challenge it was in the perfect zone in between ‘not too easy’ and ‘not too hard’ - meaning there is a chance for pupils of all abilities to pick up marks and it will stretch higher ability pupils too. The booklet would equally work well as something to give students to complete during a cover lesson for an hour or as a piece of class work that you as the English teacher could walk them through step-by-step. Thanks for taking a look and I hope it’s useful :)

This letter successfully landed an interview for a Head of Music at a state school in England (The official title of the role was Curriculum Leader for Music). The school was large and there was a significant TLR attached to the role. This letter is designed to be used for informative purposes and as a guide to the things you would be able to write and say in your own letter of application for a similar role. There may well be things you can’t take from this letter since they may not be true for you, but the spirit of this resource is very much to provide a template and an inspiration for you to write your own letter. Just as we know it’s helpful to provide our pupils with a model for exam questions they need to answer, so too I have always found it helpful to have something to model letters of application on as an adult. There isn’t anything within this letter which identifies the school that was being applied to, and when I mention ‘SCHOOL NAME’ in the text, it would, obviously, be wise to replace this phrasing in your letter with the school’s own name that you’re applying to. Where there is experience which has been written about which you yourself have not had, it may be worth thinking of examples from your own practice that you can write about in a similar style which match the person specification of the role you are applying for. For reference, the letter of application is two pages in length. Thanks for taking a look and good luck in your job search - hopefully this will make the process a tiny bit less stressful :)

This PowerPoint is a ready-to-go T&L strategy to implement whole-school so that your teachers can get better outcomes / results from their lower ability groups. Students in lower ability groups, typically, tend to respond to certain teaching and learning strategies better than others. This strategy (in the form of a PowerPoint to be used as a presentation) uses the findings of research into what works, according to cognitive science, to ensure these students: retain more information make bigger learning gains from lesson to lesson make bigger learning gains over time enjoy school more get into a positive feedback loop The practicalities of achieving the above are outlined within the presentation, as are examples of how the T&L strategies might play out in reality. using this strategy at our school we have seen real results in terms of increasing the psychological safety of our lower ability pupils, increasing their buy-in and capacity to make greater leaps in their learning, resulting in better exam outcomes too. Thanks for taking a look and I hope this saves you some time :)

‘Live marking and feedback’ is the idea of marking or giving feedback on students’ work ‘in the moment’ - which cognitive science research tells us is incredibly effective in moving learning forward and addressing misconceptions before they become embedded. This presentation takes staff through the rationale behind it, the practicalities in its implementation, and the different ways it can be done. We have introduced it and in addition to helping our students make greater learning gains, it has reduced staff workload dramatically. This policy is for forward thinking schools who are looking to introduce evidence-informed practices into their school environment, benefiting students and staff alike. This was something that was really well received when it was presented and live marking and feedback continues to go form strength to strength as more practitioners begin to see its value when done well. Thanks for taking a look :)

These documents will hopefully prove invaluable to anyone looking to set a new Marking and Feedback policy at their school - or indeed to see what a forward-thinking and feedback-focused marking policy looks like. The policy outlines a commitment to ‘feedback’ over ‘marking’, while still using terminology that teachers, leaders and inspectors are happy with. The way in which it is worded allows all stakeholders to firmly grasp the rationale behind the policy, which is the idea that any marking/feedback done should be useful in moving learning forward, rather than simply being something that is done to satisfy leadership and/or Ofsted. The book check proforma that accompanies it allows staff to understand the parameters of what is expected of them but is very much developmental in its wording. It was designed within a healthy Teaching and Learning whole-school environment and ethos and has managed to cut workload along with ensuring feedback is more valuable and impactful in our school and I really hope it can in yours too…! Thanks for taking a look :)