One of a series of lessons looking at different career paths and opportunities. It provides a brief overview of the role or profession and entry requirements (character and academic). Each lesson has a number of activities that look at the skills and qualities required in the profession, giving students the opportunity to assess themselves against those requirements. The lessons are taster sessions and encourage students to go on to independently research potential career paths

Brain Gym was the revolutionary idea to motivate, inspire, invigorate and enthuse students of all ages. It had its detractors - mumbo jumbo, it won’t work. Opinion is evenly divided, so give it a go. My own experience is that it can reach most students; at the very least all students buy into what we are trying to achieve and become more engaged with their learning. The activities are short and as such are very good lesson starters. Establish it with the younger year groups and build from there.

A careers lesson designed to enthuse students with the power of ambition, goal setting and how to achieve them. It is based on ideas created by the Honda School of Dreams and the ancient Japanese use of Daruma Dolls. A very effective lesson in getting students to think creatively and planning how to aim for success. This is an essential employability skill.

A careers activity and accompanying poster highlighting the essential skills for employment. They make up the transferable skills that all employers are looking for, looking at students assessing their strengths and weaknesses and building on them. This is designed for a 30 minute tutor session. The accompanying poster keeps it at the forefront of student thinking

This is a student guide we give out and practice. Each question is broken down into a ‘how to do’ format. As the questions remain the same, the aim is to give students the structure on how to approach each question. They are broken into segments (for example, make your point and give an explanation - this is a strong theme that the exam is looking for throughout the paper). Students are given examples and they have the opportunity to practice. It goes through each question giving examples of good responses and opportunity for students to follow. The guide is based on Brian - the sample marked learner work sent to centres January 2018 issued by Pearson.

The 6 & 10 marker questions are where the student knowledge and understanding of the theories are examined. My students suffer a degree of confusion and can easily get bogged down in the detail. This is an easily read overview of the theories for their revision. We also use them as revision posters around the classroom. The final page is a superb revision technique we use that we stole from the great Physicist, Richard Feynham - if there is one thing you won’t regret buying, it’s this!

Not another revolutionary idea, just simple basic genius. Teaching not only gives knowledge but gives the teacher mastery. Students become the teachers. You will see them conquer the basics, develop depth, learn how to reflect, pose and answer questions. Establishing this strategy throughout and at topic end gives you the confidence that your students learning journey is secure. A huge confidence builder and a boost for independent learning - an easy assessment opportunity for you and exam success for them.

If we can get our students to fall in love with reading, the rest will follow. Concentration span, focus and thinking skills are as high on the list of the attributes of a reader as is having great grammatical awareness and vocab’ range. Promoting the books of Stephen Fry (Mythos) and Bill Bryson (Short History of Nearly Everything & The Body - a guide for occupants), these posters are full of fascinating facts accessible for readers from KS3. Excellent resources for assemblies on literacy, form tutors to promote and general display. Did you know: it takes 8 light minutes for the sun’s rays to reach us, traveling at 186,000 miles per second; what is you is actually 80% water!

3 posters for whole school display and focus assemblies around. All 3 are designed to get students thinking about their futures - where they are, how to get to where they want to be and the skills that will get them there. They are a good visual presence for visiting Ofsted inspectors looking for evidence of the school’s commitment to careers. The essential message is the importance of commitment, building employability skills and valuing education.

Coaching colleagues may not be ‘new wave’ or the next trendy thing, but it is an essential tool for everyone in a leadership position or aspiring to be so. This booklet lays out the essentials of coaching and can be used for inset sessions and has been adapted from the NCSL ‘Leading from the middle’ course. It gives numerous examples of how to adopt the questioning approach of coaching and how to maintain a solution focused attitude. Above all, coaching is about supporting each other and is a core asset of all outstanding schools.