Grindstone Education

Title: Impacting on the focus of males in the classroom (and females too) Focus: Teaching strategies to increase boys focus and engagement from the start to the end of the lesson Strategies: Starters and plenaries Further reading: Gary Wilson – Breaking Through Barriers to Boys’ Achievement: Developing a Caring Masculinity As many of you know; boys are underperforming nationally against girls and our school is no different, but what you may not know is that boys’ genetics are contributing to them doing so. They’re made to mature later in life and their fine motor skills, I.e. writing, takes considerably longer to develop, so complaints that their hands hurt when they write may actually be true. There are many other barriers that boys face in education and the strategies that will help them overcome these barriers will also help girls to achieve too, a win-win situation. The biggest barriers that some girls face in the classroom are the boys themselves and how they react, distrac...

My first few days as a maths teacher are now over and the dust has settled. Being honest, I didn’t think they’d be as stressful and anxious as they were.  I left my role as Head of PE to take up a whole school leadership role to engage disengaged boys and improve boys achievement across the school, leading it from my maths classroom. Facing a very full timetable this year is going to be my biggest challenge and having few resources to work with will make it all the more interesting for me.  I’ve had a lot of the staff body approach me over the first five days saying how impressed they are that I’ve taken the step across and also that they wouldn’t have the confidence to. I honestly lost that confidence Wednesday night before the students were in on Thursday, questioning my decision and wondering if I’d made the right choice personally and professionally. However after my first three days back in the classroom I’m happy with the choice and excited by the challenge,...