Rupert Knight

Really useful and written with great clarity!

Surfing the ‘Semantic Wave’: Helping beginning teachers to think about tackling the ‘pitch’ of their lesson This blog is jointly authored by Victoria Crooks and Alex Ford. Check out to read more blogs from Alex. Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Pexels.com Matthew is a fab beginning teacher.  He is highl…

🚨NEW BLOG🚨

Struggling with lesson PITCH?

Jointly written with @apf102.bsky.social, this blog explores an approach we've used with #ITT beginning #teachers to examine the PITCH of their lessons through thinking about sequencing of knowledge.

uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/25/s...

Unlocking the Power of Mentor Meetings for ITT Beginning Teachers Photo by Los Muertos Crew on Pexels.com Mentor meetings are the cornerstone of support for beginning teachers, shaping their early experiences and helping them make sense of both the theory behind …

I'm in a bit of a blog writing frenzy atm. Here are two new ones today for #TeacherMentor s working working with #ITT beginning teachers in this early phase of their #TeacherTraining year.

First up, Effective #Mentor Meetings: uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/10/08/u...

#EdublogUK 1/2

Oracy for civic voice: Deconstructing practice through classroom vignettes The importance of spoken language in education for curricular, pedagogical and societal purposes is well established and sometimes articulated as oracy education. This article draws on Shulman's work....

New article published today in Literacy: oracy for civic voice onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New post today on UoN Primary Education Network blog. Helen Richardson on representation in the curriculum. See the whole series here: tinyurl.com/2zxfs8u6

Another way we are failing an entire generation: we must teach young people to speak | Simon Jenkins The PM promised to prioritise oracy lessons, but has failed to do so. Set against tests and exams, it is seen as a luxury: in fact it is essential, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Beautifully put by Simon Jenkins @theguardian.com:

"The essence of #oracy is helping pupils articulate their thoughts to others, to listen and reply with courtesy and intelligence."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social

Keir Starmer urged to honour pledge to embed speaking skills in England’s schools Alastair Campbell and children’s author Michael Rosen among advocates calling for oracy to be in curriculum

📰 See Guardian coverage here 👇
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Today sees post number 90 on The University of Nottingham's Primary Education Network blog. Emma Twomney reflects on the role of stakeholders in subject leadership. See the whole series here: tinyurl.com/y25kzmjn

Flying the nest: Helping your student to end well Photo by Arul on Pexels.com One afternoon in June, at the dawn of the National Curriculum, a Year 8 pupil opened her history exercise book to find a handwritten note from her teacher which said:  ‘…

We really are in the final stages of the #ITT year now, so this #EduBlog turns to thinking about how to support beginning teachers to end their time on placement well.

#mentor #TeacherMentoring #TeacherEducation

uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2019/06/05/f...

New post on UoN primary blog today on learning through immersive practice. Whole series to be found here: tinyurl.com/2zxfs8u6

I/We/You: Use with caution Adam Boxer recently posted on X: ‘To me, I/We/You is a powerful way to conceptualise teaching specific things. It is NOT a powerful way to structure lessons. It’s a cycle. And you could have …

*NEW BLOG POST* A new post from me and @lambhearttea.bsky.social on I, We, You theeducationalimposters.wordpress.com/2025/06/02/i...

Yesterday I contacted the #mentors I work with to suggest some blogs I have written in response to the mentor queries I have received at this time of year. If you work with #ITT beginning teachers in #PGCE #SCITT #TeacherEducation these may be of use.

A 🧵 of 9 blogs for this time of year... 1/

[In Person] Oracy: the politics of speech education Oracy: the politics of speech education, presented by Dr. Tom Wright

Oracy: the politics of speech education. Free seminar with Tom Wright. June 25th at UoN. Register here: tinyurl.com/2ht49ath

Latest blog on the importance but decline of teacher modelling.
thinkingflexibly.com/2025/05/11/t...

Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson? When teachers step into the classroom, we never act alone. There is no “I do”. Each of our actions is a response, a small arc, in a continual loop consisting of ourselves, our tools, and our students.

New blog post ↓

Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson?

#UKEd #EduSky #iTeachBio #SciTeachUK

New post on the UoN primary blog today. Moving away from presentations- the power of board work. See the whole series here: tinyurl.com/44fj6kws

Powerpoint and IWBs – It’s time to reclaim analogue teaching When was the last time you taught an individual lesson without using an interactive whiteboard, without PowerPoint, without pre prepared digital resources? When was the last time you did this for a…

Powerpoint and IWBs - time to reclaim analogue teaching. My latest blog.
thinkingflexibly.com/2025/04/19/p...

Looking to become a maths teacher but don’t have a degree?

Our brand new Mathematics and Education Secondary Teacher Degree Apprenticeship offers you a new route to qualified teacher status (QTS), without needing a degree to join the programme.

Find out more: bit.ly/3RVOGVS

Read it here (open access): tinyurl.com/mrxh9rmh

1 in 3 primary teachers have ‘little or no influence’ on lesson content Standardised curriculum packages are ‘imposed’, have ‘no meaningful workload gains’ and can lead teachers to quit, NEU report finds

Around a third of primary teachers say they have 'little or no influence at all' over the content of individual lessons, according to @neunion.bsky.social research into the impact of standardised curriculum packages

Disrupting Red Pill Thinking in Adolescence: The role of school history and why ‘mastery learning’ is taking us in the wrong direction The government have just announced that they are to make the Netflix series  Adolescence  free to show in all secondary schools . The move reflects a wider concern about the waves of disinformation...

New Blog: Disrupting Red Pill Thinking in Adolescence

If our classrooms cannot make space for young people to grapple with truth and meaning then where else will this happen? Online?!

But mastery learning is shutting down classroom dialogue. We cannot let it!

www.andallthat.co.uk/blog/challen...

New post today on UoN primary blog: using technology to enhance the writing process. Find the whole series here: tinyurl.com/2zxfs8u6 @uonsoe.bsky.social

What is said and what is unsaid? The problems at the heart of the DfE's curriculum and assessment review On Tuesday morning I managed to set aside some time to read the DfE’s interim report of their curriculum and assessment review team . It has caused me to think a lot. Hell, it’s even made me find...

NEW BLOG (don't die of shock): What is said and what is unsaid? The problems at the heart of the DfE's curriculum and assessment review.

Part 1 of my reflection on the DfE's evolution not revolution approach to curriculum #historyteacher #ukedchat #edusky

www.andallthat.co.uk/blog/what-is...

Response to Curriculum and Assessment Review Interim Report EMC's take on the what the interim report means for secondary English teaching

So @barbarableiman.bsky.social + @andrewemc.bsky.social have written a response to the interim report for the Curriculum + Assessment Review. Some positives, but some aspects to ask serious questions about too

englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/emc-res...

We need to talk: four implications for primary schools of the Oracy Education Commission’s report. - Primary Education Network This month has seen the publication of We Need to Talk, the final report from the Oracy Education Commission. In this blog, I reflect on some immediate takeaway messages for primary schools. The work of the Oracy Education Commission has examined a mass of evidence over a busy six-month period. I’ve been fortunate to have ...

@knight-rupert.bsky.social wrote an accessible blog for Primary Teachers (but it is also very helpful at Secondary phase) full of links to lots of the research he's drawn on in the presentation today. blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/primaryeduca...
@htenuk.bsky.social #HTENConf

We also drew on case studies from @knight-rupert.bsky.social 's brilliant book
To help us problematise and find ways of approaching oracy in the history classroom. www.mheducation.co.uk/classroom-ta...

Strong recommend for the practical focus of this book!

Curriculum review interim report: The 14 reforms Here's what you need to know about the first report from the Francis review

The interim curriculum review report has landed!

From an EBacc review, to less content in primary school lessons and fewer GCSE exams - here's the 14 key things school leaders need to know ...

Blog post Part of series: 10 years of the BERA Blog Documenting and dismantling language ideologies in education Ian Cushing, Senior Lecturer in Critical Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University 3 Mar 2025 Picture of Ian

i was so honoured to be asked to contribute to the 10 years of the BERA blog series .. here i write about longstanding and contemporary efforts to dismantle language ideologies as part of broader struggles for linguistic justice www.bera.ac.uk?p=56193

Poster showing meeting details

Our next Primary Education network meeting takes place online on Thursday. Please email us to register attendance.
uonschoolpartnership@nottingham.ac.uk

Linguistic engineering Since my last post was about the phrase “women of a certain age”, I was intrigued to see a report in the Mail Online last week which claimed that Bristol University wants to ban it, along with othe…

Really interesting new blog from Deborah Cameron on 'linguistic engineering'. One for further discussion for the Language Discourses part of the A level
debuk.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/l...