Tara McVey

🚀 Educators in Scotland: Become a Research Evidence Champion!

Help make research evidence relevant, accessible & actionable in Scottish schools. Shape resources, model practice & support the Evidence Hub.

Apply: 10 Feb – 2 Mar 2026

Info webinar: 18 Feb, 4pm

👉 Apply now: tinyurl.com/bdhwdd5e

This was a really fun conversation, where we spoke about some of my favourite recommendations from the CAR, some of the risks that still exist, how it was received by the profession, and whether teachers and leaders are as interested in curriculum as the were a decade ago.

And more!

I'm perhaps naively hopeful that big news stories about AI hallucinations wiil make more people check sources.

Venetian Carrot Cake I long thought that carrot cake was an American invention, until I found out that an early version was made by Venetian Jews in the original ghetto. This modest disc is very different from the gargan...

Midweek Treat: #RecipeOfTheDay is the serenely elegant Venetian Carrot Cake! It also happens to be gluten-free and (if you forgo its accompanying rum-spiked mascarpone cream) dairy-free. www.nigella.com/recipes/vene...

I have spread my dreams under your feet
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

Well, that is just lovely. We had a similar moment at the end of sports day last year at the local stadium where the entire school cheered the toddler who’d decided to run the track. He stumbled, the crowd held its breath. And the roar when he got up and kept on running brought a tear to my eye.

This is England. Wonderful writing.

Not sure I’ve got an order but…
1. Krispy- Loyle Carner
2. Hope that I don’t fall in love with you - Tom Waits
3. I’ll be your lover too - Van Morrison
4. Lover, you should’ve come over - Jeff Buckley
5. Purple rain - Prince

#FridayFive

Chart shows the effects of Sure Start on academic achievements by age, SEN support by age, probability of hospitalisation by age and criminal behaviour up to age 16.

NEW: Sure Start generated widespread, long-lasting benefits for children in education, health, absences, and SEND.

Every £1 of up-front spending on Sure Start could generate around £2 in total benefits over the long run.

THREAD on our new ‪@nuffieldfoundation.org‬-funded report:

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We’ve been watching for days, hoping they’d be back soon - no sightings yet in our corner of Kent… 🥰🤞

Absolutely agree. One of greatest ever first lines of a song…

#FridayFive
1 Walk Away. Ben Harper
2 Don’t Leave. Faithless
3 Ain’t no sunshine. Bill Withers
4 Closing time. Tom Waits
5 Red eyed and blue. Wilco

It's one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

Fascinating session this evening with @elprogramme.bsky.social from Abby Hughes on how we can plan to make the material we are delivering as engaging, clear and memorable as possible. Loved the step by step modelling of the thinking process. #ELP

Why should we think of the mind as an investment engine? Motivating teenagers to study

New from 100% Assessment open.substack.com/pub/100asses...

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Training Learning Strategies to Promote Self-Regulation and Transfer: The Knowledge, Belief, Commitment, and Planning Framework - Mark A. McDaniel, Gilles O. Einstein, 2020 Surveys indicate that at all educational levels students often use relatively ineffective study strategies. One potential remedy is to include learning-strategy...

I’m fairly persuaded by the argument of the ‘kbcp’ framework - that we do quite a lot of work with students on the knowledge, but far less on creating an environment where they are able to see the success of their actions journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Goodness. That is lovely.

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Cracking blog considering how to articulate what teaching principles look like in practice…

Most of my recommendations have already been mentioned in the thread - but I also got a lot from ‘Turn the Ship Around’ and really enjoyed ‘Legacy’…

Utterly inspiring visit to Ark Soane Academy today.

Complete mission alignment, enormously high ratio in classrooms, happy, articulate students and joy in abundance. Very grateful for the generosity of the staff in sharing with leaders from all over the country.

Just a little nudge that the best way to have your views heard is to submit to the call for evidence.

I massively appreciate that you’re insanely busy and it’s a long survey (you don’t have to respond to every question!).

But this is a big opportunity for positive change…

tinyurl.com/45j92u9p

Google sites would work too

Hi Ed 👋