Joel Kenyon

Does anyone else hate mnemonics?

Why do I need to send Charlie's monkeys and zebras in tight lead cages?

That's full on animal cruelty for the sake of the reactivity series.

At that point, just remember the metals 🤷

Usefully Incorrect: John Dalton and the Power of a Good Model John Dalton, known as the father of Atomic Theory, transformed ancient ideas into a foundational understanding of matter through his revolutionary model of the atom. His work laid essential princip…

New Hinterland Post 📝

John Dalton is often overlooked in atomic history, but his impact on our understanding of atoms was absolutely foundational.

I explore his work as well as share an interesting, little-known fact about the man himself 👁️

inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/28/j...

The Attainment/Mixed Setting Paradox: Why Is Popular Practice So Unpopular in Research? The longstanding debate on student grouping has seen a shift in my department from mixed-attainment to attainment setting. While research suggests minimal impact, our approach emphasises tailored i…

New Blog Post 📝

Setting by attainment vs mixed-ability. It's a big debate in education. We moved to attainment setting and it has made a big difference!

Here I explore the research, our rationale, and how we implemented a system that works for us.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/22/m...

The Attainment/Mixed Setting Paradox: Why Is Popular Practice So Unpopular in Research? The longstanding debate on student grouping has seen a shift in my department from mixed-attainment to attainment setting. While research suggests minimal impact, our approach emphasises tailored i…

New Blog Post 📝

Setting by attainment vs mixed-ability. It's a big debate in education. We moved to attainment setting and it has made a big difference!

Here I explore the research, our rationale, and how we implemented a system that works for us.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/22/m...

5/ It’s a quick 10-second check that provides data for my planning, builds a culture of high expectations, and builds a supportive classroom where it is okay to get things wrong!

4/ When we hit >70%, I celebrate it as a win. It shows them that high achievement is the standard and absolutely achievable for them as a group.

It also normalises struggle in a healthy way. If we only hit 40%, it’s not a moment of failure and my reaction isn't disappointment.

3/ Secondly, and more importantly, it makes success visible and guiding our collective improvement.

I'm very open with my classes that my goal is at least 70% right before we move on. They know the target. This helps the pupils understand why I am focusing on Q2 rather than Q3

2/ Firstly, for me: It’s live, verbal formative assessment.

Saying "around 60% got this" out loud forces me to acknowledge the data in the moment. It prevents wasting time on knowledge 95% of students have understood and helps me remember what to reteach/include in Do Nows.

Here’s a simple routine I use when reviewing 'Do Now' answers on MWBs.

I narrate the approx % of students who got the answer correct, e.g., "About 80% of us have this right, great!" or "We are about 50% on this Q3"

I do this for two reasons 🧵

Less Managing, More Teaching: The Case for Whole School Routines By centralising routines, schools reduce the stressful cognitive load on pupils and teachers, fostering a consistent, team-oriented environment where everyone can focus on actual learning.

New blog post 📝

I often reflect on my time as a teacher of 8 years and think back to the beginning.

There are a lot of things that could have made the start of my career a lot easier.

One of which being established whole school routines
inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/02/w...

Less Managing, More Teaching: The Case for Whole School Routines By centralising routines, schools reduce the stressful cognitive load on pupils and teachers, fostering a consistent, team-oriented environment where everyone can focus on actual learning.

New blog post 📝

I often reflect on my time as a teacher of 8 years and think back to the beginning.

There are a lot of things that could have made the start of my career a lot easier.

One of which being established whole school routines
inquestion.co.uk/2025/09/02/w...

Since the end of term, I've tried to stay off social media and been mildly successful.

Now, after a week of INSET and Year 7 and 11 in today, I'm ready to get back into it all!

Happy first day back for most of you!

GCSE results day today!!

Good luck everyone, looking forward to hearing of everyone's successes!

Thank you so much to @alexjquigley.bsky.social for coming to visit us for our awards evening.

Your speech to our pupils was sincere, insightful and exactly the message they needed to hear, especially coming from a former pupil.

It was also a pleasure to finally meet you!

I hate getting anything if I'm honest. I just kind of sit there with an awkward look on my face until they leave.

I do appreciate the gesture though, I just find it a bit awkward.

Let's be honest, this is done on purpose.

People, rightly or wrongly, are angry by the 1,000,000 pupils being excluded this year.

However, I think about the 8,000,000 who haven't been excluded who are in lessons that are not being disturbed.

If one pupil disturbs 30, for as little as 10 mins, that is collectively 5 hours of lost learning.

Child with measles dies in Alder Hey as officials fear outbreak The child, who has not been formally identified, is only the second to have died due to measles in the UK in the past decade

In Liverpool only 73% have had both MMR doses, one of the lowest in the country.

In 2016, the UK was declared measles free. Now, Alder Hey has treated 17 children with measles in just the last month!

The number of deaths is going to continue to increase.
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

Thanks!

I see a lot of people talking about workload so I thought it best to share what we do 😁

"how much exposure is it for my water this month"

"I only have 19 exposure this week Mr landlord, I am due to be exposed again next week so can pay then"

🙄

Love how “vocation” is just a fancy way of saying “we won’t pay you properly" because you get some imaginary moral pay back from the job you do.

I cannot pay my bills in "deep sense of purpose."

Fair. What works for some, doesn't work for all.

Thanks!

Anything that gets teacher into the profession AND retains them is a good thing. There is so much more many could be doing.

Last year, I shared that at Dixons, teachers receive one day off each fortnight in addition to their PPA time. This is a meaningful step towards managing workload and wellbeing.

But that’s just one element of a broader approach /🧵

Yes, they leave after Period 5 at 2:30 on Thursday and Friday.

We still have 28 teaching periods a week.

Exactly.

Some see it as this one thing that can be sorted but in fact it is cumulative.

Haha I have a head of Year 11 next year so i will get back to you.

This year I had a HoY 8 and a HoY 10 and they were always there.

We treat it like a lesson, they still get the same amount of PPA. I think it's about making it worthwhile.

Fingers crossed

They are a timetabled session.

When we have our faculty meeting, other teachers have lessons so it cannot be taken off for whole school.

9/ Schools that are serious about wellbeing are doing these things, and more, but there are still schools with tight deadlines, twilight, individually planned lessons etc. who say they are serious about wellbeing.

I would argue that they're not.