Mike Hill

Really proud to share that my wonderful school - Ark Soane - has spotlighted by @inclusioninpractice.org.uk

This is a testament to the incredible job that my incredible colleagues do every single day!

Check out the report below to read more about our approach 👇

This is what always gets me. It's such a mind-numbing view of education. Some kind of godawful generic training for an identikit job that doesn't even exist.

It isn't possible to design a school system where everyone leaves with the skills needed for the workplace because *they're all going to do different jobs*.

Workplace training needs to be done by employers.

The absolute last thing schools need right now - while dealing with an extremely tight funding settlement and rising poverty - is a radical overhaul of the exam system.

Spinning Plates Understanding leadership

Great writing from @greeborunner.bsky.social on the difficulties faced by school leaders and why people might just need to give them a break

open.substack.com/pub/greeboru...

Webinar series: Direct history teaching

www.history.org.uk/secondary/ca...

Really excited about presenting this series for @histassoc.bsky.social – starting this Wednesday, 4 June, 4pm.

In the first webinar, @jacobolivey.bsky.social and I will explain why we think children don't need to 'do history' to learn history.

Recordings will be available. Link below! 🔗👇

Done!

We’ve gone to press for #ChangingHistoriesKS3 Expanding Worlds! It’ll be hitting our warehouse on 13 June so do get your orders in! In my 10+ years of history publishing, I honestly think this is one of the best books we’ve produced. Spell-binding narrative, stunning visuals and super accessible.

So lovely to see you, David. Your workshop was wonderfully thoughtful and a real conference highlight!

1. Very proud to present our research with Katie Amery at the Historical Association Conference in our home city. It’s been an inspiring two days of lectures, presentations, and rich conversations—and the sun came out to show the port of Liverpool at its finest. #hafconf25

Interested in a direct approach to history teaching? 'Lean lessons' with booklets, whole-class reading, explanation, and lots of questions?

@jacobolivey.bsky.social and I are leading a webinar series for @histassoc.bsky.social in June – and it's cheap! Just £50 for all six webinars.

Link below! 👇

Thank so much, Pete – great to see you and loved your workshop

Thanks so much, Will. Lovely to see you!

Thank, you Kat – really lovely to see you!

Thanks Ed – always so lovely to see you and to catch up

Webinar series: Developing students’ historical thinking at A-level

Thinking about your teaching of the History A-level? I will be running a series of webinars with @histassoc.bsky.social between the 12th June and the 3rd July! Details are included in the link below, but feel free to ask me any questions about the course.
www.history.org.uk/secondary/ca...

Webinar series: Direct history teaching

www.history.org.uk/secondary/ca...

Interested in a direct approach to history teaching? 'Lean lessons' with booklets, whole-class reading, explanation, and lots of questions?

@jacobolivey.bsky.social and I are leading a webinar series for @histassoc.bsky.social in June – and it's cheap! Just £50 for all six webinars.

Link below! 👇

These books are just stunning. Every page is beautifully laid out and illustrated

Gorgeous text, gorgeous pages. We're on the home stretch with the #ChangingHistoriesKS3 Expanding Worlds c.1600-c1870 proofs, so here's an Easter treat of a few pages. Every spread in this book is a thing of beauty. I can't wait for you all to see it.

Awesome – congratulations!

The government are suggesting schools should show Adolescence (and I disagree with this for more reasons than just this), but voted against a national ban on smartphones in schools.

I don't understand.

If you’re an ambitious Science, History, or Languages teacher and want to take the next step in your career by becoming a ML in one of the most exciting school improvement journeys around, then get in touch.

So, when we drop into each other's slip stream, when we narrate the links explicitly to our pupils and when we boost each other up by retrieving and building on knowledge that we know our pupils know, this is our accidental approach to cross-curricular!

Yesterday, I spent a wonderful afternoon presenting with my even more wonderful colleague @michaeldoron.bsky.social at #REdBrum where we discussed our accidental approach to cross-curricular work at Ark Soane Academy.

A photograph of the first paragraph of Eamon Duffy's Voices of Morebath.

This arrived today - bought with the generous voucher I received for speaking at #Soane25. Hearing Eamon Duffy speak about his research was such a pleasure. And how about this for a bit of lush, yet deft, worldbuilding?

Love this!

Late to the party but #Soane25 really had me thinking about world building the Reformation with my Y12s. Today we took a virtual walk through a pre-Reformation church. On Friday they will revisit the route again to see how it changes before getting into the nitty gritty of Injections and Acts.

We are entering a critical 5th year. Our first year of GCSEs for our founding cohort. We are hiring across all depts as we look to scale up and expand our work. Check us out!

arksoane.org/jobs/vacancies