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Book Review: The Designated Mental Health Lead Planner

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Designated Mental Health Lead Planner by Clare Erasmus published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. The Designated Mental Health Lead  (DMHL) is a fairly new role in the educational landscape. It began life in a government green paper in 2017, with a bold declaration of intent: every school and college to have a Designated Mental Health […]

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Book Review: Stop Talking About Wellbeing by Kat Howard

Reading Time: 3 minutes Stop Talking about Wellbeing: A Pragmatic Approach to Teacher Workload by Kat Howard. Published by John Catt Educational Ltd English teacher, Assistant Principal and LitDrive founder Kat Howard has entered the field of teacher wellbeing books with this provocatively titled work aimed at teachers at all stages of their careers. Unusually, the book opens with […]

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Book Review: Wholesome Leadership by Tom Rees

Reading Time: 2 minutes As a primary teacher, it’s a treat to read a leadership book aimed at primary leaders (although much of this book would resonate with early years, secondary and FE leaders too). The book itself, after the introductory chapters, focuses on four areas, laid out on the cover; the heart, head, hands and health of school […]

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Book Review: Positive Mental Health: A Whole School Approach

Reading Time: 3 minutes Positive Mental Health: A Whole School Approach by  Jonathan Glazzard and Rachel Bostwick.  Publisher; Critical Publishing Ltd 10% of children have a diagnosable mental health issue. Let that sink in for a minute. 10%. Here’s another static to give you pause; 75% of all mental health illness begins before the age of 18. These two sobering […]

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Live Well, Teach Well by Abigail Mann – Review

Reading Time: 2 minutes Live Well, Teach Well sets out its stall on the cover with the tagline “A practical approach to wellbeing that works”. In her introduction, Abbie describes the book as “a ‘pick-up-and-look’ resource for when you need it most.” This is not a book to be read cover to cover, nor does it draw heavily on research; […]

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Slow Teaching by Jamie Thom

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ever feel like you’re rushing headlong through your working day? Constantly compromising? Marking into the early hours?  In his new book Jamie Thom  @teachgratitude1 argues that we can all achieve more by doing less. Drawing on popular psychology and the latest educational thinking, he sets out a manifesto for an altogether more considered approach to […]

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100 Ideas for Primary Teachers – Mindfulness in the Classroom

Reading Time: 2 minutes A Review of 100 Ideas for Primary Teachers – Mindfulness in the Classroom by Tammie Prince, published by Bloomsbury Education. Mindfulness is a hot topic in education at the moment, and it is one that in people’s minds is often bound up with wellbeing. (I seriously considered using the tagline “Wellbeing: It’s not just mindfulness” […]

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Mark. Plan. Teach. by Ross Morrison McGill

Reading Time: 2 minutes Who is Ross Morrison McGill? You might know him better as @TeacherToolkit, The Most Followed Teacher on Twitter/No 1 Education Blog in the UK/Top-50 #EdTech Brands Worldwide. In Real Life, he is an author (this is his third book for Bloomsbury) and a senior leader “with over twenty years of teaching and school leadership experience in some […]

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Hopeful Schools by Mary Myatt

Reading Time: 2 minutes After a hectic week, what a treat to spend Sunday afternoon in the company of the new book from Mary Myatt; Hopeful Schools, building humane communities. Mary’s point of view is unapologetically optimistic, but is it is definitely not a rose-tinted ideal. She argues for the development of realistic and positive hope in schools.  Using […]