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Rooted in Reading – 5 key benefits of the blue reading passport
The second passport we produced, the blue one, was conceived as a more primary-orientated version of the original green passport. The...
steve246253
Jan 19, 20202 min read


Rooted in Reading: 10 things you need to know about the original green passport
1. The green passport was the first one in the series. Indeed, when I wrote it I thought it would be the only one but then when my...
steve246253
Jan 12, 20202 min read


Rooted in Reading passports: an introduction
It occurred to me recently that, although Rooted in Reading has now been around for over a decade, there are still many teachers out...
steve246253
Jan 6, 20201 min read


The Rooted in Reading Award and student attainment
The Rooted in Reading Award passport was originally designed to be reading’s equivalent to the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The tasks are...
steve246253
Oct 13, 20175 min read


Personal Best and the 5 key features of Growth Mindset: making it real
Photo credit – Suffolk Maths http://www.suffolkmaths.co.uk/pages/1growthmindset.htm You will have seen many diagrams by now explaining...
steve246253
Nov 14, 20154 min read


Personal Best Academy – the planning stage
So, after not posting anything for several months, I now plan to start on a series of posts outlining the setting-up, training stages and...
steve246253
Oct 29, 20152 min read
Literacy, meaning making and social and cultural capital: six thoughts
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to spend a morning listening to David Didau talking about literacy. Like all good inset, this...
steve246253
Apr 17, 20153 min read


Should we abandon reading for pleasure?
I have nothing against reading – I am a massive supporter of reading. It can have a very positive impact on many aspects of people’s...
steve246253
Nov 23, 20142 min read


Creative Accounting – a response to Tom Bennett’s TES article 10 October 2014
In this article, Tom Bennett presents a strongly worded attack on the notion that creativity is not currently being effectively taught in...
steve246253
Oct 25, 20145 min read


Reading – the third component
Reading Alison Gopnik’s The Philosophical Baby, which examines what new research into the way children’s minds work and develop tells us...
steve246253
Jan 18, 20143 min read
Evolution, the developing brain and the power of reading
Alison Gopnik wrote The Philosophical Baby back in 2009 and I think that in it she tells us many things about the development of...
steve246253
Jan 11, 20143 min read


FLOW and reading for pleasure
Reading is a creative activity as a number of researchers have pointed out. Holden, in Creative Reading (2004) makes the case that...
steve246253
May 31, 20133 min read
Becoming a Reading school – Ofsted case study
Kirk Hallam Community, Technology and Sports College, Derbyshire has embraced Rooted in Reading as a central plank of its whole school...
steve246253
Apr 28, 20138 min read
The Need to Read
Nottinghamshire- based performance poet, Louise Ashley was so inspired by the ideas behind Rooted in Reading that she wrote the following...
steve246253
Feb 2, 20131 min read
Recording progress in independent reading for pleasure – a free tool
Some commercial reading promotion projects incorporate detailed record keeping systems that allow schools to monitor the amount of...
steve246253
Jan 19, 20133 min read


Cultural Enrichment Passport
Cultural Engagement Passport Back in June, at the Lincolnshire Headteachers’ Conference, we launched our new Cultural Engagement...
steve246253
Jan 12, 20132 min read


Rooted in Reading Teacher’s Passport
Initially I didn’t really want to write a separate reading passport for teachers but following discussions with staff at Bishop...
steve246253
Jan 12, 20132 min read


Why parents should read for pleasure.
It will surprise few of us that recent research has found a direct link between how often a child’s more reads for pleasure and their...
steve246253
Jan 8, 20132 min read
June Newsletter
We’ve made it to June! Between the relational fatigue of the summer term and the high-stakes pressure of finalizing next year's curriculum, it’s incredibly easy to drop into pure survival mode. But June is actually where the magic happens. It is the bridge where your grand strategic intent meets next year’s classroom reality. If we want next year to feel different, the work starts now—not in September. In this, my first monthly newsletter, I’ll highlight some key develo
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The Mission of Intellectual Equity
The Functionally Fluent Teacher and The Ambitious Years The core mission of The Functionally Fluent Teacher aligns perfectly with the work I’m doing with The Ambitious Years: the pursuit of intellectual equity. We believe that every learner has a unique potential, and it is our mission to empower those who teach them to unlock it. But we cannot achieve intellectual equity if our "operating systems"—our relationships—are broken. Central to Functional Fluency is Accounting
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Knowledge is power, but tools make it permanent.
Alongside The Functionally Fluent Teacher, I’ve provided a suite of resources to help you and your pupils map out your "internal theatre". The Accounting Framework is the "operating system" for this work. When a situation feels like it’s spiralling, we use the Accounting tools to "Get Grounded" and ask: What are the simple facts? What is my emotional state? Additional free resources: Mode Cards: A dual-coding visual aid for modes like "Nurturing" (accepting, empathic) vs. "
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