Review: Books A Manifesto - Or, How to Build a Library

February 27, 2026

A compelling read that's bound to make even the most well-read among us feel somewhat under-educated.

Must-have features of computer rooms

August 5, 2025

While it's fashionable to decry the use of computer labs, still they continue to exist in many schools. If you have, or are thinking of having, a computer lab, what ought it to look like? What should it contain?

Review: The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History

June 26, 2025

There's a really interesting section in this book about how ceramic storage of data and information is probably the most likely medium to stand the test of time.

Start a teachers' reading group. Picture from Pixabay.com Licence: CCO

Creating a culture of innovation, part 4: Spreading good practice

February 2, 2018

Where are you most likely to discover good practice? And how can it be spread more widely?

Recent book reviews

Review: Teach Fast

The book contains some interesting ideas.

A question of leadership

I have somewhat dichotomous views of this question of whether leaders make a difference, or much of a difference. I think my views can be classified as macro and micro.

Review: Making Good Progress?

Daisy Christodoulou carefully picks apart the pitfalls of various kinds of assessment, drawing on different subject areas to do so.

principles and practice of assessment.jpg

Review: Principles and Practices of Assessment

There is plenty in this book to like.

Review: Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice

Although this is a few years old now (2018), it has stood the test of time.

Review: One for maths teachers

This wide-ranging book takes in probability, fractals, astronomy, Babbage, Lovelace and a host of other areas and people.

Reviews: Two for History teachers

Two books on the Nazi era.

Review: One for English teachers

No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?

Review: The Great Formal Machinery Works: Theories of Deduction and Computation at the Origins of the Digital Age

If you’re of a mathematical bent this could be just the book to delve into.

Review: How to lie with statistics

Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.