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Welcome to EduPulse, your go-to source for educational insights and inspiration. Our blog is dedicated to sharing knowledge and experiences that will help demystify various educational themes and subjects. We strive to provide honest and relevant content that will guide you through the ins and outs of the educational process. Join us on this learning voyage and become more curious, committed, and joyful in your pursuit of knowledge.

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Why Teacher Decision-Making Is Essential, Not Optional

Over the past few years, conversations about improving teaching have increasingly focused on one idea: helping teachers make better decisions in the classroom. When this topic comes up in professional discussions, the response is often something along the lines of, “That sounds like something our strongest teachers would really benefit from.” That reaction is understandable—but it misses something important. Developing decision-making isn’t just valuable for the best teachers

Adam Kohlbeck

Mar 56 min read

Stop. Collaborate and Listen. PD lessons from Vanilla Ice

Introduction Teacher quality is consistently the strongest in-school predictor of the quality of student learning relative to other levers such as class sizes and technology use. This is an assertion supported by a wide body of research including, EEF, (2025) and Hanushek, et al, (1998). With this in mind, it makes sense that we should invest heavily in understanding what effective teaching is and happily, the research base around effective teaching has become increasingly ac

Adam Kohlbeck

Feb 1617 min read

Are we still using comprehension frameworks to teach primary reading?

Having recently joined a new school, I have been given the opportunity to step back and re-imagine the reading curriculum. I was already aware that assessment-driven approaches to reading existed, however what has surprised me through this process is just how widespread this way of thinking still is. Through reviewing curriculum structures, attending conferences and speaking with teachers, leaders and literacy leads across different schools, it has become clear that many scho

Olly Cakebread

Feb 84 min read

Answering the Questioning of Coaching...

Last week, Adam Boxer posted an excellent blog which he called ‘Questioning Coaching’. It’s important for me to note from the outset of this response that Adam wasn’t saying that schools shouldn’t use Instructional coaching. In fact, he said: ‘ Enthusiasm for Instructional Coaching is, in my opinion, well-grounded and completely reasonable’. He advised readers that there is also good reason for leaders to be ‘hesitant’ before diving into implementing coaching. Hesitation, pau

Adam Kohlbeck

Jan 1125 min read

Responsibility Changes You

Leadership is not about having the most answers, but about building conditions in which others can function well; especially when you cannot.

Chris Passey

Jan 52 min read

Moving on – why leaving a school is a so hard

This week is my last at my current school and as I’m getting ready to move on I thought it might be apt to share some reflections on what it is to leave a school. Having done several other jobs in the past, I’m pretty convinced that leaving a school is unlike leaving other workplaces and as all of us, will at some stage leave a school at which we have worked, I think there’s value in reflecting on just why there are often such a wide range of emotions that accompany moving on

Adam Kohlbeck

Dec 14, 20256 min read

Evidence informed practice: My journey as a Teaching and Learning Leader

I was blessed with the job of Associate Assistant Head Teacher- Teaching and Learning back in October 2024 and boy, have we been on a thrilling, exciting journey. Having put in many hours of reading and research to inform our school’s Teaching and Learning implementation policy, I was initially met with these questions: How do we bridge the gap between theory and classroom reality? How often have we read research that never translates into practice? How important is it to con

Joanna Tompkins

Dec 6, 20252 min read

Leaked messages: how implicit signalling shapes school culture

'the expectations we project unconsciously shape our interactions and mutually influence behaviour' Narinder Gill FCCT NPQEL Leaders in education speak often and in many formats but the communication that most powerfully shapes school culture is rarely delivered in a meeting or written in a policy. It is the unspoken signalling - where leaders choose to spend their time, how they respond to everyday situations, what they praise publicly and what they quietly overlook

Olly Cakebread

Nov 24, 20255 min read

But what does that mean for me?

We clearly have issues with how the CPD teachers are receiving resonates with them.

Adam Kohlbeck

Nov 17, 202511 min read

The Art of Learning: How Drama Shapes Confidence, Creativity and Critical Thinking

Drama is often misunderstood. If you’ve read my piece on Drama for disadvantage, you’ll know that too many people still see it as the subject of costumes and scripts, enjoyable but not essential. However, in every drama classroom I have had the privilege of stepping into I’ve found something far more powerful: a space where young people learn to think deeply, work collaboratively and express themselves with confidence. I believe that Drama isn’t just about performance. It’s a

Joanna Tompkins

Nov 12, 20255 min read

The Power of Concept Mapping in the Primary Classroom: Making Thinking Visible

In the modern primary classroom, teachers are increasingly seeking strategies that move beyond surface-level comprehension and instead enable children to truly think with knowledge – to make connections, identify patterns and recognise deeper meaning across texts and subjects. I have found that one highly effective tool for this is concept mapping . Far from being a simple graphic organiser, concept mapping is a cognitive scaffold that allows children to externalise their wo

Olly Cakebread

Oct 26, 20254 min read

Sunday EduPulse Round Up 12/10

Welcome to the Sunday EduPulse Round Up - a brief snapshot of some of the things that have caught our eye this week out there in...

Adam Kohlbeck & Chris Passey

Oct 12, 20252 min read

The Panopticon: the ethos of monitoring systems and why they need reform

Recently, I wrote a blog on accountability and how I think that we need to reimagine the shape of the concept in education as a circle,...

Adam Kohlbeck

Oct 8, 20257 min read

Sunday EduPulse Round Up 05/10

Welcome to the Sunday EduPulse Round Up - a brief snapshot of some of the things that have caught our eye this week out there in...

Adam Kohlbeck & Chris Passey

Oct 5, 20252 min read

Accountability is a circle

At the Festival of Education back in July, Chris Passey and I spoke about professional development in schools needing to have the...

Adam Kohlbeck

Sep 29, 20258 min read

Mindset matters – how mapping mental models can drive whole staff PD

Mapping has clear benefits for one to one coaching but I also think it has the potential to be extremely powerful for developing expertise at a whole staff professional development level.

Adam Kohlbeck

Sep 22, 202511 min read