Free Thinking

We're talking about 'grit' again, are we? Our Ian Gilbert shares his thoughts on grit, resistance and that wonderful Finnish concept of sisu.

Three-minute read

Each year before SATs week, headteacher Rachel Tomlinson sends that letter to her year six classes. The Daily Mail hates it...

Five-minute read

23 years on, publishers Routledge have asked Ian Gilbert to put together a third edition of his classic text Essential Motivation the Classroom. Here's a taste of what it's all about.

Five-minute read

The second of our Thinking Out Loud sessions was all about the issues put under the spotlight by the Netfix drama, Adolescence. Read the highlights here.

Ten-minute read

Watch Associate Juliet Robertson recite her poem 'Two Futures' with help from some of her Independent Thinking friends and colleagues. It is taken from her book of poetry, Blood Lines, all about living and dying with cancer, due out in June.

With everyone talking about that Netflix series, we asked our expert on the topic, Associate Andrew 'Bernie' Bernard, for his advice for parents when it comes to understanding, spotting and combatting toxic masculinity and coercive control.

10-minute read

Ian Gilbert visited Jim - The Lazy Teacher - Smith recently. Here is the first instalment of Six Quick Things he picked up from his time at the amazing Clevedon School where Jim is the Head

Three-minute read

Our friends at the Oxford School of Thought – the 'UK's only primary education think tank' – are calling for Ofsted to differentiate between secondaries and primaries. Seems reasonable to us.

Seven-minute read

We asked Associate Dr Sarah Moseley to do the impossible. To take her PhD research on making reading – and from there the whole curriculum – accessible to all children and turn into a blog. We think she did a great job.

Eight-minute read

Ian Gilbert was recently asked to deliver a keynote address and host a panel discussion for the prestigious ACS Cobham International School all about future of education. He put Five Big questions to the panel which you can read here.

Seven-minute read