Second in English | ITT mentor | Literature Examiner | Staff Governor | MCCT | MA English | Chow Chow mother ✌☘
Somerset, England
Joined November 2011
- Tweets13.1K
- Following590
- Followers697
- Likes44K
Natalie Williams retweeted
If you’re interested in embedding writing instruction in your curriculum, this might be of interest daviddidau.substack.com/p/ho…
Natalie Williams retweeted
The final five minutes of a lesson are often treated as spare time.
The bell approaches. Pupils begin packing. The teacher rushes one last explanation.
A strong exit routine protects those minutes and gives the lesson a deliberate ending.
Natalie Williams retweeted
More than a third of schools in England do not have any air conditioning, Tes can exclusively reveal, with leaders saying efforts to revamp the school estate are ‘far too slow’
tes.com/magazine/news/genera…
💯
Drawing on Berliner's research on expert teachers, Priestley on teacher agency, and Stenhouse on teacher professionalism, I make the case that principles beat practices every time — and that the stakes are higher than we think.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm…
3/3
2
62
Natalie Williams retweeted
Students must confront ideas in silence.
To face an empty page, pencil in hand.
To scribble, jot, erase, and struggle.
To resist the temptation of an easy AI fix.
To claw and scrape for an idea, and come up empty.
To question the point of it all—why write?
To sit in the tension of “I don’t know.”
And then, mysteriously and triumphantly, to feel the current shift.
To see the page fill with originality.
To realize: I did that. I wrote that. That came from me.
This kind of confrontation with oneself can only happen in silence, with a blank page, a pencil, and time.
Natalie Williams retweeted
One of my biggest concerns about professional development: there’s almost no room for disagreement.
It’s a compliance system. Check the boxes, get the points, move on.
We need self-driven PD that encourages debate, creativity, and real growth.
👏👏👏
Lesson observation benefits the observer more than the observed. And those who observe most teach least.
If we want observation to improve teaching, we should be willing to model, to be watched, and to share the risk.
Professional trust is built through reciprocity, not scrutiny alone.
Link below...
1
78
Natalie Williams retweeted
“Practice any art… no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.”
- McKellen reciting Vonnegut
Natalie Williams retweeted
What do
Turn and Talk
Using Powerpoint
Inquiry Based Learning
Instructional Coaching
All have in common?
When people report that they aren't effective, advocates respond that they need to be "done well."
To me, this argument doesn't hold water. Find out why 👇👇👇
Natalie Williams retweeted
You might remember that a few years ago we did a thread on Hamartia which turned out to be very popular, you can now find this on our blog. Take a look 👇 bit.ly/4qPvtEF
Natalie Williams retweeted
It’s not good enough to say “it works for me”. How do you know? What are the criteria by which you’d change your mind? If there are none, you have insulated yourself from reality.
Link below ⬇️
Natalie Williams retweeted
Schools are busy places. But much of that busyness doesn’t always translate into better learning.
Between marking, data drops & meetings, it’s easy to lose sight of the work that actually makes the biggest difference to pupils. Too often, we confuse activity with impact.
/1
Natalie Williams retweeted
#EduAdvent Day 3
We’re turning up the festive sparkle today.
@TeachUsMaths has donated this gorgeous M&S Treats Hamper-the perfect way to unwind after a long term!
🥂Prosecco
🕯Festive candle
🏠Light-up decoration
🍫Swiss truffles
To enter:
✅Like
🔁Repost
🎄Reply with #EduAdvent
Natalie Williams retweeted
An English degree does not merely
involve reading poetry and fiction. It involves studying history, religion, philosophy, sociology, psychology. Which was why for many years it was the most popular (and also most difficult) subject to get in to read.
Natalie Williams retweeted
**NEW BLOG POST**
Curriculum | Five Things I Would Do Now as a Subject Leader
saysmiss.wordpress.com/2025/…
