Search results for ""author ian gilbert""

In `The Working Class: Poverty, education and alternative voices`, Ian Gilbert unites educators from across the UK and further afield to call on all those working in schools to adopt a more enlightened and empathetic approach to supporting children in challenging circumstances. One of the most intractable problems in modern education is how to close the widening gap in attainment between the haves and the have-nots. Unfortunately, successive governments both in the UK and abroad have gone about solving it the wrong way. Independent Thinking founder Ian Gilbert's increasing frustration with educational policies that favour `no excuses' and `compliance', and that ignore the broader issues of poverty and inequality, is shared by many others across the sphere of education - and this widespread disaffection has led to the assembly of a diverse cast of teachers, school leaders, academics and poets who unite in this book to challenge the status quo. Their thought-provoking commentary, ideas and impassioned anecdotal insights are presented in the form of essays, think pieces and poems that draw together a wealth of research on the issue and probe and discredit the current view on what is best for children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds. Exploring themes such as inclusion, aspiration, pedagogy and opportunity, the contributions collectively lift the veil of feigned `equality of opportunity for all' to reveal the bigger picture of poverty and to articulate the hidden truth that there is always another way. This book is not about giving you all the answers, however. The contributors are not telling teachers or schools leaders how to run their schools, their classroom or their relationships - the field is too massive, too complex, too open to debate and to discussion to propose `off-the-shelf' solutions. Furthermore, the research referred to in this book is not presented in order to tell educators what to think, but rather to inform their own thinking and to challenge some of the dominant narratives about educating the `feckless poor'. This book is about helping educators to ask the right questions, and its starting question is quite simple: how can we approach the education of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in a way that actually makes a difference for all concerned? Written for policy makers and activists as well as school leaders and educators, The Working Class is both a timely survey of the impact of current policies and an invaluable source of practical advice on what can be done to better support disadvantaged children in the school system. Edited by Ian Gilbert with contributions from Nina Jackson, Tim Taylor, Dr Steven Watson, Rhythmical Mike, Dr Ceri Brown, Dr Brian Male, Julia Hancock, Paul Dix, Chris Kilkenny, Daryn Egan-Simon, Paul Bateson, Sarah Pavey, Dr Matthew McFall, Jamie Thrasivoulou, Hywel Roberts, Dr Kevin Ming, Leah Stewart, (Real) David Cameron, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Shona Crichton, Floyd Woodrow, Jonathan Lear, Dr Debra Kidd, Will Ryan, Andrew Morrish, Phil Beadle, Jaz Ampaw-Farr, Darren Chetty, Sameena Choudry, Tait Coles, Professor Terry Wrigley, Brian Walton, Dave Whitaker, Gill Kelly, Roy Leighton, Jane Hewitt, Jarlath O'Brien, Crista Hazell, Louise Riley, Mark Creasy, Martin Illingworth, Ian Loynd, David Rogers, Professor Mick Waters and Professor Paul Clarke. Click here to listen to The Working Class on Spotify - It covers all the music mentioned in the book plus a great deal more of working class music from across time and round the world!

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A great gift book for possibly the most impossible person to buy for! The Book of Thunks will shake up your templates, rattle your thought routines and force you to think about things differently. A Thunk is a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light. So find a friend or family member, ask a Thunk, disagree with their answer (remember there are no right and wrong answers) and keep your brain working longer and better. If you typed the word run a thousand times would that be a short story? Warning: A few of these Thunks are unsuitable for use with children.

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A brain workout book for uncertain times. We are living in a world where facts don't count, certainty no longer exists and complexity means we never quite know what will happen next. To prepare ourselves better for such a world, we need a brain workout that isn't so much about finding answers as getting our heads around questions. We need The Compleat Thunks(R) Book. In The Compleat Thunks(R) Book, Thunks(R) creator Ian Gilbert brings together Thunks(R) from a number of his books as well as over 100 new ones, all designed to get you thinking, questioning, debating and arguing your way to a better understanding of how to survive in a world gone dangerously bonkers. Some of these Thunks(R) were previously published in The Book of Thunks(R), ISBN 978-184590092-2 and The Little Book of Thunks(R), ISBN 978-184590062-5. Thunks is a registered trademark to Independent Thinking Ltd.

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A Thunk is a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light. The author guides you through the origins and uses of Thunks and demonstrates how this powerful little book can develop philosophical thinking for all ages. Remember there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. How liberating is that?

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Written from the personal experience of a parent and his three children, Independent Thinking on Loss: A little book about bereavement for schools details the ways in which schools can help their pupils come to terms with the death of a parent. A child loses a parent every twenty-two minutes in the UK. Childhood bereavement brings with it a whole series of challenges for the children involved challenges they will deal with all their lives. The research shows teachers want to help, but don't know what to do. This book is a start. Written by Independent Thinking founder Ian Gilbert together with his three children, Independent Thinking on Loss is a personal account of the way educational institutions tried and succeeded, tried and failed and sometimes didn't try at all to help William, Olivia and Phoebe come to terms with the death of their mother. Several months after their mother's death, BBC's Newsround aired a brave and still controversial programme in which four children talked about their losses. This prompted Ian and his children to sit down and think about their own experiences and draw up a fifteen -strong list of dos and don'ts that could help steer schools towards a better understanding of what is needed from them at such a difficult time. The warmth of reception of this handout led the family to expand their advice and suggestions into what has now become Independent Thinking on Loss, the proceeds of which will go to Winston's Wish, one of the UK's leading children's bereavement charities. Ian, William, Olivia and Phoebe encourage educators to view death and bereavement as something that can be acknowledged and talked about in school, and offer clear guidelines that will make a difference as to how a school can support a bereaved child in their midst. They also explore how conversations and actions little ones, whole-school ones, genuine ones, professional ones, personal ones in the school setting can make an awful scenario just that little bit easier for children to deal with. Suitable for anyone working with children and young people in an educational setting. ?Independent Thinking on Loss is an updated edition of The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools (ISBN 9781845904647) and is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press.

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In Don't Send Him in Tomorrow, Jarlath O'Brien shines a light on the marginalised, disenfranchised and forgotten children of today's schools. The percentage of children achieving the government's expected standard in benchmark tests is national news every year. The progress that children with learning difficulties and SEN make is never discussed, because it is not understood. That is a problem. The bone-crushing infrastructure which professionals have to negotiate is a problem. The fact that so many parents have to fight tooth and nail so that the needs of their children are met, something the rest of us would consider a basic entitlement, is a problem. This book describes how the system and can be improved if and when these marginalised children are given higher priority by the powers that be. There is a widespread lack of understanding about special schools, the work they do, and the children they educate - the sector is largely invisible. Jarlath O'Brien has become increasingly frustrated by this, and the varying quality of provision for children with learning difficulties and SEN in mainstream schools.The successes of special schools and pupil referral units in Ofsted inspections are just not celebrated or analysed in the same way that mainstream schools' are. While, mainstream schools have their hands tied by fears over progress measures. There is a human cost to the accountability culture that reduces schooling to data and judgements: this is felt most profoundly by children with SEN and their families. Jarlath shares some of the problems he's witnessed with inclusion and exclusion: mainstream schools actively encouraging children with SEN to look elsewhere, parents reporting their children have been formally or informally excluded from school and socially excluded by the parents of other children, children asked to leave their mainstream schools because of their behaviour - usually behaviour that is caused by their needs not being adequately addressed, children who are in school but isolated from their peers. If a child can't participate in activities or trips with the rest of the class, or spends much of the day working one-to-one with a teaching assistant, is this really inclusion?The Pupil Premium has been established to ensure that children in receipt of free school meals are not disadvantaged - why does something similar not exist for children with SEN?Every health and wealth indicator that you could use to measure people with learning difficulties and special educational needs (SEN) reveals something alarming. They die younger. They work less. They are more likely to live in poverty or end up in prison or face mental health difficulties. They are much more likely to be excluded from school. They are more likely to be bullied at school. This has to end. We all have to choose to commit to recognising that society, as it is today, is a difficult place for young people to thrive. When you have autism, or Down syndrome, or any physical or learning difference, it's even harder - and the system as it stands isn't helping. We need to acknowledge that this is not right; that such a state of affairs must change; and that we all have a part to play in making that change happen. Jarlath offers suggestions for politicians, Ofsted, local authorities, head teachers, SENCos, teachers and teaching assistants about what they can do to make a difference.For all politicians, head teachers, SENCOs, teachers and parents.

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A light-hearted look at the brain aimed at a lay audience, it particularly focuses on the neurobiology of emotional intelligence and in many ways is the neurobiological explanation of why emotional intelligence is so important to health, wealth and happiness. From birth to death our brains are learning. In this book Andrew explains the actual events that occurin the learning brain. Understanding the nuts and bolts of learning can only help you learn yourself - but also aid others to learn from you. The Little Book of Big Stuff About the Brain is about understanding why emotional health is so important. It is a book about structure and function - and the immensely reassuring fact that there is nothing occult or sinister or hidden about our emotional selves - there is just a whole pile of circuitry that can be adjusted and changed and remodelled. Emotional damage is repairable, painful memories can be unlearned, and debilitating conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder can be placed firmly in the past. There is nothing about ourselves that we can't fundamentally change if we are prepared to do the work required. This means that no matter how deep the damage runs, there is still hope that it can (eventually) be unlearned. The most important message in this book - emotions and our emotional brains - underpin most of what we are and how we express ourselves from how we brush our hair to how we solve complex social and intellectual questions.

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Every chapter has been revised and some significantly expanded, particularly those on planning, conducting and reviewing lazy lessons. Others have been updated with Jim's latest tried-and-tested techniques, which all shift the emphasis away from the teaching and onto the learning. Have you ever wondered what would happen in your classroom if you simply stopped teaching? Over the last few decades the demands of countless education initiatives, not to mention the pressures good teachers put on themselves, have seen so much teaching squeezed into our lessons, it must have squeezed out some of the learning. Maybe if we spent a little less time teaching and gave students a little more time to learn, things would be different. Maybe this would allow us more opportunities to build relationships with the class and develop that all-important rapport with the individuals who might just need us most. Maybe we could even reclaim our Sunday afternoons from planning and marking? The Lazy Way can help you get more out of your students and at the same time help you to get your life back. More than just a series of tricks, the Lazy Way is something Jim Smith has put together over years of experience working with all sorts of learners (and teachers) who want their lessons to be different yet still be rewarded with academic success. The approach was born out of Jim's frustration with doing a job he loves but being slowly killed by it in the process. And, as all good psychologists know, if necessity is the mother of invention then frustration is the absent father, and being knackered the grown-up sibling who just won't leave home. If you want your students to learn more and you to work less, then The Lazy Teacher's Handbook provides you with all the arguments and evidence you need. The new edition is packed full of even more easy-to-apply, highly effective strategies (which Ofsted have rated as 'outstanding') all with the seal of approval from real students in real classrooms. So, next time someone tells you to get a life, this book will make it possible. Previously published as The Lazy Teacher's Handbook, ISBN 9781845902896. 'The Lazy Teacher' is a registered trademark. The Lazy Teacher's Handbook - first edition Winner of the 2012 Award for non-fiction bestselling English-language Book from Wales. The Lazy Teacher's Handbook - New Edition - Honorable Mention 2017 Foreword INDIES Awards in the Education category. The Lazy Teacher's Handbook - New Edition is a finalist in the 2018 Education Resources Awards in the Educational Book Award category.

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One of the keys to a happy and creative classroom is getting out of it and this book will give you the confidence to do just that. Drawing on academic research, Juliet explains why learning outdoors is so beneficial and provides plenty of tips and activities to help you to integrate outdoor learning into your teaching practice, providing a broad range of engaging outdoor experiences for your students. There is no need for expensive tools or complicated technologies: all you need is your coat and a passion for learning - oh, and you'd better bring the kids too! Topics covered include: forest schools, learning outside the classroom, outdoor education, nature activities, caring for the environment, play in schools, investigative play, urban outdoor activities, problem solving, creative thinking and strategies for supporting curriculum objectives. For all primary practitioners who want to shake up their usual classroom routine and discover the benefits of teaching outdoors. Dirty Teaching was a finalist in the Non-Fiction People's Book Prize Winter 2014 collection.

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The Little Book of Dyslexia references both personal experience and current applied research and findings in order to highlight issues faced by people with dyslexia. It looks at a number of strategies and lesson ideas which can be used both inside and outside the classroom to help students with dyslexia and specific learning difficulties. It also lists various resources which can be used alongside these strategies to create a successful learning environment for those with dyslexia. The book progresses through the various challenges that are faced at different age ranges, and support needed, starting with the youngest in early years, including some of the early signs you may see with dyslexia, moving up through primary and secondary school and finally onto higher education and university and being a student teacher. An outstanding guide for students, teachers, Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO's) and parents.

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It peers through the "Autism Lens", allowing us to understand autism effect change in terms of the way we deal with autism as a society and in education. It delivers evidence-based support and strategies that enable us to develop young people's abilities to interact with the social world, removing much of the anxiety that often accompanies it. An essential read for anyone working with children, and young people on the autistic spectrum and it will also prove to be a useful parents' guide to their child's mental health and emotional well-being.

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A book for educators who find themselves torn between a government/Ofsted narrative around behaviour, attendance and attainment, and their own passion for supporting square pegs and their families.

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Jim Roberson believes that school should be the place where you learn all you need to learn to succeed in life, whatever form that success may take. Most importantly, in his view, you have to learn discipline. For Jim, behaviour is the 'B-word' and he forbids mention of it. Discipline, on the other hand, is neatly described not as something others do to you to get you to behave nor even as something you do to yourself, but rather as 'what you do for yourself'. What Jim advocates is a partnership between children and schools, whereby schools open up to teaching children everything they will need to prosper at and beyond school, no matter what career or life choices they make. In return, children will start to acquire and then implement the strategies and benefits that come with self-discipline on an ongoing basis. Jim has worked with some of the most challenging young people in the UK and, whether he's working with experienced classroom practitioners, struggling supply teachers, students themselves or even the police, he delivers powerful, practical, common sense strategies that bring the best out of some of the most demanding and hard-to-reach young people.

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Many gifted and talented children are bored and frustrated in the classroom. Many are not achieving their potential and talents are going unrecognised. Written by an experienced and world renowned author with a wealth of experience, this practical guide will challenge, excite and inspire teachers and show them how they can identify and provide for the needs of these children.

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Jackie Beere's Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning: Developing independence and resilience in all teachers and learners is a practical guide full of educational wisdom to help teachers make a genuine difference to the lives of every young person in their classroom. Foreword by Ian Gilbert. All the evidence shows that the most valuable asset in any classroom is the teacher at the front. No matter what changes are made to systems or to the curriculum, one certainty remains: children will be helped or hindered in their learning, job prospects, life chances and, indeed, happiness by the teachers they come across during their time in the education system. In this all-encompassing book on teaching and learning, Independent Thinking Associate Jackie Beere draws on her many years' experience as a teaching assistant, primary teacher and secondary head teacher to re-energise every teacher's passion for their profession. She champions both children and teachers as learners, and together with expert advice on how to instil the habits of independent learning in all pupils shares great practice that delivers outstanding outcomes for all educators. Jackie encourages teachers to embrace challenge and change, and suggests ways in which they can provide a model for their pupils when it comes to developing independence and resilience. She also offers expert guidance on how teachers can build rapport with their students and cultivate with them a sense of co-ownership of their learning journey so that they work hard, value their learning and fulfil their potential. Essential reading for all teachers and school leaders who wish to make an impact on the teaching and learning in their school. Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning contains some material previously published in The Perfect Lesson (ISBN 978-178135244-1) and The (Practically) Perfect Teacher (ISBN 978-178135252-6), and is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On ... series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press. Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning has been shortlisted for the Educational Book Award in the 2021 Education Resources Awards!

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Dave Keeling's Independent Thinking on Laughter: Using humour as a tool to engage and motivate all learners is an uplifting manifesto packed with tips and techniques to help educators unleash the power of humour and laughter in the learning environment. Foreword by Ian Gilbert. Education is too important to be taken seriously: everyone in our schools from the youngest learner to the, ahem, 'most senior' teacher likes to laugh. And beyond the many stress-busting and morale-boosting benefits that laughter brings on an individual level, the collective rewards of laughter in the classroom setting are also numerous such as enhancing openness and teamwork, stimulating imagination and creativity and, above all, strengthening the student-teacher relationship. No one is more familiar with the power of classroom conviviality than 'stand-up educationalist' and Independent Thinking Associate Dave Keeling, who in this book takes readers on an enlightening journey into the part that humour can play in improving the learning experience for all concerned. Writing with his trademark wit, Dave shares handy hints acquired from his experience in the world of comedy and offers a veritable smorgasbord of activities for use with learners all proven to generate laughter, enhance learning and make the teacher look great. The teacher's mission, if they choose to accept it, is to take these ideas and exercises and adapt, enjoy, explore and generally mess about with them to their heart's content. An inspiring read for all teachers and educators. Independent Thinking on Laughter is an updated edition of The Little Book of Laughter (ISBN 9781781350089) and is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press.

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