Welcome

Hello! And welcome to this edition of our newsletter – we hope you're enjoying the sunshine and the prospect of a long weekend. We certainly are!

Upcoming deadline – 18 May

There is still time to express your interest in participating in the Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS-UK) trial funded by the EEF.

The study explores how a structured paired reading approach can:

✅ Improve reading attainment

✅ Strengthen fluency and comprehension

✅ Support effective literacy practice in Year 5

Schools taking part will contribute to national research and receive valuable pupil reading data.

📘 Intervention schools receive training, resources, and delivery support at a subsidised cost of £75 per Year 5 teacher.

Find out more.

Keep in touch

You can follow us on Bluesky and LinkedIn, sign up to receive this newsletter - or just drop us an email.

Spotlight on... Mental Health Awareness Week

11-17 May is Mental Health Awareness Week, in which we are encouraged to take action to support good mental health. Even small actions can help us feel hopeful and less powerless. Find out more about this year's theme here.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, why not organise a Wear It Green Day in your school? Wear It Green Day is on Thursday 14 May, and your school can go green, have fun, use these free resources to open up age-appropriate conversations about mental health and raise vital funds for the Mental Health Foundation.

Focus on... Registering September starters

Your school may have already been notified that the Manage Training for Early Career Teachers online service has been retired, replaced by Register Early Career Teachers (RECT). Here's what you need to know:

• Access to RECT is via DfE sign-in. Multiple people from a school will be able to use RECT where previously only induction tutors were able to register participants. You may need to be granted access to RECT by an authorising person in your organisation.
• Before using RECT, your school needs to have appointed an appropriate body; decided on the training programme it wants to use (provider or school-led); and partnered with a lead provider (if using a provider-led training programme).

What you need to register ECTs and mentors

For ECTs and mentors you’ll need to provide their:

• Name
• Teacher reference number (TRN)
• Date of birth
• Email address
• Lead provider.

For ECTs only, you’ll also need to provide their:

• Start date at your school as an ECT
• Working pattern (full or part-time)
• Appropriate body
• Training option (provider or school-led).

If you have any questions about this new service, please get in touch.

Registration for September 2026 starters opens on 15 June.

Focus on... News from Norfolk Research School

The busy bees over at Norfolk Research School have published three new blogs recently that we think you'll enjoy.

Rachael Wilson tells us, "We know that adapting teaching in real time matters. Those small shifts  can make a significant difference to what pupils understand there and then. But there’s a second layer that is just as important, and often harder to get right. The challenge isn’t whether we adapt — it’s how we build on it." Read more in Adaptive Teaching: Getting the Most from the Moment and What Comes Next.

Dr Niki Kaiser explores what metacognition is, why it matters in mathematics, and how it can be implemented effectively in Metacognition in Maths: From Research to Classroom Practice.

In Don’t Just Give Revision Resources – Teach Students How to Use Them, Niki muses that "We can provide the most beautifully crafted resources imaginable, but if we don’t explicitly teach students how to use them – and revisit that guidance regularly – many simply won’t use them effectively, and some won’t use them at all."

And if you enjoyed that final blog, you can register for a free webinar exploring the subject further – find out more here.