Category Archives: Pedagogy

Early Years Play is …

Posted on August 9, 2014 by suecowley

It would be hard to overstate the importance of brilliant early years practitioners when using play to support children’s learning and development. Early years play is … * carefully structured to ensure conceptual development in all areas of the curriculum; … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Pedagogy, Play, Preschools, Teaching and learning | 5 Comments

What Does a Three Year-Old Know?

Posted on July 6, 2013 by suecowley

Tiny children are amazing. Their brains are so pliable. They soak up knowledge like a sponge. The knowledge isn’t in books, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. What we learn in the first three years are the most important … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain, Children, Communication, Early Years, Knowledge, Learning, Pedagogy | Leave a comment

This is How I Teach

Posted on May 30, 2013 by suecowley

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Experience, think, read, write, more experience, more thinking, more reading, more writing. Start again at experience. I teach teachers. It’s my job alongside writing books and … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Children, Communication, Creativity, Flexibility, Motivation, Pedagogy, Risk taking, Teaching and learning, Writing | 3 Comments

Making my own Mistakes

Posted on May 19, 2013 by suecowley

I love these words: learning, experience, complexity, uncertainty, experimentation, creativity, communication, language, children, family, love, community, connections, commonsense, intuition, emotion, engaged, sideways. These words are popular right now: certainty, knowledge, rigour, measure, progress, evidence, data, outstanding, standards, efficient. We are … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Evidence, Knowledge, Pedagogy, Risk taking, Skills, Teaching and learning | Leave a comment

Another Brick in the Wall

Posted on May 17, 2013 by suecowley

Welcome to the Learning Factory. Leave your sense of humour at the door. Wipe the joy off your feet before you enter. Wash the fun off your hands and use the gloves provided. Read the Rules of the Learning Factory … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Evidence, Knowledge, Pedagogy, Rigour, Risk taking, Teaching and learning | 4 Comments

Talking about Voice

Posted on May 14, 2013 by suecowley

Sometimes in teaching, we can’t see the wood for the trees. Voice is one of those things that we stop seeing, or asking about, because we’re too busy worrying about subjects, and knowledge, and skills. Sometimes we need to take … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain, Communication, Creativity, Gender, Pedagogy, Teaching and learning, Voice | Leave a comment

In Praise of Teachers

Posted on May 13, 2013 by suecowley

I wanted to balance out all the negativity with a bit of praise. Things are heated in education right now. But in the thick of it are hundreds of thousands of great teachers doing their best, day after day, week … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Flexibility, Motivation, Pedagogy, Teaching and learning | Leave a comment

Risky Teaching

Posted on April 30, 2013 by suecowley

It’s often said that we’re becoming more and more risk averse as a society. Certainly, it seems to me that schools and teachers are less willing to take risks than they were when I first came into the profession in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Ofsted, Pedagogy, Progress, Risk taking | 1 Comment

Trying to Catch Butterflies

Posted on April 28, 2013 by suecowley

It takes all kinds of progress to make a world. And at the centre of it all is the child. Everything we do must be done to improve things for the child, otherwise it’s completely pointless. If you think back to your … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Knowledge, Parents, Pedagogy, Progress, Skills | 3 Comments

Striking a Balance: What do Preschoolers do all Day?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by suecowley

Many years ago, I trained as an early years teacher. Later I moved on to work in the primary sector, then at secondary level, and eventually with adults. These days I do a mixture of things, including writing books for … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Years, Pedagogy, Ratios, Teaching and learning | 9 Comments