Hayley Simpkin

A Richard Scarry cartoon showing a cat leaving a butcher shop with a sausage that's as big as she is, with the caption 'The errands I'm running when I run into my crush:'

A Richard Scarry cartoon showing a crow with a slice of cheese with holes in it, and the text 'I'm 24. Bought this whole slide of cheese myself. not "parents". Not "got lucky". I set a goal and I achieved it. Discipline, mindset, grit.'

A Richard Scarry cartoon of a house with the sides cut away so that you can see the different rooms inside, and the rabbits living there. The caption reads 'Not my house, but I know my *way around*.'

A Richard Scarry cartoon of a scared looking hippo in the water next to a green barge that's on fire. The caption reads 'How your email finds me:'

The Richard Scarry instagram account is truly a gift

Today, we’re highlighting a classroom-friendly read about CRISPR-Cas9. It perfectly matches the topics covered in our current issue (watch Gene Horizons!). Read on to find out what makes CRISPR so powerful, and the ethical questions it raises. 💯

scienceinschool.org/article/2016...

#EduSky

AQA's favourite marine reptile as well

A historical oil painting portrait of Mary Anning (1799–1847), the pioneering British fossil hunter, paleontologist, and self-taught scientist from Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. Painted by B. J. Donne in the 19th century (posthumous or based on contemporary sketches), it depicts her standing outdoors on a rocky coastal shore under a dramatic, stormy sky with dark clouds and a glimpse of the sea and distant cliffs in the background. She wears a long, dark green cloak with a hood, a red neck scarf, and a wide-brimmed bonnet tied under her chin. In her gloved right hand she holds a geological hammer (her iconic tool), and a small wicker basket hangs from her left arm, likely for carrying fossils. A loyal black-and-white dog (possibly her famous companion Tray) lies curled at her feet on the rocks. Mary Anning stands with a calm, resolute expression, gazing slightly upward and to the side, conveying quiet determination and intelligence. The painting's muted tones and romantic style emphasize her as a lone figure in a rugged, fossil-rich landscape, symbolizing her groundbreaking contributions to early paleontology despite societal barriers as a working-class woman.

Fossil collector & self-taught paleontologist Mary Anning's discoveries revolutionized our understanding of prehistoric life.

"The greatest fossilist the world ever knew," she made her finds in the Jurassic marine fossil beds along the cliffs of Lyme Regis (UK). She died #OTD in 1847. #WomenInSTEM

World book day success... Year 9 student picks up the book I've taken to explain my costume, flicks through it and asks if she can take a photo of it as she'd like to get a copy 🎉 (we are no phones but teacher discretion kicked in on that request!)

Earth's heat to produce electricity for homes in UK clean energy first Water super-heated by rocks will also provide the UK's first domestic supply of the critical mineral lithium.

The UK’s first geothermal power plant is now live, generating renewable electricity from underground heat ⚡🌡️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pair it with our piece on Cornwall’s lithium‑rich geothermal waters and greener battery production 🔋🌱
edu.rsc.org/feature/your...

#iteachchem

I can remember this being a confusion too. The spec/RP booklet is as Jane says but I think we decided to leave the emulsion test in as lipids are mentioned in one way. It's still in the A level, imagine my surprise to find the OCR applied needs them to do Sudan IV too 😱

I quite randomly attended a few emergency reviews (school closure) to do the admin. Found one where the (unsuitable) named provision wasn't the one he'd been attending for three years 🙄. But it was the one the LA wanted to transfer him to, had a hell of a job getting round that one.

I'm secondary so different PPA model (an hour here and there) but I don't think I'd do as much as home- I need the photocopier for one thing 😂 I can see the appeal though.

A warm, color portrait photograph of Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and pharmacologist Gertrude B. Elion in her later years, taken in a laboratory setting. She is an older woman with short, curly reddish-gray hair, fair skin with freckles, and a gentle, warm smile as she looks directly at the camera with kind, thoughtful eyes. She wears a white lab coat over a light beige blouse and a soft beige scarf draped around her neck, along with small gold earrings. Behind her are scientific instruments, glassware, a large metal vat or reactor, and lab equipment, evoking her groundbreaking work developing life-saving drugs like those for leukemia, gout, and organ transplant rejection. The image captures her dignified, approachable presence and enduring legacy as a pioneer in drug discovery who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The extraordinary biochemist & pharmacologist Gertrude Elion died #OTD in 1999.

Elion won the 1988 #Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (w/2 others) for her pioneering "rational drug design." Her work saved countless lives...(👇 1/2) #WomenInSTEM

What impact have the subject bursary cuts had? The government’s withdrawal of key financial incentives for teacher training has fuelled fears of a ‘hierarchy’ of subjects - with some already recording a drop in applications

Last year DfE announced an 80% cut in biology bursary - this week @tesmagazine.bsky.social highlights the impact these cuts are having on a number of subjects. I was pleased to be able to provide some insight from @rsb.org.uk on the impact for biology and science teaching in England.

Already starting to see science vacancies locally with a preference for biology specialism, which hasn't been the case in recent years.

I took have a windowsill of tradescantia cuttings in glassware that our lovely tech would quite like me to put back 😂

A blue Gratnell tray labelled "random bones and bits". It does indeed contain random bones and bits.

Delved deep into the biology goodies today. The excitement of finding what I think is a horse's cannon bone with the splint bone still attached to show to the horsey kids...!

Maybe not my earliest but I can remember us being taught how, and having to then send, an email in year 12. We were the first year group where UCAS forms could be done online but I don't think any of us risked it 😂 also remember the AOL disc and noise at home

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

When retrieval rractice goes wrong Three rules for effective retrieval practice

Deeply honoured that @didau.bsky.social shared my latest research on the 'Do Now' with his audience. Thank you, David, for the thoughtful engagement and for helping get these findings into the hands of more educators.

substack.com/@daviddidau/...

Telling tales: Do personal anecdotes belong in the classroom? - SecEd Can personal stories in the classroom improve engagement & memory? Research & tips for using anecdotes in teaching

Worth reflecting on: how teacher anecdotes shape engagement in the classroom. 👇 #education #teaching #edusky #uked
www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/best...

It was Fight Test 🤦 I was having a lovely time thinking I'd suddenly got some sort of musical ability overnight 😂

I think somebody used Yoshimi a while back and that night I had a dream I'd written a great new song... Took until lunchtime for me to realise I was humming a Flaming Lips song not my own work (not Yoshimi or do you realise, haven't got round to working out which one yet)

I do miss my SEMH days but I suspect some of that is rose-tinted spectacles 😂 you just don't get the same quality of randomness in mainstream

"I'm not going if we're using the Sunshine Bus" (the variety club funded/sponsored/signwritten minibus) 😂

Potentially but in my case I've got things like they don't know how many monosaccharides are in a disaccharide in a simple recall question. The GCSE kids did badly on the chickenpox vaccine Q in the 2025 paper because they didn't have the subject knowledge-topic level issues

Fantastic news. I was genuinely pleased when I saw your name pop up on my Bluesky feed 🙂

And then with the group I've picked up I'm going to have to do exam prep on a term's worth of stuff I've not taught them so it's given me some clues there too. It might be that we label the QLA quite broadly as a subtopic rather than the specifics of the question, if you see what I mean?

I always do an annotated m/s so I did one for each class and used that to put together the stuff for the feedback lesson. But we are also reviewing the curriculum and teaching materials as a whole so the QLA as a whole gave me good pointers for gaps in teaching, with the previous ones to look at too

I hate doing QLA with BUT two examples of where I've begrudgingly use it- I marked a whole cohort of biology mocks, QLA'd and used that to guide a review of the shared planning. And I've picked up a group with gaps, test QLA gave me a steer on which broader topics are worst. Rather than guessing.

Very grateful to have SLT who sometimes chuck into CPD 'do you remember XYZ stupid thing we used to think was a good idea?' for the oldies in the room.

A table laid out with some expensive old binoculars, microscope slides, and a load of the plastic canisters that photographic film used to come in.

The mother-in-law brought over the last few bits from her parents' loft. Science teachers of a certain vintage will know exactly what I asked for from this box!

I feel like this might be a MAT that we had in common that no longer exists? 🤔 If not, it's a remarkably similar pattern