🚨New paper released today: 10 Common SEN Mis(Interventions)—An Evidence Summary steplab.co/news/common-sen-m… Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a vital and growing challenge for schools. But it’s not straightforward. Learning is complex, marketing claims are confident, and the evidence is often hard to access. As a result, we can sometimes end up adopting approaches which are less effective than we initially think. For some, this may well be uncomfortable reading. As a profession, many of us have put time, effort and belief into these things, and lots will have seen students who looked like they were getting something from it. However, it’s essential that we temper our intuition with evidence, because ultimately: our most vulnerable students deserve it. This new paper co-authored with @Barker_J is an attempt to raise the visibility of the best available evidence around several commonly used SEN interventions. For each, we provide an overview of what the research says, offer a more informed approach, and provide a suite of rigorous links to help you get started. We hope it will serve as a useful resource and over time: push us to be even more 'evidence demanding' as a profession. As ever, let me know what you think. If you have pushes or suggestions for how this paper could be better, hit reply and give it to me straight. 👊

The Australian accent was first noted around 1820. Colonial authorities were puzzled by the distinctive way the children of the settlers were speaking. It had developed as a unique blend of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh dialects that had never been heard together in Britain, formed through daily mixing in the new townships. The Australian accent evolved from: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Can we have a moment of your time? ‘Minute’ comes from the Late Latin ‘minuta,’ referring to 1/60 of a unit, such as an hour. ‘Second’ comes from the Medieval Latin ‘secunda,’ short for ‘secunda minuta,’ literally “second minute” (1/60 of a minute).

We want to believe that technology is a neutral container for ideas. It isn’t. It changes the way we think and engage with content. open.substack.com/pub/daisyc…

Thinking about the 7th century Irish monks who invented the spaces between words....that was honestly so smart of them

Spell like no one is watching.

A funny little pair of siblings: ‘muscle’ and ‘mouse’. To the Roman imagination, the flexed biceps of a (typically naked) athlete resembled a rodent scuttling under the skin. ‘Musculus’, in Latin, means ‘little mouse’. 🐁

FREE webinar next Wednesday (8.30 AM UK Time) Using talk as a cognitive lever thinkforwardeducators.org/ev…

The Fluency Listening Guide is designed for independent learning, helping you choose episodes with purpose and reflect on what matters most for your students. 🔗 Download the guide: ow.ly/JcW150XJMW8 (Feel free to share it with someone who’s thinking about fluency, too.)

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We are putting more time into teaching our students High Frequency Words this year to build reading & writing fluency -but with knowledge about the history and orthography of function words thanks to Fiona Hamilton & Rebecca Loveless, authors of The High Frequency Word Project

Sweden is committing more than €100 million to a sweeping classroom overhaul: replacing tablets and screens with traditional printed textbooks to help reverse falling student performance and sharpen focus. After more than a decade of embracing digital-first education, Swedish authorities are now pivoting back to paper-based learning. Official data and recent studies cited by the Ministry of Education show that prolonged screen use in class has been linked to shorter attention spans, weaker reading comprehension, and reduced critical-thinking abilities. Research consistently finds that reading on illuminated screens requires greater mental effort and invites more distractions compared to the calm, linear experience of physical books—factors believed to have contributed to declining academic outcomes in recent years. Under the new plan, every student will receive printed textbooks for all core subjects, restoring books as the central learning tool. Digital devices and online resources will remain available as supportive tools, but they will no longer dominate daily instruction. This bold €100+ million investment signals Sweden’s leadership in rethinking the role of technology in education. It underscores a broader, growing recognition worldwide: while screens provide speed and access, the hands-on, distraction-free engagement of physical books supports deeper concentration, stronger memory retention, and more effective long-term learning. By choosing paper over pixels, Sweden is charting a path toward a more balanced, evidence-informed classroom future—one that puts proven pedagogical principles ahead of unchecked digital trends.

Australia! March 2026. Four events on applying the science of learning: 🗓 Sydney — Mar 10 🗓 Canberra — Mar 12 🗓 Melbourne — Mar 13 🗓 Auckland — Mar 16 Tickets at carlhendrick.com/events-2-1

What happens when a remote school invests deeply in instructional coaching? At Bradshaw Primary School 🇦🇺 the results are powerful: ✅ Consistent teaching routines ✅ Stronger morale and retention ✅ Clear links between PD and classroom practice Discover how Steplab helped them build a thriving coaching culture. 👉 Read the blog: steplab.co/resources/bradsha…

Read Write Inc in action

Who is coming to Darwin in 2026?

Early bird tickets for my Darwin PL in May close 31 December. A full day on practical, research aligned literacy instruction. Book now to secure the discounted rate. lifelongliteracy.com/course/…

We are the lowest ICSEA school in Darwin and look at us punching above our weight in NAPLAN growth! What a team I work with. We are making a difference. Evidence based instruction for the win. 🥊

The same can be said for pronouncing graphemes in isolation. E.g. How do we pronounce <ed>? You don’t know till it’s in a word...

What a brilliant episode! Morphology totally rocks!!! Sue Hegland and Liisa explain the English orthography brilliantly here. Listen today. podcasts.apple.com/au/podcas…