PiXL

Coverage and understanding aren't the same thing. In maths, the gap between the two shows up clearly in how schools approach multiplication tables. Many are investing significant time in rehearsal. Fewer are investing in the teaching that makes rehearsal meaningful; building understanding, seeing the relationships between numbers and making the links that make recall stick. Much of the maths curriculum relies on accurate, quick recall. If those foundations aren't secure, moving on before they are does more harm than good. PiXL's updated multiplication tables package gives schools the framework and resources to build exactly that approach across their whole school. Members can access it here: https://bit.ly/3RvktjP

Some of the students in your school finish one day at school and start another at home. Cooking meals. Managing medication. Lifting a parent. Holding a household together while they're still children themselves. They're young carers, and they're in your classrooms now. Do you know who they are? Do you know how to help them? Young carers are now part of the Ofsted inspection framework, making this a vital question every school leader needs to be able to answer. During Carers Week, PiXL is hosting a free session with MYTIME Young Carers. They'll share their research, what they've learned from years alongside young carers, and what it means for the people leading schools. You'll leave with practical guidance and best practice for young carers of every age, right across your whole school. Joining us are Hannah Adeney and Lia Main from MYTIME Young Carers, with Hannah Costanzo from PiXL. PiXL members can sign up through the portal: https://buff.ly/KX4yU5x Not yet a member? Sign up on Eventbrite ⬇️

What keeps your passion for teaching alive? Rachel Johnson is joined by Andria Zafirakou MBE, former winner of the Global Teacher Award, for a conversation about why we do this work. Andria reflects on the joy she still finds in the classroom and the difference education can make to a young person's life. She also talks about her charity work and her advocacy for arts education in schools. Worth a watch this week. Find the episode and the Leadership thinking guide on the hub: https://lnkd.in/ebEPjdGv

Series 9 of PiXL Pearls is now complete, and every episode is a prompt to pause, reflect and lead a little better than yesterday. Hosted by Rachel Johnson, PiXL CEO, the final three episodes are out now.   Here's what's waiting for you:   🔸 Charm: use it wisely, not blindly Because magnetic personalities can connect and elevate, but without discernment, charm can also distract, manipulate and conceal what really matters. https://lnkd.in/ejPUEhKA   🔸 Speed Dating: make every conversation count Because the micro-conversations that fill your day, corridor chats, check-ins, one-to-ones, are where trust is built or lost. Connection doesn't happen by accident; it happens by design. https://lnkd.in/eTDh7XVW   🔸 Sorry: own it, repair it, move forward Because a poorly handled apology deepens damage. This episode explores what a meaningful sorry requires, and why the fastest route back to credibility is clear responsibility, not another explanation. https://lnkd.in/emzxhSzq Missed the earlier episodes? Catch up on the full Series 9, eight short, practical resets for when the day gets messy. 🎧 🔶 https://buff.ly/xGmQhbY   Free downloadable resources are also available on the PiXL website to support your own development and spark reflection with your team. 🔸 https://buff.ly/mMdg8bZ   Which episode has stayed with you the most? Let us know in the comments! 👇

64% of 15 to 18-year-olds worry about money, and the picture isn't evenly spread. The figure rises to 71% for girls, 72% for those who've received free school meals, and 74% for ethnic minority respondents. The young people carrying the most financial anxiety are often the same ones already facing the most barriers. These aren't abstract statistics. They're sitting in your classrooms right now, affecting concentration, behaviour and the ability to think about the future. Financial wellbeing belongs in the whole school picture. It shapes how safe, confident and capable your students feel about life beyond school, and that matters across every subject and every year group. PiXL's Financial Education Package, accredited with the Financial Education Quality Mark and developed in partnership with Young Enterprise, covers Key Stages 1 to 5. The resources are ready to use and designed to fit within existing curriculum time. https://lnkd.in/eSUcntM5 #FinancialEducation #PupilWellbeing #SchoolLeadership

Ask pupils what makes them feel like they belong in school and the answers tend to be simpler than leaders expect. It's rarely about facilities or academic results. Mostly they want to know that the adults around them actually know them, and that when they say something, it makes a difference. Mechanisms for gathering pupil voice can get at some of this, but only if they go beyond collecting responses. The thing pupils notice is what happens next. If they raise something and nothing shifts, they learn something from that experience about how much what they think matters. The mattering matrix is worth applying here. There's a difference between feeling valued and feeling that you add value, and it shows up in how pupils experience school. A pupil can be well cared for and still feel like they have no real stake in what happens here. Mapping which pupils feel their perspective actually changes anything, and which ones don't, surfaces something that attainment and attendance data won't. The schools getting this right treat pupil voice as an ongoing conversation. What pupils say in October should be visibly shaping something by January. What do your pupils tell you, and what's different as a result?

Leading across multiple schools or teams brings a unique challenge: how do you stay connected, aligned and impactful when you cannot always be on site? In the latest episode of the PiXL Leadership Bookclub podcast, Rachel Johnson is joined by two experienced trust and school leaders, Daniel Terry and Victoria Blunt, to explore 'Leading Remotely' by Mike Parkes. They share practical strategies for building culture across sites, keeping the vision clear, avoiding micromanagement and creating real ownership. You’ll also hear honest reflections on communication, meetings, accountability and decision-making, with a strong reminder to stay rooted in purpose and values, not just the latest KPI. Out now on every platform! https://buff.ly/NuMkIfA

For trust leaders, belonging raises a specific tension. How do you build something coherent across multiple schools without every school losing what is unique to its own community? The answer usually has something to do with agency. How much actual autonomy do your headteachers have in the decisions that shape what a school feels like from the inside? That's where belonging is built or quietly lost, in the texture of daily life that trust leaders often have least visibility on: whether staff feel trusted, whether parents feel like partners, whether heads have room to respond to their own community. There's a pull towards consistency in trust leadership. It makes schools easier to compare and hold to account. But consistency without regard for context can gradually flatten the things that make individual schools feel like communities worth belonging to. How do you know when you've got the balance right? Do your headteachers feel like they belong to the trust, or do they just report to it?

There's no agreed definition of belonging. Most leaders would say they know what it looks like in their school. Until they try to describe it precisely. This week's newsletter explores what that means in practice, and what schools are doing to build belonging deliberately. Read it now.