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Dr Debra Kidd

@debrakidd.bsky.social

4.4K followers 3.8K following 2K posts

Teacher, doctor, author, Leader of Learning and Teaching at the British School of Brussels. Books: Curriculum of Hope, Teaching Notes from the Frontline, Uncharted Territories and Becoming Mobius. A Pedagogy of Power currently gestating!

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 1h

Hmm. It offers limited use of manipulatives that are in themselves quite abstract - and CPA itself as a concept makes an assumption that children will grow out of/past the need for concrete representations which can lead many (not all) teachers of maths to reduce the concrete or the 'why' of maths.

Reposted by Dr Debra Kidd

Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸 @helenjwc.bsky.social · Sep 15

Heads up for #earlyyears peeps and all those interested in #maths and young children
My new book due for publication May/June 2026
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 1h

But it's not remotely accurate.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 20h

This is why we have google, my friend 😀

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 20h

Yes - unless you're a confident, skilled teacher who takes the crux of a lesson and turns it into something practical. Some of our teachers are replacing worksheets with outdoor learning, but keeping key objectives in mind - saw a great lesson the other day using conkers, acorns etc for place value.

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 20h

Hope you're well Mary x

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 21h

It's a tricky one - especially in primary I think where in general, you're not dealing with subject specialisms. A scheme like WRM can be a good scaffold. But you have to be able to step off it and adapt to the children in front of you. And I think too much is crammed in at a cost to number fluency.

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 21h

There's no perfect metaphor, but a better one would be that it's rhizomatic. A rhizome doesn't capture the sensory/emotional elements of brain connections, but it comes close to representing the messiness and complexity of neural connections and of a complex, adapitive system.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 22h

That it's pedagogically awful too. Way too much paper and not enough thinking/manipulation of objects/active learning. All those worksheets are environmentally irresponsible and they're not valued/retained. We've ditched a lot of that. I like WR infinity though - good for targeting individual gaps

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 22h

I think the way it's structured, with steps and 'blocks'. People feel like they must cover everything or they're somehow failing. But covering doesn't = learning. There's too much and blocks are unhelpful for securing fluency. It's probably really a problem with the English NC, but we also find...

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 23h

This is a big problem with WRM and some of the more atomised English schemes at primary. It becomes about sprinting through 'steps' and tasks rather than securing depth of understanding.

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 23h

I'm tired of seeing discredited metaphors like 'architecture' and 'computer' to describe how the brain works. This description of the human brain is so very limited and lacking in complexity, creativity or even accuracy, that the pedagogy that is claimed to serve it must be equally flawed.

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 1d

Do you get angry with women often?

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 1d

Can think of many times when I've lost my voice and had to do this.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone here speaks English. And French. And Dutch. In the supermarket, garage, doctor's surgery, restaurants, bars etc...fluency in English (and other languages) is a norm.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 2d

We expect our 10 year olds to be fluent readers and speakers of English and the grammar tests we put them through would flummox many adults.

Reposted by Dr Debra Kidd

Mark Goodrich @markgoodrich.bsky.social · 3d

I will never understand why this doesn’t make more people quit X.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3d

Elon Musk is funding Tommy Robinson's court battles, along with other online fans to keep him in Bentleys
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

Access Restricted

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 3d

This wrinkled, faded, blonde, white woman with her post menopausal body is a big fan of this man. Maybe we can do this without the misogyny.

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 4d

You don't even have to do that, scroll down and hit submit and you don't have to fill anything in at all.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 4d

What are the chances that if the question were the other way round, the answer would be a resounding yes from Express readers?

Tobi @tobifrenzen.bsky.social · 4d

Would be a shame if this Daily Express poll didn't go the way they hoped...

Vote here 👉 xd.wayin.com/display/cont...

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Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 4d

This is a great description and could be applied to the way many young people experience education.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 8d

It would seem that in your obsessed, anonymised little world, everyone with a different world view to you is an ideological activist.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 8d

I'm not actually trans, but it's interesting that you assume that the only people who could possibly care must be. Or that anyone who demonstrates more knowledge about the law than you clearly have, must be acting in bad faith.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 8d

They also understand that just because something can 'hardly be seen' it doesn't mean it is insignificant.

Dr Debra Kidd @debrakidd.bsky.social · 8d

Our Year 2 children understand this.

Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 8d

I don't want to get all Chesterton's Fence here, but if you don't understand that a "microscopic snail" is an indicator species that's protected for the health of the entire ecosystem, you probably shouldn't be forming "good relationships" with developers
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

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