Dr Sarah Comfort
@sarahcomfort1.bsky.social
Head of Science, South East UK.
Mum of 2 grown up children.
PhD Biochem.
Teach Chemistry and Physics
Mum of 2 grown up children.
PhD Biochem.
Teach Chemistry and Physics
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Not been on here for months but someone on X said people were missing blogs. I am now writing on substack for anyone interested. My latest post is here.
open.substack.com/pub/richardw...
open.substack.com/pub/richardw...
November 30, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Not been on here for months but someone on X said people were missing blogs. I am now writing on substack for anyone interested. My latest post is here.
open.substack.com/pub/richardw...
open.substack.com/pub/richardw...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Interesting read. This well-known finding should be discussed (acknowledged?) more often in discussions about large-scale achievement testing and accountability systems.
doi.org/10.3390/educ...
#Edusky #teachlearnsky
doi.org/10.3390/educ...
#Edusky #teachlearnsky
November 30, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Interesting read. This well-known finding should be discussed (acknowledged?) more often in discussions about large-scale achievement testing and accountability systems.
doi.org/10.3390/educ...
#Edusky #teachlearnsky
doi.org/10.3390/educ...
#Edusky #teachlearnsky
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
NEW POST
On questioning, respect, and hearing the voice of every child.
Link in reply, please share if you can! 🙏🙏
open.substack.com/pub/carousel...
On questioning, respect, and hearing the voice of every child.
Link in reply, please share if you can! 🙏🙏
open.substack.com/pub/carousel...
Every student, every lesson
When we allow the loudest voices to dominate classroom conversation, we neglect to show respect and dignity to all our students, forgetting that every voice needs to be heard.
open.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:47 PM
NEW POST
On questioning, respect, and hearing the voice of every child.
Link in reply, please share if you can! 🙏🙏
open.substack.com/pub/carousel...
On questioning, respect, and hearing the voice of every child.
Link in reply, please share if you can! 🙏🙏
open.substack.com/pub/carousel...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
I'm in between projects so tentatively looking at what's next. I've been bowled away by the success of my KS3 books so looking at doing the same for Physics GCSE.
Some sample sheets can be found here:
sciencedoctor.school.blog/ks4-project/
Feedback welcome!
Some sample sheets can be found here:
sciencedoctor.school.blog/ks4-project/
Feedback welcome!
November 30, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I'm in between projects so tentatively looking at what's next. I've been bowled away by the success of my KS3 books so looking at doing the same for Physics GCSE.
Some sample sheets can be found here:
sciencedoctor.school.blog/ks4-project/
Feedback welcome!
Some sample sheets can be found here:
sciencedoctor.school.blog/ks4-project/
Feedback welcome!
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
New Blog Post 📝
Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson.
Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...
Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson.
Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...
Chlorine is Green, Zoos Have Life and Kings are Killed: Using Etymology in Science
It started with a happy accident. I had finished a lesson with my Year 8s and, surprisingly, we had powered through the material with 15 minutes to spare. My plan for the next lesson was to introdu…
inquestion.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 7:00 AM
New Blog Post 📝
Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson.
Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...
Etymology in science usually stops at just photosynthesis, but I use it almost every single lesson.
Here are a few stories of some of my lessons and the impact teaching etymology has made on pupil understanding and literacy.
inquestion.co.uk/2025/11/28/e...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
The national gap between
"What SLT think happen in their schools"
And
"What actually happens in their schools"
Is huge
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
"What SLT think happen in their schools"
And
"What actually happens in their schools"
Is huge
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
November 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
The national gap between
"What SLT think happen in their schools"
And
"What actually happens in their schools"
Is huge
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
"What SLT think happen in their schools"
And
"What actually happens in their schools"
Is huge
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
📍Welcome to the UK Teaching feed.
This feed is for anything to do with school teaching in the UK.
For your posts to appear in the feed you just need to include "#UKTeaching" in your profile description and then a 🎓 in your posts (#UKTeaching and #UKEd also work if you prefer a hashtag).
This feed is for anything to do with school teaching in the UK.
For your posts to appear in the feed you just need to include "#UKTeaching" in your profile description and then a 🎓 in your posts (#UKTeaching and #UKEd also work if you prefer a hashtag).
November 22, 2023 at 10:11 PM
📍Welcome to the UK Teaching feed.
This feed is for anything to do with school teaching in the UK.
For your posts to appear in the feed you just need to include "#UKTeaching" in your profile description and then a 🎓 in your posts (#UKTeaching and #UKEd also work if you prefer a hashtag).
This feed is for anything to do with school teaching in the UK.
For your posts to appear in the feed you just need to include "#UKTeaching" in your profile description and then a 🎓 in your posts (#UKTeaching and #UKEd also work if you prefer a hashtag).
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
I miss it too. This is my evaluation of the platforms now for education.
November 29, 2025 at 9:41 AM
I miss it too. This is my evaluation of the platforms now for education.
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
NEW EPISODE
This week, we are joined by leadership maestro @mrarobbins.bsky.social, looking at the tensions and difficulties in leading schools and driving change. Not to be missed!
Tune in and share if you can 🙏🙏
open.spotify.com/episode/0320...
This week, we are joined by leadership maestro @mrarobbins.bsky.social, looking at the tensions and difficulties in leading schools and driving change. Not to be missed!
Tune in and share if you can 🙏🙏
open.spotify.com/episode/0320...
What's the key to unlocking teacher development? With Adam Robbins
open.spotify.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:47 AM
NEW EPISODE
This week, we are joined by leadership maestro @mrarobbins.bsky.social, looking at the tensions and difficulties in leading schools and driving change. Not to be missed!
Tune in and share if you can 🙏🙏
open.spotify.com/episode/0320...
This week, we are joined by leadership maestro @mrarobbins.bsky.social, looking at the tensions and difficulties in leading schools and driving change. Not to be missed!
Tune in and share if you can 🙏🙏
open.spotify.com/episode/0320...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Coming soon... I'll be sharing my 24 FREE festive science activities - one for every day in advent!
#ScienceIsEverywhere #FestiveScience #BeCurious #DrJoScience
or you can grab a sneak peek here 👇
bio.link/drjoscience
#ScienceIsEverywhere #FestiveScience #BeCurious #DrJoScience
or you can grab a sneak peek here 👇
bio.link/drjoscience
November 27, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Coming soon... I'll be sharing my 24 FREE festive science activities - one for every day in advent!
#ScienceIsEverywhere #FestiveScience #BeCurious #DrJoScience
or you can grab a sneak peek here 👇
bio.link/drjoscience
#ScienceIsEverywhere #FestiveScience #BeCurious #DrJoScience
or you can grab a sneak peek here 👇
bio.link/drjoscience
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
NEW POST
On leadership, autonomy, and the disjoint between "what we say we do" and "what we actually do"
Check it out here and share if you can 🙏🙏🙏
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
On leadership, autonomy, and the disjoint between "what we say we do" and "what we actually do"
Check it out here and share if you can 🙏🙏🙏
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
Autonomy, authority and anarchy: creating a better school culture
Most schools live with a quiet tension between what’s written in policy and what actually happens in lessons. Getting to grips with this tension is at the heart of creating an improved school culture.
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
NEW POST
On leadership, autonomy, and the disjoint between "what we say we do" and "what we actually do"
Check it out here and share if you can 🙏🙏🙏
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
On leadership, autonomy, and the disjoint between "what we say we do" and "what we actually do"
Check it out here and share if you can 🙏🙏🙏
carouselteachlearnlead.substack.com/p/autonomy-a...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
I'm becoming really worried about our SENCOs.
I think their job is becoming systemically impossible.
They're being ground down by impossible workloads and now huge numbers of complaints, which makes it all but impossible for them to be strategic.
I'm worried we're going to lose them,
I think their job is becoming systemically impossible.
They're being ground down by impossible workloads and now huge numbers of complaints, which makes it all but impossible for them to be strategic.
I'm worried we're going to lose them,
November 18, 2025 at 10:24 AM
I'm becoming really worried about our SENCOs.
I think their job is becoming systemically impossible.
They're being ground down by impossible workloads and now huge numbers of complaints, which makes it all but impossible for them to be strategic.
I'm worried we're going to lose them,
I think their job is becoming systemically impossible.
They're being ground down by impossible workloads and now huge numbers of complaints, which makes it all but impossible for them to be strategic.
I'm worried we're going to lose them,
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Is it 'online training course'?
June 17, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Is it 'online training course'?
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Free website that lets you create circuit diagrams to use in presentations and worksheets
youtube.com/shorts/Bf9Sh...
#edusky #science #scienceteaching #uked
youtube.com/shorts/Bf9Sh...
#edusky #science #scienceteaching #uked
Online Circuit Diagram Creator
YouTube video by Danny Nicholson : Think Bank Education
youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Free website that lets you create circuit diagrams to use in presentations and worksheets
youtube.com/shorts/Bf9Sh...
#edusky #science #scienceteaching #uked
youtube.com/shorts/Bf9Sh...
#edusky #science #scienceteaching #uked
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
With the new Ofsted toolkit removing deep dives, subject leaders need a new way to consider quality assurance.
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool
With the new Ofsted inspection toolkit removing subject deep dives, it’s now harder for leaders to demonstrate the quality of education through traditional triangulation.
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:03 AM
With the new Ofsted toolkit removing deep dives, subject leaders need a new way to consider quality assurance.
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Helpful and free to all...sharing at it's best!
With the new Ofsted toolkit removing deep dives, subject leaders need a new way to consider quality assurance.
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
I’ve shared a practical Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool to help evidence strengths and plan next steps within the 2025 framework.
Download it here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Subject Leader Self-Audit Tool
With the new Ofsted inspection toolkit removing subject deep dives, it’s now harder for leaders to demonstrate the quality of education through traditional triangulation.
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Helpful and free to all...sharing at it's best!
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
I think it probably behoves us, as science teachers, to have a bit of a handle on the whole double-helix thing.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Was Franklin's work exceptional and essential - yes.
Was it appropriately acknowledged in the Watson & Crick (1953) paper - no.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Was Franklin's work exceptional and essential - yes.
Was it appropriately acknowledged in the Watson & Crick (1953) paper - no.
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I think it probably behoves us, as science teachers, to have a bit of a handle on the whole double-helix thing.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Was Franklin's work exceptional and essential - yes.
Was it appropriately acknowledged in the Watson & Crick (1953) paper - no.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Was Franklin's work exceptional and essential - yes.
Was it appropriately acknowledged in the Watson & Crick (1953) paper - no.
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
*** NEW POST ***
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Too many lessons are filled with checking what pupils know rather than helping them learn something new.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Too many lessons are filled with checking what pupils know rather than helping them learn something new.
Make Time for Learning
When Checking Becomes the Lesson
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 AM
*** NEW POST ***
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Too many lessons are filled with checking what pupils know rather than helping them learn something new.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
Too many lessons are filled with checking what pupils know rather than helping them learn something new.
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Some people claim that a positive of Sweller's work is that it goes back to the 80s. However, he built this work on the computer metaphor.
Enactive embodied insights were being published in the 70s.
Only now is Sweller pivoting towards biology and yet still retains computer language in CLT.
#EduSky
Enactive embodied insights were being published in the 70s.
Only now is Sweller pivoting towards biology and yet still retains computer language in CLT.
#EduSky
November 5, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Some people claim that a positive of Sweller's work is that it goes back to the 80s. However, he built this work on the computer metaphor.
Enactive embodied insights were being published in the 70s.
Only now is Sweller pivoting towards biology and yet still retains computer language in CLT.
#EduSky
Enactive embodied insights were being published in the 70s.
Only now is Sweller pivoting towards biology and yet still retains computer language in CLT.
#EduSky
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
This year I've been very specific with my classes about what @adamboxereducation.bsky.social calls "Golden Silence."
As in "when you're listening to me I want Golden Silence - it sounds like.."
Or.
"When you begin writing I want Golden Silence," so say if you need help now.
It's a habit I'll keep.
As in "when you're listening to me I want Golden Silence - it sounds like.."
Or.
"When you begin writing I want Golden Silence," so say if you need help now.
It's a habit I'll keep.
November 4, 2025 at 9:46 AM
This year I've been very specific with my classes about what @adamboxereducation.bsky.social calls "Golden Silence."
As in "when you're listening to me I want Golden Silence - it sounds like.."
Or.
"When you begin writing I want Golden Silence," so say if you need help now.
It's a habit I'll keep.
As in "when you're listening to me I want Golden Silence - it sounds like.."
Or.
"When you begin writing I want Golden Silence," so say if you need help now.
It's a habit I'll keep.
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
It's time to move on from the storage and retrieval metaphor of memory. How would teaching change with an enactive view?
● Memory isn't a library, but the traces of what we have enacted.
Which, I think, is compatible with (but more encompassing than) "memory is the residue of thought".
● Memory isn't a library, but the traces of what we have enacted.
Which, I think, is compatible with (but more encompassing than) "memory is the residue of thought".
"On the one hand, memory is not a library of memories, even if they are episodic; on the other, memory is not the memory of information that enters the system ... [but] the traces of what has been enacted by our actions."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
November 3, 2025 at 6:48 AM
It's time to move on from the storage and retrieval metaphor of memory. How would teaching change with an enactive view?
● Memory isn't a library, but the traces of what we have enacted.
Which, I think, is compatible with (but more encompassing than) "memory is the residue of thought".
● Memory isn't a library, but the traces of what we have enacted.
Which, I think, is compatible with (but more encompassing than) "memory is the residue of thought".
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
NEW POST
Almost every school I know has a list of Teaching and Learning or curriculum "non-negotiables." But is that a good term to use in schools?
Please share if you can 🙏🙏
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Almost every school I know has a list of Teaching and Learning or curriculum "non-negotiables." But is that a good term to use in schools?
Please share if you can 🙏🙏
substack.com/home/post/p-...
November 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
NEW POST
Almost every school I know has a list of Teaching and Learning or curriculum "non-negotiables." But is that a good term to use in schools?
Please share if you can 🙏🙏
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Almost every school I know has a list of Teaching and Learning or curriculum "non-negotiables." But is that a good term to use in schools?
Please share if you can 🙏🙏
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
Really enjoyed this post about moving on from PowerPoint presentations to finally teach with students:
#EduSky #UKEd #SciTeachUK
abubakarhatimy.substack.com/p/death-by-p...
#EduSky #UKEd #SciTeachUK
abubakarhatimy.substack.com/p/death-by-p...
Death by PowerPoint: Why Science Teaching Needed a Visualiser Revolution
Paraphrasing a small-scale classroom study on exposition and engagement; an origin story in content delivery evolution...
abubakarhatimy.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Really enjoyed this post about moving on from PowerPoint presentations to finally teach with students:
#EduSky #UKEd #SciTeachUK
abubakarhatimy.substack.com/p/death-by-p...
#EduSky #UKEd #SciTeachUK
abubakarhatimy.substack.com/p/death-by-p...
Reposted by Dr Sarah Comfort
NEW POST
We talk a lot about getting better at teaching, but perhaps we don't talk enough about getting worse at teaching.
open.substack.com/pub/adamboxe...
We talk a lot about getting better at teaching, but perhaps we don't talk enough about getting worse at teaching.
open.substack.com/pub/adamboxe...
Getting worse at teaching
We talk a lot about how teachers get better at teaching, but don’t think enough about how teachers can get worse at teaching.
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:43 PM
NEW POST
We talk a lot about getting better at teaching, but perhaps we don't talk enough about getting worse at teaching.
open.substack.com/pub/adamboxe...
We talk a lot about getting better at teaching, but perhaps we don't talk enough about getting worse at teaching.
open.substack.com/pub/adamboxe...