IST T&L Brilliance Board 1.0 by Nicholas Bruce

Responsive Teaching: Varied student access points

nickbruce1 — 2025-09-30 20:11:29 UTC

A very simple and effective way to differentiate and get students to lead their learning. All students start on the same "kick off" task, and then choose their next learning experience (could be "challenge", "challenge ultra" and "genius" level). Teacher is purely facilitator.

Expectations & Challenge: Inductive v Deductive Teaching

nickbruce1 — 2025-09-30 20:22:43 UTC

When learning through an inductive process, students explore examples or data first, then discover the rule or concept themselves.
Example: Students read several newspaper articles and identify common features (e.g., tone, structure, use of quotes), then the teacher guides them to articulate the underlying structure.

Challenge & Expectations: What does Outstanding practice look like at IST?

nickbruce1 — 2025-10-14 06:04:19 UTC

Classroom Management: Classroom Screens

nickbruce1 — 2025-10-15 12:47:39 UTC

This is a very simple and effective online platform used to incorporate a number of T&L onto your screen. You can use a random name generator, upload background images, define student teams, time activities...there's a lot on offer. And it's free.

Pedagogy & Planning: Making Thinking Visible

2025-10-16 07:22:34 UTC

I find this a great resource for using thinking routines. The website breaks it down into topics that may be relevant during your lesson. i.e. Introductory, digging deeper etc. Enjoy!

Pedagogy & Planning: Structured Learning

2025-10-16 07:24:01 UTC

Following my conversations with Nick, I am looking at this SOLO taxonomy model in my lessons to improve differentiation. Enjoy!!

Pedagogy & Planning: Project Zero Visible Thinking Routines

nickbruce1 — 2025-10-19 07:18:39 UTC

Project Zero has been around since the 1960s and is a global leader in research-based practical pedagogy. The Visible Thinking project is comprised of a large number of strategies for each stage of learning.

Pedagogy & Planning: Differentiation

nickbruce1 — 2026-05-28 14:28:27 UTC

This is a very simple, but very effective, way to plan differentiation in the classroom. Three levels of challenge, students can choose whether they go for a horizontal or vertical line, or a diagonal. Lots of variety and student choice!

Planning & Pedagogy: PYP & EY Science Resource Library

2026-05-29 06:33:18 UTC

Here is a link to our shared science resource catalogue for PYP and EY. The catalogue allows teaching staff to easily browse all available science resources — including items already ordered for the next academic year — directly from their classroom.

All resources are stored in one central location in PYP (along the far back wall) and organised into clearly labelled topic areas. The catalogue also includes a simple check-in/check-out system so that if a resource is not currently in the library space, staff can see which teacher is using it.