How Do They Do It?

Mark Enser has been teaching geography for fourteen years and is currently a head of department at Heathfield Community College. He contributes articles to TES and to the Guardian Teacher Network and often speaks at education conferences. Mark also writes a blog called Teaching It Real and tweets @EnserMark. The rest of the time he spends reading, drinking coffee and running in the hills. Zoe Enser was a classroom teacher for 20 years, during which time she was also a head of English and a senior leader with a responsibility for staff development and school improvement.

Written by two heavy-weight thinkers, Zoe and Mark Enser, this book absolutely lives up to its title. Although using a superseded Ofsted framework to support its narrative (which doesn't matter as it's a good one), this highly researched and evidenced book lifts the lid on a wide range of aspects of any school's provision. Tackling topics from curriculum sequencing and pedagogical approaches to the reading curriculum and approaches to disadvantage, this book pulls together the very best theory to create eminently practical suggestions. These are powerfully grouped using a repeated structure that considers why the topic matters, what happens when it goes right and (very helpfully) what happens when it goes wrong. The authors also acknowledge the importance of leadership that creates a culture of openness, trust and supportive challenge, where policy is consulted upon to ensure whole-school processes will work in all contexts within a school. I highly recommend this excellent book.Andy Buck