Sarah Larsen 🌎

Don’t assume they know – why checking for understanding matters. In years gone by, before I became interested in applying educational research and cognitive science to my practice, the extent to which I checked for understanding in the moment involved asking the…

1st blog post in a while.💪⬇️

My school’s been focussing on methods and principles linked with checking for understanding. But why’s it so important? I’ll aim to put out some separate blog posts containing practical methods for the classroom in due course.

sarahlarsen.school.blog/2025/09/22/d...

Posting these videos on here because they are too big to email them to myself and this is the only way to transfer them to a computer!! Feel free to pinch - river in its upper course in the Brecon Beacons! 🌎

Couple this with high expectations, praise and warmth and we shouldn’t go too far wrong. 💪 3/3

To ensure that students are thinking hard at all times and to aim for a high participation ratio, peppered with checking for understanding, pivoting if need be in response to these checks or planning for adaptive teaching to address misconceptions at an appropriate point in future lessons. 2/3

Two days of preparation and I’m raring to go when the students return to school tomorrow. I always feel a little rusty after the six week break, and if that describes how you’re also feeling, just keep in mind the underlying principles of learning. 1/3

Spent the day in school today excitedly beginning to think about teaching some lower school geog for the first time in a few years. Whilst I’ve still taught KS4, I’m really looking forward to lighting some fires with the younger ones and convincing as many as possible to pick it as a GCSE option🔥🌎

Really looking forward to presenting at this event about misconceptions in the geography classroom and how to address them. What’s more, it’s FREE!! ⬇️🔥⬇️🔥

It’s excellent, isn’t it?! I’m not sure if Pete’s on here, but his relatable social media content on other platforms along with his books have been my go-to source of ND info across the last couple of years!

Pete Wharmby sums it up perfectly with his graphic here… ⬇️

As someone who had to fight for alternative provision for my autistic teen, I couldn’t agree more…

This is like something that a GCSE student attempting to answer a 6 or 9 marker might write, who clearly hasn’t revised for the exam and is just desperately trying to pick up a couple of marks!! 🤦‍♀️🌎🤦‍♀️🌎

If you missed my @The_GA session this year about tackling geographical misconceptions that our students hold, there’s another chance to catch me talking about them in September. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Link to book tickets to this free event is in the thread below. 🌎🌎🌎

Exactly. Hurling knowledge at them and simply presenting it to them in the hope that some of it might stick. Which is hard not to do in content-heavy subjects!

There’s a lot of repetition in the course and whilst revisiting themes and synoptic links is vital, some of the human content could easily be slimmed down. I’m now trying to teach what I consider to be the most vital content really well whilst forgoing some other elements, to this end. 2/2

I would quite happily siphon off a good chunk of the GCSE geography content so that I can teach what remains in greater depth. The students would learn more, which I know sounds counterintuitive. I’d have more time to CFU, respond, visit hinterland knowledge… 1/2

… 4 hand-drawn diagrams by me under the visualiser, which I’d practiced before hand and had off camera to reduce my cognitive load. Keeping it simple and linking to real life examples in the photos and their own experience allowed students to understand and ask rich qs. 🌎 2/2

As a human geographer, teaching weathering and mass movement is one of the subjects I find most tricky. However, I thoroughly enjoyed prepping and executing weathering yesterday. Kept it simple - 4 large, high quality photos on screen and… 1/2

Well at least you are in agreement! 🤣

Are you and Mark united in that viewpoint? 🤣

Would love to say Denmark as it’s my children’s heritage and my surname, but think Sweden might have just shaved it… Although I do actually really like the UK entry this year! You?

Think this is the year of the Nordic countries 🇩🇰 🇸🇪 🇮🇸 🇮🇸 #eurovision

My entire teacher feed is literally just Eurovision posts!! Clearly this is what we all do of a mid May Saturday night! 🤣 And yes, there is a small chance that I might also be watching… 😬 #eurovision

I am excited to announce our new book, which pulls together all of different threads of what great schools do & celebrating them.
We've explored curriculum, learning, behaviour, attendance, personal development, & leadership. I'm forever indebted to all schools I've visited & worked with.

This looks exciting!! 👏

Couldn’t have asked for better weather today at Eastbourne for our y10s to collect their physical fieldwork data. ☀️ Recent beach reprofiling meant some unexpected results. Prevailing wind from the SW yet shingle was higher on NE side of each groyne, not SW…

What a lovely video. 🤗 I had Owl at Home as a small child (meaning that book is therefore very old!!) I’d forgotten all about it!! Fab seeing you as always!! #GAConf25