Topical Resources
Tooled Up Events
- April 17, 2023
- 19:30
- BST
- Parent Webinar
- Support for Children with Autism: An Exploration of Practical and Evidence-Based Ideas for Parents and Educators
- April 21, 2023
- 09:00
- BST
- Parent Webinar
- Dr Lisa Sugiura, University of Portsmouth
- April 25, 2023
- 19:30
- BST
- Parent Webinar
- Professor Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas
- April 27, 2023
- 19:30
- BST
- April 28, 2023
- 12:30
- BST
- May 9, 2023
- 12:30
- BST
- Parent Webinar
- Monal Gajjar
- May 10, 2023
- 19:30
- BST
- Parent Webinar
- Fiona Spargo-Mabbs and Asha Fowells from drugs education charity The DSM Foundation
- May 16, 2023
- 19:30
- GMT
- Parent Webinar
- Laurence Hedges, Director of Art at Harrow School
- June 6, 2023
- 19:30
- BST
Guidance for Educational Settings
Following a Suicide or Sudden Death
To mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Saturday 10th September, we are proud to have published a resource for schools, written in collaboration with suicide prevention charity, The OLLIE Foundation. This comprehensive guide will provide leadership teams in schools and other educational settings with the detailed guidance needed to coordinate an appropriate, helpful and safe response following the tragic event of a suicide or sudden death in their community.
This invaluable resource is available for free. Simply click the button below to view and download the PDF.
The home of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life
Schools that are part of our Tooled Up Education community can provide their parents and teachers with access to Dr Weston’s exclusive resources, covering areas such as aspiration, resilience, mental health and behaviour.
As a member of the Tooled Up community you will have access to a whole host of evidence-based resources, which will enable you to support your children or students in a way that makes their lives and educational journeys both easier and more enjoyable.
Dr Weston's Wednesday Wisdom
In an ever increasingly busy and demanding world, Wednesday Wisdom provides a reflective 2 minute read every week that readers constantly tell us they look forward to. Full of topical and relatable experiences that help provide reflection, motivation and support in achieving a balanced family life.
Over the years, thousands of people have benefitted from, and continue to enjoy, the parenting and educational talks from Dr Kathy Weston at Tooled Up Education and have subscribed to Wednesday Wisdom. Join now for free to get your own weekly digest of motivating, interesting, and thoughtful parenting advice from Dr Weston herself.
“I just wanted to say how grateful I am to read your Wednesday Wisdom email. Perfect size for the time I have to engage and reflect and think about the topics you touch on. It helps me to evaluate my parenting and take a step back to look at scenarios that play out.”
Parent – October 2020
Toll on Teachers
Like many of us working in the field of education or working in schools in the UK, I have been reflecting with deep sadness about the death of headteacher Ruth Perry this week. Discussion of her passing has involved an understanding that she was under intense pressure having had her work leading a school scrutinised by an external inspection body.
Parenting Question of the Week
I’m a single mum with a 12 year old boy. How do I address the topic of hormones, changes to body and give my son comfort, so that even though I’m not his father, he can still come to me to talk, discuss and emote? I want him to feel open and willing but also appreciate this is probably something he would naturally go to his dad for.
Our Promise: We will answer all questions, and, whilst we may share your question and answer to help others, we will never declare who asked it.
Researcher of the Month
Dr Shana Carpenter, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Iowa State University.
Research Interests
Professor Carpenter’s research primarily focuses on cognitive science principles that can be applied in educational settings to help students remember information, transfer what they have learned to new situations, and improve their awareness of their own learning.
The benefits of spacing and retrieval practice have been confirmed repeatedly in studies from numerous different contexts. Spacing is a way of scheduling learning activities over time. Research shows that repeated learning opportunities that are spaced apart in time are more effective than the same number of learning opportunities occurring closer together. Retrieval practice involves recalling information that has been learned previously. The simple act of retrieving something from the brain, without any helpful cues, strengthens learning and makes memories more durable over time. Retrieval activities can take many forms, including flash cards, practice tests and open-ended writing prompts, all of which helps students to recognise what they do and don’t know.
The study showed that, instead of adopting these practices, students tend to use other, less effective strategies when learning. Professor Carpenter notes that it’s important for young people to gain an understanding of when and how to engage in learning and what strategies will prove most impactful.
Teachers should help students understand the benefits of spacing and retrieval practices, and metacognitive skills. When using spacing in class, expect children to forget some information between sessions. Be patient, provide practice exercises on material already learned and give feedback on the things that your students are and aren’t remembering. If teaching topic by topic, try to insert some learning material or practice exercises on information/topics that have been taught at an earlier time. Regularly provide concrete activities that help young people implement retrieval. For example, why not ask them to reflect on their learning after each class through a simple practice question or two? Don’t grade the responses, but do give helpful feedback.
At home, nudge teens to map out revision timetables, encourage them to schedule spaced practice on specific topics and suggest that they revisit and re-practise things that have already been learned. Test them on their learning and support them in working out what they know and what they don’t. Cultivate a culture that values mistakes, views errors as essential to learning and relishes challenge. If you want to learn more about normalising mistakes in family life, read our article.
Tooled Up News
A Few of Our Favourite Things
Sometimes, a sense of excitement builds at Tooled Up Towers when we discover some hidden gems buried in the research papers that we come across in our work. Sometimes, we shop in bookshops, attend talks or see things when out and about that we really want to tell our families
Happy International Women’s Day
It’s International Women’s Day today. This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity. International Women’s Day has devised a number of missions to help forge a gender equal world and note that celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is key. These are things we are passionate about at Tooled Up, and for Tooled Up subscribers, we have plenty in the library to help break down stereotypes and raise awareness of some remarkable women.
This week's Wednesday Wisdom is out now - read the full issue here: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/wisdom/toll-on-teachers/
Our fabulous @VerityJones_edu joined the Tooled Up Podcast @TooledUpTips @Parentengage a few weeks ago to discuss her powerful research on climate education. Give it a listen 🎧 👇https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-kathy-weston/episodes/Episode-125---Dr-Weston-Talks-with-Dr-Verity-Jones-Climate-Change-Education-and-Fast-Fashion-e1vj99i
In this webinar, we consulted Sarah Cox @osbornecawkwelltuition & Kate King, two practitioners who are adept at working on a 1:1 basis with children, and who can provide both inspiration and ideas for busy parents: https://bit.ly/3ZvlRl2
"Astounded by the variety and quality of research data available and by the calibre of the researchers. Many themes highly relevant and I just know I'll be a frequent user!"
Parent, @BelfastRoyalAc (Tooled Up parent launch, March 2023)
We’re delighted to host our inaugural online conference on Friday 21st April! It is aimed at parents and educators across our Tooled Up School community who are interested in learning about optimal ways to support children and young people with autism: https://bit.ly/41BQEi0
Will you be watching the Boat Race this Sunday? A few months ago, we did a webinar with the Stroke of the women's boat...Caoimhe Dempsey, Men's boat winner from 1997, James Ball, and performance nutritionist, Dan Richardson. Listen to what it takes to win https://www.tooledupeducation.com/resource/the-boat-race-and-elite-rowing/… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639582265813397505
It's the Cambridge-Oxford boat race this Sun! We have already had a chat with star of the Cam women's boat and Captain of the Boat Club: Caoimhe Dempsey - what an inspiration she is.
Registered parents can access the recording here:
https://www.tooledupeducation.com:443/resource/the-boat-race-and-elite-rowing/
Staff can use this presentation as a springboard for discussion and consider how to proactively use some of the resources within the Tooled Up library that are related to this topic: https://bit.ly/3SOjkjW
@BlackheathHigh @GDST Thank you, our Head of Research @HChristie_psych, our founder @Parentengage and the rest of our research team are excited to be supporting the whole school community moving forward. It takes a village to raise a child 👍
We’ve created a quiz with the aim to develop empathy, encourage children & teens to ‘think first’ before talking and to praise them for coming up with new ideas. It provides scenarios for teachers or parents to work through, reflect on or even role play: https://bit.ly/3KLUY8f
If you are a parent or teacher of a child with #Williams #syndrome and have used our resource can you please spend 2 min for feedback and complete survey below? 🙏 https://qualtrics.ucl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_4SB7Ff8bsZpZcTI @WSF_UK
This week's Wednesday Wisdom is out now! Read the full issue here: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/wisdom/early-days-for-dads/
All @BelfastRoyalAc parents and carers are invited to join us at the webinar to launch your school's subscription to Tooled Up. For further information, please contact the school office or email office@tooledupeducation.com
We’re delighted to host our inaugural online conference on Friday 21st April! It is aimed at parents and educators across our Tooled Up School community who are interested in learning about optimal ways to support children and young people with autism: https://bit.ly/41BQEi0
Happy #InternationalDayOfHappiness2023 everyone!
#familysupport #education #edtech #learning #children #teens #mentalhealth #wellbeing
Are you aged 12 to 25 who has experienced internal exclusion or isolation in school or a parent of such a young person please share your experiences in our research - you can find out more here https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Jc2ZFSsYSvG21g @ChARMpsych @psychiatry_ucam @CamNeuro @ARC_EoE
#WorldSleepDay - the perfect opportunity to emphasise on the importance of sleep, particularly in developmental years. We’ve talked to brilliant sleep experts and created a number of resources on the topic that you can find in the Tooled Up library: https://bit.ly/3J3KMXC
We’re delighted to host our inaugural online conference on Friday 21st April! It is aimed at #parents and #educators across our Tooled Up School community who are interested in learning about optimal ways to support children and young people with autism: https://bit.ly/41BQEi0
Dr Hope Christie will be joining our team from today, as our new 'Head of Research'. She holds a PhD in Psychology, with a focus on parenting and parental mental health and is an award-winning researcher.
This week's Wednesday Wisdom is out now! To read the full issue or to sign up for email notifications about Wednesday Wisdom, visit our website: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/wisdom/time-to-shine/
Ever wanted to ask a Consultant Cardiologist a question about children's hearts or heart health in general? Well tonight is the night! Join us for a quick Q&A at 6pm when Dr Gareth Morgan talks us through your questions and answers them all! Register via our front page.
Register for our upcoming staff webinars now: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/events
#teachers #educators #teacherCPD
Parents and teachers are rightly concerned over the effects of screens on young people’s development.
@kathrynbates47 & @FassiLuisa have summarised current evidence from developmental research to answer 10 FAQs on how screen time affects young people: https://bit.ly/3ZbGgvV
Got a heart? a question about hearts, heart health? anything heart related? 🫀
Why not bring it along to our webinar with top paediatric cardiologist consultant, Gareth Morgan next week? 15th March 6pm.
Registration now open on our site. See you there.
Register for our upcoming #parent webinars now: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/events
#wellbeing #children #parentingtips
This week's Wednesday Wisdom is out now! Visit our website to read the full issue: https://www.tooledupeducation.com/wisdom/alleviating-eco-angst/
Featuring @VerityJones_edu
It’s #InternationalWomensDay2023 🥳🥳🥳We're celebrating all the women who are doing magnificent research that we feature within Tooled Up and we are incredibly proud to promote the work of these great academics, researchers and practitioners.
We’re delighted to host our inaugural online conference on Friday 21st April! It is aimed at #parents and #educators across our Tooled Up School community who are interested in learning about optimal ways to support children and young people with autism: https://bit.ly/41BQEi0
@PA_Wellbeing We shall flag and promote!
Should we worry if our #teens spend hours a day gaming? @DrSkripka , our Researcher of the Month for February, chatted to us about her new study and what these findings mean for parents: https://bit.ly/3SK1QVW
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If you are interested in learning more about Tooled Up Education, have a technical question, press enquiry or any other query, please follow the link below or get in touch with Dr Weston’s team on email: office@tooledupeducation.com
