Home - Tooled Up Education

"We thrive on providing you with resources that can help cultivate children’s resilience"

"We turn evidence-based research into impactful, real-life tools that help children thrive"

"We help you equip children psychologically for early adulthood and beyond"

"We support the continuing professional development of educators through access to the highest quality research evidence"

"We believe the application of evidence-based tips can unlock children’s great potential"

"We constantly create and adapt our tools to meet the needs of families in an ever-changing world"

Topical Resources

26 September 2022

Race and Tolerance Book & Film List

14 December 2021

Dr Weston Talks with Professor Christia Spears Brown: Why Biases Matter and How to Reduce Them

10 August 2022

Dr Weston Talks with Bennie Kara: Embracing and Valuing Diversity in Schools

24 March 2022

Understanding Dyslexia with Dr Rebecca Gordon

05 August 2022

Goal Planner for the New School Year

15 September 2022

Professor Tamsin Ford Answers All of Your Questions

20 October 2020

Homework: 20 Important Things for Parents to Know

12 December 2020

45 Positive Phrases to Say to Your Child at Homework Time

16 April 2021

The Normalisation of Mistakes in Family Life (and Why it Matters)

14 September 2022

Books About Autism for Parents, School Staff, Children and Young People

20 March 2022

Busting Neuromyths: ADHD and Autism with Dr Jo Van Herwegen

Tooled Up Events

Q&A with Laura Merrifield, England's Lacrosse Attacker and Captain

The Power of the Teacher-Pupil Relationship

Helping Your Child Develop Metacognition for More Effective Learning

Guidance for Educational Settings

Following a Suicide or Sudden Death

To mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Saturday 10th September, we are proud to be publishing a new 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 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

Ripple Effects

Last Friday started off like any other day, the sun was shining and I was ‘out and about’ in London, preparing to deliver a talk on pupil mental health to school leaders. On my way to the venue, I got lost and needed to take a cab to quickly transport me to the correct location. My taxi driver asked me what I was going to be doing at the conference, so I told him. He paused, punched the air in glee, and told me that he believed in God and that I had been placed in his cab for a reason.

Parenting Question of the Week

My wife suffers with health conditions and has been diagnosed with cancer. The chemotherapy is starting to become difficult for her and I am concerned about the impact this may have on my child’s learning at school. I am also concerned that my son doesn’t bottle things up and that we do all that we can to help him feel supported.

Thank you for your question. From the detail you supply in your email to me, it is crystal clear that this young man lives in a loving, warm and supportive family unit (perfect conditions to cultivate and sustain a child’s resilience). Your concern relates to the fact that your child is starting secondary school and that his mother’s treatment coincides with an important milestone in his life. I can understand why, at this particular time, you might worry a little more about this child than other children in the family.

Researcher of the Month

Do sustained attention training interventions actually work?

Dr Éadaoin Slattery, Post-doctoral Researcher in the Centre for Assessment Research, Policy and Practice in Education, Dublin City University

Research Interests
Dr Slattery is broadly interested in the measurement and enhancement of cognition and behaviour, with a particular emphasis on attention and memory.

Link to article

This month, we are highlighting a recent paper by Dr Éadaoin Slattery and co-authors, which systematically reviews the evidence behind three popular sustained attention training approaches widely used in schools with children and teens between the ages of three and 18. These are cognitive attention training (commonly known as brain training), physical activity, and meditation training. Sustained attention refers to the ability to continuously maintain focus on goal-directed activity over time, particularly in conditions of monotony and repetition. In everyday life, we’d commonly refer to ‘sustained attention’ as concentration or focus. Dr Slattery’s paper seeks to establish whether any of these interventions actually improve performance on both sustained attention tasks and other cognitive tasks, as well as their impact on behavioural measures (such as ADHD symptoms).

In the last few years, studies of interventions promoting activities designed to enhance sustained attention and other cognitive functions in children have rapidly increased. Two broad approaches for improving attention have been identified: cognitive attention training (brain training) and state training, which is designed to develop a brain state that is thought to positively influence attention.

Contrary to what we might see in the media, the systematic review showed that, in general, cognitive attention training does not reliably improve performance. Physical activity and meditation interventions (both forms of state training) demonstrated greater potential in enhancing sustained attention, but results were not conclusive.

The potential benefits of physical activity and meditation interventions need to be investigated in further, more rigorous, research.

Implications

“We found limited evidence that it is possible to train children’s ability to sustain attention”.

Implications for schools – Given the current evidence, any programme which claims to benefit sustained attention should be treated with caution and educators should be aware that claims of efficacy may not be evidence-based. The findings of this review indicate that school staff should not assume that these three intervention types will reliably improve children’s sustained attention and, in particular, should be wary of cognitive attention training programmes. More research is also required to assess potential benefits of mindfulness and physical activity.

Dr Slattery stresses the importance of being research informed. When evaluating the claims of any intervention, try to establish if there was a control group in the study and check the sample size – generally, the larger, the better. Schools should carefully monitor and evaluate the impact of any intervention they choose to use.

Implications for parents – Remember that all children are different and paying attention to what works for your child is important. More research also needs to be carried out to find out what can improve sustained attention at home. However, there is some evidence that ‘self-alert’ training can have a positive impact on boosting attention in the moment. Listen to our interview with Dr Slattery to find out more!

Read Full Article

Tooled Up News

Tooling Up the airwaves with Dr Kathy Weston and Tom Rogers

Did you tune in to hear Tooled Up founder, Dr Kathy Weston, providing expert advice and tips on the Teachers Talk Radio show earlier in September? Don’t worry if you missed the live broadcast as you can listen back now. Before you click, here is some insight into what Dr Weston and host, Tom Rogers, chatted about when they took to the airwaves to discuss evidence-informed approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

‘Guidance for Educational Settings Following a Suicide or Sudden Death’ – Available Now

Our important new resource, co-written with suicide prevention charity, The OLLIE Foundation, is available for free download now on the Tooled Up website homepage.

Topical Resources

Tooled Up Events

DOWNLOAD NOW

Guidance for Educational Settings

Following a Suicide or Sudden Death

The home of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life

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.

Ripple Effects

Parenting Question of the Week

Researcher of the Month

Tooled Up News

Tooling Up the airwaves with Dr Kathy Weston and Tom Rogers

‘Guidance for Educational Settings Following a Suicide or Sudden Death’ – Available Now

Testimonials

"I thought the talk last night was absolutely fantastic. It really helped us to have a vision and how we can support [Child] to develop his resilience."

"So informative - lots of food for thought as a teacher and a parent of two girls. Thank you."

"So informative, thought-provoking, practical, awesome!"

"Thank you so much for such a wonderful Q&A, it was so informative and rich with information. I am certain our parent community will use all these resources!"

"Expert and engaging, Kathy gives rich, evidence-based guidance. You will come away inspired and empowered"

"Kathy’s talk was engaging, interesting and highly informative throughout. She balanced factual information with personal advice and practical tips to ensure that the talk was relevant and accessible from the outset."

"Just to say you are amazing at what you do.. really really informative and helpful to parents and can’t recommend tooled up highly enough!"

"Thought provoking, deeply engaging and totally relevant to every aspect of my work. Thanks so much for your passion and drive."

Join our community of "Tooled Up" Members

Dr Weston Featured in

Have a Question?

Get Started

Information

About Tooled Up

Contact Us