Wednesday Wisdom
Tooled Up tips for loving parents around the world
02/07/2025
Seasonal Overwhelm
Here in the UK, the long summer break is looming. The approach to the holidays is always a busy time of year. For those lucky enough to take some leave, workload often increases, as we rush to finish projects before we put the out of office on. Daily life moves forward in what feels to me like a precarious balance. All the balls can just about remain in the air, so long as nothing unexpected happens, to tip things too far one way.
25/06/2025
Summer Strategies
It’s here. We’ve waited for it all year. We’ve talked about it with friends. We’ve dreamt of it, planned for it, and it has kept us going on those cold winter nights. Ah, summer… you promise so much… relaxation, unstructured time, memorable adventures and blissful family bonding. But do you always deliver?
18/06/2025
A Day to Remember
As a parent, there’s a special pleasure in seeing your children through other people’s eyes. In the everyday challenges of family life – school, homework, clubs and bedtimes – you can lose perspective on the bigger picture. Birthday parties offer a chance to witness your child in their natural habitat: playing and interacting with their peers, and being a typical kid.
11/06/2025
Sport for Strength
I am the Head of Research at Tooled Up, but outside of my work, I am proud to say that I am the Strongest Natural Woman in Scotland, and second strongest natural woman in the UK & Ireland. In this week’s edition of Wednesday Wisdom, I wanted to reflect on my sporting journey and share some insights that may open up conversations with young girls and women in your lives about the role sport can play in building body confidence.
04/06/2025
Baby, Bathwater?
Without naming names, there is a campaign knocking around social media arguing for a ban on all tech being used as part of teaching and learning in schools. Several celebrities are piping up all over the place (on Zoom) to extol the poisonous evil (their words) that is technology. They talk about radiation being emitted from interactive whiteboards, pour water on any digital platform that ‘gamifies’ learning and wish for a return to a simpler time when learning didn’t involve a screen of any kind.
28/05/2025
Girls' Digital Lives
Not a week goes by without questions coming in from our Tooled Up community of parents and educators, who are keen to support the young people with challenges relating to body image, identity, friendship, fairness, confidence, dating and peer pressure.
21/05/2025
Loving Learning
When, as a recent graduate, I was first considering training to be an English teacher, a careers advisor at my university gave me some advice which has always stuck with me. “Only become a teacher,” she said, “if you want to work with young people. If you like books, go and work in a bookshop.”
14/05/2025
The Wonder Years
In this week’s Wednesday Wisdom, Shirley Hayman, our resident Early Years Educator and Tooled Up team member of 35 year’s experience, reflects on her career. She shares snippets of wisdom that she wants to pass onto parents and other educators. She also shares some research into the foundational early years that Tooled Up has highlighted to its school and parent communities.