Barry Hymer

Written by Barry Hymer and Peter Wells, Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset is an engaging and instructive guide that sets out how the application of growth mindset principles can accelerate chess improvement. With Tim Kett and insights from Michael Adams, David Howell, Harriet Hunt, Gawain Jones, Luke McShane, Matthew Sadler and Nigel Short. Foreword by Henrik Carlsen, father of world champion Magnus Carlsen. Twenty-first-century knowledge about skills development and expertise requires us to keep such mystical notions as fixed 'talent' in perspective, and to emphasise instead the dynamic and malleable nature of these concepts. Nowhere is this more apparent than in chess, where many gifted players fall prey to plausible but self-defeating beliefs and practices - and thereby fail to achieve the levels their 'natural' abilities predicted. Happily, however, the reverse can be true too; through learned dispositions such as grit, risk-taking, strategic thinking and a capacity for sheer hard work, players of apparently modest abilities can achieve impressive results. Blending theory, practice and the distinct but complementary skills of two authors - one an academic (and amateur chess player) and the other a highly regarded England Chess Olympiad coach (and grandmaster) -Chess Improvement is an invaluable resource for any aspirational chess player or coach/parent of a chess player. Barry and Peter draw on interviews conducted with members of England's medal-winning elite squad of players and provide a template for chess improvement rooted in the practical wisdom of experienced chess players and coaches. They also include practical illustrative descriptions from the games and chess careers of both developing and leading players, and pull together themes and suggestions in a way which encourages readers to create their own trajectories for chess improvement.

This innovative approach starts by getting learners to think about a seemingly familiar story in a radically different and creative way. Who knew the story of the three little pigs was so complicated, and so challenging? In fact, for decades adults have even been reading it to infants, as if it were a simple tale for simple kids! The essential plotline: three pigs each build a house. A wolf exposes the limitations of two of the houses through lung power, but the third house remains standing. He attempts to force an entry via the chimney and fails. This book might seem to be about the three little pigs, but the pigs are just the focus of its real purpose, which is to challenge and encourage learners to immerse themselves in thinking between, above, below, around and beyond the tale's unexplored blind-spots. Crammed full of activities and diverse open-ended questions, there's plenty to ponder over, and if they require a nudge or two in the right direction, they'll find them although the direction they take depends on which way they're looking at it. Prompts and responses abound, although it's not always clear which is which; questions can be answered and answers should be questioned. Learners will develop the confidence and independence to pursue their own ideas and opinions as they think creatively and cultivate original and innovative responses. Students are encouraged to respond as they see fit, developing key skills transferable to wider areas of the curriculum and life. This has the added advantage of cultivating intrinsic motivation and a love of learning in the process. The challenges will capture learners' interest and curiosity by appealing to their sense of fun and nonsense. Word play, puns and writing prompts simultaneously encourage the development of literacy skills. Extension material and helpful nudges mean the activities are self-differentiating and will appeal to all abilities across key stages 1 to 3. Suitable for primary and lower secondary teachers. Puffed Out has been named the winner of the Educational Book Award in the 2018 Education Resources Awards. Judges comments: Using a novel approach and a well-known story, Puffed Out by Will Hussey and Barry Hymer, introduces pupils to ethics, philosophy and critical thinking. It is exceedingly witty and will help create fun lessons while introducing pupils to new ways of approaching difficult concepts. It made us laugh and think throughout the judging process.

This book sets out the educational challenges, benefits and possibilities of embracing a truly inclusive approach to gifted and talented education and provides a framework for a school to create its own inclusive policy in this area of need. Calling on international research, current educational initiatives, and work within the Barrow Education Action Zone (EAZ) and elsewhere, the authors set out to demonstrate that the inclusion and standards agendas can - and should - take with them the growing interest in the educational needs of gifted and talented pupils. The result is a short but comprehensive and fundamentally practical book, which will be of value to any school or LEA wishing to create and implement a dynamic, reflective and inclusive policy for gifted and talented pupils.

This essential and aspirational text is aimed at all beginning teachers whatever your training route, age phase and setting. It explicitly adopts and builds on a new metaphor for teachers' professional learning as interplay between the body of public knowledge and the practical wisdom of teachers within a particular school setting. It also accepts that 'telling' you how to teach is ineffective; you need to 'become a teacher' because it involves identity and practice. Inquiry-based critically reflective learning with a clear focus on the learning of pupils is proposed as the core strategy by which you can build your knowledge and skills to become an outstanding teacher.Core topics, including planning, inclusion, teaching, assessment and professional development, are tackled in an accessible and refreshing way, using key research informed evidence. The focus is relentlessly on 'learning' rather than performance, in order to support you becoming an excellent professional teacher, rather than a competent technician, who makes a difference to learners, colleagues, schools and policy. Think of this book as a temporary or additional mentor, challenging you with different ways of thinking about learning and providing strategies to guide your professional learning.“It takes 10 years or more to begin to be a brain surgeon, but sometimes we get 1-3 years at most before we are allowed to work with children’s brains as teachers. So we need inspirational teachers and this is the focus of this compact, powerful and insightful book. It is wonderfully designed around five of the most critical dilemmas in our classrooms: belief vs. ability; autonomy vs. compliance; abstract vs. concrete; feedback vs. praise; and collaboration vs. competition. The power of the book is that it illustrates the new move to focus on learning power – and such a focus permits every student to become smarter through effort and deep practice as they struggle with the high-challenge learning activities – in the presence of inspirational, impactful and passionate teachers. The perfect book for those who want to make most of their opportunity to enhance students’ brain power.” John Hattie, Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute.

Gifts, Talents and Education: A Living Theory Approach is a practical guide for teachers on how to help all their pupils to enhance their gifts and talents in the classroom. Examples reveal how teachers can transform the way education is understood in schools, by relating stories of how they learned about their own gifts and talents. The book explains recent key developments in multimedia representations of social and emotional aspects of learning. These permit the multi-sensory gifts and talents of individual learners to be recognised and developed within a process that enhances the emotionally literate space of enquiring classrooms. Gifts, Talents and Education assumes a capability approach to human development which rests on enabling individuals to realise their gifts and talents within a co-created sense of the common good. The book offers values, skills and understanding as concepts that retain a direct connection with practice. The stories are grounded in the lives of practitioner researchers who show the lived meanings of these ideas as they are realised in practice, asking questions such as ‘how do I improve what I am doing?’ and ‘how do I live my values more fully in practice?’.

This book sets out the educational challenges, benefits and possibilities of embracing a truly inclusive approach to gifted and talented education and provides a framework for a school to create its own inclusive policy in this area of need. Calling on international research, current educational initiatives, and work within the Barrow Education Action Zone (EAZ) and elsewhere, the authors set out to demonstrate that the inclusion and standards agendas can - and should - take with them the growing interest in the educational needs of gifted and talented pupils. The result is a short but comprehensive and fundamentally practical book, which will be of value to any school or LEA wishing to create and implement a dynamic, reflective and inclusive policy for gifted and talented pupils.