Miss Estruch Teach & Tell

What does the 2026 Schools White Paper actually mean if you teach pupils with ADHD?

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, former Head of Biology Katie Estruch breaks down the House of Commons Library briefing on the government's SEND reforms ("Every Child Achieving and Thriving").

While the white paper doesn't explicitly mention ADHD, major structural changes are coming to how neurodivergent support is categorised, tiered, and documented in UK schools.

Here is everything classroom teachers, SENCOs, and school leaders need to know now, before proposals become policy.

🔗 Mentioned Resources & References House of Commons Library Research Briefing (CBP-10550): https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10550/CBP-10550.pdf UK Government Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving

💬 Join the Discussion: How are ADHD accommodations currently managed in your department or school? Share your thoughts and questions below!

🔔 Don't forget to Subscribe to Miss Estruch Teach & Tell for practical, workload-conscious, and evidence-based teaching insights.

 #SEND #ADHDinSchool #TeacherLife #UKTeaching #SENDReform #SpecialEducationalNeeds #TeacherTips #EdChat🎙

Two students can have the same ADHD diagnosis and end up with very different levels of legal protection. Many teachers sit through 504 and IEP meetings without anyone explaining which plan is which, or why that matters in the classroom.

In this episode, former Head of Biology Katie Estruch explains how the two US frameworks work for teachers, and how it differs to the provisions in the UK:

Whether you teach in the US or the UK, you'll come away with a clearer picture of the systems and practical strategies that work with or without the paperwork.

If this was useful, share it with a colleague who's about to sit in their first 504 or IEP meeting.

What if a student got an exam question wrong not because they didn't know the content, but because of an ambiguous word buried in the sentence?

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, former Head of Biology Katie Estruch breaks down insights straight from the AQA Summer Conference 2026 keynote by Tor Thompson (AQA Assessment Design Manager). Discover how exam boards screen for "Construct Irrelevant Variance" (CIV) to ensure assessments measure true subject knowledge rather than reading stamina or decoding speed.

📌 What We Cover: 

• What is Construct Irrelevant Variance (CIV)?

• Language screening: Eliminating ambiguous phrasing, dense clauses, and rare vocabulary

• Formatting & Layout: Reducing cognitive load and designing for dyslexia

• Visuals: Clean diagrams and designing for colour vision deficiency

• Context: Streamlining wordy scenarios into clear numbered steps

• The Classroom Checklist: 5 quick wins for writing your own worksheets and assessments

What if you could personalise thirty certificates, revision posters, or exam countdown cards, each with a different student's name, target grade, or exam date, without spending ages manually copy and pasting and editing names?  

In this episode, I walks you through Canva's Bulk Create feature step by step, showing you how to turn one design into a whole class set in minutes.

This episode is one you would really benefit from watching, to see the screen recording of each step.  Here is the YouTube video version https://youtu.be/943c5h5OSPc

In this episode:

Key takeaway: The time cost is building the template once and tidying the spreadsheet. After that, personalising thirty documents takes minutes, not an evening.

GCSE and A-level reform properly started moving this summer.

In this episode, I'm giving you the download from the AQA Science Conference 2026.

What's confirmed, what's still proposed, and what actually lands in your classroom- and when.

Consider this Part 1: there's more to come as the details firm up.

You'll learn:

Nobody warns you how much your first year of teaching is going to ask of you.

In this episode, I'm talking about surviving year one as an ECT.  The challenges nobody prepares you for, exactly who you should be turning to when things get hard, and the practical habits that will save you hours every single week.

I still remember my own NQT year like it was yesterday.  The exhaustion, the imposter syndrome, the feeling that everyone else had somehow been given a manual I'd never seen. If you're starting your ECT year, or you're already in it wondering why nobody warned you it would feel like this, this one's for you.

I talk about the things the training year doesn't prepare you for, why the challenges you're hitting are completely normal, and who to actually go to for each type of problem, because year one goes far more smoothly once you know that, rather than trying to solve everything yourself.

I also share the habits that genuinely protect your time: batching admin, guarding your non-contact time, setting a boundary and holding it, and swapping detailed individual marking for whole-class feedback.

Speaking of which, one of the biggest time-savers I mention in this episode is ditching individual comment marking for whole-class feedback sheets. I've put together a free whole-class feedback document to help you start saving hours from this week. Grab it here: https://www.missestruch.co.uk/offers/fNUar5qP/checkout

You don't have to do year one perfectly. I certainly didn't. You just have to keep asking for help, learn from your mistakes, and protect your time where you can.

The 2026 Biology exams are over... but before we move on, there's one thing every teacher should do.

Reflect.

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I share the three biggest trends I noticed across this year's AQA and OCR A Level Biology papers—and, more importantly, what I'm changing in my teaching ready for September.

Rather than waiting until next spring to react, now is the perfect time to make small adjustments that could have a huge impact on student outcomes next year.

I also share details of my Head Start sessions designed to help students transition confidently into the next academic year.

🎓 Head Start to A Level Biology (Year 11 → Year 12)

https://www.missestruch.co.uk/head-start-to-alevel

🎓 Head Start to Year 13 (Current Year 12 students)

https://www.missestruch.co.uk/head-start-to-year13

September doesn't have to feel overwhelming.

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I share three practical ways to start the new school year with better systems, stronger boundaries, and less stress. Rather than spending the summer creating endless new resources, I explain how tools like Claude AI can help you improve the lessons and schemes of work you already have, why planning with SEND in mind benefits every student, and how reflecting honestly on last year can help you avoid burnout before it starts.

In this episode we cover:

Whether you're an ECT, classroom teacher, middle leader or Head of Department, this episode is designed to help you start September feeling prepared rather than overwhelmed. If you're looking for practical teacher workload tips, evidence-informed teaching strategies, AI for teachers, SEND-friendly planning ideas, and sustainable teaching habits, this episode is for you.

It's June. Year 11 are gone. Year 13 are gone. You have a list of jobs as long as your arm and a brain that is absolutely running on fumes.

This episode is your gain time game plan.

I'm walking you through exactly how I'd use Claude Cowork to work through the planning jobs you've been saving up all year — schemes of work, lesson resources, question packs, knowledge organisers — faster, and without staring at a blank document for forty-five minutes.

I'll give you real prompts you can use straight away, the top tips that actually make a difference, and — crucially — the flaws and pitfalls to be aware of, because this tool is brilliant but it is not perfect, and you need to know where to keep your critical eye switched on.

If you've been curious about AI but don't know where to start as a teacher, this is the episode.

Subscribe to Teach and Tell for practical ideas on teaching, planning, and making the job more sustainable.

Every four years the World Cup arrives and suddenly your students seem far more interested in football than biology. My argument? Stop fighting it.

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I explore how the World Cup can become one of the most powerful teaching tools in your biology classroom. From osmoregulation and respiration to infectious disease and plant biology, the specification is playing out on the pitch in real time.

We discuss:

⚽ Hydration, sweating and osmoregulation

⚽ ADH, kidneys and negative feedback

⚽ Glycogen, respiration and energy systems

⚽ Muscle contraction and sports performance

⚽ Infectious disease transmission and R numbers

⚽ Epidemiology and mass gathering events

⚽ Plant biology, active transport and nutrient uptake

⚽ How to use major sporting events to increase student engagement

⚽ Why real-world examples matter for motivation and retention

I also share a free classroom resource from the Miss Estruch Biology channel: The Biology of the World Cup:

 The Science of the World Cup | World Cup World Cup 2026 Biology Explained 

This is a student-focused video exploring the biology behind the world's biggest sporting event, featuring insights from experts in sports nutrition, physiology and sports turf science. Perfect for:

Remember: The World Cup is not a distraction from biology. It is biology!