A funny, engaging, rapturous read that will inspire teachers to reclaim their professional
imagination and reignite the excitement they felt when they entered the teaching
profession. It’s about botheredness. A made-up word that everyone understands.
This is an education book that is like no other that has gone before. It won’t tell you
what to do minute by minute, lesson by lesson, day by day. It won’t batter you with
impenetrable research or tell you what you must think. You won’t even fi nd a scheme of
work in it – some planning ideas, for sure, even a template or two, but there’s no spoonfeeding
here. It’s just a book that invites you to consider where you are in your own
educational journey. It’s a book to get you bothered.
Botheredness™ is a word Hywel Roberts uses to sum up the kind of authentic care
and adult positioning that is real and deliberate and gets children and young people
on board with learning. It is the holy grail of teaching and something that will both
signifi cantly improve your enjoyment of teaching and benefi t your classes enormously.
This book is therefore an exploration of the road less travelled, backed up with Hywel’s
own experiences, refl ections and research down the rabbit hole of contemporary
education. It’s about the reinstatement of professional integrity, the teacher as
storyteller, and the need for our professional imaginations to be nurtured and curated.
Hywel sets out to help teachers enhance their understanding of what it means to
lead learning and thinking, to stand beside children as well as in front of them, whilst
developing their knowledge acquisition with compassion, warmth and optimism.
Features and benefi ts:
• Presents clear strategies around imaginative and effective planning.
• Offers genuine examples of powerful classroom work – from primary, special and
secondary settings – that is research informed and realistic.
• Presents opportunities to think beyond a path laid out by scripted lessons,
downloadable schemes and slavish quick-fi x fads.
Hywel Roberts has taught in secondary, primary and special settings for almost 30 years.
He contributes to university education programmes and writes regularly for TES as the
‘travelling teacher’. A true Northerner, Hywel deals in botheredness, creative practice,
curriculum development and imagineering. He was recently described as ‘a world leader
in enthusiasm’ and his fi rst book, Oops! Helping Children Learn Accidentally, is a favourite
among teachers. Hywel is a much sought-after educational speaker and has contributed to
events worldwide. He also contributes fi ction to prison-based literacy reading programmes
developed by The Shannon Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
