Simon Baddeley
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simbadd64.bsky.social
Simon Baddeley
@simbadd64.bsky.social
Owner of @LiteracyEngine.bsky.social
English Teacher | Teaching and Learning Geek | Visualiser Master Practitioner | Oracy for Learning | Lego Enthusiast
Literacyengine.co.uk
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Follow me on Bluesky for:
📚 Literacy, Oracy, & English teaching & learning stuff
⚙️ Updates from @literacyengine.bsky.social about the cool work we do with schools across the UK
🏫 All things evidence informed in education
🤓 Random nonsense about Lego & other geekery
literacyengine.co.uk
The Literacy Engine
The Literacy Engine - Driving Literacy Across The Curriculum. Weekly extended reading packs to embed reading in Form Tutor Time and # across the curriculum. Disciplinary Literacy in action
literacyengine.co.uk
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
#BlackFriday is back!

Join us before the end of November and receive 15% off!

Let's make 2026 your year of every adult in school reading to your students every day!

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/pr...
November 9, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
⚙️🚨NEW RESOURCES ALERT 🚨⚙️
December's resources are now live featuring:
⚙️ Should video games be considered a sport?
⚙️ The 1st female MP
⚙️ Ozzy Osbourne
⚙️ Have you ever wondered why boxes of chocolates are getting smaller?

Check them out now:
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
November 2, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
This #RemembranceDay, ditch the YouTube clips & send a powerful message that reading is the primary medium for learning.

Our FREE resources offer knowledge-rich, extended reading that honours history & builds understanding. Power up your Tutor Time here:
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/re...
October 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
If you want to add some extended reading to your #RemembranceDay programme this year, check out our FREE packs.

They include 5 different texts, each in a Core and Simplified Language Version.

See how non-fiction reading can transform your Tutor Time.
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/re...
October 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
Happy #WorldTeachersDay2025 from all of us at The Literacy Engine.

Celebrating the literacy engineers that drive literacy forward every day.
Literacyengine.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
Week 6 and our diverse topic choices are:
⚙️What is "Fair Trade"?
⚙️The 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott
⚙️Vladimir Putin
⚙️Have you ever wondered why different cultures celebrate the harvest?

How do your students start their day?
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
Gears of Thought October 2025 - The Literacy Engine
Every month, members download a set of weekly extended reading packs for use in tutor time and across the curriculum. The texts in each pack explore a rich variety of topics significant to that time o...
literacyengine.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
With our FREE General Election sample packs you can see how our Core & Simplified Language Version packs map against PSHE, SMSC, British Values, & Citizenship objectives.

Download them now to see how we could transform your Tutor Time reading programme.

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
October 4, 2025 at 6:31 AM
We featured Jane Goodall's work in April this year as one of our inspirational individuals. The world is a better place thanks to her work. #RIPJaneGoodall

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
"I had to work 10 times harder than the average man just to get the same level of recognition," Jane Goodall told us in 2020. "But once I had made a name for myself, I let the data speak for me."
Jane Goodall on Fighting Sexism and What Chimpanzees Taught Her
Jane Goodall discusses what keeps her motivated six decades into her career and how she combated sexism.
www.rollingstone.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
Are still using "Drop Everything And Read"?
Has your novel based tutor time reading programme lost its momentum?

If the answer is yes, please drop us a message. We can help you better harness that time & create a culture of reading across your curriculum

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/co...
October 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
We enter October this week and #BlackHistoryMonth

Our students will read about:
⚙️ The Race Relations Act
⚙️ The Bristol Bus Boycott 1963
⚙️ Mae Jemison
⚙️ The European Convention on Human Rights

How do your students start their day?
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
September 28, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
🚨⚙️NEW RESOURCES ALERT⚙️🚨
November Gears of Thought is now live!
⚙️ European Convention on Human Rights
⚙️ Conspiracy Theories
⚙️ Freddie Mercury
⚙️ The ISS
How do your students start their day?
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
September 27, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
How often do students encounter new information in your subject via reading? How often is it a YouTube video?

We've covered the entire KS3 curriculum for Geography, History, and Science & share a topic every month. September's pack is "1066".
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/pr...
September 25, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Drop Everything And Read.

At @researchED1 I shared this definition of the practice then shared where I'd adapted it from.

English teaching is one of the last hiding places of Discovery Learning and needs to be weeded out by the roots. Our students deserve better.
@literacyengine.bsky.social
September 21, 2025 at 10:25 AM
This week we engage students with reading and discussion around loot boxes and microtransactions in video games. It is important that young people are self aware about how this form of hidden gambling can quickly become addictive.
This week in Gears Of Thought:
⚙️ What are loot boxes & microtransactions in video games
⚙️ The launch of Fortnite: Battle Royale
⚙️ Michael Faraday
⚙️ Have you ever wondered what a world without electricity would be like?

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
September 21, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
What we crafted was an evidence based Interactive Read Aloud model that puts knowledge and fluency building at the heart of a cross curricular model for reading across the secondary curriculum.
September 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
We looked at evidence based pedagogical theory and applied it to help shape our model. We took Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction and built a model for reading across the curriculum.
September 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
When we created our Interactive Read Aloud model, we started with the evidence of what works well.

We knew some of the most common practices used to develop reading across a secondary school were having no impact, so we researched what was.
September 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
A Tutor Time reading programme involves more than just giving tutors a set of novels & saying "read this aloud". Our programme provides support, PSHE mapping, oracy & debate strategies, and differentiated text levels throughout. It is built for success!

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/pr...
September 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
Simon, it was a great session. Thank you for your presentation--you pithily and humourously articulated so many of my views! We'll be expanding on our LE rollout from last year; I look forward to touching base in more detail about practice--and maybe even some CPD.
September 11, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
If you want to know more about how your Tutor Time reading programme could be super charged by our evidence based, knowledge rich programme, try our FREE sample packs.

There may even be a cheeky discount for @researchED1 attendees if you drop us a message
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/fr...
September 7, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
Session 4 in M26 @researchED1!

Myth busting, research wrangling, and evidence in action. Let's deromanticise reading!

See you there, folks! 👋
Literacyengine.co.uk
September 6, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
There's still time to join us for this academic year. Drop us a message today, and we could be helping to transform your Tutor Time reading programme by the end of the week.

Here's what your students could benefit from with us:
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/pr...
Pricing 2025/26 - The Literacy Engine
Buy Buy Gears of Thought are monthly extended reading packs to embed modelled, non-fiction reading into your Tutor Programme or across the curriculum. It is back again for the 2025/26 academic year bi...
literacyengine.co.uk
September 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
We hit the ground running in Week 1 with topics including:
📊 What is the difference between privatised and nationalised companies?
▶️ Why were YouTube fined over children’s data?
👸 Princess Diana
🍲 Have you ever wondered what makes food “organic”?

literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
September 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Simon Baddeley
🚨⚙️New Resources Alert⚙️🚨

October resources are now live, including:
⚙️ The Race Relations Act
⚙️ The Bristol Bus Boycott 1963
⚙️ Mae Jemison
⚙️ The Cuban Missile Crisis

How do your students start their day?
literacyengine.co.uk/index.php/ge...
August 31, 2025 at 8:53 AM