Miss Estruch Teach & Tell

What if you could make a self-marking quiz in about 10 minutes, without writing any code? Watch the walkthrough version on YouTube here https://youtu.be/DMJWoS7pElM In this follow-along episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I share my screen and build an interactive A-Level Biology revision quiz website with Claude, from the first prompt to a finished quiz students can use tomorrow. It has mul...

Stop spending hours fiddling with fonts, aligning text boxes, and redesigning the same materials from scratch. In this tutorial, we cover the teacher's guide to Canva: how to build engaging, professional GCSE and A-Level worksheets and revision resources from start to finish. Set up your reusable templates once and reclaim your planning time!     In this video, you'll learn:   &nbsp...

Looking back on the last academic year, there were several habits, planning routines, and classroom systems that drained my energy without actually benefiting my students.  And now having seen the 2026 papers and the examiner reports, there are three big changes I am going to make this year!   In this episode, I'm sharing the teaching mistakes I made and the exact systems I'm using to fi...

What if the thing eating into your evenings isn't the marking itself, but the typing? In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, former Head of Biology Katie Estruch explores Wispr Flow, a game-changer in edtech that is helping teachers reclaim their personal time. Wispr Flow isn't about generating artificial lesson plans or replacing teacher expertise. Instead, it tackles the two most time...

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 neurodiv...

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: The leg...

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...

  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 minu...

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: The full reform timeline, phase by phase — from 2026 consultation through to the...

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 i...

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 perfec...

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...

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...

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 i...

To get access to free resources on a wide range of biology topics, learn about upcoming teacher training courses (including a course on epigenetics this October), and find out more about the work of the EMBL Science Education and Public Engagement Team, you can subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media using the links below: Newsletter: https://www.embl.org/ells/newsletter/ LinkedIn...

  Revision lessons can be so tough to make engaging and fun, and not just answering exam questions.   In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I break down exactly how I structure revision lessons that build exam skills, improve revision habits, and develop the mindset needed for A and A* performance. This is an updated version of one of my most popular episodes, now combined wi...

Most teachers focus on content gaps when students miss out on top grades. But what if the real barrier between an A and an A* is not knowledge… but mindset? In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I break down the practical mindset strategies I use in my own classroom to help students move beyond fear, perfectionism, and fixed beliefs about intelligence. We explore: • Why some high poten...

Millie and I noticed during our teaching careers how much teacher CPD changed over time. When I started teaching in 2009, there seemed to be far more opportunities for meaningful training, schools were more willing to fund courses, and there was a stronger culture around professional development. But in recent years? Budget cuts, cancelled courses, generic online training, lack of cover staff, and...

I am so excited for this episode. Today, I am joined by Ross McGill , founder of Teacher Toolkit , whose work has reached over 21 million teachers worldwide. If you have ever felt overwhelmed by lesson planning, buried in marking, or unsure whether your feedback is actually making an impact… this episode is going to completely shift how you think about teaching. Ross shares practical, evidence-inf...

If you teach AQA A level Biology and want to prepare your students more strategically for the Paper 3 essay, this episode is for you. In this episode, I break down how I analyse every essay title that has appeared since 2007 to identify the themes most likely to return in 2026. I explain the patterns I look for, including frequency, recency, repeat cycles, and long gaps between appearances, and ho...

If you are teaching OCR A level Biology and wondering where to focus revision for 2026, this episode breaks it down using nine years of past paper analysis. In this episode, I share exactly: • The topics that are consistently heavily assessed across Papers 1, 2 and 3 • What was significantly underassessed in 2025 • How those two datasets overlap and why that matters • The highest priority topics f...

One topic has dropped to just one mark for two years in a row. Another was completely missing last year. Both of those patterns matter, and in this episode, I'm breaking down exactly what they mean for your revision priorities. This is my annual AQA A Level Biology past paper analysis for 2026, focused on Paper 1 and Paper 2. I go through every specification point, track how frequently topics appe...

Are you spending lesson time teaching content that students could have prepared at home?     In this episode, I'm joined by Henry Exham to talk about flipped learning. What it actually is, why it works, and how to implement it in a way that students genuinely engage with. We get into the practical side: how to set clear, directed pre-lesson tasks, how to model the process so students kno...

If you are still spending hours creating PowerPoints, worksheets, and revision lessons, or if you feel uninspired by your revision lessons and are struggling to engage your students, this episode is going to change everything!   In this step by step guide, I show you exactly how to use Canva AI and Canva Code to: • Generate full lesson PowerPoints in seconds • Create fill in the gaps activiti...

Lesson observations are one of the most daunting   aspects of teaching. When done poorly, they can destroy morale, create performative lessons, and erode trust within a school. But when done well, observations can become one of the most powerful professional development tools a school has. In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I’m joined by Craig Randall from Trust Based Observati...