It’s important to recognise that not everything that you try out will work, especially not the first time you try it. I think we all understand that sometimes it’s important to persevere with a strategy if it’s not having immediate benefits. It’s also important to recognise that sometimes what works for somebody else won’t work for you; don’t just keep doing something forever if it’s not getting results.

But that’s not really what this tip is about.

The tips we give you work ‘bad-day-not-withstanding'. Sometimes in this profession, you will just have a bad day. It is very important to recognise, acknowledge and spot when this happens. Don’t over-analyse why. You might have worked really hard, and events just happened on a particular day that ruined those best laid plans. Sometimes you didn’t get it wrong; it just went wrong – schools are chaotic places.

Stop. Have a chat with your colleagues (they have these days as well). Offload. Do something fun. Go again tomorrow.

Teaching mindset - take a second, breathe, then go again.

It's been a bad day