Botheredness (Stories, stance and pedagogy)

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 find a scheme of work in it - some planning ideas, for sure, even a template or two, but there's no spoon-feeding 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 youbothered.

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 significantly improve your enjoyment of teaching and benefit your classes enormously.

This book is therefore an exploration of the road less travelled, backed up with Hywel's own experiences, reflections 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.

If you are looking for an education book that will inspire not dictate, that will entertain, challenge and fire up your imagination in equal measure,that allows you to think beyond a path laid out by scripted lessons, downloadable schemes and quick-fix fads, then this is the book for you.

Providing clear strategies around imaginative and effective planning, supported by genuine examples of powerful classroom work from primary, special and secondary settings, this book is an essential guide to reclaiming your professional warmth, passion, and care - your botherednesss - in the classroom. Written by a travelling teacher and film buff who's on a mission to put botheredness into classrooms everywhere.

Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders, as well as other education professionals.

Written by Hywel Roberts,Botheredness:Stories, stance and pedagogyis a funny, engaging and 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;

Botheredness is a fantastic read not just for its content but Hywel's natural storytelling style which leads you through the book, keeping you fully engaged and unwilling to put it down. If you've worked in education or been educated to any level, you will enjoy this book.

Dan Sykes

Ripping read, cracking book. Full of fun and bursting with brilliant ideas. Every page fizzes with the same energy and inspiration I got from Hywel as a pupil twenty-five years ago. It is personally nostalgic because it's so recognisable and yet it is so timeless, and so vital for breathing life into lessons today. Makes me want to go back to school in the hope that every class buzzes like this. Read it, absorb it, live it, teach it. Top stuff.

Dan Johnson

Hywel takes being bothered about teaching to a whole new level in this wonderful book. It is brilliantly unique - it's neither a guide nor a 'normal' educational publication. Then what is it? In his own words it is a 'reverie' and he is right. Read it and you will be absorbed into a world where hilarious and often moving stories intertwine with educational research, where anecdotes and personal reflection will make you laugh out loud, where you will be inspired and motivated. You won't want to put this down, and you will find yourself being more bothered about teaching than you ever thought possible.

David Whit