Teachers urged to be energetic

Teachers should deliver their material in the classroom at a fast pace, it has been suggested.

Educational psychologist for Wol¬verhampton council Brian Apter told the Times Education Supplement that an energetic performance from teachers is often well received by schoolchildren.

Mr Apter studied 300 teachers in 141 primary schools and concluded that teachers who talked more often saw less idle chatting among their pupils.

He told the paper: "Talk a lot, talk enthusiastically about your subject, be a very active teacher, motor around the classroom, engage kids all the time.

"They're the teachers who get good results and the best behaviour."

Although, Mr Apter added that teachers may find that putting in this level of energy into lessons is very tiring.

It was recently suggested that mentally robust pupils are also more likely to learn subjects with greater ease and perform better overall, following a study by head of psychology at the University of Hull Peter Clough.