Mock exams. Days, weeks, and months of preparation, ensuring our students feel ready to take on the reality of exam conditions. We believe they’re up to the task. Their exercise books? Immaculate. Extended writing? Reams worth. And every SLT book look is 100% green.  All of this outward evidence available to us, calling us to the land of 100% 4+, only to have their mocks come back and it’s as if everything we taught them has disappeared. ‘This is shown in the quote’ when the last three essays have used context to embed them; summarising the story when their books have in-depth analysis of ..read more

There is a growing disconnect between what many teachers know to be good practice, what OFSTED says is good practice, and what exam boards are requiring teachers to do in order to ensure pupils pass the exam. It has resulted in a warping of our subject, a watering down of teaching of knowledge, and antipathy toward the actual study of language- linguistics, dialects, and accents– and turns it into generalising author’s intent and tone in a random smattering of texts.  The OFSTED research review states that there is a ‘presumption that English is a skills-based subject’ and that, overall ..read more

When I was taking my A-level equivalents in the states , IB courses, I remember loving the experience of success, seeing myself get better and know more thing. But something was different with my maths teacher. Like my other teachers, he was brilliant, had a 4.0 GPA from a top maths department at the same uni I attended, and had a subject degree in maths, not teaching. There was a something that made him very different to my other teachers however. He wouldn’t give us formulas, but instead told us to use mathematical principles and derive them ourselves because we would get more meaning that w ..read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of politics and pedagogy. The idea that I’ve seen floating around, namely along the lines  ‘I wish people could separate politics and pedagogy’ is something I no longer believe is possible. I used to think that it didn’t matter to me what someone’s political beliefs were, that even if they had some non-education beliefs that I disagreed with, our agreements in education superseded that.  In this respect, I was wrong and I’ve cut numerous ties because of this. A belief in who matters, what matters, and who is centred is a guiding philoso ..read more

It’s been so long since I’ve been able to properly blog about content or pedagogy, but I’m happy to be writing about something that I used to feel insecure about, but now feel confident in my approach and teaching: poetry. (and specifically, how to get kids prepared to enter the meaning of a poem and then getting them through the analysis). When getting into a poem, I’m noticing a trend of ideas  that involve removing words, covering up phrases, and isolating words among other way that almost seem to be a way to get around the poem rather than tackling it head on.  So, as I prepare t ..read more

When I was still teaching in America, I noticed many booklets and powerpoints from English teachers with ‘extracts’. ‘I’ve made some nonfiction extracts for paper 2’ and ‘here is a booklet of ‘women in  shakespeare’. This intrigued me as the use of extracts in this way isn’t really something I ever encountered in my own education and not something I felt the need to use. But now that I’m in the English sector, I notice this approach more frequently, especially when trying to incorporate  more difficult authors like Chaucer and Beowulf all in the name of rigour and powerful knowledge ..read more

I’ll start with a story. This past summer I met up with a former history teacher and she told me that she remembered me so clearly being in her class in 2009. I came with my planner and notes in perfect order, and my being there gave the rt of the glass a good model. I also recall writing a (rather terrible) 5 paragraph essay and it being presented to the class as an exemplar. I was in advanced classes in everything except history, and my standard for what is necessary to do well in my other advanced classes was something that wasn’t in this mixed ability class. So why tell this story? Mixed A ..read more

So: my first term completed in a British school. Before I moved over, I thought the main reasons I would enjoy the British system for the overall professional life: CPD, curriculum etc, and of course I do. But rather than The Big Things, it’s the smallest ones that I realise make the difference. This isn’t to say that every British school is like mine, but there is the expectation that schools are safe, children are looked after, and that they learn. And below are a few of the ways I’ve noticed the small things have the biggest impact:  Safeguarding  I never truly understood how impo ..read more

PEE. PETAL. PETAZL. …. And WHW.  Underlying all of these acronyms is the idea that if we just give pupil’s a structure, the ideas will flow and the knowledge will unload itself into the frame. And this has some validity and use.  In particular, when dealing with pupils that struggle to get their thoughts in clear sentences, who feel overwhelmed when faced with a big task, giving sentence starters is a lifeline. They might get to their lined paper and freeze, not knowing how to start- so they need something to fall back on. PEE, PETAL etc and can be that lifeline. The real issue is wh ..read more

You know the summer holiday has arrived when TLAC once again is getting put through the ringer. Last summer it was the “carcerality” of TLAC, this summer’s how to deal with a kid that has fallen asleep in class. So as a teacher procrastinating from all of the things I could be doing to prepare for the fall term, naturally I saw the controversy, read the blog post in question, and dove in. Many anti-TLAC people were on the side of critiquing the post, claiming that inserting your adult feelings into a reprimand of a child is not good advice or an example of how to deal with that situation. I’ve ..read more