A Room Of One's Own – the thin end of the staff room wedge
On the rare occasions I ever had cause to knock on the staff room door as the timid little chap I was back in the early 80s, a disgruntled teacher would throw it open, grumble about being disturbed, and demand what it was I had the temerity to be asking. It was a place of place mystery and unguessable wonder: what went on in there was essentially unknowable and dreadful. Even in the [...]
The Matthew Effect – why literacy is so important
Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. Matthew 13:12 In the world of the 2012 Ofsted framework very few schools are going to quibble with the prominence being given to the teaching of literacy but I'm far from concerned that we're clear on precisely why teaching literacy is so important beyond the [...]
Project Based Learning: I did it my way
I've finally managed to cobble together my first post since starting back in September. What with starting a new job, teaching A level for the first time in over a decade and languishing in post-publication blues after the release of my (hopefully) first book, I've not had much headspace for writing and I've missed it. Hopefully, this post marks a welcome return to the blogosphere. There's so much going on [...]
The GCSE English "fiasco" – Why shouldn't all have prizes?
Lots of folk have had lots to say about what went on behind the scenes at the various exam boards this summer and throughout it all I've largely kept my peace. Having absorbed the various arguments and counter arguments I feel I've arrived at some sort of opinion. In a nutshell, the issue seems to be that the prevailing (political?) opinion is that since the GCSE was first examined in [...]
Special needs children, moving up to secondary school
Another guest post on a pastoral issue about which I don’t know enough… If your child’s time at junior/primary school comes to an end this summer, then you need to start preparing them (and the rest of the family) for the move to secondary school. Moving from primary to secondary school can be a particularly stressful and a worrying time for any child, more so for one with special educational [...]
The role of the form tutor – the importance of WHY
Today’s post is that rare beast – a guest blog by someone other than me. This should come as a welcome and refreshing change. Not only that, it’s a post on a pastoral issue which is something I’ve always shied away from as someone who is largely bemused by such things. Thankfully, there are those among us qualified to pontificate on such matters. Sarah Ledger, Head of KS4 in a [...]
Making feedback stick
There's really no argument about the fact that feedback is pretty important. It sits right at the top of the list of strategies which make the biggest impact on students' progress. If we're not giving students feedback on their learning then, frankly, what in God's good name are we doing? There is nothing else which should have a higher priority in your teaching. OK, with that off my chest, it's [...]
A year in the life of an English teacher
What a lot can happen in a year. It was only this time last July that I began my experiment with Twitter and blogging. I think it's fair to say that my professional life (and at times my personal life, but that's another story) has been transformed. Even I don't recognise myself. After a couple of knocks in my bid to be promoted, I began the blog back on 11th [...]
The art of failing
Why on earth would we ever want to fail? Failing’s bad, right? Obviously getting something wrong, performing poorly and making mistakes is uncomfortable. But these things are a part of life. An important part. Apart from all the stuff about failure being character forming there’s the more important consideration that if we only ever experience success then maybe we aren’t trying very hard? So why are we so seduced by [...]
Some thoughts on silent reading
Is silence is golden? "And Johnny, what makes you think that is suitable for silent reading?" "Because Sir, you really would not want me to read it out loud" Jim Smith, The Lazy Teacher's Handbook Apparently silent reading hasn't been around as long as you might think. The 4th Century church leader Saint Ambrose's reading habits were unusual enough for Saint Augustine to note in Book 6, chapter [...]
Planning a 'perfect' lesson
How long does a decent lesson take to plan? Ofsted have recently made clear that they're not interested in over complicated lesson plans noting that "excessive detail within plans causes teachers to lose sight of the central focus on pupils' learning." So, who are we putting all that effort into planning for? Our students? Our selves? John Tomsett writes Over the past twenty years we have made tremendous progress in teaching [...]
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