I have written a countless number of essays. At school, university, and back at school again, showing my students how to do it. In my fourteen years teaching I must …
The Problem with Past Exam Papers
Over the weekend I had the joy of watching my little boy, Noah, play one of his football matches (there was a little pain too – just don’t mention the …
Remembering Quotations – 10 Strategies
I don’t think there are many English teachers who haven’t asked the following question in the last year: ‘how do I help my class better remember quotations?’ It is an …
Goodbye Barry Hines
“Tha must be crackers…. Nicking books … I could understand it if it wa’ money, but chuff me, not a book … An’ what better off will tha be …
Teaching English: Online Reading & Resources
English teachers are a privileged lot. Of course, there is the poetry, the novels, the discussion, debate, philosophy, the odd spelling, the plays, the spell-binding craft of writing and the …
On Teaching Grammar
I was drawn to teaching English for a whole host of reasons. Primarily, it was due to a deep love for the nourishing power of literature and stories. It was …
Whose Canon is it Anyway?
Few things in education are as spectacularly emotive and ire-inducing as the choice of books we read for English Literature in schools. This last week we have seen Gove receive …
Thank you
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G. K. Chesterton This post is a small but tenderly felt …
Moving Beyond National Curriculum Levels
A fair few months ago the government announced the end of KS3 levels. Only there has been little real change – to my knowledge – in the status quo because …
A New English Curriculum
Shining a Light on the Literary Canon “…the more familiar we become with the nature of these shaping forms and forces lying beneath the surface of stories, pushing them into …
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