Maintaining Engagement and Challenge in Online Reading My school are lucky to be full members of FOBISIA, who regularly host job alike workshops, JAWs, hosted by member schools. This year JAWs have moved online, but they still have that great element of participation and the chance to network with others in similar roles. This week's…
The English Teacher’s Privilege
“Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The last couple of weeks have hopefully made many of us more aware of our privilege.…
Bringing the Classroom Home
"Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame."W.H.Auden I've been reminded of this final verse of Auden's masterful…
Reading and Rethinking: Boys Don’t Try?
"Reading is thinking with someone else's head, instead of one's own."Schopenhauer- Recently, I had the oddly perfect experience of reading Boys Don’t Try alongside Sally Rooney’s booker winning novel Normal People. Both books had that excellent brain-worming effect of being in my thoughts and conversations for weeks, as well as each seeping into my experience…
Poetry off-piste:
Great teachers "take joy in going off piste, using deep subject expertise to go beyond the syllabus".Tom Sherrington, The Learning Rainforest The Year 10 Great Poetry Debate Arriving in a new school this year, teaching a new exam board and a new GCSE syllabus to Year 10, I think I often failed to go 'off…
Fail Better Teach 