Praise is used in schools in a multitude of ways. The psychology of praise is fascinating and confounding. Often things we praise students for are poorly thought out and can have unintended consequenc...

How pupils read, write, talk, and the vocabulary they use in every classroom is specialist and unique. There are general words and literacy strategies to deploy, but as pupils move up through school, ...

I want to be a better line manager. Line management meetings are essential for supporting and developing leaders and I have been thinking about how I can get it right next year. However, the more I th...

Talking floats on a sea of write  ‘Writing floats on a sea of talk’ said James Britton in the 1970s.’  If you can’t say it, you can’t write it. This being the case, teaching children to write articula...

Two great links and one I wish was better.

I wrote on using film clips to explore structure and the structure question on the exam paper last year. Here is the link to the blog:  http...

In previous blogs, I have talked about knowledge retrieval and its problems in English, so I am not going to rehash or revisit the argument....

Vocabulary is great at times, but we are in danger of infantilising students, if all we do is teach words.  For teachers of A-Level English ...