Archived
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‘St. Cupid’s’ by Kevin Oldham
Young teacher Paul Flynn arrives at a secondary school in the heart of London’s east end, and encounters a daunting and alien world: poverty-stricken children, incompetent managers and teachers who are wilder than their students.
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‘Learning Matters’ by Roger Titcombe
This book argues that there is an urgent need for a fundamental change in the direction, governance and public accountability of the English education system. It is written by a teacher but it is not exclusively for teachers.
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Academies are an expensive red herring. Here’s how you really improve school standards
How many times must academies be discredited before policymakers look at the proven but less headline-grabbing solutionn but less headline-grabbing solution? The prime minister’s announcement today that, if elected, the Tories will force “mediocre” schools to convert to academies was important for a couple of reasons. First, it indicated that the government wants to make […]
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The tweeting headteacher who took over the world
GILBERT: Are there any sane headteachers out there? The longer I teach, the more I ask this question because I think, possibly like becoming Prime Minister, it’s a role which is both stressful, lonely and can create a massively over-inflated ego. I really liked Tom Sherrington because he appeared to be both sane, reasonable and […]
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#ResearchED 2014: therapy for a nervous wishy-washy teacher
Last weekend, I cycled from my home in Bethnal Green to the 2014 ResearchED conference at Raine’s Foundation School and was amazed to see so many teachers paying out of their own pockets to attend a conference about educational research on a Saturday. The impressive attendance, possibly over 600 delegates, was a real testament to […]
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What really matters
Why do 95% of teachers not know about what really works in the classroom? Why are the media and politicians even more clueless? According to Mike Bell, who runs the Evidence-Based Teachers’ Network (EBTN), very few people are actually aware of the teaching techniques that are proven to work across all the age ranges and subjects. […]
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It’s the Blob Wot Won It
Did the Blob get Michael Gove the sack? The mainstream media seems to think so. The Sun’s editorial said: “The Left-wing hate campaign against Michael Gove was hysterical, absurd and undeserved. Sadly, it worked. The teachers’ unions established the Tory Education Secretary as a wicked pantomime villain hell-bent on the destruction of a system which […]
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What makes good teaching and how can we encourage it?
I appeared on Newsnight last night discussing the teaching profession with presenter Kirsty Wark and Sean Worth, who is a Fellow of the think-tank, Policy Exchange, which was set up by a few people, including Michael Gove. We were talking about Michael Gove’s comment on Newsnight the previous night that outstanding teachers supported his reforms […]
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Teacher Toolkit: the Profession’s Great Freedom Fighter!
Teacher Toolkit, a.k.a. Ross McGill, is one of the most successful teacher-bloggers in the world. He has nearly 60K followers on Twitter, his blog is the number 1. educational blog in the UK, and his book, 100 Ideas for Secondary School Teachers, is one of the most successful books about school published in the […]
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Our dedicated teachers deserve greater respect
THE shocking, terrifying killing of Ann Maguire, an experienced, much loved teacher, has made the nation aware of how important it is not to take teachers for granted. It is tragically sad that it has taken this noble teacher’s death to make the public conscious of this because, let’s face it, there are too many […]
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A killer in the classroom
Is it possible that violent and unruly children pose a bigger problem than schools dare admit? Having taught for more than 20 years in various comprehensives, I can honestly say that there has been no more shocking news about the profession in the past couple of decades than the death of Anne Maguire, a […]
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Why Michele Robert’s keynote speech on ‘The Erotic Imagination’ marks a new epoch in the way we talk about sex
Michele Roberts’ keynote speech at the ‘Beyond the Sheets’ conference marked, for me, a new epoch in the way we talk about sex. Here was an established literary figure seeking to change the discourse about sex, addressing at the conference pre-dominantly young writers and emerging academics; the new “intelligentsia” if you like. It was an […]
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Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: The Play
This compelling play is a dramatic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”, bringing out the full horror of the original story. This is the only stage version which is genuinely faithful to the text, using Stevenson’s words where appropriate.
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A video musical poem: psycho bike
I was moved to make this random video musical poem about my journey to Goldsmiths College on the bike:
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Star-crossed: Romeo and Juliet for Teenagers
A modern version of Romeo and Juliet which updates Shakespeare’s classic play in a very entertaining fashion. This play-script is not suitable for children under the age of fifteen.
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How to Get a Great English Degree
Are you studying English at university either as your main degree or as a subsidiary subject? Are you finding it challenging? Then this lively, short guide could be what you’ve been looking for!
Free schools policy fuels social segregation
The prime minister’s announcement that, if re-elected, he will open 500 new free schools in the next five years, has catapulted this dismal policy initiative back into the headlines. Most commentators had assumed that David Cameron would keep quiet about free schools because it is generally acknowledged that they’ve been a bit of a disaster […]