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  • Talking beats confiscating

    The new teachers’ powers are welcome, but it’ll take more to instil discipline in our classrooms My pupils seem to carry an increasing number of devices that clink, chime, crash, and even fart of their own accord in my classroom. If the offending gadget makes a particularly loud sound, the intrusion can ruin a peaceful, […]

  • Are too few incompetent teachers being sacked?

    Some commentators have felt that there are as many as 17,000 incompetent teachers in our schools, and yet only a handful of them have been sacked officially. A recent Panorama programme suggested that these teachers are passed from school to school because headteachers are too frightened to sack them. It’s basically easier for a head […]

  • It’s The Parents, Stupid — Re-thinking the issues surrounding private and state education

    There was a good turn out at the Wellington Festival of Education, making me think there’s a real value in running something like this in an environment which is less loaded with privilege and dripping with elitism. Wellington College’s grounds are stunning: it has huge grounds, hundreds of acres of playing fields and lots of […]

  • Why did a teacher get taken to court for accidentally hitting a pupil with a Pritt Stick?

    There doesn’t really seem to be much explanation as to why a teacher got taken to court for accidentally bashing a pupil with a Pritt Stick. This case along with the Peter Harvey case, where Harvey was acquitted for hitting a pupil with a dumb-bell after severe provocation, shows that teachers are being unfairly victimised […]

  • A grade essay on A Passionate Shepherd and The Nymph’s Reply

      Plan: Passionate shepherd… Nymph’s reply… Sims: -Direct language -Rhythm Diffs: -Imagery (remember caesura!) – Answer: In ‘The Passionate Shepherd’ a shepherd is pleading to a nymph (a beautiful woman) to go and live with him in the countryside. To persuade the nymph to go with him, Marlowe uses beautiful imagery of nature being harmonious […]

  • Why do so many people feel sympathy for a teacher acquitted for attempted murder?

    The Peter Harvey case has come at a particularly interesting time, just before one of the most turbulent elections of recent times, and at a point where there is a crisis of confidence in our schools. Peter Harvey battered a pupil of his with a dumb-bell, fracturing his skull, while saying “Die, die, die!” Harvey […]

  • Why do our politicians think American charter schools are so great?

    As polling day nears, it’s dispiriting to see so little choice and diversity in the parties’ proposals to improve our schools – and I write as someone who teaches in a comprehensive. Labour, the Tories and even the Liberal Democrats seem to think that introducing a more free-market system will raise educational standards; but all […]

  • UK teachers on the edge: but who really cares?

    The case of Peter Harvey, cleared of attempted murder, has refocused attention on the stresses faced by school staff nationwide   I suspect many teachers, like me, are feeling relieved that Peter Harvey, the teacher who battered a difficult pupil about the head with a dumbbell, has been found not guilty of attempted murder. The […]

  • Tory free schools will spread inequality

     The heads supporting Tory education plans have self-interest at heart. We need a fair system that gives children an equal chance Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the day after Tory councillors have been publicly criticising their own party’s education plans, a number of headteachers – many of them running selective schools – […]

  • How does Hemingway develop a sense of anticipation and drama at the beginning of the Old Man and the Sea?

    Hemingway’s opening is dramatic for a number of reasons. Read through the first two pages and/or listening to my podcast, and then list FOUR ways Hemingway develops a real sense of anticipation in the opening of the novel. Do you agree with these points? 1. Hemingway immediately tells us that there is a great deal […]

  • Co-operative schools? The reality is a fright

    An educationalist warns that the evidence suggests the Tory proposal for teacher-run schools would lead to chaos What a great wheeze! Just think, if the Tories come to power, my teacher chums and I could be running our own co-operative schools. For a teacher like me, having struggled to teach under the iron grip of […]

  • The worst classroom bullies? Politicians

     A toxic brew of meddling and failure to teach the basics has set teachers against pupils Luke had his victim, another 13-year-old pupil, in an armlock and was smashing his fists against his face. Things weren’t going according to my lesson plan. I rushed over to the fighting boys and yanked them apart, yelling at […]

  • Composed on Westminster Bridge — an explanation for GCSE English Literature Podcast

    Composed on Westminster Bridge; an audio explanation by Francis Gilbert “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a sonnet by William Wordsworth describing London, viewed from one of the bridges over the Thames, in the early morning. It was first published in 1807. Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of […]

  • Should students choose their teachers?

    There’s no doubt that students, in certain ways, are gaining greater powers in schools. For example, legislation on “Student Voice” means that teachers are obliged to consult students about what teachers they would like to teach them. The wording is vague however: headteachers have a great deal of discretion as to how much they actually […]

  • Why boycotting SATS for 11-year-olds is not a good idea

    The Standard Assessment Tests for 11-year-olds, while not perfect, are necessary. There are three reasons why teachers shouldn’t boycott these tests. Firstly, the tests as they stand do help drive up standards in reading, writing and arithmetic. Extra lessons are put on for those children who are not up to scratch and pupils who are […]

  • What the hell is going on with computers in schools?

    Sonia Livingstone, an academic at the London School of Economics, gave an interesting talk at a Becta conference pointing out that there are several problems with using computers in schools. Firstly, she observed how many pupils feel that the internet can be a very unreliable source of information, not feeling certain that they were getting the […]

  • Should teachers be censured by the authorities for being drunk?

    The new General Teaching Council’s Code of Conduct states under Rule 6, which is “Work as part of a whole-school team”, that teachers should “recognise the important role of school in the life of the local community, and take responsibility for upholding its reputation and building trust and confidence in it.” This guideline is very […]

  • Gifts won’t make you teacher’s pet

    More and more pupils are giving teachers presents, but the practice only creates insecurity in parents and staff The strangest present a colleague of mine received was a perfectly formed turd. Michael Whyte was teaching in Plaistow some years ago in a school that’s now closed, when sitting down to teach his first lesson of […]

  • The Common Entrance Automatons

     Wellington College’s head knocks state ‘factory schools’, yet his entrance exams see children being drilled as early as year four   Anthony Seldon is one of the most powerful figures in education today, so when he provides 20 recommendations for improving schools we should all take note. Given his ideological closeness with the Conservatives, he […]

  • The National Scandal! Teaching Reading — my correspondence with Susan Godsland at the RRF

     Speaking at the Reading Reform Foundation conference has really crystallised my thoughts on the teaching on reading. I found it both positive and depressing. Positive in that the RRF is offering concrete solutions that appear to work, but depressing but they’ve been ignored for too long. Here is my correspondence so far with Susan Godsland. […]

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