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  • Is it harder than ever to be a teacher?

    There’s a crisis of identity at the heart of the teaching profession. We don’t know exactly who we are or what our roles should entail. Are we the founts of all knowledge who pour it like milk into the empty vessels of our pupils? Or are we merely facilitators of learning, guiding our pupils through […]

  • School choice – an overrated concept

    As a teacher for 20 years, I can tell parents that with their support children can flourish anywhere The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed. […]

  • Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions

    Comparing poem from Town and Country by FGI   Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the […]

  • Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington

     How to write a fandaglistic hyperpolished poetry essay in timed conditions. Use this frame to help you! Explore the different ways in which the poets portray nature  in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ and ‘A Dead Harvest in Kensington’ Introduction: where you introduce the poems by explaining BRIEFLY what they are about. Remember you get […]

  • Standardisation: presentation ideas and presentation on processes of semantic change, taboo words

      Presentation format:     On PowerPoint: give some history and a task for pupils to do. All presentations must include some definitions on standardisation. Ask FGI for help if necessary.     Devise a presentation on how spelling was standardised, the development of printing, dictionaries, mass education. Devise a presentation on STANDARD ENGLISH and […]

  • The changing discourses connected with health

     Starter activity: brainstorm the times when you were ill when you were a child. What did your carers say to you in connection with your illness? What are your memories of your first trip to the doctors, to hospitals? What language did people use to describe your illnesses etc? What did they say to comfort you? Learning […]

  • The Opening of the Novel — True or false questions, analysing the opening

    True or false?   Gabriel Oak complains about Bathsheba’s vanity in the first chapter. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd NOT a farmer at the beginning of the novel. Oak rescues Bathsheba from dying of suffocation in his hut. Bathsheba doesn’t want to marry Oak because she does not love him. Oak would have been financially […]

  • Review of autobiography

    Task: Write a review of an autobiography Summarise briefly why you chose the book and what happened in your person’s life. Explain what interested you about their life, relating it to your life if you can. Explain what were your favourite parts of the book, quoting from your favourite passages and saying WHY the language and […]

  • Re-writing autobiographical extracts, editing and improving them

      Read these passages and answer the questions that follow: he looked like a turtle his little bald head with his oversized blazer, it looked like a home on his back! What is effective about this image? we seized every opportunity to get him back we didn’t care, we was going home after this and […]

  • How successfully does Hardy open Far From The Madding Crowd?

    Learning Objectives To learn about the techniques Hardy uses to create a suspenseful opening to Far From The Madding Crowd To learn about the contexts of Hardy’s novel An important point Starter activity: put these elements of the opening in the correct order Gabriel Oak loses his sheep Oak is rescued from suffocation in his […]

  • Steps towards writing an excellent essay on the play

    Lesson objective To learn how to use your notes to write an essay To collect your thoughts together quickly and write them down Starter activity – put these events in the right order Willy commits suicide Biff and Willy agree to set up the Loman brothers Willy remembers when there were trees in the yard […]

  • Coursework — writing a sequel to the play or writing an essay which analyses the use of suspense

    English Death of a Salesman coursework   To be completed in CONTROLLED CONDITIONS in class   Either: Sequel plus commentary (COUNTS as ONE piece of coursework)     Write a sequel to the play, set ONE year later, where Biff returns home to visit Happy and Linda. Set the scene in the house. DO NOT […]

  • Dramatising your life

    Learning objectives: to learn how to dramatise elements of your life Learning outcomes To write in detail about an aspect of your life NOT covered in the autobiography in detail, but dramatised. The question will be: Write an entertaining account which explores in depth moments when you have been alone or lonely in your life. […]

  • Complications leads to a crisis, chapters 24-43, attraction

    Learning Objective: To explore the concept of attraction and explore what it is… What makes a person attractive? Rank these qualities and add your own, with the most important first Good looks? A kind and generous personality? A dangerous and risk-taking personality? A high-status, respectable profession such as lawyer/celebrity A dangerous, romantic profession such as […]

  • Far From The Madding Crowd — CHARACTERISATIONS

    Learning objectives To learn how to answer exam questions To learn about CHARACTERISATIONS as opposed to CHARACTERS Important definition – COPY THIS, LEARN IT! CHARACTERISATION is how and why an author presents a character in the way he does. CHARACTER is a person in a novel WHY does more sophisticated analysis discuss CHARACTERISATIONS as opposed […]

  • Betrayal — Chapters 27-46

    What is betrayal? What’s your definition of it? Situations – what would you do? You learn that your partner is havinng an affair You learn after you have committed to each other that you partner had an important relationship they haven’t told you about You learn your partner has a secret love child An attractive […]

  • Write your own autobiography

    Writing to inform, describe and explain   Using these prompts to write about it. Give it a unique title.   The details of your birth? Where were you born? Was it a traumatic birth? Caesarean section? Parents thoughts and recollections on this. Your first memories: your first smell, your first accident, your first day at […]

  • Complications — The intrusion of Serjeant Troy

    Complications – The Intrusion of Serjeant Troy   Revision of Chapters 1 – 24 Who did what? STARTER ACTIVITY   Caused a stir in the Casterbridge Corn Exchange and set the farmers’ pulses racing. Lost his sheep, became a tramp and then got a job as a shepherd. Missed a wedding because of going to […]

  • How to get a foot in the door at Oxbridge

    With the deadline of October 15 looming, it’s a crucial time for students applying to Oxford and Cambridge universities. They’ve got two days to fine-tune applications and little more than a month to prepare for the infamous Oxbridge interviews. For some parents, this time of year is the culmination of years of blood, sweat and […]

  • Should parents take their children out of school during school time?

    I argued on BBC Breakfast that they should not. I cited the example of ‘Katie’ (not the pupils’ real name) who had missed weeks of school because her parents were taking her out regularly of school during term time, going on cheap holidays. They lied to the school and said that she was ill. There […]