Key concept

The main theme or keyword of a particular post, maybe with reference to a teaching or national curriculum topic.

  • 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 […]

  • 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. […]

  • The bully — reading an FGI extract and planning your answer

    Read this passage, written by me and use it to help you plan your own autobiographical extract.   Although I don’t know him at all, a kid, Andrew Mintern, in the year above senses my difference and decides to pick on me. One break-time there’s a massive surge after all the “spazzies” in the school […]

  • Rupture by Simon Lelic

    This tale of a London comprehensive is absorbing, convincing and truly frightening Simon Lelic’s debut novel, about a teacher who turns out to be a psychopath, is genuinely frightening. Lelic manages to evoke in crisp, accessible prose what it’s like to work in a modern school where bullying is rife. Perhaps most terrifying of all […]

  • What makes a great teacher?

    David Cameron thinks a good teacher is all about having a good degree but, says one member of the profession, that couldn’t be further from the truth David Cameron’s proclamation that the Tories will be “brazenly elitist” about the calibre of candidates entering the teaching profession betrays the fact that he doesn’t know anything about […]

  • Don’t judge teachers by their degrees

    I’ve seen too many graduates with first-class degrees die in the classroom. David Cameron’s ‘elitist’ policies would be destructive So what makes a good teacher? Suddenly, answering this question properly seems to be of crucial importance. Today, with much fanfare, David Cameron, trumpeted plans to stop graduates with poor degrees from so-called “poor” universities from […]

  • Should parents shun the state sector and go private?

    Having been there and done it, I feel now that parents are usually best off sending their child to the local school as a government adviser recently suggested. Having helicoptered my child into a private school and seen him subjected to rote-learning and the barbaric, pointless competition of the private sector, I decided to pull […]

  • Michael Gove’s ruinous plans for education

    Today’s speech showed a party committed to micro-managing schools, using policies that have no empirical backing Michael Gove delivered a speech at the Conservative party conference which played to the prejudices of his audience. His oration was peppered again and again with talk of how the Labour party has failed the country in creating schools […]

  • Sacking top teachers will be a bloodbath

    Ed Balls’s latest plans will be disastrous for schools such as mine It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious — the Government’s latest wheeze is to sack thousands of teachers. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, announced yesterday that to cut spending 3,000 teachers could be kicked out of their jobs in the coming […]

  • The uses and abuses of jargon

    Have we gone mad with the way we use jargon? A sentence used by the police in this article suggests so. I appeared on the Steve Nolan show, talking about this, partly defending jargon. In some cases, it can be helpful. For example, the label “Special Educational Needs” is jargony, but it’s far better than […]

  • Licenced teachers won’t be better teachers

    Ed Balls’s teaching “MoT” will merely bring more pointless paperwork to the profession After two decades in teaching, I’ve realised that the really hapless members of my profession can be divided up into three distinct categories: the weirdos, the breakdowns, and the brown-nosers.The weirdos are the easiest to spot. We’ve all been taught by at […]

  • Spelling out the cost of literacy lunacy

    Teachers feel vindicated by the dumping of failed policies Ed Balls’s ditching of the numeracy and literacy strategies is a jaw-dropping admission of failure. Until the strategies were dumped late last week, they were the flagship education policy of the Government.Indeed, the Department for Children, Schools and Families appeared to be so confident in the […]

  • Teacher’s comments on two Romeo and Juliet essays on hatred

      Important note   TEACHER COMMENTS ARE IN CAPITALS. Pupils’ work are in lower case. Essay 1     ‘This play is as much about hate, as it is about love.’ Analyse how the theme of hatred is explored in Shakespeare’s play, discussing how it is represented in the language of the play and could […]

  • ‘This play is as much about hate, as it is about love.’

    Analyse how the theme of hatred is explored in Shakespeare’s play, discussing how it is represented in the language of the play and could be presented dramatically.    Hate plays a pivotal role in the play. The long feud between the families (‘from ancient grudge’) and when individuals fight like Tybalt and Mercutio (‘Tybalt, you […]

  • Romeo and Juliet: PUPIL ESSAY: What do you think that Shakespeare is trying to say about the feud in this play?

    William Shakespeare tries to set a scene with two families that have pure hatred for each other. Right from the first scene he tries to introduce us to the conflicts between the Montagues and the Capulets. He tries to give us a sense that the feud has been going on for a long long time. […]

  • Year 13: Useful websites for Child Language Acquisition

    Should you want further reading on language acquisition, these websites are very helpful and explain all the relevant hypotheses and theories:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition   http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/theories.htm   http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html

  • Useful grammar exercises

    Log onto: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/exlist/exlist.htm

  • Social Contexts and Child Language Acquisition

    Read the following two articles from the Daily Telegraph and write about whether you think that children’s changing environment is affecting their language for better or worse. Use evidence from your own investigations and research. Teacher and class notes have been added in CAPITALS. Not on Speaking Terms: Why do many children lack basic language […]

  • Year 13: STUDENT ANSWER JUNE 2007 Question 1 Unit 6 — Child Language Acquisition

    Lexical Choice It appears that Ewan becomes a bit worried that he will cause Holy to drop out of their role play game, due to his aggressive tone. He repeats the proper noun ‘Holly’ in order to grab her attention and says the verb ‘playing’ once again using a declarative where he should be using […]