Punishments

  • Teaching 1984 in the surveillance culture of schools

    Teaching Orwell’s “1984” as a set text in an examination-obsessed and heavily surveilled school system.

  • A teacher’s view of the protests

    Children should be in school, however they feel about the tuition fee rises I think it’s highly irresponsible of teachers to condone, tacitly or explicitly, pupils walking out of school. It indicates that they don’t see the primary importance of education in the classroom; if they don’t believe in that, why are they teaching? It’s […]

  • Why local schools are the solution to knife crime

    Brooke Kinsella, the Eastenders’ actress, whose relative, Ben Kinsella, was stabbed to death in London recently has produced a report for the government arguing that we must have lessons in school on knife crime. This is an idea I supported in my book,Yob Nation, but since then my thoughts have developed, having examined a great […]

  • 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 […]