Laura Aitken-Burt explores the fascinating societies of the Maya, Aztec and Inca and how you can integrate teaching this exciting topic into your KS3 teaching. Read More
Dr Sarah Cant explores why there has never been a more important time to study sociology and how you can integrate contemporary studies into your A level teaching. Read More
By Hannah Appleton Reframing or reimagining how we tackle Shakespeare in schools begins with our perception of it being boring, irrelevant or too difficult, especially if we teach in schools with high numbers of SEND, EAL or FSM. It is, however, precisely those complexities and layers Shakespearean texts provide, which… Read More
Of all the different forms of writing that we study in English, poetry often seems to be the one with which students feel the least comfortable. The fact that it simply doesn’t look like prose creates an instant barrier. It’s unsurprising then that young people find the requirement to explore… Read More
Academic writing just means that our students need to write in a formal manner that reflects their level of educational and is distinct from how they would converse orally or via text. A good approach is to gradually introduce students to a range of ways in which they can ensure their writing is more academic. I find it helpful to divide these into three aims: being concise, being precise, and being sophisticated. Read More
It’s important that we encourage students to explore structure and form when they are analysing a literary text. However, this can sometimes lead to empty analysis. I’ve regularly read comments on exam papers like, ‘The writer uses a comma to convey how the two people are separate’ or ‘By writing in rhyming couplets, the poet demonstrates the speaker’s love for her partner’. Responses like these are often based on good ideas but, unfortunately, the analysis is tenuous: a comma doesn’t actually mean anything; a rhyming couplet doesn’t instantly represent love. Read More
Ed Walsh explores how you can inspire students to pursue STEM careers and the value of integrating career discussions into your teaching. Why is it important to start talking about careers in Key Stage 3? Students may start to make decisions about KS4 subjects that will affect their future… Read More
Igniting a love for reading can be quite tricky with young people. Often parents ask teachers for help in getting their child to become a ‘reader’ after many attempts, and that’s not without them trying very hard. When I was growing up, computers were so slow that by the… Read More
I love discussing a text with my classes: ethical issues in ‘Never Let Me Go’, duality in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, how far we think Macbeth’s a tragic figure, the sheer horror of war in poems like ‘Exposure’…
But one of the things that I’m often asked is, ‘So how do I write that in an essay?’
It’s very useful to model writing with students so they understand how to shape their knowledge and understanding into a strong exam response. There are a number of different approaches that you can use, depending on your confidence with your class or with a topic. Read More
By Suzanne Allies We all know that teachers are extremely busy, and when workload and expectations from school become overwhelming, this can be very detrimental to the wellbeing of you and your colleagues, especially if stress and exhaustion continue in the long term. Wellbeing is such a personal matter; activities… Read More
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