This is a guest blog written by Louisa Grimley. Louisa is currently Secondary English Lead at a 4-19 SEND provision in Leicester. A latecomer to teaching, she uses her previous experience in change management to help shape staff development and curriculum engagement/design. She is passionate about well-being and sits on her school’s well-being committee. She …
I have run a few courses this year for people in leadership positions, and shared my ‘master’ sheet as an example of how I try to keep all my plates spinning at once. Here is a quick overview of how it works, and an editable version which you can download and adapt if you think …
This probably won’t be interesting to most people, but on the off-chance that you are feeling like this, I hope this blog makes you realise that you aren’t the only one. A few months ago I was diagnosed with ADHD – combined type, mostly hyperactive. To understand why this diagnosis is important, let me describe …
Alison Lister Ali Lister is an Associate Assistant Principal at an inner city Leeds secondary academy serving an area of high deprivation. She leads English as well as Literacy Across the Curriculum. Ali is passionate about making education accessible for all through the empowering facets of literacy, especially reading and oracy. When not in the …
Leila is an English Literature graduate with no real experience in teaching writing, or, indeed, writing creatively herself. She started her teaching career with little knowledge or understanding of how to help pupils write well. In my experience, most English teachers are those who have studied English (be it linguistics or literature), rather than those …
Teaching Writing: Reflections from a Head of Faculty Read More »
Getting started in September with Y11 is always a challenge, even if they have been your class in Y10 and they’ve had a really consistent diet. Throw in a global pandemic, months of home learning (or not-learning), uncertainty and possible trauma for some, and things become very complicated indeed. Forgive me for using an obscure …
n.b. In this post, I will use the terms ‘people of colour’ and ‘BAME’ to describe myself and others. These are terms which I am comfortable with, but not everybody likes them, and everyone has the right to be described in whichever way they choose. If you’re not sure: ask. Teachers are the most resilient, …
FACT: Many schools still have blanket marking and feedback policies which dictate frequency and form of marking, e.g. one mark every four lessons, with a comment on progress and two DIRT tasks (just an example) OPINION: One-size-fits-all policies prevent us from doing what matters most for students in each subject. Academic subjects are distinct disciplines …
This blog is based on a talk I gave at ‘Teaching and Learning Leeds 2019’ hosted by the Grammar School at Leeds on Saturday 22nd June. Why is language vital? What is Cultural Capital? Who decides what ‘culture’ is? What does it mean to be ‘culturally poor’ How can we redress the balance? Culture, cultural …
Storming the Citadel: a quest for cultural capital Read More »
This is a re-post of a blog I wrote for WomenEd in February 2019. A couple of years ago, a male colleague introduced me to someone as a ‘ball-breaker’. He looked at me and smiled, clearly intending this as a compliment, and went on to make a joke about how even he was a little …