In addition to my role as a consultant, I decided that as a way of ensuring I still have a direct connection with education and students, I would offer a private tuition service. Being…
What becomes clear when we visit schools, and work with young people, is that there is more pressure than ever before on them to succeed in those final GCSE examinations. With harder papers, and no coursework to support…
The topic of morality in a digital age has concerned me for a while. With the climate of technology changing at such a fast pace, how do we teach our young people to follow an online, as well as a real…
As GCSE result’s day once again approaches for thousands of young people, I personally approach it with even more trepidation than usual. As a teacher, having taught GCSE for over 20 years, for the first time…
Entering the world of work for the first time is an exciting but nerve wracking experience. It also a time that is full of expectations; both of the employee and the employer. Employers must be…
Here is my summer reading for the holidays… A mixture of pleasure, work, re-reads, curiosity and recommendations from friends and students. Unfortunately, and like many others, modern life is not conducive for reading for me at the moment. I have too many…
I am delighted to have been elected onto the NATE council as the regional representative for the North East. NATE 2017 was particularly special for me as it was an opportunity to return to the University of Nottingham where I completed my…
Billy Casper, in the novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’, is described by his own mother as a ‘hopeless case’. The violence Billy experiences is truly shocking. He is slapped or punched by his subject teacher, his PE teacher, his mother, his…
The latest GCSE reforms were originally instigated by Michael Gove as Education Secretary. His ideology was to create an English system for English students studying English texts. He wanted to improve standards, and believed that to do so, meant a return to…
I originally posted on the topic of institutionalised sexism about the Rotherham cases on Monday, September 1st, 2014. I am re-visiting this post for three reasons: The extremely harrowing, but powerful ‘Three Girls’ BBC programme about Rochdale, brings the…