Blog
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Michele Roberts’ keynote speech at the ‘Beyond the Sheets’ conference marked, for me, a new epoch in the way we talk about sex. Here was an established literary figure seeking to change the discourse about sex, addressing at the conference pre-dominantly young writers and emerging academics; the new “intelligentsia” if you like. It was an […]
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Last weekend, I spoke at the School Libraries Group conference in Derby. I was asked to talk about what education is for and how school libraries can contribute towards the aims and purposes of education. If you watch the YouTube video of my talk (above) you’ll see that I look at a number of key […]
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I was moved to make this random video musical poem about my journey to Goldsmiths College on the bike:
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Last weekend, I spoke on a panel for the Standing Committee for the Education and Training of Teachers (SCETT), talking about whether “evidence-based pedagogy” will lead to a re-birth of the teaching profession. I argued that it could. The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) now are examining what really works in the classroom based on significant evidence. This approach, to […]
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What ghost story inspired James’ novella? Are the ghosts in the novel real or figments of a neurotic imagination? How does James use an unreliable narrator to create suspense? How does James generate such a sinister atmosphere in the story? For the price of a chocolate bar, you can become an expert on one of […]
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I spent an interesting morning at Television Centre today, appearing on Broadcasting House, the Sunday morning magazine show hosted by the affable Paddy O’Connell. Taking a light-hearted look at the current O Level and GCSE debate, he sat an English O Level question and a GCSE one; they were both ‘writing’ or composition questions. As a […]
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The breaking news tonight, splashed all over the Daily Mail’s website, is that Michael Gove is aiming to scrap the GCSE qualification over the next few years and bring back the old O Level. The Mail claims: GCSEs will ‘disappear’ from schools within the next few years The National Curriculum in secondary schools will be abolished […]
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YouTube videos which explain Exposure: An explanation of Exposure: Pathetic Fallacy in Exposure: Structure and Para-rhyme in Exposure: Alliteration in Exposure and Spring Offensive: The background to Exposure: An explanation of Spring Offensive:
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Learning how to structure writing on Prezi
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A new report shows that the Coalition’s education policy of allowing all schools to become Academies has seriously backfired. The stated aim was to raise standards across the board, particularly in our most socially disadvantaged areas. A new report published by the Centre for Economic Performance shows that the majority of schools who have become […]
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The aim of the LSN is to support and celebrate local schools. I was talking at an Academy, Barnfield South in Luton, yesterday as a guest speaker at their prize-giving. It was very clear to me that this was an excellent local school, with fair admissions and a staff committed to their local community. All […]
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There are serious problems with the Department for Education’s application form for free schools. These are the questions we MUST insist the DfE must put on free schools application forms, otherwise the process will not be honest, transparent or correct. Take a look at the proposal form yourself! This is the form that applicants have to […]
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The Discovery New School in West Sussex plans to open as a Montessori Primary School in the Crawley area in 2011. It aims specifically to have small class sizes. This is bound to be at the cost to neighbouring schools in this area. There are already 28 primary schools in this area and clearly extra […]
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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 […]
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England’s chief schools adjudicator, who oversees admissions to schools, is obviously very suspicious about the government’s intention to “slim down” the admissions’ code. He clearly thinks Gove and co are intent upon allowing schools more ways to select pupils by ability and ethnicity. Gove says that he wants to make things “fairer” but as we […]
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The boy smashed a bottle right in front of me and then snarled. I thought for a moment whether I should confront him. Then I recognised him; he attended the local school — the one my son will go to soon — and so I decided that for once I was going to say that […]
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My son is in Year 6 of primary school in Tower Hamlets; there’s real anxiety amongst the parents at his school about choosing a secondary school. The local comprehensive, within LA control, despite being radically improved, has a “bad” reputation. All sorts of rumours are floating around about it; students being stabbed there, rampant bullying, […]
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Some commentators have felt that there are as many as 17,000 incompetent teachers in our schools, and yet only a handful of them have been sacked officially. A recent Panorama programme suggested that these teachers are passed from school to school because headteachers are too frightened to sack them. It’s basically easier for a head […]
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There was a good turn out at the Wellington Festival of Education, making me think there’s a real value in running something like this in an environment which is less loaded with privilege and dripping with elitism. Wellington College’s grounds are stunning: it has huge grounds, hundreds of acres of playing fields and lots of […]