Join us for exhilarating talks, enriching conversations and wonderful new connections with people who love learning as much as you do!
In the English strand we have @ahughes3.bsky.social @xris32.bsky.social @haledonal.bsky.social @hugheshaili.bsky.social @meerachudasama.bsky.social and more!
Book recommendations
Book recommendations
Book recommendations
NEW BLOG - Reading Recommendations
learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2024/06/read...
Includes Keith Gray, Ciannon Smart, Jackie French, Robin Jarvis
Book recommendations
Book recommendations
Book recommendations
NEW BLOG - Reading Recommendations
learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2024/06/read...
Includes Keith Gray, Ciannon Smart, Jackie French, Robin Jarvis
Poster of Wuthering Heights
Enjoyed Wuthering Heights. Felt very Derek Jarman/Francis Ford Coppola. Great imagery, apart from the skin walls! I didn’t have any issues with the changes to the story because I am so used to Shakespeare reinterpretations. Very much a Coppola and Burton portrait of Victorians
NEW RESOURCE: I’ve been experimenting with @xris32.bsky.social style ‘phrase banks’ over the past term to much success! Here are the AIC ones I’ve used. Great discussions had over what each phrase means and how we can use them appropriately in our writing. Use/chuck: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ptem7...
NEW BLOG: We need to talk about oracy
A taste of my ResearchEd talk yesterday
learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/03/we-n...
Thank you 🙏
We’re a month away from the book release date and 2 months away from some great CPD around ‘An Inspector Calls’.
@zarashah.bsky.social, @xris32.bsky.social and @funkypedagogy.bsky.social all speaking! 🤩
Sign up below! @hugheshaili.bsky.social @miriamhussain.bsky.social @teachals.bsky.social 👇🏻
NEW BLOG: We need to talk about oracy
A taste of my ResearchEd talk yesterday
learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/03/we-n...
"We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist."
James Baldwin
And that’s the issue. A lack of knowledge.
I am not being difficult over things; I just think the SEND issue hasn’t been really addressed. A lot of things have been about show. I say this both as a teacher and a parent. There’s a reason why SEND is such a problem at the moment.
All in an attempt to look like we are addressing the ‘who’. It is showboating in my opinion. At no point have we been sitting down and going ‘what is/are the issue / barriers’ around this group of students. Yes, they have been prioritised but they haven’t been understood.
On that we disagree. I don’t think ‘who’ is a key component or should be the main focus. I just think we have neglected it.
What is laughable is that for decades we have been stuck on ‘what to teach’ and ‘how to teach’ and not ‘who are we teaching’.
It is and it is deeply rooted. Under the guise of kindness.
This is where I think education is needed. I’ve had training on everything under the sun, but SEND training has been very limited. It is usually niche or on the back of something.
Some teacher thought her smiling was success - I kind you not. As long as she’s happy.
The battle we have had with CP is the default ‘teach differently because she is SEND’. Treating children like they are fragile glass. She needed ‘tough love’. I always say this we need to push SEND students harder. They don’t need our pity, but our empathy and determination.
I think that is where the crux of the matter lies. There’s a lack of transparency and accountability around what works and how it works. Quite a few charlatans who put forward a methodology that doesn’t work. There is no one key source for information. I know that from my partner.
So, the knowledge around how the condition is the key barrier for me. How it impacts the learning process for students? Not about learning things differently but how the condition impacts what we assume is the norm.
I am married to a SENDCO so I often have to discuss these things. As an English department we explored the research around dyslexic and it threw up lots of things around sequencing and processing of information and knowledge. Largely how the condition impacts processing.
We make assumptions based on what the common majority.
I would offer that our issue is the lack of knowledge of how a condition affects the learning process. Look at dyslexia. So misunderstood that we assume it is just reading and processing words on a page.
Interested discussion. I would probably say,as a father of a SEND child, the issue is how the condition impacts the same way we learn. From a CP perspective, energy level impact ability to focus and concentrate. With CP, you are working twice or thrice as hard as others. Hidden aspect.
Vigil book cover
Today’s reading
Book cover
Today’s reading
I can vividly recall an episode of a boy trapped in a pyramid box. He’d die if not discovered.
Good choice. Loved the TV series as a kid. Creeped me out
@openingdoors.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @natecommunity.bsky.social It is so often the artists, the writers who see and speak to tyranny whilst the rest stay quiet
Join NATE, the UK’s leading subject association for English teachers. Get inspiring resources, stay up to date with the latest thinking in English education, and join a supportive community — from just £5/month (£1 trainees, £3 ECTs). mailchi.mp/nate.org.uk/...
