Collins Schools

            
      Top 10 ideas for teaching Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
    
      Stevenson himself is an interesting character, admitting that what began as nightmares in childhood eventually became full and extensive images and scenes of horror that could last up to a day.
    
        4 min
      
        20/02/2019
      
      Top 10 ideas for teaching Great Expectations
    
      When I first started teaching I was advised by a more experienced teacher to avoid the Classics and never teach any novel over 200 pages as it took too long to get through it with a class. I heeded this...
    
        6 min
      
        11/02/2019
      
      Top 10 ideas for teaching Frankenstein
    
      It is not often in literature that you find yourself unexpectantly on the side of the monster. Mary Shelley’s powerful and thought provoking novel challenges our assumptions of good and evil and encourages the audience to see all creations as...
    
        6 min
      
        05/02/2019
      
      Top 10 ideas for teaching Pride and Prejudice
    
      Pride and Prejudice is a novel that is so embedded in our society that you could describe a man as ‘a Mr Darcy’ and it would be culturally recognised by most, even if they hadn’t read the novel. Its success...
    
        7 min
      
        15/01/2019
      
      Top 10 ideas for teaching Jane Eyre
    
      Use these 5 discussion points and 5 extension tasks to help your students understand the context of this classic novel by Charlotte Brontë.
    
        7 min
      
        12/12/2018
      
      Using Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to teach Descriptive writing
    
      Teaching descriptive writing is one of those things I always look forwards to – what English teacher doesn’t love to use language devices with flourish? – Only to often regret when it comes to marking.
    
        6 min
      
        26/11/2018
      
      Welcome to Dickens’ Victorian Christmas Market!
    
      This interactive drama lesson has been designed to support your teaching of A Christmas Carol.
    
        6 min
      
        02/11/2018
      
      How to use character mapping to promote familiarity of AO in An Inspector Calls
    
      Starting a new text with your class is always a joy, reading collectively and hearing their opinions and reflections never fails to brighten my day. But how do you teach the text in a way that is creative and animated...
    
        5 min
      
        01/10/2018
      
      Closing the Word Gap
    
      On the 27th of April Collins hosted the first Closing the Word Gap early reading conference. The conference was led by early reading experts Charlotte Raby and Emily Guille-Marrett who discussed comprehension, fluency, phonics and reading for pleasure. 
    
        5 min
      
        28/06/2018
      
      Expert guidance for the AQA GCSE (9-1) English Language paper
    
      On the approach to the exams for the new AQA GCSE (9-1) English Language specification, we sat down with teacher, coach, and former AQA principal examiner Jo Heathcote who’s provided practical advice on how best to enable your students to secure a...
    
        1 min
      
        06/04/2018
      
      The Benefits of Uninterrupted Reading
    
      Recently, I have been reading up on the benefits of whole class reading. Doug Lemov’s ideas in Reading Reconsidered seem to be (rightly) influencing many primary teachers to eschew small group reading for whole class texts. 
    
        3 min
      
        20/02/2018
      
      Poetry retreats for primary kids: sunsets, reflections and togetherness
    
      Imagine having no timetable, no classroom and no curriculum. At first glance, this idea might phenomenally liberating; we may think of all the things which we feel hold us back in our work just melting away. Or it might...
    
        5 min
      
        16/01/2018