Freedom to Teach

Supporting reluctant readers

Supporting reluctant readers

Reluctant readers are a small but significant group of children who do not yet read for pleasure. They are children who can read, but instead avoid or choose not to read. While not exclusively boys, many are, and finding...

5 min

Revision ideas for ‘A Christmas Carol’

      “You recollect the...

5 min

Four ways to approach the Black Lives Matter protests with your sociology students

Teaching sociology is a collective action. It is important to recognise that we are equipping the next generation with critical skills and insights that can possibly lead to social change....

6 min

Anti-bullying: is it enough?

Anti-bullying: is it enough?

As we approach another Anti-Bullying Week, I question whether anti-bullying is still the most appropriate phrase. 2020 has been the most challenging of years, and school-based bullying has been going on since schooling...

4 min

Why it’s time to Reimagine Key Stage 3 English

Why it’s time to Reimagine Key Stage 3 English

Reimagine Key Stage 3 English is a project-based resource designed to underpin teaching at KS3 by equipping students with the core skills of comprehension, knowledge about the language and structure of texts and plentiful writing opportunities...

5 min

Designing Shakespeare: teaching ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Designing Shakespeare: teaching ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

One of the core difficulties when teaching Shakespeare is taking it off the printed page – turning it from a flat, some might say dead text into a living, breathing work of drama.  To do this, we need to...

5 min

Connecting with unseen poetry

Connecting with unseen poetry

Any examination is a contained and isolating space, the examinee on their own, having to rely on themselves to navigate their way and manage their time. The unseen poetry section is often considered the place containing the highest degree...

5 min

Connecting with unseen poetry

Any examination is a contained and isolating space, the examinee on their own, having to rely on themselves to navigate their way and manage their time. The unseen poetry section is often considered the place containing the highest degree of...

5 min

Examining Covid-19 through a sociological gaze

Examining Covid-19 through a sociological gaze

As a Sociology teacher living and working through the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been fascinated by the societal impact COVID-19 has had on our society. Pandemics in general have been a topic researched by sociologists: McCoy (2017) investigated the...

5 min

Creative approaches to teaching The War of the Worlds

Creative approaches to teaching The War of the Worlds

Over 120 years ago Wells’ science fiction novel The War of the Worlds (1898) presented Victorian readers with a frankly terrifying answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars. Now in 2020, with wonderful...

6 min

Ideas for re-engaging students with science this term

Ideas for re-engaging students with science this term

It’s always a risk when committing thoughts to paper (or cloud) on education policy and practice; what might seem adventurous or at least perceptive at the time of writing can look predictable or even downright out of date by...

5 min

Top tips for exploring Hamlet’s key themes

Top tips for exploring Hamlet’s key themes

Year 12 students returning to school to begin their AS and A-level courses are probably feeling rather like Hamlet at this moment, their heads ‘a distracted globe’ filled with conflicting thoughts. And Hamlet can be a daunting play...

4 min