Just in case anyone thinks my life is all seriousness & vigorous education debate, here's the other, lighter side of things...Hope it might be helpful for parents, carers or other grannies or grandpas dealing with puddles of wee in pants or on the floor!

A really lovely group of teachers on our CPD yesterday 'Beyond the Critical Essay', responding so enthusiastically & with such thoughtful ideas to everything we had to offer. The feedback was excellent, which is always very nice.

Great to have a full house in the CLPE #LiteracyLibrary for our SpringSummer Literacy Leaders Forum, Anjali Patel addressing issues around writing in this session and with our wonderful members and Associate Schools well represented.

I've often said in CPD on reading/writing that the talk that happens in the classroom is the externalised version of the dialogue that students need to have in their own heads when they come to answer an exam question on a text. The talk teaches them how to have that dialogue. 2/

Spent two hours today mired in the annual faff of Spoken Language NEA admin. Never were so many filenames toiled over by so many English teachers for so little. Speaking and Listening ought to be so much more important than it is in the current incarnation of GCSE.

Thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Steve Willshaw! Listen to the two of us talking about #ReadingLessons !

OED dictionary definition below - to act reciprocally, with one influencing the other. What the children say may be an ‘action’ in response but it is not ‘interactive’ by any definition of the word. The children are simply repeating her sounds, not influencing what happens.

Ofsted must be reformed.

Parents know it, school staff know it, Labour knows it.

A Labour government would end headline grades and introduce new report cards.

When will the Tories finally follow Labour’s lead in the interest of parents, pupils and staff?

Hope the symposium went well. So sorry I couldn't join you for it. CreativeCritical.Net

Tomorrow's repeated CPD on 'Beyond the Critical Essay - Improving Writing KS3-KS5' has a whole heap of teachers coming along! There's clearly a real appetite for developing critical analysis in all kinds of ways - not only the GCSE exam paragraph or essay!

At 18, my academic advisor told me that “higher education might not be for you” as I struggled my 1st year at Uni. I was determined to prove him wrong. Yesterday, this first-generation, state-schooled student graduated from Cambridge with a PhD.

State school kids, you can do it!

Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation English & Media Ctr

Thank you so much University English for giving me the opportunity to share what English means to me in your #EnglishCreates campaign!📚❤️
universityenglish.ac.uk/dt_team/truthf…