My son is nearly 4 and he’s obsessed with the tv show which is totally fine by me. He now loves trolls and giants and witches and has a decent grasp of the lore around them in north European tradition. I know it’s for older kids but it really works for the whole family
Also take a look at Beyond the Secret Garden for great critical look at children’s fiction
if you’re looking for alternatives:
- Diane Wynne Jones is fantastic (maybe you’ve see Howl’s moving castle)
- Kiran Milwood Hargraves MG fiction is great with lots of adventurous girls and myths and legends
- Hilda which is novels/ graphic novels based on scandanavian myths
This is such an important thread… countering misinformation in the online space.
Another reason why the predominant theory of knowledge transmission that has obsessed the education sector for the past 10 years has done a huge disservice to our children….
bsky.app/profile/elio...
LATE Spring Conference alert! Saturday 18th April, at UCL IoE in London, speakers, workshops, bagels!
This is a lovely thread for #TeamEnglish I love seeing annotations and training pupils how to make their own is so important. I really enjoy teaching exam classes and seeing the systems and detail pupils come up with. My own texts were quite sparse as a student.
An infamous headteacher once said in an interview that she had explicitly taught her child all their complex vocab deliberately. she argued it didn’t happen by accident but by deliberate instruction and repetition. Total nonsense
@bobeaglestone.bsky.social is absolutely right and, contrary to the headline, he’s not against 19thC novels, he just thinks there needs to be more choice of excellent books for our students . The length issue will still arise though- I think certain books should be taken off the spec every 5 years
Sad that for #WorldBookDay2026 the only £1 books for my son’s age are netflix tv series based rather than books by a wonderful picture book author, equivalent to the MG ones. Bear Rescue, Skandar and Against All Odds are great but he’s never going to read them if his books are cheap nonsense
I think theres a point at which people are lying and gas lighting too though- yes different realities but if we take the by election, there wasn’t cheating and the greens won, reform choose to lie and news outlets Cherry pick what’s shared + reported.
Charlie Stayt, "A lot of people think those leaflets are the nasty side of politics"
Zack Polanski, "Genocide is quite nasty"
We have the next RHUL Studying Classics at University on 2nd July (not June, sorry!) and it's titled 'Of Gods and Women in the Ancient World'! Do pass on to any sixth formers of your acquaintance who might be interested.
Thank you so much to the 350 secondary English teachers who filled in our Poetry Survey & those whose extra comments have been so fascinating. We'll be quoting some in the report! The prize draw for £150 of EMC resources was won by Vicki Callaghan, Hollyfield School, Kingston
Genuinely interested in who this is for. Who is it that would need a tool to tell them what to do next. I’m finding the digital and app based interventions into what used to be reflective conversations problematic.
Colleagues are looking for teachers and teacher educators (secondary/post 16) to participate in a research project - Decolonising STEM and geography education in secondary schools in England and Scotland. Details in the attached flyer
Exactly and we’re bloggers- who had some good ideas for ‘how to teach‘ things the right people to advise on national policy? the audacity of gove who’d availed himself of the full education system + uni deciding we don’t need experts was astonishinf
I love every example you share, I’m not working in a school at the moment I’m on maternity leave but I love the work produced bt opening doors I have to say
Scroll down for ‘Nymph and the Goblin’ pupils’ work. Thanks to Crown House
@mrstopcatteacher.bsky.social
@crownhousepub.bsky.social
www.crownhouse.co.uk/opening-door...
Also, never read this poem and am now excited to add it to my stash of great to teach poetry. What a fantastic use of voice!
I LOVE this- being ambitious but using art, oracy and drama to include the texts. More of this at KS3 please!
No problem at all, I loved Emag when I taught a level and a precocious gcse class would enjoy some of the more general articles on say the gothic. Great examples of critical writing by students which again are useful at Alevel or for gcse taster lessons/ examples of great writing!
This is not a separate issue to SEND and curriculum reforms. This is the issue. How we view those around us and believe they should be treated and spoken about should be core to your pedagogy and curriculum
Emagazine is such a good investment. The archive of articles is so useful for thinking about critical perspectives. Give pairs or small groups different articles to look at, summarise or argue with. There will be tonnes on any text your studying. #TeamEnglish
Looking for useful articles for A Level students to read on the Gothic? Here's a little sample of what's on offer in emagazine. Share with your students if you have a subscription. If not, why not subscribe now? www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazine...
emagazine articles on English Language are carefully curated, to be both challenging & accessible to A Level students, cover the exam specification topics, offer fresh ideas & research & introduce them to linguists, research & up-to-date thinking. www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazine...
The evidence bases they chose to draw from were heavily cherry picked. I’ve seen a lot of oracy stuff saying ‘oh no turn and talk and rehearsal are dialogic, how can you say they aren’t, we actually have always known this’ and it’s clear they havent engaged with dialogic teaching at all really
I think it’s worth looking at why it was convenient and to whom. The attitudes towards children, young people, working class and minority people knowledge and practice can’t be ignored.
Exactly this, and you’ve been saying that for ages- the exams are wrong. We know that in English there’s been a mismatch between disciplinary practice and schools for quite a while, the curriculum review was fairly disappointing though, I felt. Some positive words but no real change
I’ve seen a few of this type of blog recently, going to list some blogs by people consistently arguing for high quality progressive pedagogies for years.
I don’t now want to see lots of blogs by people who have suddenly discovered that using children’s lit at ks3 is good or strctured group talk works well etc. go back to the people who’ve been experts on that for decades.
