Being a leader is hard. Trained to teach and make decisions about teaching but leading people...

It's all for the students. That's the why.

Just before tomorrow begins - an important message:

Grades 1-3 are not fails. Us or Xs are. Anyone with a 1-3 HAS GOT A GCSE. And for some of those kiddos, a 1 or a 2 or 3 can be a phenomenal result that they deserve to be proud of. Let’s be a bit more responsible in our language.

Getting a tent back into it's bag is an Olympic sport. I'm currently DNF.

And this tells us teachers really REALLY like having their own classroom!

Check out the @teachertapp.bsky.social results onelink.to/teachertapp

On paper my salary is great. And I am very fortunate to earn what I do. But my partner (non grad private sector) was shocked at how little difference there was between our take-home pay considering our difference in salary.

2024 statement. If my student loan was cancelled I'd have had nearly £3000 more in my bank last year. The *fastest* way to deal with a retention issue would be write off loans. These combined with incredibly high pension contribution...

Balance in 2019...

My annual check of how much I haven't repaid*

* Plan 1 degree finished in 2012 so repaying since 2013.

*Plan 2 teacher training finished in 2018 repaying since 2019.

Well...a decision made in March 2023 is coming home to roost.

🤞🏻 that changing exam board halfway through year 10 has been a positive experience for my students life chances and outcomes.

Booked my wedding venue/day/yay 🥰

English literature and language, however, both saw small falls in the proportion of A*/A grades achieved this year

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I've been in a battle not to be blocked with bio/chem for years and last year for the first time since 2019 we weren't. Our numbers doubled. Kids do want to take it as long as they have their 2 sciences.

Definitely why we now do Gatsby and Richard II

Ah, yes. I had forgotten about the NEA. However, the text is still central even in that. I feel they're just continuing the lens reading they learn from genre study. It's light touch Marxism compared to reading The Communist manifesto and Freud's essays on dreams in year one of uni.

I'm going in eyes open having already done the childcare bit. Thing is I could go to Yorkshire and have a wedding in an actual castle for the same cost as a tiny hotel in Shropshire. 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you could go anywhere on honeymoon...where would you go?

AQA Lit B. Nearly every examiner report says the most important person in the question is 'you' and they're completely uninterested in critical readings being quoted. We use them to teach (you can't teach Othello without Coleridge for example)but not needed for essays.

No critical sources needed on our A level spec. In fact, actively encouraged not to quote others!

Wedding venue decisions are hard. Largely because I cannot believe the cost!

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My feedback in my undergraduate dissertation centred around errant comma useage. I hear you.

In addition to being an esteemed self effacing, impostor syndrome driven Head of English...

I am also the mother of a 4yo into the 4th week of a summer holiday.

Today, we were supposed to go swimming-except he carved chunks of wood out of the kitchen table, so now we can't.

Give me strength.

A level results tomorrow. My brother gets theirs, so I am more emotionally invested in that than my schools. Feeling a strange sense of calm.

GCSE however...

Oh what a collosal waste of time. I refuse to provide essay grades prior to whole text study. So we unseen in HT1 to provide a benchmark and move from there.

Useful as I am teaching this for the first time in 3 years in September! 📌

Please!

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Hello #TeamEnglish