Did you know that May is National Share-a-Story Month in the UK? It’s an annual celebration of the power of storytelling and story sharing. This year’s theme is ‘travelling tales’, so channel your inner adventurer, pack your bags, and bring your class on a journey to distant times and faraway lands. Big Car, Small CarProject X OriginsOxford Level […]
Read more
We understand that maths anxiety can be a real concern for teachers, parents and children, which is why we are committed to finding ways to make everyone feel more positive about numbers. Derry Richardson, Head of Professional Development at Oxford University Press provides her top tips for helping combat maths anxiety in the classroom Being […]
Read more
May brings lots of exciting opportunities, but the highlight of the calendar for me has to be the Historical Association Conference . This year it is taking place on the 17th-18th May in Chester – a city steeped in History, which should inspire your teaching from Key Stage 1 through to A Level. Every year, I doubt that the […]
Read more
In September, upon joining a new school (and thus a new department) I decided to give myself a target: to make sure that departmental meetings were meaningful, insightful and valued. In short, I wanted to ensure that our Geography departmental meetings were more than just a discussion of admin or a list of discussion points […]
Read more
The lasting popularity of Arthur Miller’s plays is undeniable. As I write this, there are two Miller productions in the West End: ‘The Price’ (1968) and ‘The American Clock’ (1980). Upcoming productions include the hotly anticipated ‘All My Sons’ (1947) starring Sally Field at the Old Vic and ‘Death of a Salesman’ (1949) at the […]
Read more
Macbeth is often presented as a villain and it is difficult to defend him without taking the obvious route of blaming Lady Macbeth for his actions. In my view, it is not all about her manipulation of him. As I said in a previous blog , I think he has made his mind up to act on […]
Read more
Romeo & Juliet is sometimes perceived as ‘just too silly’. I disagree. In my experience teenage students relate to R&J and enjoy it. Why? Because the themes are themes they understand. Because the characters are people they can to some extent relate to. Because although it’s a tragedy (and I must admit I find the […]
Read more
Exams are just around the corner, and your students are probably hard at work revising. We asked you to send us some of your top revision tips earlier this year – we loved them so much that we thought they’d be useful to share so that you can pass on to your students. Here are […]
Read more
Banquo – Mr Nice Guy? Banquo, I admit, is a character I have never considered in much detail – any notes, character profiles of him simply present him as loyal, sensible etc. He is Macbeth’s friend, Duncan’s supporter, a sort of all-round good guy who is horribly betrayed and murdered by his bezzie. Rarely is […]
Read more
In my previous blog I outlined our motivations for becoming a Reading School. We were clear why we wanted to do it and the impact we really hoped we would have. We just needed to think of a hook; a way to get the students to buy in to the new culture. We decided the […]
Read more