I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
Rather than differentiation, many schools are thinking more in terms of scaffolding in the current climate.
The attached documents include:
a ppt used for CPD
a guidance document containing a range of strategies that can be used to scaffold work for children.
A CPD presentation that introduces the strategies of:
presenting new information in small steps
modelling
scaffolding
This presentation is aimed at re-introducing teachers to these important elements of Rosenshine’s principles of instruction and includes some examples of how this may look in the classroom.
Resources to support the development of the following questioning and higher order thinking skills and strategies:
- Blooms taxonomy
- Socratic questioning
- No hands
- Pause time
- Secret 7
- Big question
Ideal for leading departmental or whole school training on questioning strategies.
Resources included:
- CPD power point presentation on questioning strategies with tasks for staff to complete to get them thinking about their existing practice and how they could develop this
- Socratic questioning prompt sheet to support student development of their questioning of each other within lessons
- Links to Ofsted expectations
- Departmental audit template
This presentation was used as part of teaching staff CPD that introduced direct instruction.
The presentation guides staff through:
what direct instruction is
the pitfalls of inquiry based learning
examples of how direct instruction may look
benefits of direct instruction
Engelmann’s direct instruction
This presentation was used at conferences to explore the concept of work scrutiny in schools.
The presentation:
explores the what, how and why of work scrutiny
addresses the problems with work scrutiny
provides examples and non examples
is rooted in relevant research
explores how work scrutiny can become much more impactful in schools / departments
takes Ofsted into account and their implementation of work scrutiny as part of a deep dive
compares work scrutiny with a book look
provides potential templates that could be used to make the process of work scrutiny much more impactful
A document of questions that can be used when interviewing the head of a department around curriculum intent and implementation in line with the new Ofsted framework.
As many schools move in the direction of a knowledge based curriculum there has become a need in developing a more challenging and complex curriculum that builds effectively to ensure students grasp the key concepts in a given subject.
This resource has been used in staff training and covers the following areas:
Determining what it means to study each subject and why it is an important subject to study
Ascertaining what is meant by a key concept
Exploration of why students should be given the most important knowledge
Determining the key concepts and sub concepts that make up a subject
Mapping key concepts across a LTP
Justifying and articulating how students encounter each concept/sub concept and how the complexity increases as they journey through the curriculum
Exploration of the curriculum as the progression model
All content is based on educational research and researchers have been referenced.
Medium term plans that prepare students for 9-1 AQA English language paper 1 and paper 2 reading and writing.
The medium term plans attached are highly detailed and include:
- weekly homework tasks
- clear explanation on what should be covered and analysed
- weekly assessments
These updated medium term plans have been created to interleave the literature texts. Specific links are made to Jekyll and Hyde, An Inspector Calls and Jekyll & Hyde.
E.g. - students will read articles on arranged marriage for their paper 2 study which creates links to Juliet. They will also explore the gender pay gap to create links to AIC.
Most extracts are included. Some extracts are taken from the literature texts. Any missing texts and extracts are available in the Oxford University press AQA text books 1 and 2.
MTP for paper 2 also included the new speaking and listening component.
Resources also available.
Comment back for English teachers in an excel file.
The comments cover the following areas:
- Pupil effort
- Pupil attitude
- Pupil homework
- Pupil classwork
- Pupil targets for improvement
Also broken down to provide comments for:
- Poetry
- Prose
A presentation used for staff CPD around strategies for increasing the ratio. Active engagement versus thinking. The presentation is rooted in educational research from Doug Lemov and Tom Sherrington.
The presentation:
sets out expectations of all students in our classrooms
explains the ratio spectrum with examples of actions that would place students in varying positions on the ratio graph
emphasises the importance of ‘no opt out’ with strategies for ensuring this
explores the concept of active observation and how it an be used to increase the ratio
explores how the ratio can be increased through writing, questioning and discussion simultaneously - in detail
considers the difference between formative and summative writing
incorporates a section where the CPD leader models a process for increasing the ratio through writing, questioning and discussion using the teachers as students - participants consider the question “What makes a good lesson?”
A CPD journal template.
The idea behind this is to front load a term/half term with the relevant reading that will be the basis for CPD to allow staff to read and engage ahead of a CPD session.
The reading included is based around the school priorities and ensures that CPD is research based.
Space is provided for staff to reflect on each CPD session and prioritise their actions.
Resources to support the teaching of the new specification (9-1) AQA paper 2 reading section.
Resources are fully differentiated by colour:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunity for pupil talk, provide objectives and assessment tasks. Model answers also included.
The texts used are taken from the AQA text book (turtle on the cover) but texts are also included in this bundle.
A document created to conduct more beneficial book scrutinies with a focus on curriculum and what students know and can do.
Students meet with a member of staff and have their exercise book with them.
The document outlines what is to be looked for from the books and what the students should be able to articulate.
The document also includes a set of questions that could be asked of students during the scrutiny/pupil voice.
A handy pack of documents and proformas for a head of department.
Included:
Deep dive documents that will be useful for inspection including work scrutiny and learning walk templates as well as Middle leader ofsted questions
- Lesson observation / learning walk document in line with latest Ofsted
Work scrutiny / pupil voice document in line with new Ofsted
An example English department vision which takes into account pupils’ reading, writing and speaking & listening
- Department report templates
- Department detention letter templates
- Departmental moderation and standardisation templates
- English department presentation policy template
- Questions to prepare of Ofsted inspection
- A template for assessing the English department against the Ofsted ‘Good’ criteria
A teaching and learning handbook that outlines the following areas:
Contents
Knowledge Rich Curriculum
Planning a great lesson
The non-negotiables
Feedback and assessment
Horsforth
Extended Learning
CPD
Princilpes of instruction
Quality assurance
Teacher files
Teaching and Learning group
Fully differentiated lessons to support the teaching of the new specification AQA English language paper 1 - reading and writing. Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Differentiation by colour:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
All texts for study are included as are:
- sample exam questions
- sample responses
- medium term plans
Lessons allow students to develop skills in:
- Listing information from texts
- Language analysis
- Structure analysis
- Evaluation - agree/disagree
- Narrative writing
- Descriptive writing
Resources to support the teaching of the new specification (9-1) AQA paper 1 reading section.
Resources are fully differentiated by colour:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunity for pupil talk, provide objectives and assessment tasks. Model answers also included.
The texts used are taken from the AQA text book (turtle on the cover) but texts are also included in this bundle.
A learning walk / observation document that can be used to observe lessons across secondary school subjects.
This has been created in light of Ofsted’s latest framework which puts emphasis on curriculum and what students know and can do.
Three focus areas are teaching for memory, responsive teaching and subject expertise.
Behaviour / culture for learning is not included but should always be considered when visiting lessons.