‘And what do you think?’ The power of authentic student voice, by clara Harrison

“This one is clearly top band. It just has such a clear and authentic voice.” The suggestion of a teacher at my PP1 school during a KS4 moderation meeting left me nodding in agreement and also squinting in confusion. Recollections of my own preparations for the GCSE English language exam conjured images of ‘tick lists’ […]

Not just magical thinking: transferring theory into classroom practice, by Freya Dean

A few weeks into the start of our course – when trainees had begun to spend the mid-week in our placement schools while retaining the first two days of the week in faculty – many of us began to question where the practical overlaps between the two existed. Most of us had chosen the PGCE route for its blend of pedagogic theory and practice but were […]

‘Listening to the voices’: Collaborative reading and writing, by elizabeth lama

Learning about how to teach poetry has really enriched my own personal reading of it – and my wider understanding of poetry’s value as an educational tool in the classroom. I don’t have a strong poetry or drama background, and have always thought I ‘much preferred’ prose, without thinking much about why, or what potential […]