Here's the opening to my piece in latest emagazine. Eco-lit is an ever-expanding field that offers students fascinating opportunities for analysis. Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees, new to AQA AL Lit, is no exception. What's not to love about a novel narrated in large parts by a fig tree?!

Delighted to have my own article in there about new AL Lit text for AQA, The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak. If you're looking for a new text to teach, it's worth considering. Lots for students to get their teeth into

The 2 AL conferences we've run this term to 1800 students have shown how vibrant the subject is in terms of enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity + commitment. This is so heartening for English + added to promising green shoots in the Curriculum + Assessment Review might mark the start of a comeback!

Today's emagazine English Language Student Conference is off to a flying start! Our first speaker of the day, George Bailey, spoke about using technology to classify variation between regional dialects.

In which @englangblog.bsky.social said 67 in front of 800 students and didn't get a single response. The craze is over if your 16/17 years old

For the next talk of the day, Jasmine Andersson speaks about claims that accents like the Cockney accent are dying out.

Fascinating broad sweep of different aspects of language change - No.1 takeaway: early print tried to mimic what written script would look like. No.2: Caxton himself wrote about the problems posed by language change

Some very good questions from the students - you can't see them in the picture but there were 800 present!

Really thought provoking stuff in this one, particularly the argument that social media is not driving language change but is drawing on existing language features to grab and hold attention

This was such a great day. We've sold out for next week's AL Language conference and December's Poems of the Decade as well. And tickets for our Media Conference went on sale today - and sold out in an hour. So many teachers committed to broadening their students' experiences

The 8th Reflecting Realities report is yet again a brilliant model of how to research + write with depth, integrity + impact. We recommend that all teachers read it! clpe.org.uk/research/clp...

I've been to all the EMC Media and Film Teachmeets. So much commitment, expertise and knowledge on display

It's fascinating to see how much the students were writing with minimal guidance. So much great material to draw on for formative assessment. It's something @barbarableiman.bsky.social + I will be thinking about in our Big Picture Writing course next week www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/0a4b...

That's a lot of courses!

Literature and the art of possibilities. The central protagonist in this gem is Helm, a wind system that torments the upper reaches of the Pennines. Recommended!

If you missed the @engmediacentre.bsky.social response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s report, it’s well worth a read www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/emc-res...

Final preparations as we wait to welcome 800+ A Level Literature students & teachers to our emagazine conference @engmediacentre.bsky.social

This is a really interesting reinflection of reading survey data - a welcome move away from the endless doomsaying of decreasing numbers

Exciting news to share! Phoenix Brothers by Sita Brahmachari has been nominated for the 2026 @carnegiemedals.bsky.social Medal for Writing! 🎉 From OUP's Super-Readable Rollercoasters series, this is a moving tale of resilience and identity. #Carnegies2026 #TeamEnglish @cilip.bsky.social

Loved this. Loved it even more when I found out the author is an English teacher!

If you’re an English teacher, please do this. Your views matter & we want them represented in our survey!

Brought half term to a close by reading about 'expressive writing'. So different to today's methods but there's still value in learning to 'write through writing' as @barbarableiman.bsky.social + I hope to show in our 'Big Picture Writing' webinar on Nov 25 www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/0a4b...

November's Big Picture Writing webinar with me + @barbarableiman.bsky.social explores 'composition-led writing' - getting something on paper + working with it. It's such an important part of any effective writing pedagogy! www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/0a4b...

Last week Hannah Pettit, EMC's social media content creator took part in the BFI LFF Critics Mentorship Programme. We're so proud she won a place on this prestigious programme for budding film critics. Here's what she wrote for The Standard as part of the programme www.standard.co.uk/culture/film...

Treat your classes to some wonderful poetry, along with resources designed by @barbarableiman.bsky.social for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social this Thursday! englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/resourc...

EMC TWILIGHTS ARE BACK Join us after school on October 23rd for engaging conversation, intellectual stimulation + the leftover refreshments from our 50th birthday celebrations! Refreshments from 4.30pm @darrenchetty.bsky.social @barbarableiman.bsky.social englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/6fae...

The literary mind has much to tell & learn from the field of cognitive science. Very little of it bears any relationship to cogsci approaches imposed generically across subject areas 🙄

I missed this excellent report when it came out. Much-needed comments about a loss of creativity in schools. Creativity is at the core of everything @engmediacentre.bsky.social does + always will be because it's at the core of how language learning works educationappg.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Conjures up all sorts of thoughts about learning with & through literature - with a premium on a form of imaginative thinking akin to Judith Langer’s ‘possibility thinking’ in ‘Envisioning Literature’. Literature has such an important role to play in today’s classrooms

When you've gone super-early on your half-term reads and don't know whether you'll be able to hold out that long!

I've just realised that over half of the schools + colleges teaching A Level in the UK subscribe to emagazine and/ or MediaMagazine. That's a statistic to be proud of @barbarableiman.bsky.social www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazines/

We've been lucky enough at @engmediacentre.bsky.social to work with Raymond Antrobus on several occasions, so it was a real thrill to read his brilliant new memoir/ cultural history of D/deaf cultures. Highly recommended!

If the new curriculum allows space for books in translation then I can't think of a better one to include than this dystopian gem. Defies all expectations, sticks in the mind long after reading + compares brilliantly with other popular dystopias. The Road + Handmaid's Tale spring to mind

FREE EMC TWILIGHT We can't wait for this free event at our Webber Street base featuring two of our favourite writers. Book your place on our website while tickets are available @darrenchetty.bsky.social @theclpe.bsky.social @literacy-trust.bsky.social

It's conference season at EMC this term. A Level conferences for Language, Literature and Edexcel Poems of the Decade at Friends House, with online + in-person teacher conferences for A Level Eng Lang at our Webber Street base. Student ones at this link www.englishandmedia.co.uk/conferences/

We aim to recruit 30 or so teachers to our full-day online courses, so I'm delighted that Kate Oliver and I will be working with 32 teachers tomorrow!

🧵Why Schools Should Sign Up for EMC’s Annual Webinar Package: 1. Sustained, high-quality, subject-specific CPD that aligns with research on what works. 2. Whole-department access, so no teacher is left behind, regardless of experience or schedule.

There's a bit of everything in this one - presentations, workshops, discussion groups. It's sure to be an enjoyable as well as an informative and stimulating day. A few places left if you book soon!

Wonderful to see English departments snapping up this brilliant offer which closes at 5pm tomorrow

I really enjoyed writing this blog about our brilliant Year 12 students' work on their NEA text, Brotherless Night by @sugi.bsky.social - their responses to the novel have been so powerful and it's been a lovely culmination of my work with @engmediacentre.bsky.social this year.

We invited the 25/26 Associate Teachers to our centre yesterday, along with the 24/25 cohort and had a wonderful time discussing all things English

One of the delights of having Associate Teachers with us this year has been the wonderful work they've given us access to

Looking forward to running this one gain next term. It always produces amazing responses from the teachers attending

EMC’s @andrewemc.bsky.social & @barbarableiman.bsky.social are signatories of this letter. Prioritising talk in any curriculum reforms is key to improving outcomes for young people

All the winning films are a joy to watch and looked especially amazing on the big screen at NFT1 last week

📰 See Guardian coverage here 👇 www.theguardian.com/education/20...

And for 10 years we've had to put up with what was obvious fro the start. This from 2015 englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/english...

More than a week on from our 50th celebration - such a wonderful evening with progressive English + Media voices past, present + future!

It was lovely to see so many teachers coming to the centre after a hard day at the chalkface. Thanks to each + every one, plus Claire Pollard @mediamagemc.bsky.social

Looking ahead to next year's EMC CPD offer, it's thrilling to see @englangblog.bsky.social finding new areas of AL Language to explore. This teacher conference promises to be a 25/26 highlight!