Reason #3984 why I love my job! (We didn’t just cuddle newborn ducklings, honest. We also thought hard about how to plan streamlined writing instruction, focusing on doing fewer things really, really well. Huge thanks to the staff at Deykin Avenue for their hard work…and for the duckling cuddles!)

A super-quick but utterly stunning read this weekend.

And now a treat for the train home

Absolutely wonderful exhibition on medieval women’s writing @britishlibrary.bsky.social with wonderful woman @katylindemann.bsky.social. It is so moving to see the deeply human crossings-out and margin notes in these precious texts.

This excellent, and sadly very familiar, article is a tough but vital read.

One of my all-time favourites.

There is simply nothing better than a request for ’books, please’ from a bookworm niece on her birthday. I forgot to snap a pic of the stack but I have collated the selection for posterity as I’m pretty pleased with the choices (and it will help me to avoid buying duplicates at Christmas!).

Discovered via a recommendation from Katherine Rundell on IG, & the reason why I have been giggling and crying on the train for the last 90 mins: Clémentine Beauvais’s own translation of her superb YA novel «Les petites reines» / Piglettes. Absolutely wonderful.

More ☀️📚: Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. I’ve seen this compared to Little Women, but the similarities end with four sisters, one deceased. Most of the characters are so flawed as to be pretty unlikeable but the relationships are very well-drawn and so believable that I found myself rooting for them.

I’m not *quite* back in work mode yet but I am starting to think about our trust’s new subject-specific PD offer for teachers in our secondary & AP settings, KS3-5. So, #TeamEnglish, what’s on your wish list for valuable, high-impact, enjoyable English-specific PD?

Books of the summer continued: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I mean the highest praise when I say that it reminded me of some of Maeve Binchy’s short story cycles.

This is the 3rd platform on which I’ve started a summer book thread; hopefully this one sticks! First, Sandwich by Catherine Newman, inhaled in 48 hrs. The image of looking at your child & seeing all the children that she used to be nested within like a matryoshka doll might stay with me forever.

Monday nights restored to their proper form. #onlyconnect