A fabulous round-up of children's books of 2025 on @booksforkeeps.bsky.social website, by people who know the world of kidlit publishing inside out. Plenty of great options for young volitional readers & choices for classrooms! @reeceandrea.bsky.social booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/book...

Good🧵 from @damsoned.bsky.social whose insight & experience is always revealing. How Primary expertise has been overlooked by powerful edu institutions to the detriment of the sector.

'Nothing is impossible, it seems, when you get together and make it happen.' Upbeat article featuring some amazing students from my school. Shows the importance of grassroots activism. Turning anger into community pride in North Shields. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

So delighted to share I’ve been awarded a CBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours List! Very much a shared honour- so many folk nurture #readingforpleasure - making a difference to today’s young people. @barbarableiman.bsky.social @karlduke8.bsky.social @whatsfsaid.bsky.social @misterbodd.bsky.social

I've just uncovered my copy of Harold Rosen's Language and Class. It's a gorgeous pamphlet which I bought secondhand but, more importantly, it's a brilliant critique of deficit thinking about spoken language.

Another fantastic blog & thought piece about the place of critical language awareness in schools, drawing on a strong evidence base. There's also an explainer 🧵.

Fabulous blog! Wonderful account of what can happen in a GCSE classroom where language study, students' own experiences, local knowledge and serious thought about language and identity can come together in the study of a text. What inclusive, responsive, imaginative English can and should be!

This, by the great Dan Clayton, is a brilliant cup-of-tea read - and an example of what language and literature teaching should be

Fantastic blog, showcasing the possibilities that exist for linguistically informed work within Key Stage 4 English. I'm excited to explore this poem with students for the first time next term. It's from the newish AQA poetry anthology, Worlds and Lives.

Yet another article which only draws on the opinion of one woman (and she is talking about Reception). I wonder if anyone is noticing how invisible women are in the reporting of the education sector. schoolsweek.co.uk/rise-adviser...

Do join us on Tuesday for this free seminar www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/write-to-r... it’ll be useful! @kashleyenglish.bsky.social @debrakidd.bsky.social @jonnybid.bsky.social @jonny-walker.bsky.social @raesnape.bsky.social @primarychamp.bsky.social @benniekara.bsky.social please share! All welcome!

It's good to see the outreach team from Cambridge Uni doing some great work in the North East. I was lucky enough to help out at their Interview Conference today, along with other teachers who were providing practice interviews. Such a privilege to support Eng Lit students on their journey.

Really looking forward to the #ReconstructingReading conference this week from the National Literacy Trust. Lots of interest from our Reading team within school. We'll probably watch recorded sessions together so we can reflect on what we can do better.

Listen NOW wherever you get your podcasts. While you're at it, join the Empire Club to listen ad-free and binge the next 2 episodes in our Writers of Empire series! empirepod.supportingcast.fm

Was Charlotte Brontë's “madwoman in the attic” a Jamaican heiress? Did Jane Austen's Mansfield Park sideline the slave wealth of its characters? How was her own family tied to the Caribbean plantations?

Decolonising the nineteenth century novel. An excellent listen for students and educators. Fascinating links to historical research presented in Dr Kauffman's new book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery. #teamEnglish #EduSky

I wonder if anyone else has had an issue with flags appearing outside their school? On Tues, Armistice Day, we arrived to find flags on all the lamp posts directly outside our school. A generous take is that they were put there for Armistice but the HT v quickly emailed the sch community to ...

This is really good. Overall, a very positive assessment of the CAR for English/Literacy. It does offer some important challenges and sets out hopes for the next steps. Useful links at the end to responses from other bodies in the English community. That's my weekend reading sorted.

A superb read on the Curriculum & Assessment Review.

This response to the CAR recommendations for English will be well worth reading. Due out tomorrow.

Yesterday, I was trying to find positives in the CAR for English Lang but I also feel disappointed it chose not to make recs which would align the subject more closely with some core disciplinary concepts. For eg, it's not clear if it will enable students to study sociolinguistic issues around ...

I don't think there was a comment about the current stipulation of studying texts only by British writers. I wonder if this might change.

I guess the key question now, especially with perhaps related concerns around the wellbeing of young people who are not in the workforce, is: is incremental change enough?

Yes. Discussion of the role of curriculum, and, significantly, assessment, in young people's well-being was largely absent. Yet these stats are deeply unsettling & should be a call to action.

Just taking a moment to read and reflect on the CAR. There are many general statements that are welcome such as the recognition that sequences of learning differ between subjects, the nat curriculum is a tool, teachers are the curriculum makers etc. A few thoughts on the English/literacy bits.

I'm just settling down to read this. I don't read much crime fiction but the opening is gripping and I can already tell it's going to be a page-turner. (I was happy to find this lovely hardback copy in my local library.) #booksky

'destabilising standard language ideologies'

Yes. Hard agree.

The #cogsci of reading, shared by the people who actually do the research. This will be spectacular! #ReconstructingReading bsky.app/profile/jonn...

#ReconstructingReading online festival. There is an excellent line-up of experts working at the cutting age of reading research and practice. The festival has a Primary age focus but much of this could still be relevant for secondary reading leads. #literacy #reading

Long Island is a great sequel! I read with bated breath towards the end, waiting for the unravel... Also, this episode of Take Four Books - Toibin talks about 3 books that influenced the novel. I found it so interesting, esp his inspo for the opening. #BookSky www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Important piece from @booktrust.org.uk and @openuni-rfp.bsky.social about the value of book choice for pupils and how to help promote it in the classroom. Do have a read! files.booktrust.org.uk/docs/documen... @teresacremin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social

Fantastic piece! I checked back on my latest poem about animals for little ‘uns - a draft - and found this!

The main study Cameron links to is well-worth showing AL students as it's a cool example of how to set out a Language Investigation. pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

A fascinating post from Deborah Cameron on language, gender and representation, discussing the gendering of animals in children's books and the real world, and why 'default maleing' is a problem. debuk.wordpress.com

i am still in shock but I have won a Philip Leverhulme Prize. starting in autumn 2026 for 3 years, i’ll be looking at linguistic justice in schools, particularly in how children and teachers engage in radical, grassroots activism for structural change. it's such an honour to receive this funding 🌸🩷

A national focus on comprehension would be brilliant. Interestingly, a key aspect of the HfL Fluency project is comprehension work. I know bc we took part. But fluency work seems to have taken off at sec decoupled from any signf focus on comprehension. Simplistic messaging can distort practice.

I've seen lots of excellent but also some dubious practice due to lack of prof knowledge eg multilingual students doing an online intervention staring at screens when a tchr, text & rich discussion would have been much more beneficial.

'chance' - that is exactly what I argued in my CAR submission! Too much is left to chance & this isn't equitable. How SLT support & enable the Reading Lead... if SLT prioritise Reading... if the sch has access to high quality PD... if the sch has a librarian & well-resourced library.. and so on.

I am concerned that all these big ticket plans of the government do not actually address the fundamentals of how and in what ways we need to support students. It leaves that bit (the most important bit) to chance. I have seen all sorts of strange things going on in secondary schools.

Yes, Jessie’s work is referring to how students are expected to read in s’dry. It is different from primary and this can present a range of different challenges But, if we had a broader focus at primary, and were not just limited to word reading, then many of these difficulties could be picked up.

Couldn’t agree more. ATM all of this seems utterly random. I can’t think of any good reason why testing in Yr8 is particularly appropriate- from a research/development perspective. Children who develop reading needs later on in secondary school are likely to have shown those difficulties earlier.

Who is advising the Secretary of State on these issues, I wonder? It seems so misguided. And Phonics is NOT the same as reading. Even more of a relentless focus on phonics might actually produce fewer good readers! Surely a point must come when this is recognised?

All the Heads I know are on their knees, seeing children presenting with more complex needs than ever before, extreme behaviour and limited funding. The majority of this is in EYFS and Year 1. So instead of announcing something to help this, we'll raise a target to add pressure.

🧵Thread worth reading… There are lessons about unintended consequences that are not being learnt by government here. I am worried about how these new targets all align with an inclusion agenda. I hope the DFE are aware of the population prevalence of identified SEND. bsky.app/profile/psal...

I think one problem with the announcement of a y8 reading test is that it feels untethered to any wider reading strategy. This raises questions about whether the govt has an approach for secondary reading based on research & best practice, and a gd understanding of what is needed. If the test aims 1

The best piece I have read on the topic of AI use and writing pedagogy. Just brilliant!

Really interesting discussion of the Teacher Tapp findings - How teachers feel about their accent.

This looks good.

Interesting article reporting the findings of a study: students' attitudes towards AI. 'Many reported that they wanted more help from teachers for the appropriate use of AI and in judging whether its output was reliable.' www.theguardian.com/technology/2...