I’m available to support schools, trusts and organisations with: • Curriculum development • CPD • Quality assurance • Subject leadership support • Department improvement over time 3/4

"Others might bring up that abomination of a sentence, ‘learning is change in long-term memory’, which just ignores most of the ways in which we use the word..." I enjoyed this very thorough exploration of the visibility of learning, from @bernardandrews.bsky.social

It's fascinating to watch people define 'inclusion' entirely according to what they already believe and do.

This is utterly jaw-dropping. A school that bans Atwood, Zadie Smith, Terry effing Pratchett and *literal George Orwell* is actively harming its pupils. www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

What does the poem do? A #GCSE_English #poetry revision tool. This is an OLD blog post, but many still find the approach very useful, especially at this time of year. #GCSE_English_Literature #Revision #Poetry jamesdurran.blog/2017/05/11/w...

What does the poem do? A #GCSE_English #poetry revision tool. This is an OLD blog post, but many still find the approach very useful, especially at this time of year. #GCSE_English_Literature #Revision #Poetry jamesdurran.blog/2017/05/11/w...

Learning *about* a book, being given knowledge of context, being tested on that, annotating extracts based on what your teacher tells you, is not the same as reading a book. In KS3, students need to read lots of books & talk about them, alongside studying some in more detail.

Thread… This is the sort of brave leadership/school dev practice that develops innovative solutions to complex problems…. It is not the Ofsted implementation model. Neither is it a quick win. It takes time to develop the behaviours needed to develop well. bsky.app/profile/jdur...

Beware of lowest common denominator teaching & learning policies Thinking of teaching and learning approaches as things to 'implement' in a school, rather than as things which evolve organically in the practice of reflective professionals and/or (in the secondary phase) reflective ...

Beware of lowest common denominator teaching & learning policies Thinking of teaching and learning approaches as things to 'implement' in a school, rather than as things which evolve organically in the practice of reflective professionals and/or (in the secondary phase) reflective ...

New, short blog post. #Reading_for_pleasure is for all subjects. jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/15/r...

New, short blog post. #Reading_for_pleasure is for all subjects. jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/15/r...

Great blog post on knowledge, spherical children and vacuums.

99% of teachers are fully invested in supporting those with SEND in any way they can, and will work hard to do so. Unfortunately, there's a tiny minority who seem to resent making any accommodations at all, if this interferes with their view of how classrooms should be.

What a heart-warming, inspiring blog by Andrew McCallum, describing a superb lesson by English teacher Maddie Lynes! It reinforces the view that drama activities do not just create engagement & pleasure but are a highly effective way of embedding learning. www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/drama-i...

Lots of great stuff on here at the moment on 'checking for understanding' (and on #adaptive_teaching generally.) At its core, it's all about #feedback_loops. jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/03/o...

NEW blog post: on the anatomy of great #classroom_explanations and the importance of #relationship jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/03/e...

This is such an important perspective, which is so often missing from discussions of "what works" in education. From @bernardandrews.bsky.social bernardandrews.substack.com/p/efficiency...

NEW blog post: on the anatomy of great #classroom_explanations and the importance of #relationship jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/03/e...

How important is #relationship to teacher explanations? NEW blog post on the anatomy of great #classroom_explanations. jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/03/e...

How important is #relationship to teacher explanations? NEW blog post on the anatomy of great #classroom_explanations. jamesdurran.blog/2026/03/03/e...

This is an absolute banger. Sharing with mentors and trainees today! THANK YOU.

This is why children need phones on the way to and from school.

On #teaching_talk Developing pupils' talk doesn't have to be about special activities - it can (and should) be organic to everyday classroom teaching. As schools and teachers turn their attention to #oracy, I thought I'd repost this old blog post. jamesdurran.blog/2019/08/14/t...

On #teaching_talk Developing pupils' talk doesn't have to be about special activities - it can (and should) be organic to everyday classroom teaching. As schools and teachers turn their attention to #oracy, I thought I'd repost this old blog post. jamesdurran.blog/2019/08/14/t...

All my life, I've heard that first-past-the-post voting prevents giving influence to dangerous extremists. And now it seems like it might actually put them into actual power.

Thread.

Fascinating! This historical perspective should be part of the English curriculum. I was fine back to 1300. (At university, I had to read and translate much earlier, but it's faded!)

Supporting children’s early word writing writing4pleasure.com/2026/01/19/s...

NEW POST on teaching #writing and on planning for a 'dynamic' #writing_sequence. For #primary teachers (and secondary #English teachers too) reviewing how they teach writing, this graphic may (or may not!) be helpful. jamesdurran.blog/2026/02/18/t...

If a teacher (or a department, or a MAT) discovers that by getting all pupils to write, polish and remember by heart a single piece of creative writing and then practise adjusting it to fit any given title, they can get great results in English GCSE, are they 'teaching well'?

Whe I did GCSEs my media coursework was on the party political broadcasts of the BNP and the word ‘chav’ I learned loads about racism and class and it was closely aligned with A View FRom the Bridge- our modern text and Seamus Heaney’s poetry

NEW POST on teaching #writing and on planning for a 'dynamic' #writing_sequence. For #primary teachers (and secondary #English teachers too) reviewing how they teach writing, this graphic may (or may not!) be helpful. jamesdurran.blog/2026/02/18/t...

What an utter nightmare.

Please vaccinate. Measles kills. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

"You can't argue with those outcomes!" No, but I will definitely argue with the practice-distorting, discipline-eroding mode of assessment by which they're measured.

A great thread on learning and curriculum and SO, SO relevant to English too. Curriculum is about thinking and doing in the subject, growing through connections, and 'knowledge made, not given' (Harold Rosen).

Great thread. 👍

We have published some @engmediacentre.bsky.social linked think pieces on the new curriculum here: www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/emc-thi...

These are, of course, legitimate concerns for any teacher, regarding any development.

It feels ironic that those who, over the last decade, have pushed a single model of teaching and learning, often mandating it in all classrooms, are now worried that #oracy will be "imposed" on them, or will be "wrong for their subject".

So not really, then.

My view is it's causing substantial harm across the whole of society and, though it will always be easier to be inhuman from behind a keyboard than in person, fixing the bots and the algorithms is a much better long-term strategy than an age ban.

"An age ban for social medis is just like an age ban for smoking," say lots of people who don't smoke but do use social media. #A_bit_more_complicated

To many young users of social media, rhetorical comparisons with cigarettes are instantly ridiculous. They know that SM is about far, far more than addictive pleasure. Making the analogy therefore weakens the argument for age controls.

Interesting thread. Coincidentally, I just came across this advice for trainees/NQTs on 'managing defiance', which I wrote about 25 years ago. I think a lot of it still holds up. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pcyeo...

I completely agree with this blog- this is unethical and very poor teaching. It is also encouraged by the Writing Framework (DFE, 2025) and schemes that schools buy into. It is just storing up trouble for children as they move through school. bsky.app/profile/writ...

The rise of ‘elaborate dictation’ and ‘writing-related simulations’ in English schools: Unethical writing teaching writing4pleasure.com/2025/07/16/t...