Another superb blog on writing! I so wish @writingrocks.bsky.social had been on the core panel and a key voice in the creation of the DfE Writing Framework.

Excellent piece on the dire impact of removing bursaries for training to teach subjects ts like English and History.

The lack of student bursaries for training as an English teacher will only lead to further shortages of specialist English teachers and damage to the subject as a whole. Such a short-sighted decision!

An essential report from Dr Francesca Bonafede and colleagues that deserves careful thought and reflection from everyone interested in helping children and young people become the best writers they can be — in the broadest sense! 👇 literacytrust.org.uk/research-ser...

I'm doing a half-term reading/workshop on my poetry collection 'Snap!' at Saxmundham Library on Tuesday 28th October, as part of Poetry in Aldeburgh Festival. If you're in the area, with small children, why not come along? FREE but booking is required!

Listened to @europeanspod.bsky.social for the first time this eve. (Hi Dominic!) Fascinating to hear about teacher pay in Luxembourg…and why earning vast amounts doesn’t make the teachers happy. Plus an interesting item on Intervision. A really entertaining listen!

Good to see this article covering the concern over marking. Plenty of HTs, HODs & teachers have had enough of doing the unpaid QA work & seeing the neg impact on students. Also, as alluded to by the EMC, a signif issue is lack of clarity around Eng Lang GCSE. What's it testing, how & why?

A piece on this in today’s Observer, quoting me & various Heads of English. Not the headline I’d have chosen & a lot more to be said, but great to have it flagged up as a major concern in a national paper. t.co/3rKtrjQllF

If you look at any of the @engmediacentre.bsky.social poem selections and resources with students today, do share any responses, views & writing with us or here! forwardartsfoundation.org/national-poe...

Hooray! Today’s the day! Jump straight to these pages of resources to pick a poem to share with your classes - lots of choices for EY, KS 1,2,3,4 & 5. @poetrydayuk.bsky.social forwardartsfoundation.org/national-poe...

Sadly, I could add so much more to this. Many of us have found the Review not to be a sufficient Q&A process. HTs are making complaints about the marking to exam boards who always defend their processes. There is no real accountability here. It's appalling. So many students impacted negatively.

Another email from an English teacher this morning about the appalling NATIONAL SCANDAL of GCSE English marking. They gave their permission to quote the email in full & I want to share it because it is so shocking. What are Ofqual & DfE doing about this?

www.englishandmedia.co.uk/videos/colle... I’m thrilled that we @engmedia.bsky.social are now able to share the full set of stunning video clips of Tony Harrison reading & talking about several poems (including ‘Them & Uz’) plus a wonderful interview about poetry in general. RIP Tony Harrison.

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...

The idea of a Year 8 reading test seems to have united pretty much everyone in education against it (except for those committed to sucking up to the DfE).

This 👇

For @poetryday it just so happens that the whole first section of my book ‘Snap!’ is on Games, Play & Activities, including, especially appropriately, the title poem. Here it is. The book is available on Amazon. amazon.co.uk/Snap-Poems-Chi…

Why the "knowledge" distortion of cognitive science is so dangerous in MFL teaching: whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2024/06/lang...

Worth taking a look at the poems here for @PoetryDayUK! I have a couple on the site myself. scaryness.com

Link broken below. Here it is again: poetrystation.org.uk/search/poets...

So sad to hear of the death of Tony Harrison. He was a superb poet & extraordinary man. A highlight of my career was filming & interviewing him for @EngMediaCentre Poetry Station. t.co/XlYb3HQ2oL 1/

What an incredibly powerful thread!

Congratulations to @voice21oracy.bsky.social on your 10th anniversary. Long may your fantastic work continue! schoolsweek.co.uk/voice-21-at-...

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...

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 🙄

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...

PEOPLE OF OXFORD: this is today! Come on over to Blackwell’s on Broad St later this afternoon for an hour of silly poems (mine) and brilliant drawings (Joe’s) as we celebrate the publication of ‘A Poem for Every Question’. Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brian-bils...

The annual Young Romantics Prize is now open for entries! Something for your keen A Level students to go in for, especially if they're studying Mary Shelley! keats-shelley.org/news/2025_6_...

What an amazing thing! I’m so unbelievably proud.

Very proud to have children’s poems in these lovely collections!

Here's a poem I wrote this time last year - a children's poem about seeing Autumn in a positive light!

A huge thank you to @carolebromley.bsky.social for a brilliant workshop on writing children’s poetry yesterday - family, friends, home. With great prompts, I wrote lots of poems, some of which were not so great, some better, and heard amazing ones by other poets! A joy!

A brillliant, fascinating article by @iancushing.bsky.social about the word gap concept - but also about the whole ecology of our current education system, uncovered by tracing the experiences of one teacher and what these reveal about the system as a whole.

❌ Investigation: Councils have accused schools of refusing so many challenging pupils it 'amounts to selection', capping cohorts to prevent in-year transfers of vulnerable pupils and wrongly turning away youngsters in care Read more 🔽 schoolsweek.co.uk/shut-out-how...

1/3 It is bewildering how Ofsted doesn’t seem to be able to understand the implications of its work. All the way through this long-winded process, it has never managed to get to grips with why it needs to change. Or how to do this. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

There are some strange myths around the teaching of writing floating around. I wish the Writing Framework has just gone back to the utter basics (from research). Rather than create its own weird confections of misinterpretations. bsky.app/profile/writ...

Stirring Words features writing & art buy @quirkybirds.bsky.social @barbarableiman.bsky.social, Ben T., Brigid McWherter, Carmela A. Martino, Claire Schlinkert, Emery Lawyer (@brilawyer.bsky.social), Erin Zampaglione, @evelynday.bsky.social, Graham Seal, Isabelle Paruzel-Gibson...

So lovely to have a poem published in this beautiful issue of @littlethoughtspress.com magazine! It's one dear to my heart, as it brings in memories of my grandmother and thoughts about language and cultural identity. www.littlethoughtspress.com

🧵 We all know that technology is changing the ways in which we use language. Linguists tend not to judge: they study, describe and explain the ways that language is being shaped by technology itself but also by its users. They point to the endless creativity of humans.

Very excited to have two new poems up on the fabulous Scaryness poetry website. They're in the 'new poems' section - one about ghosts who're afraid of children, the other about the shivery thrill of reading scary books! scaryness.com

Here’s a poem called ‘English Roundabouts’.

If you’re a journalist writing about the Kirk murder and you don’t know what the Groyper Wars are, I beg you to find someone who knows what the Groyper Wars are before you write your article

Such a fun afternoon at Hornsey library for my launch of Snap! A really good turnout of kids and adults & a lovely receptive audience! Plus another booking request on the back of this event. 🙏 to all who came.

Such a fun afternoon at Hornsey library for my launch of Snap! A really good turnout of kids and adults & a lovely receptive audience! Plus another booking request on the back of this event. 🙏 to all who came.

THE NEWS Mon: interview with Farage Tue: interview with Farage Wed: interview with Farage Thur: interview with Farage Fri: interview with Farage Sat: interview with Farage Sun: What’s Behind the Rise of Reform?! #poem

This year's Foyle Young Poets Award entries are with the judges and winners will be announced in the autumn. We're sharing extracts from some of the commended poems in 2024. You can watch these poets (and more!) read their poems at bit.ly/Foyle24Playlist2 #FoyleYoungPoets

A terrific poem by @dreambeastpoems.bsky.social Great for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social theme #Play, playing with dialect words and phrases from his home town in the #midlands. @englangblog.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @engmediacentre.bsky.social

On Monday 20th October, I'm running an online session with the brilliant @joshuaseigal.bsky.social all about raising the profile of poetry in the primary classroom. It will start at 3:45pm and end at 5:00pm. More information here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-dont-lik...

I'm really looking forward to doing this performance/workshop in the pre-festival run-up to the Poetry in Aldeburgh Festival. Booking details below if you'd like to come and join in!