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Calling all English teachers!

8 replies

AViewfromtheFridge · 20/09/2012 22:50

Friends, Romans, countrymen... lend me your ears. (yada yada yada etc)

Just thought a subject-specific thread might be an idea, as well as general ones. So, I have a few questions for you all:

  1. What board are you with?


  1. Were you affected by the English debacle this summer, and what has your school's response been?


  1. Have you had any experience with the new Ofsted framework?


and so I don't feel like shooting myself,

  1. What is your favourite thing to teach that you absolutely love doing?
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ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged · 20/09/2012 22:58

1 - WJEC
2 - Not majorly, our results were as expected, although it seems ridiculously a little unfair that Welsh pupils' marks have been changed and ours have stayed the same.
3 - Only a little. I'm responsible for literacy so trying to get teachers across the school to embed literacy in their lessons. We're expecting OFSTED any day now though so I'll update if we learn anything else.
4 - Shakepeare. Honestly. I love it. Or Carol Ann Duffy, especially Rapture.

And you?

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AViewfromtheFridge · 20/09/2012 23:35

Ooh yes, how remiss of me!

  1. Edexcel. We changed from WJEC (with new spec). Don't like it. V. dry, too much emphasis on transactional writing and frankly, they don't seem to know what they want it. Mixed messages all the time.


  1. Not personally, but our overall English A* - C dropped from 87ish (last few years) to 67. Gutted for some of our C/D borderline kids.


  1. Nothing official, but we had a trainee Ofsted inspector in this week doing a mock subject inspection. The big watchword is independence - you're supposed to let them make their own mistakes and learn from them rather than trying to pre-empt potential sticking points, IYSWIM. All in all, it was quite a dispiriting experience... but probably useful long term.


  1. I love it when a class gets so into a book they never want the lesson to end. My favourite bit ever to read out loud is when George says in OMaM, "No Lennie, I ain't mad. I want you to know I ain't never been mad," just before he shoots him. I ALWAYS have to hold back the tears, and you can see the boys looking at each other going "Oh my god, is she crying?"
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overthemill · 21/09/2012 11:08

I teach English at a middle school at the moment so no board but I also tutor GCSE and A level and it depends on what board their school is with. My 2 GCSE students this year: 1 amazingly got a C for IGSCE (I thought he'd fail tbh he did no work) and one I tought would get a B got a C so I tactfully suggested she see if her schol were going for re-marking.
My own son got a B and was 2 marks of an A and his school is going to get all his top set class remarked (and he is AQA)

books/authors: with lower ability middle school I love mathilda as they get so much out of it. Hate teaching poetry as none of the kids 'get' poetry and I struggle with that. I love most authors and hate teaching stuff like magazine writing/reviews etc. sorry

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Themumsnot · 21/09/2012 11:50

I'm an NQT still looking for a job and getting a bit desperate. Nothing coming up in my part of the country at all. Sad
Taught OCR in my placements and WJEC A-Level. Currently tutoring a child for Edexcel.
No experience with the new Ofsted yet.
I love teaching poetry and literature in general. Teaching A-Level poetry last year was the best fun ever.

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ProphetOfDoom · 22/09/2012 11:35

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AViewfromtheFridge · 22/09/2012 17:39

I hadn't heard of 'Out of the Blue' - have just done a bit of googling and can imagine the silence! The AQA poems look much better than the Edexcel ones.

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ProphetOfDoom · 22/09/2012 23:40

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greyvix · 23/09/2012 20:02
  1. OCR. We did well in English Language, but we are asking for a re-mark of one of the Literature papers. It's a shame, as we are positive about the OCR syllabus.
  2. See above: we will take the literature paper to appeal if we have no joy in the first instance.
  3. We have done some shared observations with an Ofsted inspector, and we're doing CPD on it.
  4. I love Armitage, particularly *Mother any distance..." and "In our tenth year". The students have to put up with me being tearful quite a lot, but it shows them the power of literature. (Well to me anyway!) I hadn't come across "Out of the Blue", but just watched it with DH, who was there on 9/11, so very poignant. Thank you!
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