Imposter Syndrome – Teaching in Another Country

This isn’t, ordinarily, the type of content I post on this blog. But, with students returning to school, full-time, last Monday, I have found myself caught up in a whirlwind of work and I have nearly neglected my promise to myself to continue to write blogs for the rest of the year. Rather than doing

Review – This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell

What is it about? With an intended audience of younger people, this book seamlessly combines easy to access information relating to anti-racism with useful journalling ideas, to help readers actively engage with the topic. Not only does it explain difficult to grasp issues clearly, it is also an incredibly beautiful book – the illustrations, by

Working from Home – Reflection

Since Covid came and disrupted life as we knew it, I have found myself in a position where I have needed to teach my students online on multiple occasions. I have just got a temporary Secondary English teaching position for Term 4 and I will, once again, be teaching online. So, this, to me, felt

Reflection – Diversity Curriculum Audit: First Steps

Note: This was saved in my drafts and written last September, when I was still teaching at a school in Bristol, UK. So the biggest task to undertake in the first step of de-centering whiteness/ decolonisation is to have a look at what is already there and see what can be done to improve it.

Review: How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty

In pretty much every area of my life, I have someone I look up to and Jennifer Webb has been a complete inspiration to me ever since I saw her speak at a conference in 2019. Out of everyone attending that day, I will never forget how she spoke with vibrance and passion about inclusion

Reflection: Protest and Equality SOW

As part of my CPD in gained time during lockdown last summer term (UK), I restructured our year 8 non-fiction unit to both decolonise and make it more specifically relevant to Bristol, the city I was teaching in. I originally wrote two blog posts exploring my decisions around crafting the ‘Protests and Equality’ scheme of

Re-introduction

I’ll be the first one to admit it – I started this blog last year, during lockdown, with the best of intentions. But it fizzled off due to many factors, but mostly because I was juggling work as well as travel exemption and visa applications, leaving little time for me to write as often as

Review – Pedagogy of the Oppressed

What is it about? Using a range of political, sociological and psychological approaches, Paulo Freire writes about the best ways to liberate the working class and other oppressed individuals through education. He begins by justifying the need for a specific pedagogy for the oppressed and exploring the relationship between oppressors and the oppressed, before exploring

Resource -KS3 Non-Fiction Scheme of Work (Part Two)

This is the second part of the blog post about the changes I have made to a non-fiction unit called ‘Protests and Equality’, designed for year 8 students. Click here to read part one. Hillsborough & Bias and the Media In the original scheme of work, the lessons on Hillsborough begun to explore the Sun’s

Resource: KS3 Non-Fiction Scheme of Work (part one)

As part of our existing curriculum, the school I am at have year 8s starting on a non-fiction unit from September – December. The initial scheme included the following topics: Peterloo, The Industrial Revolution, India’s Clothing Workers, Slave Trade, Freedom Riders, Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, Hillsborough and Grammar schools. Whilst I loved teaching this unit, it