Blog

Yes – it’s true! I love to talk.

I am loving the work on oracy that has come my way since the rebirth in education of this amazing and powerful skill.

Codes of speech are the many different styles and forms of speech that people from around the English-speaking world use naturally and intuitively – or may be taught.

The Oracy Education Commission Report was released on Tuesday 8th October to a wide and eagerly awaiting audience.

It really is like a birthday when the first copies of your new book arrive! On August 29th we celebrated a birthday – in a very large cardboard box.

I was sent a link to an ongoing discussion on Twitter about the ethics of teaching children who do not speak in Standard English to do so. There are clearly many people who feel great sensitivity around this area – and that is totally understandable.

I visit schools who are doing ‘oracy’ and I see speaking and listening!

I recently started a Twitter debate about the merits and disadvantages of the formal teaching of technical terminology for grammar.

It is now 4 years since we published ‘It Takes 5 Years to Become a Teacher’, and it is gratifying how popular this little book has become.

Currently, I am working with a school very close to my heart on the development of oracy...

For those of us who were teaching in state school classrooms in 1989 and beyond, the introduction of the original National Curriculum for England came as a total shock...

As so often happens, the more I watch children at work in the classroom, the more examples and ideas for additional support spring to mind...

What a year! Schools and teachers everywhere have done such a great job in the face of so many repeated crises...

Since 1997, I have actively promoted the pro-active teaching of ambitious vocabulary in both primary and secondary schools...

‘Be the Teacher’ is a simple, fun and effective way for children to achieve multiple exposures / opportunities to embed new language features or correct use of English...

Talk:Write embraces public speaking, making it accessible to all so that every child may learn to speak clearly and confidently, with expression, with passion if appropriate and with deep sincerity...

What fun we are having with dialects! It started as part of writing our new resource Talk:Write, aimed at improving children’s speech and writing through talk.

A well-respected English Consultant – whom I hold in high regard – posted a Twitter link to extremely current research on teaching new vocabulary...

Recently I read an excellent Q&A session published by TeachCare. It led to my getting involved in a brief discussion on Twitter...

I lay in bed and listened to the 24-hour news. A young lady kidnapped, abused and murdered by a policeman. Women saying they are afraid to walk our streets at night. I am afraid to walk our streets at night. Was it ever thus?

Building stamina with style is very achievable - it is about expectation. And expectations shape outcomes – so Robert Rosenthal said in November 2003.

Times have changed so much over the years. When I started teaching in 1965, there was no help at all.

Recently, I was privileged to record a podcast with Shain and Sean for @filmclasspod.

What a happy day Saturday 24th October 2020 was! That was the day we held a virtual launch of #ItTakes5Years…

“Do you remember telling me it takes five years to become a fully effective teacher?” she asked.

If the reason many students’ grades were lowered was truly their post code, it is not surprising that the powers that be are humiliated. The First Minister admitted that ‘serious errors were made’.

I love this book! I had great fun writing both the first two books of this series – yes, the second has been finished as long as this first one – it just hasn’t gone through publishing yet.

I thought I would be so excited when my first 2 books for entertainment arrived from the publisher. Of course, I had already had several educational books published but that was not the same.

Today is May 20th – the national ‘Thank a Teacher Day’. Now I am a 24 hour news addict and have already listened to and part watched 3 hours of the BBC 24 hour news, but I haven’t heard anyone thank a teacher for anything. So here is my thank you to educators.

Welcome to my website. Whether you are wanting to read a blog, get some ideas for resources, book an input for a conference or other professional development, catch up on my books or just see what I am up to – this is the place to be.

My life has been one heck of a journey, taking me halfway round the world and back and punctuated by many funny, scary and traumatic experiences on the way. My talks have long reflected this and now – to my pride – my new book, ‘It’s Just a Journey with Ros’ tells the tale.

As the end approaches to a very large assignment of planning a customised whole school curriculum for a primary school chain, I realise that this initiative has challenged my thinking on the curriculum and its role in learning in ways this type of work never has done before.

The National Literacy Trust estimates that 5.1 million adults in the UK are illiterate, with a reading and writing age below aged 11. That is not ‘illiterate’. ‘Illiterate means ‘unable to read or write’ according to the dictionary.