The first time I ‘planned for the future’ was in 2015. I’d just joined the British Council that August. The move felt like my commitment to an ELT career, and with it came thinking about family, finances, and ‘you know,… Read More ›
General
Materials writing conversations #18: The Test Specification
This is completely imaginary blah blah blah. Hi Pete, Thanks for agreeing to write the official practice exams for the Test Of English Within Academic, Research, and Technical Settings (TOEWARTS), 2025 specification. As you know, endorsed exam practice resources like… Read More ›
EAL Digest, August 2024
I’ve had some help from Adri Szlapak with this update! We’ve been adding interesting EAL stuff to a doc throughout the month. Here it all is! New releases Pedagogies for Equitable Access was released at the end of July. For… Read More ›
Review: Be More Toddler
Be More Toddler: A leadership education from our little learners, is a short reflection on leadership by Emma Turner. The author is an experienced leader, consultant, and former co-head at a UK school. It’s published by John Catt books. The… Read More ›
‘What a good lesson looks like’
The personal statement for the Assessment Only Route to QTS is 2000 words. In this statement, you should respond to the following questions: So, you’ve got roughly 400 words to address each question. This took some thinking about. Reflecting on… Read More ›
Leading EAL: quality assurance processes
Our senior leadership team (SLT) oversee a broad-ranging quality assurance process at our school. Here are some of the processes we have undertaken as a department to reflect on/ensure the quality of EAL provision in our context. These may seem… Read More ›
EAL INSET: Types of inclusion
This CPD session that explored types of inclusion was for delivered to our EAL department only (4 staff). Why this session? I took a course on EAL coordination through the Bell Foundation back in September/October (see my review here). The… Read More ›
EAL INSET: Leading with oracy
The second CPD session I delivered to the whole high school this year focused on oracy development. Why this session? Our EAL learners need more opportunities to develop their communication skills in mainstream settings. Curriculum coverage and institutional constraints can… Read More ›
EAL INSET: Reviewing vocabulary
I put together three different EAL INSETs this year. Two were delivered to the whole high school, and one was an in-department session. Here’s a summary of the first session. Session 1: Reviewing academic vocabulary Why this session? I usually… Read More ›
EAL Digest, July 2024
Here’s a new regular post, summarizing EAL happenings from social media and beyond. If you followed my previous ‘materials writing news and views’ then it’s basically that but with an EAL twist. New releases Joanna Kolota has a new book… Read More ›
ELT Planning 