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Friday, 19 June 2026

Challenging the System. Part 5. The Vocabulary (and Grammar) Curriculum: A Failed Experiment

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 Actually, that title is unfair. In science an experiment is never a failure. If you discover something doesn't work, then you have lear...
Thursday, 11 June 2026

Challenging the System Part 4: Are we ripe for AI to take over in language teaching?

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 Here's a scary thought. Is MFL teaching in exactly the sort of place where AI could take over and do the job instead of us? Firstly the...
Sunday, 31 May 2026

AI will kill your children and abandon their Granny. Don't use it.

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 The worst thing AI has done for me is this: I was testing its problem solving skills by asking it how to cut a cheesecake into 5 equal piec...
Friday, 29 May 2026

Challenging the System Part 3: Transition from KS2 to KS3

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 Sorting out unfair grading at GCSE, with its immediate impact on pupil motivation to take a language, incentivisation for schools, and on t...
Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Challenging the System. Part 2: A Vision of a System that Works

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 In an earlier post , I looked at how the system could hardly be worse for encouraging people to continue learning languages: Disjointed Tra...
Saturday, 16 May 2026

Challenging the System: Part 1 Do you need a degree in philology to teach languages in school?

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 In a previous post , I looked at how we appear to have a system designed to stop people learning languages in school. So we need to challen...

Could you design a worse system for making sure people don't study languages?

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 If you wanted to design a system for making sure as few people as possible learn a language, our school system is perfect: "Transition...
Sunday, 10 May 2026

GCSE Options, Take-up, Ebacc? Pupil survey.

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  Year 9 Survey April 2026 We have surveyed our Year 9 pupils after they picked their GCSE options, to see if we can find useful information...
Monday, 23 March 2026

Tiering Decisions. Pupils suffer. Teachers get the blame.

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 The situation we find ourselves in with regard to Tier decisions for the new GCSE is unconscionable. Deciding whether to enter a pupil for ...
Sunday, 8 March 2026

Language World 2026

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 Really enjoyed Language World 2026. Meeting old friends and online friends and new friends. It's always about recharging batteries and ...
Tuesday, 17 February 2026

Can I find examples to explain why step one of the knowledge approach is flawed?

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 In a post on the knowledge theory of learning called "S pherical Children in a Vacuum ", I made this quick characterisation of Di...
Sunday, 15 February 2026

Spherical Children in a Vacuum.

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 I do like the adage that, "There's nothing so practical as a good theory." In CPD, an insightful understanding that equips yo...