Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

Essential reading: On board this issue: Bhamika Bhudia is a head of English FROM THE EDITOR “Welcome… KEEP IN TOUCH! Sign up for the weekly TS newsletter at teachwire.net/ newsletter So, howwas your summer break? Yes, we’re once again at that point in the year when everyone at your school will – theoretically, at least – be operating with as much energy and clear-eyed determination as they’re ever going to have between now and next summer. Your wide-eyed Y7s will be frantically trying to commit your school’s various routes and locations to memory. The Y8s will be gaining a newfound appreciation for how young they must have looked the year before. The Y11s will be reconciling themselves to the fact that yep, this is when things start getting properly serious . And your Y9s will inevitably be the odd ones out, having comfortably slipped into the role of KS3 top dogs, looking on with wry amusement at howwired everyone else seems to be, secure in the knowledge that their own GCSE exams are still years away. All being well, you and your colleagues may be grateful for September’s sense of untapped possibility and as yet unpopulated to-do lists – though it won’t last, of course… As we all know, there are many facets of the job that set teaching apart from other professions, but a big one are those fixed points throughout the academic year, and the unconscious rhythms that develop around them. For many workers in other sectors, the year to come will just be a lengthy span of time waiting to be filled with some variation of the set tasks they’re employed to perform. One month will be much like any other. Often, the only variation will be the seasonal changes in the weather. Teachers, on the other hand, will advance throughmonths mapped out with half term breaks, mocks, INSETs, parents’ evenings, the spinning up of extra revision sessions, exam preparations, inter-school sporting fixtures, the leavers’ prom, the big school theatre production, the departure of students they’ve seen change and grow over the past five years… Given the often unpredictable, emotionally draining and volatile nature of the job, there’s perhaps something to be said for those reassuringly familiar routines and milestones. That said, 2025/26 will see the government finally unveil its new curriculum and assessment priorities, and there’s the distant possibility of news that may see the six-week summer holiday broken up and spread more evenly throughout the year. But for now, at least, welcome back – and here’s to hoping that this academic year treats you well. Enjoy the issue, CallumFauser callum.fauser@theteachco.com Ed Carlin is a deputy headteacher Helen Tierney is a freelance music teacher and consultant Dr. Nikos Savvas is CEO of Eastern Education Group Meera Chudasama is an English, media and film studies teacher Dr Chris Wilson is the co-founder and director of ImpactEd Group Helpful restrictions Why students don’t benefit frombeing offered choices in lessons 28 Too much, too fast? Why your ongoing assessment policy should resemble a driving lesson Past tense Was the Gove-ian grammar revolution ultimatelyworth it? 62 80 03 teachwire.net/secondary