Writing is obviously a tool for communication. But it is so much more than that. It is a means of expanding limited working memory and a tool for thinking. AI can write really well - but if you want to develop your own thinking you need to be able to write yourself!

Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.

When I trained to teach, the focus was on teaching the different purposes of writing. Writing to persuade, to explain, to describe. By contrast, The Writing Revolution teach writing as a means of advancing thinking. I think it's the latter approach that is more important in a

BLOG: FINDING THE 'PERFECT' NOVEL EMC Associate Teacher, Holly Maguire, explains how she went about finding + teaching a new novel for Y7 englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/searching…

DECOLONISING MINDS Togetherness Poetry Challenge is an annual UK-wide challenge which this year invites you to write poems on the theme of 'Decolonising Minds and Shared Identities'. 1st Prize: £500 5 Runner Ups: £100. Closing date: 26 Sep 25 togethernesspoetrychallenge.org/2025-poetry-ch…

*New post* One for the English teachers: John Donne’s miniature worlds birminghamteacher.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/joh…

I'm going to say this once and that's it. You cannot have a 'portfolio' approach to English in the age of AI. They're talking about controlled assessments. Shifting everything back on to the teacher. Again.

It’s the halfway point of the holidays in Scotland and still plenty of time to do a bit of laid back reading 📖 If you fancy getting playful with your class next session, there’s 100 ideas waiting to be shared: bloomsbury.com/uk/100-ideas-f… #playfullearning #playinupperprimary

So pleased to have a hard copy of John Tomsett new book from Crown House Publishing a wonderful tribute to great practitioners

Daisy Christodoulou English and Literacy Scotland Deciding what to write requires thought; Planning what to write and how to write it requires thought; Organising the material and starting requires thought; Writing requires constant thought; Redrafting requires honesty and thought; and, accepting criticism requires you to THINK

Practitioner enquiry encourages innovation and leads to better decisions, says Gareth Evans – he is making the case for ‘enquiry coordinators’ to make enquiry 'more visible within school staffing structures' tes.com/magazine/analy…

Finished it and loved it. So, so good. ‘Think of literature as a site of concentration, critique, surplus - concentration *as* critique: literature as the stillness at the eye of the storm, a kind of prayerful attention.’

Best current social network for teachers?

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x.com/aliciaandrz/st… Thoughts? #EnglishScotland

Audiobooks for all! Spotify and generous publishers are helping make the #SummerReadingChallenge more accessible by offering free audiobooks this summer! Find out more: readingagency.org.uk/spotify-suppor… #StoryGarden #SpotifyAudiobooks

With exam results day 2025 fast approaching, here are all the key details and dates 👇 tes.com/magazine/analy…

If some Y7s can write like this, freed from the shackles of doing just one narrow type of writing for exams, then all should be given these opportunities. Poetry education is more than the analytical paragraph. And, ironically, this also leads to much better analytical writing!

Starting out in teaching can feel overwhelming, says Mark Enser as he shares a reading list for new teachers to help you become 'more thoughtful, more efficient and, hopefully, more effective' tes.com/magazine/teach…

#EnglishScotland tes.com/magazine/analy…