Table of Contents

Preface iii

Foreword v

The Learning Environment 1

Life in a Glass Dungeon 1

Macramé versus Rio Ferdinand 4

Performance 9

Classroom Organisation 9

In Defence of Front of Class Teaching 12

Pedagogy 17

Let's Plaster On a Fake Grin and Trawl through This Sorry Sack One More Time 17

Multiple Intelligences 20

The Marshmallow Test 25

Get Yourself a System! 28

Of Seating Plans and Sealing Wax 31

KeyWords 35

The State Approved Method of Instruction 38

Hands Up! 42

Mind Maps 45

Brainless Gym 49

Marking 52

Assessment for Learning 56

Satisfactory? 59

ICT 63

Wind Upa Spod l 63

Wind Up a Spod 2 66

Wind Up a Spod 3 - The Interactive Whiteboard 70

Failed Attempt at Wind Up a Spod 4 74

People and Personalities 79

What's So Wrong With Liking Your Students? 79

Edutainment 82

Haircuts 84

Neckties 87

Chewing Gum 90

Boys 94

Fear and Loathing 97

Waterloo Road 100

Literacy 103

Blaming the Sector Before You 103

It's Political Correctness Gone Mad! 106

Learning from the Enemy 110

Adult Literacy 113

Boys' Reading 116

Literature 119

Education for Leisure 119

Andrew Motion 122

Politics and Policy 125

Teaching on the Cheap 125

Shaking the Spindlier Tree 128

Welcome Mr Gove 131

Handsome Dave 135

Licensed to Teach 137

Early Years Foundation Stage 140

What is Personalisation? 143

Religious Studies 147

Floor Targets and Secondary Moderns 151

Importing the Private Sector 155

The Myth of the Failing School 157

Private Schools 160

The Epidemic of Homophobia 162

Trans Kids 166

Drugs 170

Class 173

Vocational Learning 173

White Working Class Language 177

White Working Class Boys 178

Class in the Classroom 183

References 187

About the Author 189