Bansi Kara

Nothing beats the stress and tension of exam season if you work in a secondary school. For students, exam season is a wake-up call, one of the first moments that they realise there are some situations where only their own brain and effort will get them through. For teachers, exam...

If there's one thing English teachers should read before they go back to work on Monday, it is the Ofsted document entitled 'Moving English Forward'. It is always interesting to hear what Ofsted inspectors think of any kind of lesson, but nothing really prepared me for the full,...

I have to admit ambivalence about yesterday's NUT strike in London. I went to work, not because I disagree with the concept of fighting for my pension, but for the rather more prosaic reason that I belong to another union, who did not choose to strike this time.

Where...

What do misbehaving students, a bus crash in Coventry, the Tottenham riots and our current government have in common?

The concept of empathy is one I have long been interested in. Differences between students can often be attributed to varying levels of empathy - persistent low level misbehaviour speaks volumes...

Is 2012 the year that racism makes its name? It's hard to ignore the fact that sports headlines have been less focused on, well, actual sport than the prejudicial antics of a few well known players. Whatever our opinions of John Terry and Luis Suarez, it seems that racism is...

There is always that child you know you should never ring home for, who may be disrupting a class, but whose parents are suspected to be a little too free with their fists. That child who is known to Social Services, who may not have broken bones, but cries hysterically...

Me: What are you doing with your half day off?
Student: My friends want to go to Westfield but...
Me: But what?
Student: I keep saying we should get the train there.
Me: So? What's the problem?
Student: One of my friends says we...

In times of strife, I usually turn to Confucius and a large tub of ice-cream. As always, Confucius' words of wisdom allow me to take a moment to reflect on the aspect of my professional life that has started to become irksome. Lately - and this may indeed be a...

Of course I watched it. I promised myself I wouldn't, but ended up breaking my own cardinal rule ('don't watch school related TV programmes, they'll only make you angry') because of staffroom banter, most of which was fairly positive. Educating Essex, a warts and all documentary based in an Essex...

I imagine you'd find it odd going back to work after a six week hiatus in which arson, looting and the total breakdown of society have been laid at the door of your profession, in not so many words. Teachers all over the country have returned to work and most...

Am I the only one to feel a steady sense of disquiet when reading Toby Young's rather vitriolic comments on The Guardian's news splash on Free School funding? From someone who is attempting to lead the vanguard of the Free Schools movement, it is somewhat surprising then that the words...

A few months ago, I was outraged, as were many teachers who work in secondary education, to read the Evening Standard splash on literacy statistics. Today, I read the National Literacy Trust's annual survey on reading, entitled 'Setting the Baseline' and was pleased to see that someone is...

The average number of words used in response to a question asked by a teacher in some classrooms? Four, I was told. Now, I know what you must be thinking when you read this statement masquerading as a statistic - teenagers have always been surly and unresponsive, right? Teenagers aren't...

Imagine the situation. A child in school has misbehaved. It's a serious matter and there are two teachers involved in helping to resolve the problem, as well as the behaviour support manager, who witnessed the problem. Teacher A is angry and is ready to fill out an exclusion form and...

"We are what we always were [...] but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom..."

Driving the circuitous route from my home to Islington for lunch and a visit to a bookshop, I notice something odd. I have felt the edginess in the air...