i always think about the recording i first heard of this where jamie introduces it with "this is a poem simply about being very tired"

I also know a lot of people considering marriage to their partners much earlier than they otherwise would because of continued threats to clamp down on legal paths to settled status. I know for a fact that not knowing whether we can settle here or in NZ sits in the back of my mind re: having kids

Always a lot of chat about instilling a love of reading at a young age, which is great. But it doesn't account for the fact that the problem is a lot of kids lose touch with their love of reading in secondary and there's very little out there to encourage retention.

"Fears that kids are disengaging" They are, observably, disengaging. At year 8. We don't need to test them to find this out.

Year 8/9 is an absolutely crucial reading junction and no one is equipped to deal with it. It's where the provisions for World Book Day drop off, there's almost nothing written for boys at this age, reading in class is fully in service of exams - I could go on.

This is a good line though: "One does not teach ‘Macbeth’ and then give “equal prominence” to a text arguing that regicide is a good idea to provide “balance.” The balance comes from the critical skills taught to analyse the text, not from teaching an “opposing” novel."

Pleased to see Robert Crawford in the Letters, a Nice Man, who I primarily remember for his emails which addressed students as 'Rapscallions.'