The run in...

After a quiet half-term to begin 2014, we reach the run in. The important part of the year, to some. A part of the year when the work put in over months and terms previously pays off. Some Scottish bloke with a red nose who used to work in Manchester called it 'squeaky bum time'.

It doesn't, however, need to be. It's a time when we step up, and perform to our best, but it doesn't need to be a time of stress or worry. Good habits allow us to push on when needed, as shown recently, and we need that consistency and quality to ensure that we have given every child the best chance this year. Obviously, I'm talking to a large extent about year eleven, but every child matters  no child left behind you know what I mean. They're all important, and it's the hard yards now that make the hard yards later easier. If you know what I mean.

What I mean, I suppose, is keep on keeping on... (the Curtis Mayfield version. Not Tech N9ne.)

Half-time

Oranges? Water that someone else has drank from, carelessly leaving semi-hydrated saliva hanging mysteriously within the bottle? Or a glass of overpriced red on an uncomfortable seat, if you're lucky, surrounded by braying toffs lauding the brave production of whatever it is at the theatre?

Yes, I'm talking about us passing the halfway point of the year. No, we're not playing Sunday league football or watching some play at a former slaughterhouse turned trendy theatre.

We're teachers. And we're halfway through the academic year which, of course, is the only year that matters. As such, we get long lasting low-grade colds, sleepless nights and visions of exams being bizarrely different from before when our pupils sit them in the summer.

After that meandering nonsense, I'd just like to thank you for your hard work and excellent teaching so far, for the marking and feeding back, for the good humour and kindness. We know what we're aiming to do, so let's keep doing it.

"I can't revise English"

Anybody else heard this classic recently? To be honest, I think that I sometimes encourage views like this with careless language. "It's not revision, it's more preparing or practising, because it's about the skills.' Put yourself in those year 11 trainers.

It probably doesn't help, does it?

We need to help. That, clearly, is our job. We need to make sure that we're promoting and pushing our subject, and the fact that our revision sessions will clearly be by far the best, with our range of interesting texts and whatnot, and that all pupils need to be coming along. There is so much we can do - more than simply working through questions. Sessions on planning, analysing language, linking ideas, and more.

And I'd like to see more. We must maintain the focus on differentiation and all that - recent drop in suggest some nice progress there, which needs to be built on - but in the short term we must get around this English revision block. After half-term, Wednesdays will be freed up for this. There will be an expectation that all are involved - small, focused groups, a carousel, lots of energy.

However, I think it is key that we remain cool and calm. I sometimes worry that the pressure on schools to perform is, ultimately, passed down to the children. I don't think this is deliberate, but neither do I think this is necessary. We're moving towards, yet again, an uncertain summer, with all of those shifting sands and worries and external pressures.

Very simply, we need to support the pupils as they move towards a heavy and challenging summer. Good humour, a little and often approach, reassuring words and honesty will do the trick. Let's focus on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, let's focus on ensuring that each of us can look our pupils in the eye, and that we all, staff and student, know that we have done all we can.