Andrew McCallum

Book cover of Phoenix Brothers by Sita Brahmachari with text: “Nominated for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing.” This powerful story is part of OUP's Super-Readable Rollercoasters series, expertly edited to remove barriers to comprehension and designed to engage and inspire less-confident readers in Key Stage 3.

Exciting news to share! Phoenix Brothers by Sita Brahmachari has been nominated for the 2026 @carnegiemedals.bsky.social Medal for Writing! 🎉

From OUP's Super-Readable Rollercoasters series, this is a moving tale of resilience and identity.

#Carnegies2026 #TeamEnglish @cilip.bsky.social

Loved this. Loved it even more when I found out the author is an English teacher!

If you’re an English teacher, please do this. Your views matter & we want them represented in our survey!

Brought half term to a close by reading about 'expressive writing'. So different to today's methods but there's still value in learning to 'write through writing' as @barbarableiman.bsky.social + I hope to show in our 'Big Picture Writing' webinar on Nov 25 www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/0a4b...

November's Big Picture Writing webinar with me + @barbarableiman.bsky.social explores 'composition-led writing' - getting something on paper + working with it. It's such an important part of any effective writing pedagogy! www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/0a4b...

No Other Choice at LFF: this delirious satire deserves Oscar buzz This elegant black comedy from Park Chan-wook is a bitingly relevant portrait of pride and self-worth in our corporate hellscape

Last week Hannah Pettit, EMC's social media content creator took part in the BFI LFF Critics Mentorship Programme. We're so proud she won a place on this prestigious programme for budding film critics. Here's what she wrote for The Standard as part of the programme www.standard.co.uk/culture/film...

Resources for National Poetry Day 2025 Creative approaches to poetry for across all secondary ages, designed by EMC on behalf of Forward Arts Foundation for National Poetry Day 2025

Treat your classes to some wonderful poetry, along with resources designed by @barbarableiman.bsky.social for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social this Thursday! englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/resourc...

EMC TWILIGHTS ARE BACK

Join us after school on October 23rd for engaging conversation, intellectual stimulation + the leftover refreshments from our 50th birthday celebrations!

Refreshments from 4.30pm

@darrenchetty.bsky.social @barbarableiman.bsky.social

englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/6fae...

The literary mind has much to tell & learn from the field of cognitive science. Very little of it bears any relationship to cogsci approaches imposed generically across subject areas 🙄

I missed this excellent report when it came out. Much-needed comments about a loss of creativity in schools. Creativity is at the core of everything @engmediacentre.bsky.social does + always will be because it's at the core of how language learning works educationappg.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Conjures up all sorts of thoughts about learning with & through literature - with a premium on a form of imaginative thinking akin to Judith Langer’s ‘possibility thinking’ in ‘Envisioning Literature’. Literature has such an important role to play in today’s classrooms

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I knew you'd have read it! I really enjoyed Endling by the way. The South my favourite of the Booker list that I've read

When you've gone super-early on your half-term reads and don't know whether you'll be able to hold out that long!

I've just realised that over half of the schools + colleges teaching A Level in the UK subscribe to emagazine and/ or MediaMagazine. That's a statistic to be proud of @barbarableiman.bsky.social www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazines/

We've been lucky enough at @engmediacentre.bsky.social to work with Raymond Antrobus on several occasions, so it was a real thrill to read his brilliant new memoir/ cultural history of D/deaf cultures. Highly recommended!

If the new curriculum allows space for books in translation then I can't think of a better one to include than this dystopian gem. Defies all expectations, sticks in the mind long after reading + compares brilliantly with other popular dystopias. The Road + Handmaid's Tale spring to mind

With the chance to buy Beyond the Secret Garden, by Darren + @ksandsoconnor.bsky.social minus the cost of p+p + copies of Sita's latest - Phoenix Brothers, a prequel to 'Amir + George', as featured in EMC's Iridescent Adolescent

FREE EMC TWILIGHT

We can't wait for this free event at our Webber Street base featuring two of our favourite writers. Book your place on our website while tickets are available @darrenchetty.bsky.social @theclpe.bsky.social @literacy-trust.bsky.social

Conferences EMC's student conferences – find out more

It's conference season at EMC this term. A Level conferences for Language, Literature and Edexcel Poems of the Decade at Friends House, with online + in-person teacher conferences for A Level Eng Lang at our Webber Street base. Student ones at this link www.englishandmedia.co.uk/conferences/

We aim to recruit 30 or so teachers to our full-day online courses, so I'm delighted that Kate Oliver and I will be working with 32 teachers tomorrow!

🧵Why Schools Should Sign Up for EMC’s Annual Webinar Package:

1. Sustained, high-quality, subject-specific CPD that aligns with research on what works.

2. Whole-department access, so no teacher is left behind, regardless of experience or schedule.

There's a bit of everything in this one - presentations, workshops, discussion groups. It's sure to be an enjoyable as well as an informative and stimulating day. A few places left if you book soon!

Wonderful to see English departments snapping up this brilliant offer which closes at 5pm tomorrow

I really enjoyed writing this blog about our brilliant Year 12 students' work on their NEA text, Brotherless Night by @sugi.bsky.social - their responses to the novel have been so powerful and it's been a lovely culmination of my work with @engmediacentre.bsky.social this year.

We invited the 25/26 Associate Teachers to our centre yesterday, along with the 24/25 cohort and had a wonderful time discussing all things English

One of the delights of having Associate Teachers with us this year has been the wonderful work they've given us access to

Looking forward to running this one gain next term. It always produces amazing responses from the teachers attending

EMC’s @andrewemc.bsky.social & @barbarableiman.bsky.social are signatories of this letter. Prioritising talk in any curriculum reforms is key to improving outcomes for young people

All the winning films are a joy to watch and looked especially amazing on the big screen at NFT1 last week