1. Here’s a new resource from Teachers Without Borders https://teacherswithoutborders.org/ on Design Thinking, which they explain is “a human-centered, iterative problem-solving methodology that places empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing at its core. Originally pioneered in the realm of product design, this approach has rapidly gained traction in education due to its adaptability and effectiveness in cultivating a mindset of collaboration, resilience, and innovative thinking”. It includes a great list of resources on the topic, so give it the benefit of the doubt, even if your instinctive response to their description, like mine, is one of uncertainty!

2. Planning effective Continuing Professional Development programmes for teachers – ten key principles is a splendid summary by Simon Borg https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teacher-educators/planning-learning/articles/planning-effective-continuing of the September 2023 British Council webinar for teacher educators of the same name, recorded here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teacher-educator/planning-effective-continuing-professional

3. The T. S. Eliot Prize has been described by Andrew Motion as “the prize poets most want to win”, and this year’s competition is approaching its denouement. You’ll get a good sense of where modern poetry is at from this year’s shortlist https://tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2023/shortlist/ and here’s a bit more general information on the prize, which was first won by Ciaran Carson in 1993 https://tseliot.com/prize/ In due course, you will find helpful readers’ notes on all ten of this year’s shortlisted poets on the shortlist page, and you’ll find PDFs of the notes for the first five poets below

4. The whole of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is read aloud here by the likes of Tilda Swinton, Roger Allam, David Attenborough, A. L. Kennedy and – wait for it! – the new UK Foreign Secretary (and Brexit criminal-in chief), David Cameron https://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and you’ll find a very handy online annotated version to read as you listen here http://www.powermobydick.com/

5. And, finally, a short film from The New Yorker, “The Night Doctrine”, by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral,which offers two perspectives on one tragic raid in Afghanistan https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/two-perspectives-on-one-tragic-raid-in-afghanistan