A bit later than usual today as I’ve just got home from a splendid 30^th birthday party for NILE in Norwich!

1. A recent post by Geoff Mulgan on his blog, Geoff’s Stack, In praise of plumbing: why British politics’ lack of interest in how things work explains why many things don’t https://geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-plumbing

Governments need to be good at three very different things. One is poetry – the big narratives, concepts, and phrases that give them definition and help answer why they are there. The second is the prose: the policies, laws and programmes that are what they do. And the third is the plumbing: the tools and methods that turn promises into results and are how government actually works in practice.

I’m not sure our current government here in the UK scores very highly on any of Geoff’s three ps at present.

2. Generative Artificial Intelligence and Language Teaching by Benjamin Luke Moorhouse  & Kevin M. Wong is the latest free-to-download (until 10^th July) in the Cambridge Elements series https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/generative-artificial-intelligence-and-language-teaching/DD0BFB0E89E500723D033B1EEB025F01

The development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has led to intense wonder, surprise, excitement, and concern within the language teaching profession. These tools offer the potential to assist language teachers in helping their learners achieve their language learning goals, and at the same time, risk disrupting language teaching and learning processes, the teaching profession, and possibly the instrumental needs to learn foreign languages. This Element provides an accessible introduction and guide to the use of GenAI for language teaching. It aims to facilitate language teachers’ development of the professional knowledge and skills they need to use GenAI responsibly, ethically and effectively. The Element It is a valuable resource for pre-service and in-service language teachers of all experience levels. Each section includes helpful tips and questions for reflection to get teachers started with GenAI while ensuring they engage critically and responsibly with these tools. Evidence-informed approaches are promoted throughout the Element.

I’ve not attached a PDF, as publishers like to know who’s downloading their stuff for free, but let me know if you have any difficulty accessing a copy.

Well worth keeping an eye on this page https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/subject/Language%20and%20Linguistics/140D314098408C26BDF3009F7FF858E9

and on this one https://www.cambridge.org/core/publications/elements

3. I hope this one from The New Yorker by Hua Hsu can be accessed without a subscription; let me know if not, please. What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/07/the-end-of-the-english-paper

The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.

That umlaut on the second ‘e’ in reëxamine is a New Yorker specialty – or speciality, if you prefer.

4. Do we need to rethink how we train teachers and leaders in schools? Is an edition of the Inside Your Ed podcast that discusses the report, A System that Empowers: the Future of Professional Development, that I mentioned back on 29^th April with one of its authors, Loic Menzies, and Avnee Morjaria https://insideyoured.buzzsprout.com/1874905/episodes/17274780-do-we-need-to-rethink-how-we-train-teachers-and-leaders-in-schools

I think most people would agree, says Tom Richmond, the host of ‘Inside Your Ed’, that England’s rise up the international education league tables over the past decade or so has been a welcome sign of progress. But when government funding is now in such short supply and is likely to remain so for some time yet, sustaining this recent progress may become increasingly challenging. A new report from IPPR and Ambition Institute, written by Loic Menzies and Marie Hamer, argues that the way in which we support and invest in the teaching workforce through continuing professional development, or CPD, may be the key to unlocking higher education standards in future. So, what does this new report want to change in terms of how we invest in teachers and leaders? How easy would it be to convince teachers, leaders and schools to spend more time and money on CPD? And could improving the quality and quantity of training go some way to convincing more people to stay in the teaching profession?

5. And, finally, a Barry Cryer joke:

A man goes into a pub and says to the landlord: ‘If you give me free drinks all night, I will entertain your customers so much they will stay all night and buy lots and lots of drinks.’ ‘Oh yes,’ says the landlord. ‘How are you going to do that?’ The man gets a hamster out of his pocket and puts it on the piano. The hamster runs up and down the keyboard playing the greatest piano music anyone had ever heard. ‘That’s incredible!’ says the landlord. ‘Have you got anything else?’ The man gets a parrot out of his other pocket and puts it on the bar. The hamster begins to play the piano again and the parrot sings along – sounding just like Pavarotti. Everyone in the bar is amazed and they stay all night drinking and listening to the hamster and parrot. The landlord is delighted. ‘I must have these animals. Will you sell them to me?’ he asks. The man shakes his head: no. ‘Will you sell just one then?’ asks the bartender. ‘OK, I’ll sell you the parrot for £100,’ the man says. The landlord is delighted and hands over the money. Another man standing next to the man who owned the hamster says: ‘You’re a bit stupid selling that clever parrot for only £100.’ ‘No I’m not,’ the man replies. ‘The hamster is a ventriloquist’.