The end result of the leaked Ofsted inspection guide for English is going to be thousands of GCSE essays that attempt to spot polyptoton in the wild and then have literally nothing to say about its usage. Because, at KS4, there is pretty much nothing to say about polypbloodytoton

Every exam board - who have spent the last two years telling us to stop teaching pointless Greek rhetorical terms - weeping, rending garments at this guidance.

It's a curriculum vision that fetishises magpied Classics knowledge delivered as trivia. 'Knowledge of Classical... theories, such as those of Aristotle.' And 'knowledge of devices used in Renaissance literature and knowledge of techniques of oratory from Classical civilisations'

@TabitaSurge There’s an amusing irony of ‘presentism’ being specifically mentioned as problematic but its reverse being revered through Aristotle. As much as I like highlighting the methods of writing and how they’re achieved the blocking of certain approaches limits this somewhat

The construction of the canon here is too much for me to engage with on one morning twitter thread. But sweet Jesus. That's my placeholder.

@TabitaSurge There's no great harm in knowing any or all of these things, as long as you understand them - there lies the problem, I guess.

@TabitaSurge Here we have had a nasty rash of students who feel they must shoehorn the words “ethos, logos, pathos” into every analytical essay. Not one has done this to any good effect.

@TabitaSurge Like everything else cooked up, it's short term and superficial

Important note: Ofsted has a new secondary English lead. @greeborunner, I know you cannot reply about any of this, but godspeed you in burning this all with cleansing fire

@TabitaSurge God. You can hear that approach reflected in every Boris Johnson speech.

@TabitaSurge A generation of dilettante public school classics blaggers running things has led to this. The only successful trickle down that has been achieved in twelve years.