Book Launch! Ready to Teach: An Inspector Calls.

Saturday, 2nd May, was the book launch of Ready to Teach: An Inspector Calls. It was such a surreal experience for me and a project I am immensely proud of. A dream that began in 2023. This book represents so much to me and an unwavering commitment to academic discussion and great teaching. As a debut author, seeing this project come to life has certainly been an emotional experience, and I could not be prouder that my first publication is rooted firmly in what I care about most, supporting teachers and improving the educational experiences of young people. This book supports teachers in making complex academic literature rise to the forefront in classrooms.

I would like to thank my co-author, Professor Haili Hughes, from whom I learned so much. I am incredibly grateful to have had such a superb mentor in this process. Our remarkable series editors, Stuart Pryke and Amy Staniforth, who believed in this project with us and gave us so much encouragement and support. I’d also like to give a very special thank you to Marcello Giovanelli and Aston University for being such gracious hosts.

During our book launch, we had keynotes from Amy and Stuart, and a reminder of the importance of subject knowledge in our lessons. For me, it reminded me of how our students need to work and think hard during lessons. I loved the quotes and research they used in their presentation, ‘Pupils deserve access to challenging work, not easy content.’ They also spoke about Katherine Howard’s and Jennifer Webb’s work and the significance of being ‘unapologetically academic.’ They also spoke of Mary Myatt’s work, and I loved the quote 'The development of teacher subject knowledge underpins school improvement. It cannot be left to chance.’ Again, it made me reflect critically on how teachers and leaders can improve and support the schools and students they serve through their curriculum and subject knowledge.

We were also fortunate enough to have talks from Zara Shah and Chris Curtis. Zara spoke in detail about ‘High challenge, High support: Exploring Academic Writing in An Inspector Calls through the lens of SEND’, which was so rich in detail about how to best support our SEND learners. Chris then delivered a masterclass on ‘Political theatre and its history’, which was such a joy to watch. Talking through the plays that were also being shown in 1946, in comparison to 1945. He then gave a detailed overview of the play ‘Pick-Up Girl’ by Elsa Shelley, and then a talk through of the politics of J.B Priestley with the core question of ‘What is he making the audience think?’ and ‘What is broken in society to cause this?/What will fix this?’ and the impact of watching the play (broken society) and after the play (a vision to fix society). It was a superb talk rich in its knowledge, and I have tried to capture my key takeaways, but there was much more.

Finally, a note to the teachers who attended on the day and enjoyed some AIC cake! I am always in awe of teachers giving up their own time on a Saturday morning for excellent CPD, and they joined us in celebrating our book. Thank you, this book is for you.