About This Site

Simon Midgley started this site as a way of passing on some of the ideas, strategies and lessons he learned whilst working as a learning support teacher in UK schools. He took early retirement in 2006, and so the site is only updated sporadically now. . . . . apart from the Pennine weather section which is updated at least daily and usually at half-hourly intervals.

During the 1980s, he worked in a mainstream teaching role with students many of whom had a first language which was not English. In this role he developed ways of encouraging students' spoken and written English, particularly by using the then emerging information technology. Language, its role and use, was a key feature of all lessons.

Through the 1990s he worked in a support teacher role in schools where he was able to pass on some of the experience he'd gained in raising students' achievement through careful consideration of the way language was being used in the classroom. Initially he worked with Lancashire's Ethnic Minority Achievement service, and then as part of a specific learning difficulties (SpLD) team working with dyslexic students.

In this century he worked with both of these groups of students, where difficulty with some aspects of the English language is a feature, and with others who have different barriers to learning.

Besides passing on some of his ideas he also included links and references to resources which were useful to him. He started the site way back in the last century - 1995 he thinks it was.