Melissa Bowes
LightNews LightNews
banner
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Melissa Bowes
@mrsmbowes.bsky.social
260 followers 320 following 25 posts
Advanced Practitioner for English in FE 👩🏻‍🏫 Google Certified Trainer 👩🏻‍💻 Mote Ambassador 🟣 Examiner ✏️ Former Secondary English Teacher 📚 Mum of two boys 💙
Posts Replies Media Videos
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Fantastic Staff Development Day today! A brilliant opportunity for English teachers across Luminate Education Group to come together for CPD.

In the morning, Edexcel experts led marking training ahead of mock exams, boosting confidence. The afternoon featured a carousel of SEND-focused sessions.
Classroom with delegate packs arranged on tables. On each desk there is a textbook, notebook, pack of materials and a reusable coffee cup. Photograph of staff attending a training on marking Edexcel 2.0 Paper 1. The photo is taken from the back of the room, so you cannot see the faces of people attending. The trainer, Julie Hughes, is standing at the front of the room. You can see a display titled ‘Welcome to English!’ at the front of the classroom.
February 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Numeracy day design number two!

Current favourite child = first born for accepting a simpler design.
Children’s white t-shirt with numerical signs + - / x written on in brightly coloured pen, with the word ‘maths’ underneath.
February 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Dear maths teachers,

Please can we not make numeracy day a thing? Or if you must, have a word with the supermarkets and see if they can start selling clothing with numbers on!

Sincerely,
Tired parents on a Sunday afternoon with two children so they’ve got another one of these to do yet 😫
White children’s t-shirt with numbers drawn on in bright colours in bold. Across the bottom ‘+ - x / =‘ has been drawn on in gold pen.
February 2, 2025 at 3:20 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Got the gym membership down to £2.27 per visit in January.

(Pleased, even though that’s mainly because it’s been too grim to run outside.)
Screenshot showing ‘visits’ and a list of eleven dates in January. The price £24.95 per month can be seen.
January 31, 2025 at 9:53 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
🎉
Orange square image with a cartoon owl that looks on fire. The text says I’m on a 365 day learning streak! The Duolingo logo is at the bottom.
January 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
This makes my English teacher heart happy. Mr 7 is working on reading in his head! He’s reading ‘How to Train Your Dragon’. He read a couple of chapters before wondering off and leaving me to finish my book by myself.
Picture of my son sitting next to me reading a book. We’re sharing a grey blanket. He’s using his finger to track the text. You can see the edge of my book in the image, but the words are not in focus. His face has been hidden by a blue heart.
January 25, 2025 at 1:42 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Book 2 of 2025 completed
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BookSky
Paperback book: Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin. The cover says ‘The Sunday times bestselling author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’. The title is in rainbow coloured text, all in capitals, with a blue sky as the background. There is a large blue gate in the centre of the cover, behind which is a house. Three palm trees on the right hand side cast shadows on the driveway in front of the gate. The shadows look like the shape of three women. In the photograph, I am holding the book and you can a grey blanket is behind it.
January 25, 2025 at 1:36 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Had a great lesson today with my GCSE English resitters, starting our new topic of creative writing. It always amazes me how much magic there is in big pieces of paper and felt tip pens! #TeamEnglish
Image showing a big piece of paper with ‘farm’ written in the middle. Around the page is various contributions in different coloured pens and with different highlighting. Image showing a big piece of paper with ‘weather’ written in the middle. Around the page is various contributions in different coloured pens and with different highlighting. Image showing a big piece of paper with ‘extra details’ written in the middle. Around the page is various contributions in different coloured pens and with different highlighting.
January 22, 2025 at 4:34 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Holiday to Greece booked. Thought Duolingo could teach me some useful phrases. I was thinking please, thank you, good morning etc.

The vase is pink. Super.
Screenshot from Duolingo. In English at the top, it says ‘The vase is pink.’ Individual words in Greek have been put in the right order: Το βάζο είναι ροζ. At the bottom of the screen it says ‘nicely done!’
January 20, 2025 at 6:28 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
This afternoon’s activity is baking with the boys. I don’t even care if it turns out nice or not, when the recipe book is this pretty!
A page from a children’s illustrated cooking book called ‘Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street’. The recipe shown is for banana and blueberry bread. Every ingredient is illustrated in an aesthetically pleasing way.
January 18, 2025 at 1:20 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Little treat on the way to work for GCSE results day.
Picture of a Starbucks cup with the label ‘grande pistachio velvet latte for Melissa’. The background of the picture shows Leeds city centre, looking dull, grey and cold. The coffee is being held in a hand wearing a pink fingerless glove.
January 9, 2025 at 8:55 AM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
35 years old and my favourite Christmas present has been a new colouring book! Finished my first page today.

Not loving the background or the flooring. Don’t know why I thought I could freehand stripes 😬

Book: Girl Moments by Coco Wyo
Markers: Ohuhu
January 3, 2025 at 5:21 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
About to start my first read of 2025 - a present from my mother in law, who chose it purely based on the title.
Front cover of ‘The Teacher’ by Frieda McFadden. The background is navy blue with white text. In the middle of the cover is a red apple with a sharp knife sticking out of it.
January 3, 2025 at 3:40 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Can’t believe so many people can be wrong. English is definitely green! 📗
Teacher tapp survey with the question: what colour do you think students’ English exercise books should be? The results are: Blue 14% Red 9% Purple 6% Orange 1% Yellow 18% Green 4% Another colour 1% 46% of people had no feeling about what colour the books are. 10,900 teachers answered the question.
January 1, 2025 at 5:45 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
20 books read in 2024, thanks to three speedy read Christmas presents to finish off the year just in time #GoodreadsYearInBooks #BookSky

(The Housemaid was good, but the other two are basically the same story again - save yourself the bother!)
Screenshot of Goodreads reading challenge showing 20/20 books read and the three latest books being The Housemaid trilogy by Freida McFadden.
December 31, 2024 at 12:59 PM
mrsmbowes.bsky.social
Didn’t meet my Goodreads reading challenge this year, but these were my 5 star reads #GoodreadsYearInBooks #BookSky
Text reads “5-star reviews all around! I loved these books this year.” The books are ‘The People on Platform 5’, ‘Strange Sally Diamond’, ‘I Will Find You’, ‘Black Cake’, ‘So Lucky’ and ‘Blood Orange’.
December 18, 2024 at 6:38 PM