How you took me back with this thread - to years at school! I never taught schoolchildren - just specialist lectures to university students now and then - so I can't comment from a teaching point of view.

One question springs to mind, though - how you assessed the impact in terms of popularity and success with the pupils: feedback from the kids themselves, exam successes, etc?

I ask because, quite often, the seeds planted at school only start to sprout in later years. We lean things at school that we only appreciate in later life. I "suffered" with French from 11 to 18 ('Gentlemen - learn the dictionary' was the weekly advice from my 6th form French master) - but am so thankful now that I did, as I can go to France and chat away at a reasonable level.

As for English, a book that stick in the memory - even though I haven't read it since school days - is "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man". Why that should have remained behind is anyone's guess!