Desmond Kerr
instructional coach
Methodical; model, practise, release
Room 14
Year 9 group C has outlasted three teachers. Priya learns classroom craft — clear explanation, routines, relationships — and when to ask for help, while one pupil’s home life tests every rule she sets.
Planned · not started yet
Learning & education Second chances Ambition Hard choices School or campus Bracing Hopeful
The premise
Year 9 group C has outlasted three teachers. Priya learns classroom craft — clear explanation, routines, relationships — and when to ask for help, while one pupil’s home life tests every rule she sets.
The protagonist
Priya Ilesanmi-Lind — Second-year secondary teacher given the class nobody wants
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Joanna Featherstone
head teacher
Firm; consistency beats charisma
Abdi Warsame
behaviour specialist
Empathetic; behaviour is communication
How the story moves
A school year with the class; a safeguarding concern midway changes Priya’s relationship with the group.
What readers take away
- Explicit instruction and modelling
- Retrieval practice in lessons
- Routines and expectations
- Responding to challenging behaviour
- Adaptive teaching for mixed attainment
- Working with families
- Safeguarding awareness
- Teacher workload and wellbeing
- Use cold-calling and mini-whiteboards for checking understanding
- Plan a sequence of lessons
- Give whole-class feedback
- Work with teaching assistants
The books
- 1September Planned
- 2Routines Planned
- 3The incident Planned
- 4Spring Planned
- 5Results Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.