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A new school year brings excitement and opportunity. It also presents challenges for teachers, regardless of their level of experience. Here are common problems that teachers face and simple tips to help you start the year with confidence.��

1. How do I establish effective classroom management and routines?

The challenge:
A new year means a new group of students, each with unique personalities and expectations. Setting clear routines and managing classroom behavior can be daunting, especially when students test boundaries or struggle to adjust.

The solution:
Set the tone early by communicating clear expectations for behavior, participation and respect. Use visual aids and consistent language to reinforce routines. Involve students in rule-setting to foster ownership and accountability. Consistency and patience are key; routines may take time to solidify, but your commitment will pay off.

2. How can I build strong relationships with my students?

The challenge:
Connecting with a diverse group of learners – some of whom might be eager, while others might be more reserved – can be challenging. Building trust and rapport is essential for engagement and academic success, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

The solution:
Dedicate time to getting to know your students as individuals. Use icebreakers, interest surveys and daily check-ins to show you care about their lives beyond academics. Incorporate culturally-responsive teaching practices to respect students’ backgrounds and experiences. Even small gestures, such as greeting students by name and celebrating their achievements, can make a big difference.

The back-to-school transition is a pivotal time for families. As always, encouragement and positivity are important to support your child – and clear, enforceable routines and expectations are the secret to helping your child settle back into school. Set your child up for success with these practical, easy-to-follow steps, tailored for each age group.

For primary and elementary school children (Ages 5–11)

1. Set a consistent sleep and waking schedule and stick to it

• Action:��At least one week before school starts, set a firm wake-up and bedtime, including a shut-off time for screens – ideally an hour before bedtime.��Find soothing activities to help your child relax before bed: for example, if their bedtime is 8:00 pm, you could start the wind-down routine at 7:00 pm by reading a favourite story together and listening to peaceful music. Some children wake naturally, others struggle to get up and may need an alarm clock to help them.��
• Enforcement:��Remember to stick to the bedtime routine: no exceptions on school nights.��

2. Practice the morning routine

• Action: Do a rehearsal of the school morning: getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, and being ready to leave the house on time. If your child is attending a new school, it may reassure them to rehearse the journey in advance.��
• Enforcement: Use a visual checklist on the fridge to help your child track which tasks need to be done. Some families prefer no screens at all in the morning, but if you have morning screentime then ensure there's no TV or devices until all tasks are complete.

3. Organize school supplies together

• Action: Label all supplies in advance. Take the time every evening to pack their schoolbag together each evening.
• Enforcement:��Let your child be responsible for checking off a packing list before bed. If they forget something, if appropriate and within reason, you could let them experience the natural consequence.

4. Establish a homework zone

• Action: Set up a specific, distraction-free spot for homework.
• Enforcement:��Ensure that homework happens before playtime or screen time. Use a timer if needed to keep them focused: most children find it easier to concentrate for a finite period rather than an infinite one (for example, "work until the timer goes off in 15 minutes" is easier for a child to respond to than "work until you've completely finished your homework").��

5. Practice independence

• Action: Teach your child tasks that are appropriate for their age and ability: for example, this could include tieing their shoelaces, zipping up their coat and opening their lunchbox.
• Enforcement:��Don't rush to help if they struggle at first. Remind them of the steps, help them if they need, support them all the way. Praise their effort, even if they can't yet do the task perfectly.

For middle school children (Ages 11–14)

1. Use a family calendar

• Action: Post a large calendar in a common area. Mark it with assignment due dates, tests and extracurricular activities.
• Enforcement: Review the calendar together every Sunday. Give your child the resopnsibility of updating it with new info from school.

2. Set device rules

• Action:��Devices should not be in the bedroom overnight: set up device charging points somewhere outside bedrooms, for example in the kitchen, to prevent temptation. Set a “no screens” rule during homework and set a time to switch screens off every evening, preferably an hour before bedtime.��
• Enforcement:��If need be, use parental controls or apps to limit screen time. Devices could also be handed in at a set time each night.

3. Encourage self-advocacy

• Action: If your child has a problem at school, support them in resolving it. Don't rush to solve the problem for them, ask them how they could approach the issue and guide them towards a good solution. If need be, coach them on how to email a teacher or ask for help in person.��
• Enforcement: Don’t step in immediately – give them the space and support to devise a possible solution. Support and coach as needed to build their confidence in handling the situation themselves.��

4. Make packing lunch their job

• Action: Teach your child to pack their own lunch the night before.
• Enforcement: If they forget to prepare or bring it, choose the response that's safe and appropriate for your chld's age and abilities. It might be that you need to remind them, or it might be that they need to experience natural consequences and buy their own lunch.

5. Set clear after-school expectations

• Action: Decide together what happens after school: for example, they might want to have a snack before they start their homework, and they might want to do their chores after dinner.
• Enforcement:��Together, set the rules that are right for your child. For example, no video games or social media until homework and chores are done.

For high-school students (ages 14–18)

1. Require a weekly planning session

• Action: Sit down every Sunday to review the week ahead. Consider deadlines, activities and work shifts and plan accordingly.��
• Enforcement: If your teen misses a deadline, if appropriate, let them handle the consequences with teachers or coaches.

2. Enforce a “No-phone zone” during study time

• Action:��Ensure that phones are placed in another room during homework.
• Enforcement: Use apps that block distracting sites or physically remove the phone.

3. Set a reasonable curfew, even for seniors

• Action: Agree on a curfew for school nights and weekends.
• Enforcement:��If the curfew is broken, discuss consequences and follow through. For example, if your teen is one hour late home, the next time they must come home an hour early.��

4. Expect participation in household responsibilities

• Action:��Discuss how to split household chores. Some teenagers prefer to take responsibility for a particular chore, such as doing the dishes. Other families may need to split regular chores such as laundry,��cleaning and emptying the bin.��
• Enforcement: No privileges such as car keys and allowance until chores are done.

5. Monitor academic progress, but don’t micromanage

• Action: Check grades and other school feedback together regularly. Ask about upcoming tests and projects.
• Enforcement: If their grades slip, find out if there's an underlying reason and offer support. Your child may require a study plan or a limit on their extracurricular activities until improvement is shown.

Universal tips for all ages

• Consistent mealtimes: Eat a meal together regularly, if your schedules allow. Some families meet for breakfast, others for dinner. Make sure your child is not skipping meals, especially on school days.
• Limit extracurricular overload: One or two activities per term is plenty. Be sure to protect their downtime.
• Model organization: Use lists, calendars and reminder apps and show your chldren how they help you stay organized.
• Open communication: Have a daily check-in if possible. Ask about the best and most challenging parts of their day.

Returning to school doesn't have to be stressful for children: it's a great opportunity for them to learn new skills and develop their confidence. Finding rules and routines that work for your child, and enforcing them consistently, will encourage your child's sense of responsibility and boost their skills – benefiting them both inside and outside the classroom.��

Many people can't tell the difference between the hyphen (-), the en-dash (–), and the em-dash (—). They may look similar but they can all help ensure that your writing looks professional and is easy to read. As an overview:

• Hyphens improve clarity: there is a big difference between "a man-eating shark" and "a man eating shark".
• En-dashes and em-dashes share a lot of the same functionality – including allowing for explanations and examples to be shared, and separating clauses – however, they are not interchangeable and their use is often down to personal preference.��

Let's explore what these three different dashes do and how they could improve your writing.��

Why did I want to learn English? When I was 9 years old, I became sick of French at home and I decided to go for the "opposite": English. I fell in love with it the moment I started learning. Though I could not see the point in many activities we were asked to do, such as turning affirmative sentences into negative and questions, or transforming conditional statements, I was good at it and hoped that at some point, I would find the meaningfulness of those exercises.

Overcoming challenges in English language learning

I kept on learning English, but the benefits were nowhere to be seen. In my school, classes are monolingual and teachers and students all share the same mother tongue. However, translanguaging was not an option. I even remember being told to forget Spanish, my mother tongue, which was as ridiculous and impossible as asking me to forget I have two legs. Before I finished secondary school, I knew I wanted to take up a career that had English at its core.

From student to teacher: Finding purpose in teaching English

I started the translators programme, but soon I saw that it was teaching that I loved. I changed to that and I have never stopped teaching or learning. All the pieces fell into place as I was asked to use English meaningfully, as I started focusing on meaning rather than on grammar. And I made this big learning insight one of the principles and main pillars of teaching. Some heads of school wondered why I would not follow the coursebook. My answer, since then, has been: I teach students, not a book or a syllabus. Because I was focusing on using English with a purpose – using it meaningfully – the results were excellent, and my students were using the language. And they passed the tests they needed to take.

Teaching English with meaning: Moving beyond the coursebook

I used coursebooks, as every other teacher did, but continued to make changes that I thought would be beneficial to my learners. As I taught Didactics at university in the Teacher Education Programme, I was invited by some publishing houses to give feedback on new coursebooks. As I was told, the feedback proved to be useful, and I was asked to start modifying international coursebooks to fit the local context and design booklets to provide what was missing in these adaptations, until I was finally invited to write a series for Argentina.

In all the series I’ve written, my first comment has always been:�� “This is the result of my experience in several different classrooms, with different students from various backgrounds. This is a series by a teacher and for teachers and their learners. The focus is not on teaching, but on what is necessary for students to learn."

Flexibility has always been at the core of these series and my teaching as well. Sometimes students need more work on something, and in the Teacher’s book I included several suggestions for further activities, which I called “building confidence activities”.

Flexible teaching strategies and confidence-building activities

As I got involved with the GSE, I saw how it can help students learn much better, and how it can support teachers as they help learners. How so? Because it starts with a focus on using English rather than on learning about it, that is, learning about its grammar. I’ve shared my views on it with every colleague I can and it has been the topic of several presentations and national and international conferences. It’s a fantastic resource for both teachers and learners, but also for the wider educational community. When the scales were finally published, I remember thinking, “Oh my, I was born in the wrong century!”

I am still teaching English – working at schools as a consultant, designing professional development projects and implementing them, and yes, actually working in classrooms, teaching learners. After many years of teaching English, and still loving it, the best advice I can give is this:

Advice for English teachers

Teachers, we’re blessed in that we do what we love, and despite its challenges and hard times, teaching is absolutely rewarding. Nothing can compare to the expression on a student’s face when they've "got it".

Remember to focus on meaning, help learners become aware of what they already know and set a clear learning path that will keep you and them motivated. The GSE is the best resource and companion for this.

The beginning days of school are both exciting and occasionally nerve-wracking for teachers and students alike. Everyone is adjusting to new faces, routines and a fresh environment. As a teacher, you can help make this shift smooth, inviting and enjoyable. One effective way to achieve this is by using icebreaker activities.

Icebreakers are simple games or activities that help students get to know each other, feel comfortable and start building a positive classroom community. When students feel connected, they are more likely to participate, help each other and enjoy learning. Here are some easy-to-use icebreaker activities and tips for making the beginning of the school year memorable for everyone. Here are just a few ideas for icebreakers you can use in your classroom.

In academic ops, we’re always finding the balance between precision and practicality. On one side: the goal of delivering lessons that are level-appropriate, relevant and tied to real learner needs. On the other hand, we juggle hundreds of courses, support teachers, handle last-minute changes and somehow keep the whole system moving without losing momentum or our minds.

That’s exactly where AI and the Global Scale of English (GSE) have changed the game for us at Bridge. Over the past year, we’ve been using AI tools to streamline lesson creation, speed up course design and personalize instruction in a way that’s scalable and pedagogically sound.

Spoiler alert: it’s working.

The challenge: Customization at scale

Our corporate English learners aren’t just “students”. They’re busy professionals: engineers, sales leads, analysts. They need immediate impact. They have specific goals, high expectations and very little patience for anything that feels generic.

Behind the scenes, my team is constantly:

• Adapting content to real company contexts
• Mapping GSE descriptors to measurable outcomes
• Designing lessons that are easy for teachers to deliver
• Keeping quality high across dozens of industries and levels

The solution: Building personalized courses at scale

To address this challenge, we developed an internal curriculum engine that blends the GSE, AI and practical, job-focused communication goals into a system that can generate full courses in minutes.

It is built around 21 workplace categories, including Conflict Resolution, Business Travel and Public Speaking. Each category has five lessons mapped to CEFR levels and GSE descriptors, sequenced to support real skill development.

Then the fun part: content creation. Using GPT-based AI agents trained on GSE Professional objectives, we feed in a few parameters like:

• Category: Negotiation
• Lesson: Staying Professional Under Pressure
• Skills: Speaking (GSE 43, 44), Reading (GSE 43, 45)

In return, we get:

• A teacher plan with clear prompts, instructions and model responses
• Student slides or worksheets with interactive, GSE-aligned tasks
• Learning outcomes tied directly to the descriptors

Everything is structured, leveled and ready to go.

One Example: “Staying Organized at Work”

This A2 lesson falls under our Time Management module and hits descriptors like:

• Reading 30: Can ask for repetition and clarification using basic fixed expressions
• Speaking 33: Can describe basic activities or events happening at the time of speaking

Students work with schedules, checklists and workplace vocabulary. They build confidence by using simple but useful language in simulated tasks. Teachers are fully supported with ready-made discussion questions and roleplay prompts.

Whether we’re prepping for a quick demo or building a full 20-hour course, the outcome is the same. We deliver scalable, teacher-friendly, learner-relevant lessons that actually get used.

Beyond the framework: AI-generated courses for individual learner profiles

While our internal curriculum engine helps us scale structured, GSE-aligned lessons across common workplace themes, we also use AI for one-on-one personalization. This second system builds fully custom courses based on an individual’s goals, role, and communication challenges.

One of our clients, a global mining company, needed a course for a production engineer in field ops. His English level was around B1 (GSE 43 to 50). He didn’t need grammar. He needed to get better at safety briefings, reports and meetings. Fast.

He filled out a detailed needs analysis, and I fed the data into our first AI agent. It created a personalized GSE-aligned syllabus based on his job, challenges and goals. That syllabus was passed to a second agent, preloaded with the full GSE Professional framework, which then generated 20 complete lessons.

The course looked like this:

• Module 1: Reporting project updates
• Module 2: Supply chain and logistics vocabulary
• Module 3: Interpreting internal communications
• Module 4: Coordination and problem-solving scenarios
• Module 5: Safety presentation with feedback rubric

From start to finish, the course took under an hour to build. It was tailored to his actual workday. His teacher later reported that his communication had become noticeably clearer and more confident.

This was not a one-off. We have now repeated this flow for dozens of learners in different industries, each time mapping everything back to GSE ranges and skill targets.

Why it works: AI + GSE = The right kind of structure

AI helps us move fast. But the GSE gives us the structure to stay aligned.

Without it, we’re just generating content. With it, we’re creating instruction that is:

• Measurable and appropriate for the learner’s level
• Easy for teachers to deliver
• Consistent and scalable across programs

The GSE gives us a shared language for goals, outcomes and progress. That is what keeps it pedagogically sound.

Final thought

A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed we could design a 20-lesson course in under an hour that actually delivers results. But now it’s just part of the workflow.

AI doesn’t replace teaching. It enhances it. And when paired with the GSE, it gives us a way to meet learner needs with speed, clarity, and purpose. It’s not just an upgrade. It’s what’s next.

As the new school year begins, teachers have an opportunity to set the tone for inclusion, belonging and respect. With the right strategies and activities, you can ensure every student feels seen, heard and valued from the very first day. Embracing diversity isn’t just morally essential: it’s a proven pathway to deeper learning, greater engagement and a more equitable society (Gay, 2018).

Research consistently shows that inclusive classrooms foster higher academic achievement, improved social skills and increased self-esteem for all students (Banks, 2015). When students feel safe and respected, they are more likely to take risks, collaborate and reach their full potential.

When we launched the ����app English Express Test, it’s true - we were not starting from scratch. We were building on years of experience, research, and innovation from PTE Academic, our globally recognised, high-stakes English test trusted by thousands of institutions.

����app English Express Test may be new, but it is backed by everything we have learned from delivering millions of secure, accurate, and trusted assessments around the world.

A legacy of trust��

PTE Academic has been setting the standard for English language testing since 2009. It is known for its AI-powered scoring, robust security, and global recognition. Over the years, we have refined every part of the testing journey, from how we assess speaking and writing, to how we protect against fraud and ensure fairness.

That legacy gave us a strong foundation to build something new. With ����app English Express Test, we took the best of what we know and reimagined it for a different kind of test taker, one who needs speed, flexibility, and simplicity, without compromising on quality.

What we carried forward

����app English Express Test uses the same AI scoring technology that powers PTE Academic, trained on over 147,000 responses and verified by human experts. 

This ensures that every score is consistent, fair, and accurate, no matter where or when the test is taken. We also brought our deep understanding of test security into the design of ����app English Express Test. From dual-camera proctoring to biometric voice verification, every layer of the test is built to protect integrity and build trust. 

And just like PTE Academic, ����app English Express Test is aligned to the Global Scale of English and mapped to CEFR levels, so institutions can set score requirements with confidence. 

Designed for a new generation of learners

While PTE Academic is ideal for students applying globally, ����app English Express Test is purpose-built for learners with their sights set on the United States. It is still faster, fairer and simple, all at a great price, without losing the rigour that institutions expect.

Students can take the test from home, receive results in minutes, and get certified scores within 48 hours. That kind of accessibility is a game-changer, especially for students in remote regions.

Why this matters for institutions

By accepting ����app English Express Test, institutions are not just offering another test option. They are offering a test backed by years of proven success. They are giving students a faster, more flexible way to apply, while maintaining the standards that support academic success.

And for institutions already familiar with PTE Academic, ����app English Express Test is a natural extension, one that complements your admissions toolkit and helps you reach more students, more easily.

Experience you can trust

At ����app, we believe that innovation should be grounded in experience. That is why ����app English Express Test is not just a new test. It is the next step in our mission to make English testing more accessible, more secure, and more student-friendly.

Because when we combine what we have learned with what students need today, we create something truly powerful.��

Technology has radically changed the way people are able to access information and learn. As a result, there are a great number of tools to facilitate online language learning – an area that’s been the subject of many myths. Here we highlight (and debunk) some of the bigger ones…

Myth #1: You will learn more quickly

Although online learning tools are designed to provide ways to teach and support the learner, they won’t provide you with a shortcut to proficiency or bypass any of the key stages of learning.��Although you may well be absorbing lots of vocabulary and grammar rules while studying in isolation, this isn’t a replacement for an environment in which you can immerse yourself in the language with English speakers. Such settings help you improve your speaking and listening skills and increase precision, because the key is to find opportunities to practise both – widening your use of the language rather than simply building up your knowledge of it.

Myth #2: It replaces learning in the classroom

With big data and AI increasingly providing a more accurate idea of their level, as well as a quantifiable idea of how much they need to learn to advance to the next level of proficiency, classroom learning is vital for supplementing classroom learning. And with the Global Scale of English providing an accurate measurement of progress, students can personalise their learning and decide how they’re going to divide their time between classroom learning and private study.

Myth #3: It can’t be incorporated into classroom learning

There are a huge number of ways that students and teachers can use the Internet in the classroom. Meanwhile, ����app’s online courses and apps have a positive, measurable impact on your learning outcomes.

Myth #4:��You can't learn in the workplace

Online language learning is ideally suited to the workplace and we must create the need to use the language and opportunities to practise it. A job offers one of the most effective learning environments: where communication is key and you’re frequently exposed to specialized vocabulary. Online language learning tools can flexibly support your busy schedule.

Myth #5: Online language learning is impersonal and isolating

A common misconception is that online language learning is a solitary journey, lacking the personal connection and support found in traditional classrooms. In reality, today’s digital platforms are designed to foster community and real interaction. With features like live virtual classrooms, discussion forums and instant feedback, learners can connect with peers and educators around the world, building skills together.