Education

It's a Boy Thing

by Christopher Waugh and Gena Bagley

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From The Boys

Latest episodes

Senior Reading

April 26, 2026

In this discussion, Bags, Chris and a Emma Stilwell, the Christ's College librarian examine the reported declining reading habits of adolescent boys and explore strategies we've employed successfully to reverse this trend. We highlight…
NCEA's Imminent Demise

August 10, 2025 · 21 min

Change is an inherent feature of our education system, but it has to be said that the changes have been coming thick and fast in recent years. Our Curriculum was undergoing what is euphemistically described as a 'refresh' over the last few…
Total Silence

March 23, 2025 · 26 min

Bags and Chris, in a moment of unexpected synchronicity, both have a class that is uncannily silent. We ask a question: crickets. They're doing good work, they're great young men - but as a group: diabolical. We explore the possible…
Lava Lamps and Scholarships

March 8, 2025 · 28 min

In the third week of the school year, Chris and Gena explored the new year as a fresh start, including Chris' newly 'upgraded' classroom (complete with LEDs and a lava lamp). The conversation shifted to celebrating Gena's outstanding…
What actually happens in an English classroom?

November 30, 2024 · 29 min

As a coda to last week's episode about the harm AI is doing to boys' learning in English classes, today Bags and Chris offer some discrete and specific examples of what actually happens in their English classrooms.

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AI has no place in a boys' English classroom

November 15, 2024 · 29 min

We may be in the minority, but Bags and Chris are in full accord on this one: AI is going to do until damage to boys' learning in English. Only this week, articles in the Christchurch Press "Number of illiterate uni students ‘at crisis…
Good Chat

September 13, 2024 · 19 min

Bags explores how she creates rich discussion in her English classroom.
English Scholarship

August 30, 2024 · 20 min

Bags and Chris compare notes on how they tend to approach the preparation of students for the Unfamiliar Texts section in the New Zealand English Scholarship examination.
Push Through the Tears

August 17, 2024 · 29 min

Bags relays an experience she had recently with a student who was struggling to speak in front of the class and then Chris grabs the microphone and talks for too long in order to attempt to explain how Grammar for Writing actually works in…
Open Evening

August 2, 2024 · 24 min

Around this time of the year, across the Motu, teachers in secondary schools crack out their very best craft skills and upgrade the displays in their classrooms and departments in readiness for the school Open Evening. Bags and Chris…
Thriving after Loss

July 19, 2024 · 34 min

9 Years ago, Bagley's daughter Scarlett died, age 7. We take some time in this episode to examine how this deep loss strengthens her work in the classroom. Rarely does anyone gain an insight like this into the privacy of another person's…
Appendix 6

July 5, 2024 · 35 min

23 years ago Chris wrote an entry in his online journal that described his time at Otago Boys' High School. This was subsequently published in a history of Otago Boys' High School that was published for its 150th. We'd been searching…

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About the show

Heads of Department for English both, Gena Bagley (Otago Boys' High School) and Chris Waugh (Christ's College) share their experiences, insights, dilemmas and triumphs in their work in these iconic South Island boys' schools.