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Eric Birling’s New Year’s resolution:

To face up to consequences instead of running away from them.

Eric is chaotic, troubled, and often uncomfortable to watch - but he does accept responsibility. He recognises the harm he’s caused and feels genuine guilt.

That willingness to confront the truth is what separates him from his parents and linked him to Priestley’s message about change and social responsibility.

Thinking about characters this way help students move beyond plotting into meaning - exactly what examiners reward.

Can you guess who’s up tomorrow?

Mr Birling’s New Year’s resolution:

To keep believing he knows best – whatever anyone else says.

Mr Birling is full of certainty, but very short and responsibility.
Despite repeated warnings, he refuses to question his views or accept blame.

That stubborn confidence is exactly what Priestley criticises – and why Mr Birling is so important to the play’s message.

Looking at characters this way is a brilliant way to revise: it focuses on ideas, change, and purpose, not just quotes.

Eric tomorrow? Or Maybe the Inspector?

Mrs Birling’s New Year’s resolution?

To change absolutely nothing.

A perfect example of how Priestley presents the older generation’s refusal to accept responsibility.

Tomorrow? Mr Birling or Eric?

As we get back into the swing of things, I like to ask my students what resolutions our key characters might make.

Shelia Birling’s New Year’s resolution?

To think before she acts and take responsibility when she gets things wrong.

One of the clearest examples of real change in An Inspector Calls.

What character should I do next?

Who else is on countdown for the final episode?

But remember, literacy isn’t just reading words on a page.
It’s reading tone, silence, subtext and intention - in TV, social media, politics, the news and even AI. This is why strong literacy skills matter more than ever.

When you analyse a text, you’re not just hunting for techniques, you’re uncovering intentions!

❓ why did the writer choose to make this?
❓ why this way?
❓ what does it make me feel?

That’s what analysis really is. A conversation between the writer and the reader.

In Exposure, Wilfred Owen subverts our expectations from the very first line. We might expect a poem about enemies on the battlefield, but instead nature itself becomes the enemy.

He asks us to rethink what war means, to fill the exhaustion, the silence, the loss.

It’s one of my favourite poems written about war and still feels like it has a lot to teach us, all these years later.