Here are our favourite Christmas posts from over the years: Three Popular Christmas Characters In this article we look at how and when the characters Rudolph, Scrooge, and the Grinch entered popular culture. Both ‘Scrooge’ and ‘Grinch’ are now used as words to describe people who share the same qualities as the famous characters, and you can read about other words that derive from the names of people or characters here. What the Dickens? Christmas isn’t Christmas without a little Charles Dickens. If our Christmas Characters post wasn’t detailed enough for your taste, in this article we take a look at words and expressions from Dickens’s ...
Over the year, a few of our blog posts have mentioned words that derive from people or fictional characters: ‘quixotic’ from Don Quixote, ‘malapropism’ from Mrs Malaprop, ‘puckish’ from Puck, ‘July and August’ from Julius and Augustus Caesar, and many more. This week I thought I’d take a look at Charles Dickens, the famous nineteenth-century author, after whom the word ‘Dickensian’ was coined. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Dickensian’ as an adjective used to describe something that is ‘reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically re...
American vs. British English
Common Mistakes
Commonly Confused Words
English Idioms Explained
English Literature
Exams & Tests
Grammar & Punctuation
Mindful Spelling
Spelling at School
Spelling Games
Spelling Homework
Spelling Tips
Spellzone Tips & Tools
Supporting Adult Learners
Supporting Dyslexic Learners
Supporting EAL Learners
Word Origins & Stories
Writing & Vocabulary
One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.
Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College
Connect with us at: 
