The last set of exam papers are nearly done, then it will be the remaining reports to write.

This year we set Bob Kaufman's Bagel-Shop Jazz and Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush. Once again the majority of essays make for depressing reading: so little personal engagement with the writing, so much evidence of unthinking use of exterior sources. And, above all, such unwillingness to listen to the language - to respond to what is actually happening there on the page.

Having spent the best part of a year encouraging students to read with their EARS - it's hard not to feel depressed.