The future of English teaching, indeed of education, does not have to be so stark. There are thousands of teachers who want their teaching to be more than assessment objectives and key stage criteria, who no longer wish to be box-ticking-coursework marking-exam practicing robots. But, there are two hurdles that need to be simultaneously jumped: our students still (at the moment) need to pass these public examinations, and, our students need to be engaged in their learning, and not just because ‘it’s in the exam.’