Every Wednesday for the rest of the year, we are going to spend a couple of minutes at the start of each class looking at particular words – how they are spelt, used and misused, their origins and how they can be adapted into various forms.

Tomorrow we will start by looking at anagrams. Perhaps you know some of your own that you can bring to class. Here are a few to start us off:

Astronomer – moon starer

Schoolmaster – the classroom

Dormitory – dirty room

Punishment – nine thumps

The morse code – here come dots

The eyes – they see

Conversation – voices rant on

Eleven plus two – twelve plus one

A decimal point – I’m a dot in place

Osama bin Laden – A bad one (no lies)

William Shakespeare – I’ll make a wise phrase