August 2013

Download our 2019 Rising Stars and RS Assessment from Hodder Education catalogues to discover brand new resources, even more affordable prices and exclusive discounts.

Our new partnership with Groupcall Analytics

We are pleased to announce our new partnership with Groupcall Analytics, which will benefit GAPS, PiRA and PUMA customers using MARK, our free online assessment and reporting tool. This partnership with Groupcall Analytics will provide our customers with a time-saving solution for MIS data integration, providing increased options for enhanced data analysis.

If children are taught how to give feedback on their learning, it means that teachers can be better equipped to help them make greater progress. Use this lesson plan to encourage children to reflect on what they say  about their learning and how this can help the teacher to support them.

This Valentine’s Day we are celebrating love in all its forms! Why not use this year as an opportunity to discuss different family structures and relationships. Provide your child with a helpful framework and the vocabulary they need to be able to discuss different kinds of relationships and love. Here are our tips to celebrating all kinds of love this Valentine’s Day.

Does your class groan and moan when it’s time for grammar, spelling and punctuation work?
Grammar doesn’t have to be boring or completed sat at a table with a piece of paper and pencil. Try some of the ideas below to get kids moving around and having fun as they learn about grammar, spelling and punctuation.  

Parental engagement is fundamental to the success of safeguarding children online. In honour of Safer Internet Day 2019, we've put together a blog post containing tips and resources to help you engage parents with online safety.

Consolidating and extending learning opportunities with peer partner work in the classroom

Thanks to Ruth Duckworth, Year 6 teacher and Writing Lead, and Kate Sanghera, Year 6 teacher and Science lead, from Christchurch CE Primary School for the following article.

Some assessments focusing on pupils’ ability to ‘speak and listen’ effectively have diminished recently – especially with the reduction in teacher assessments required to be reported at the end of key stage two.  This should not mean, however, that we begin to lose sight of the valuable contribution which paired oral language opportunities, work tasks and challenges, as well as peer assessments can make in both consolidating and moving on children’s learning.  The benefits of mixed-ability paired groupings can be particularly effective for all learners.

Last week, Ofsted announced their new draft inspection framework for 2019. Read our helpful summary of the inspection framework and find out how Rising Stars can help you meet the standards of it.

We've got 12 festive freebies to give away this December. Visit the Festive Freebies webpage each day to discover discounts, free classroom activities and a few special surprises!

We are delighted to announce the new partnership between our standardised tests for primary schools and Arbor's cloud-based MIS for schools & MATs.

Our standardised tests for primary schools

Our standardised tests, PiRA and PUMA, are a key component of many primary school improvement strategies, helping key stakeholders to track pupils’ in-year progress and benchmark against age-related expectations.