May 2014

Over the summer Ofsted published its long anticipated History Research Review. Rising Stars History author Bev Forrest takes us through the review and pulls out the key takeaways for Primary schools. 

If you have a child in Year 6 you will be thinking about ways to help them prepare for the mathematics tests in May. In this blog, I’ve put together 5 tips to help parents support their children and have included some examples of where the Achieve series can be really helpful.

In the first of two blogs, Executive Principal (Wellspring Academy Trust, Leeds) Sam Bailey, explains her journey to systematic synthetic phonics teaching. It begins at a time before Letters and Sounds and the Phonics Screening Check (remember those days?!) at ‘stage zero: novice’…

After two years of no national assessments, it seems like the KS2 assessments might be returning this year. Whether they do or not, here are some tips for teaching grammar and some subject knowledge areas to look out for. We asked Shareen Wilkinson to share some tips to support teachers with grammar subject knowledge.

Rising Stars maths author, Steph King, shares her top 5 tips for consolidating Key Stage 2 learning.

RS Assessment has recently launched a 3 step programme called ‘Shine’, which enables schools to assess students, identify those who need support and deliver effective interventions. I have been looking at feedback from schools using Shine, and have put together the top five benefits of using RS Assessment’s tests together with the Shine reports and interventions in place of other forms of assessment and intervention.

In this Q&A, author Tony Bradman tells us about Reading Planet Astro, the exciting new high interest/low reading level strand. Tony series edited the 48 fiction and non-fiction books which have been created by a team of top authors including Bali Rai, Jan Burchett and Sara Volger.

Does my school need to buy a whole new phonics programme? How can we make phonics enjoyable for children? What is going on with Letters and Sounds?  Many of you are just starting your journey towards a new phonics provision. Hopefully, this will give you a head start.

Rosemary Feasey, author of Switched on Science Second Edition has written a new document as part of the programme outlining the Intent, Implementation and Impact of Switched on Science. 

When it comes to making sure that assessment leads to action and impact in the classroom, there are certain advantages to being part of a MAT. More staff means a wider range of expertise available to help develop effective approaches to assessment, large numbers of pupils mean more reliable, meaningful data, and data can be used to pinpoint areas of excellence, enabling the sharing and development of best practice between schools. But how does a MAT leverage these advantages effectively? Let’s have a look at five ways that RS Assessments’ standardised tests, together with the reports available in MARK and MARK Plus, can help us.