September 2016

By this time of year we have usually spent numerous hours analysing the latest test papers and drawing out implications for teaching for the new academic year. This year, of course, is so very different but there is still a lot we can learn from the assessments we have seen so far.

After the school closures, it seems that KS2 assessments are going ahead this year. Therefore, what do pupils need to know and understand? We asked Shareen Wilkinson (Mayers) to share her thoughts and ideas. 

Please also see Shareen’s blog on preparing for the reading paper, where she highlights key strategies for embedding learning that are applicable for teaching grammar. Here are some top tips to help you to begin with:  

After the school closures, it seems that KS2 assessments are going ahead this year. Therefore, what should teachers be focussing on? We asked Shareen Wilkinson (Mayers) to share her thoughts and ideas.

The gaps that existed pre-pandemic continue and may have widened. Most children will have forgotten some things and need reminding and refreshing in order to access new learning. So what should schools do? Eleanor Hick, co-creator of Shine: Targeted Interventions for Primary, discusses.

As teachers we’re always looking for the ‘Holy Grail’ of the classroom - what makes the biggest difference in the shortest time. Luckily for us, all the research on what works in the classroom has been done by the Education Endowment Foundation. So particularly now, when every school is trying to make up for lost COVID time, we need to use the invaluable groundwork the EEF has done to help us make every lesson count. Dee Reid, co-creator of Shine: Targeted Interventions for Primary, discusses what strategies really work to improve Literacy in the classroom.

Lockdown was hard for everyone, but particularly so for children and teachers in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, especially with regard to phonics and reading. Teachers worked so hard to ensure their children had access to appropriate resources and parents did their very best to be teachers. However, despite everyone’s best efforts, many children had six months without regular access to a structured progression of reading books. This loss has impacted not just the children’s reading skills, but also their belief in themselves as readers. Kate Ruttle, co-creator of Shine: Targeted Interventions for Primary, discusses the impact of lockdown on children at the beginning of their reading journey.

So, you’ve had half a term to find out what went on during the months your pupils weren’t in school and, undoubtedly, there’s been good news and bad news. Some pupils seem to have coped surprisingly well with online learning whilst others might have started this term well adrift of where you would like them to be. Dee Reid, co-creator of Shine:Targeted Interventions for Primary, discusses getting all pupils back up to speed in reading comprehension.

We are living through uncertainty and change where nothing seems to stay the same for more than 20 minutes. But one thing that is consistent through all of this turmoil is that the children in our care will grow, change and develop every day. Our job is to make sense of their very different academic profiles and ensure they continue to progress along the right track. Katharine Rogerson, co-creator of Shine: Targeted Interventions for Primary, discusses how we can help to get pupils back on track and support them to progress. 

The new edition of Switched On Computing includes some significant new content. The Teachers’ Guides have been substantially rewritten to make the scheme more accessible than ever to non-specialist teachers, whilst retaining the flexibility that expert computing leads might look for to make the scheme their own. Alongside the new lesson plans, extensive online support now includes step-by-step teaching slides and lesson walk-throughs, CPD videos and online quizzes to check pupils’ understanding at the end of each unit. 

Our November Reading Planet Book of the Month is Grandma's Story (Comet Street Kids - Gold) by Adam and Charlotte Guillain. In the book, Asha invites her grandmother to come into her school and recall her childhood memories to her class. Authors Adam and Charlotte explore the themes and topics in the book (which include the Moon Landing and overcoming fears) and give teaching ideas to help you share the story in school.