Welcome to our blog

With 10% of children and young people having a clinically diagnosable mental health issue it remains concerning that 70% have had no appropriate interventions.  The impact of this is evident in schools where Mental Health and Wellbeing is being placed high on agendas. 

In August, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) released new guidelines for access arrangements which came into effect on the 1^st September.

We are delighted to announce that a number of our resources have received awards in this year's Teach Primary Awards!

We are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted in the SEN, Wellbeing and Foundations cateogry of the Teach Primary Awards!

Martin Waddell's Room for a Little One is the basis of today's free English lesson plan!

For the 12 days of advent, Rising Stars are bringing you a fantastic English lesson plan idea to use with your pupils. Today's is based on Paul Rockett's Close-up Continents: Mapping Europe. Our thanks to Maddy Barnes, Assistant Head Teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic School and English Consultant, for her superb lesson plan!

This is the final article in our working memory series. Our thanks to Dr Richard Skelton for this fantastic article on working memory training.

Difficulties with concentrating means that children aren’t able to use their Working Memory to process and make sense of information in class, which can lead to underachievement across the curriculum, including literacy and numeracy.

Back in the summer term, the Switched on Computing team ran an e-safety competition to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology. We sent out a free e-safety poster to all schools, challenging children to design their own e-safety poster! The brief was clear – it needed to be colourful and eye-catching with a strong e-safety message.

After much consideration, the judging panel (including HES and Switched on Computing author Miles Berry), announced Alex from Smawthorne Henry Moore Primary School in Castleford as the winner! They were really impressed with the creative design, attention to detail and the positive e-safety message. As a prize, the poster was recreated by one of our top designers and professionally printed.