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+ FREE
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HOW TO PLAN MELTDOWN

The ‘superheads’
LIKE A PRO causing mayhem

Does direct
instruction 12 festive
really work? dilemmas
all teachers
face

Get into the minds of

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 WELCOME

Hello!
POWERED BY...

W
e’re doing volcanoes next half
term but I’m not sure what to
teach. Does anyone have any MICK WATERS
planning they can share?” explains why Welsh
educators are getting
If you belong to any of the
particularly excited at
hundreds of primary teacher Facebook groups in
the moment
existence, pleas along these lines won’t be new
to you.
When I see messages like this, it makes me “The Welsh dragon is stirring
worry for the teachers resorting to these sorts of requests to sort in education, breathing fire
out their planning. It’s wonderful that there are so many generous into the hearts of teachers”
p23
educators willing to share their work, but I can’t shake off the creeping
suspicion that doing this planning in school in a more structured way,
alongside colleagues, would be more beneficial. Deputy head Andrew NICK EAST
Percival agrees – read more on p41. has created an innovative
If you’re at all involved in teaching KS2 writing, I heartily suggest six-week KS2 PE plan
you give Clare Hodgson’s piece on p56 a read. Clare is a lead moderator based around ultimate
in Hertfordshire and has put together five key lessons we can learn frisbee
from last year’s process – don’t miss it.
As the daughter of librarians, I can’t deny that my heart swells The rules are simple and the
whenever I’m ushered into a beautiful library when I’m visiting set-up and tidying away is quick
schools. So often this precious space is the first to go when schools need and easy”
extra space, so I found myself nodding frantically at Samantha Pope’s p48
letter on p17 about the vital importance of libraries – and librarians – in
our schools.
We’ve also packed in a special science section starting on p80 and CLARE HODGSON
four innovative lesson plans from p69. I hope there’s something to helps you get into the
inspire you. minds of the KS2 writing
moderators with her ive
key lessons
Until next time,
“The revised ‘pupil can’
Elaine Don’t mss ur statements for greater depth
ext sse, on sle
represented the greatest
Elaine Bennett, Editor
change last year”
@editorteach
4 th January p56

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Contents
ISSUE 12.8

REGULA RS
8 BREAKTIME
29 COMPETITION
37 BRILLIANT BOX SETS
40 SUBSCRIBE TODAY

I N TERVI EW
19 Louis de Bernières
“Teaching is a stressful
job; not least, dealing with
the other bloody teachers!”

VOI CES
We’re all 15 JULIE PRICE GRIMSHAW SUBJECT SPECIAL
ears! Does direct instruction really work,
and if so, when should it be used? S CIE NCE
We want to make 17 A LETTER TO… 80 I WONDER WHY...
sure our magazine is
Librarian Samantha Pope pens an How to promote curiosity in
a brilliant resource
for teachers and are
imaginary note to all headteachers your science classroom
always striving to 22 UNDERCOVER TEACHER 83 TEACH FORCES WITH CONFIDENCE
improve. That’s why
So-called ‘superheads’ are sending It can seem hard to know where to start
we host a reader
feedback panel
teachers into meltdown with these mysterious invisible concepts
every issue to hear 23 MICK WATERS 87 LITERATURE LAUNCHPAD
from real teachers
Welsh teachers are enthused by the Fiction and science needn’t be separate
about what they
liked and what they
growing momentum for change in – engrossing stories can inspire learning
would change. Got
their country
90 NO MORE EXCUSES
feedback? Contact 24 BEN KING Always inding ways to avoid
us via the details in
There’s an underlying suspicion of practical science? Here’s why it
the yellow box below.
men who want to teach in primary really matters...

We want to hear from you! teachwire.net

facebook.com/teachwire
Get in touch with your rants, twitter.com/teachprimary
comments, photos and ideas. elaine.bennett@theteachco.com

www.teachwire.net | 5
 EDITOR:
Elaine Bennett,
elaine.bennett@theteachco.com,
01206 505994
GROUP EDITOR:
Joe Carter,
joe.carter@theteachco.com,
01206 505925
FEATURES
GROUP ADVERTISING 11 7 NEWS STORIES
MANAGER:
Richard Stebbing, Catch up on what you may have missed
richard.stebbing@theteachco.com,
01206 505957
over the last month
ADVERTISING 13 8 LESSONS THE ALL
MANAGER:
Hayley Rackham, BLACKS CAN TEACH US
hayley.rackham@theteachco.com,
01206 505988
Bring their team ethos into your school and
SENIOR ACCOUNT
raise expectations for pupils and staff
MANAGER:
Samantha Law 21 HOW TO BOSS BETT
samantha.law@theteachco.com It’s the world’s biggest edtech event, so
01206 505499
ACCOUNT MANAGER:
how can you make the most of your visit?
Louis Stephenson,
louis.stephenson@theteachco.com, 25 SURREY SQUARE PRIMARY
01206 505927 Meet the staff going the extra
Hannah Jones, mile for their community
hannah.jones@theteachco.com,
01026 505924
30 PLAN LIKE A PRO
ART EDITOR:
Richard Allen Use these ive ‘cogs’ to structure your
DESIGNERS: lessons and make them purposeful
Ben Hepton, Chris England
PHOTOGRAPHY: 32 WHO SAID MERMAIDS CAN’T RUN?
CliQQ Photography,
cliqq.co.uk
The inish line is just the beginning when it
ACCOUNTS:
comes to this special club for girls
01206 505995
34 THERE’S BEEN AN INCIDENT…
DESIGN &
REPROGRAPHICS: When it comes to sharing details of
Ace Pre-Press 01206 508608
a child’s day, it’s vital to tailor your
SUBSCRIPTIONS
DEPARTMENT:
words carefully
alexandra.anning@aceville.co.uk,
0330 333 0043 38 DUAL CONTROL CLASSROOMS
PUBLISHER: As mentors, it’s vital that we give trainees
Helen Tudor
the opportunity to learn through failure
PUBLISHED BY:
Maze Media (2000) Ltd, 25 Phoenix 41 PATCHWORK CURRICULUMS
Court, Hawkins Rd, Colchester,
Essex, CO2 8JY. Tel: 01206 505900 Why are some teachers resorting
to begging on social media for
planning help?
45 PUMP UP THE VOLUME 52 TEACHING LITERACY IS A JOKE
How to cover volume and capacity without Basing a lesson on puns is an
resorting to simple pouring and illing excellent way to enliven drier parts
48 MEDIUM TERM PLAN of the curriculum
This six-week PE lesson series for KS2 55 IN THE MOMENT
focuses on the sport of ultimate frisbee What’s going on with children
98 12 THINGS who have great decoding skills but
Ian Goldsworthy takes a wry look at the weak comprehension?
festive season 56 LAST YEAR’S MODERATIONS
Involved in teaching KS2 writing? Get
L ES S ON PLANS into the mind of the moderators...
70 SCIENCE & HISTORY 60 BOOK CLUB
72 MATHS We review ive new titles
74 GEOGRAPHY & ENGLISH that will excite your class
The views in this magazine are not
necessarily those of the publisher. 76 MFL
Every effort is made to ensure 63 BOOK TOPIC
the veracity and integrity of the
Kensuke’s Kingdom won Teachers’
companies, persons, products
and services mentioned in this
REVI EWS Choice in our book awards and is
publication, and the details given
are believed to be accurate at the 94 SCHOLASTIC TIMES TABLES packed with exciting themes
time of going to press. However,
no responsibility or liability 95 PLUSBALLS 67 READING ROLE MODEL
whatsoever can be accepted for any 96 PRIM-ED STEM PROJECTS
consequence or repercussion of What trying to tackle my own height
responding to information or advice 97 5ALIVE-ROADWISE in children’s books taught me
given or inferred. Copyright Maze
Media (2000) Ltd. PRIMARY SCHOOLS PROJECT about reading

6 | www.teachwire.net
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 NOV/DEC

Breaktime News | Interviews | Ideas | Resources | Research

Bake a diference
Help pupils to bake and sell tasty
gingerbread biscuits this Christmas
to raise money to support projects
to bring Fairtrade to more farmers
and workers around the world.
Many growers of ginger, cinnamon
and vanilla don’t earn enough
money to support their families,
but by using Fairtrade spices and
learning about where they come
from, children in the UK can help
make a difference. The Fairtrade
Foundation has created a fundraising
pack containing a recipe and stencils
to help. It also contains an assembly
plan, factsheets and a board game.
Order your pack and find out more at
schools.fairtrade.org.uk

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The Cricket World Public Health To celebrate the
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curriculum-linked hygiene. Perform a commissioned a

resources, simple egg–based brand new song for
science experiment
This special teaching pack is bursting with ideas for
designed to enrich school children to
pupils’ learning to show how sugary learn, with words teaching English at KS1 and KS2 while celebrating
across a range of drinks can affect our by poet Clare Michael Bond’s wonderful Paddington Bear books.
subjects. There teeth, then read the Shaw. Download
are six half-termly cartoon strip story of the score, piano There are four lessons plans, each accompanied
projects, Tilly the Tooth with accompaniment and by a selection of activity sheets. These can be used
chancetoshine. your class. backing track from
org/teaching- campaignresources. childrenssociety. individually or combined as part of a whole-school
resources phe.gov.uk/schools org.uk project. Download it from teachwire.net/pb-pack
8 | www.teachwire.net
 IN EVERY ISSUE

Apply for an Q&A

arts grant
You have until 5th December 2018 to apply for a
slice of a Teacher Development Fund to support
delivery of effective arts-based teaching and embed
learning through the arts in your curriculum.
There are five grants available, worth up to
£150,000. These can be used to support activity
costs, project organisational costs, teacher cover
and more.
The fund focuses on supporting children experiencing
disadvantage and approaches which involve learning
through the arts. This can include crafts, creative
writing, dance, film, music and more.
Bobby
To apply, you should be able to Seagull
demonstrate that you have a solid partnership University Challenge
in place between at least five schools and an star, maths teacher and
arts or cultural organisation and that at least
ambassador for Explore
one member of your senior leadership team is
involved in your project. Apply via the Learning’s National Young
online form at phf.org.uk/funds/tdf Mathematicians’ Awards

What was your experience of

primary school like?
I really enjoyed the variety of subjects

What works in primary maths? and the level of practical engagement.

We did lots of extended projects where
A new report on what is effective in primary maths has found that professional we made things, Blue Peter style.
development approaches that focus on helping teachers increase their understanding
of maths content have little impact on achievement. Researchers propose that this When did you first fall in love
may be due to the fact that programmes focused on improving teacher knowledge do with maths?
not change the daily experience for pupils very much. Strategies focusing on improving My love of numbers and maths
pupils’ general motivation, social-emotional skills and behaviour generally had a more developed through football. At primary
positive effect on outcomes. Read the report at tinyurl.com/tpknowledge school I used to collect football stickers.
Friends used to speculate about which

94%
players were better than others and I
went home and inputted all the players’
statistics (goals scored, games played
etc) and was able to come up with my
OF STATE FUNDED thoughts, but backed up with data.
I realised the power of numbers and
SCHOOLS TAKE really fell in love with maths after that.
PUPILS ON A
RESIDENTIAL TRIP How would you change the way
maths is taught in primary school?
EVERY YEAR, WITH
Primary teachers have a very tough
43% CHOOSING TO job as they have to teach all subjects. I
GO IN THE FINAL give you all a massive round of applause
HALF TERM** for that. Personally, I would make sure
that children can see that maths is all
around them, whether it’s in nature,

Look ahead | Book ahead architecture, sport or music – it’s

everywhere! We need to show children
examples of how maths relates to the
PLACE A BETT BIG BIRDWATCH real world.
Edtech show Bett The RSPB Big
takes place in London Schools Birdwatch FIND OUT MORE
* School Travel Forum

between 23rd-26th returns in January Bobby Seagull will be presenting the

January 2019. 2019. Spend an hour National Young Mathematicians’
Entry is free – join counting the birds that Awards with Explore Learning at the
30,000 teachers visit then send in University of Cambridge in January.
by registering at your results. Register for 2019 at explorelearning.
bettshow.com rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch co.uk/youngmathematicians

www.teachwire.net | 9
 FEATURES CHEAT SHEET

7 NEWS APPOINTM
WA I T I N G T IE N T
MES

STORIES
New research by
the Education Po
Institute has fo licy
und that the nu
referrals to spec mber of
ialist children’s
health services mental
has increased by

you might have missed

over the last iv 26%
e years, but as
one in four child many as
ren are rejected
their condition because
is not consider
enough’. The re ed ‘serious
search also foun
the average wa d that
iting time for ch
34 days to rece ildren is
ive an initial as
NGES sessment
OFSTED CHA and 60 days to
receive treatmen
Inspector Amanda Responding to t.
Her Majesty’s Chief of planned RSPCA petition the report, Kevin
joint general se Courtney,
announced details cretary of the Na
Spielman recently pe cts schools Education Unio tional
y Ofsted ins The RSPCA is calling for n said, “Student
changes to the wa e ch an ge s will qualiied counse s need a
19. Thes animal welfare to be added
from September 20 line data the current fund
llor in every scho
ol but
us away from head to the curriculum. The ing crisis is redu
move Ofsted’s foc ac hieving widening, acce cing, not
how schools are charity sees nearly 5,000 ss to counsello
to look instead at ey are of ering the full report at rs.” Read
whether th online incidents of cruelty tinyurl.com/tpr
these results, and h an d de ep , or esearch
is broa d, ric and neglect reported to
a curriculum that sa id the
the test. Spielman it each year and reports
simply teaching to lea de rs to
teachers and that nearly a quarter of
changes will allow tance
th eir tim e on the real subs schoolchildren aged ten
“focus more of sc ho ols wh ere too
challen ge and up have witnessed
of education” and tes ts.
t on preparation for animal cruelty on social
much time is spen es
Read more at tin yurl.com/tpchang media. In response,
d drugs
Drink an
it is launching a new
education and prevention Index 2018 eing
acher Wellb ership
programme called The new Te tio n S u pport Partn
fro m E d u ca ed u ca tion
Generation Kind and has report quarter o f
Budge t advice reveals that
n ea rly a
ental hea lth
Nine prov
iders acro
also launched a petition
ss ion al s alleviate m d rin king
ss the co calling for animal welfare to profe at work by
awarded
a DfE con untry hav ble m s ex perienced ed to d ru gs.
schools to tract to d e been be covered in school. Find pro 9 % have turn
eliver sup w h ile p ro ve
help them p ort to alcohol, ercise to im
160 scho m a ximise th out more at rspca.org.uk
rely o n physical ex ed itat io n
ol resourc eir budge 41% use m
will be re e manage ts. /generationkind , while 30% eral
cruited to ment adv their mood hitem an , ge n
will work deliver th isers ess. Paul W AHT,
to share b e service
and or mindfuln oo l lead ers’ union N
ways for est practi
ce and id et ar y o f sc h
a go o d day,
of resourc
schools to
m ak e more ef en tify secr
ry o n e kn ows that on d ing
said, “Eve ost rewar
be requir
es and re
venue. Co ective us
e h in g is o ne of the m is , th ere
ed to und nsultants teac he trouble
and train ertake a ri
gorous se
will
re er s im aginable. T ”
s. R ea d th e full
ing proce ca od day
successfu ss and wil lection enough go dex
lly comple l also nee just aren’t ti ny u rl.com/tpin
Natalie D te a two-d d to report at
alvarez fr ay accred
Learning, om chose itation.
said, “We n provider
together are keen Herts for
with the o to work
contribute ther prov
to improv iders to
children a ed outcom
cross the es for
country.” Swimming lessons
Primaries in England
are set to receive
extra support and im
proved guidance
to help make sure all
children can swim
THE NEW NORM? conidently. Working
in partnership with
In a recent survey by childcare.co.uk, 64% of primary Swim England, the
DfE has announced
teachers reported that they brush pupils’ hair in the morning, extra help for scho
ols, including
with 25% saying that they now feel this is ‘the norm’ and ‘their using the PE and Sp
ort Premium for
duty’. 69% of teachers have had to personally deal with headlice, additional lessons
for children who ha
including buying treatment, and 95% admitted to buying not yet met the na ve
tional curriculum
resources for pupils out of their own money, including toothpaste, expectation after co
re swimming lesso
toothbrushes, breakfast food and sanitary products. Richard extra training for tea ns,
chers through cours
Conway, founder of childcare.co.uk, said, “Whatever the reason provided by Swim En es
gland and a drive
children haven’t had breakfast or brushed their teeth, it shouldn’t to boost partnership
s with independent
be up to a teacher to do these things.” Read more at schools to ofer the
use of facilities. Th
childcare.co.uk/blog/teachers-survey action plan will be e
launched in the sprin
g.

www.teachwire.net | 11
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 FEATURES CULTURE CHANGE
8 LESSONS the
All Blacks can teach us
Bring their team ethos into your school and raise
expectations for pupils and staf, says Leah Wright
1 | CREATE LEAD LEARNERS
For better or worse, children often listen to their
peers more than adults. Embrace this by developing
a peer leadership system. Select children to work in
a focus group with you where you will discuss their
role as ‘lead learners’. Rather than giving them the
task of seeing if anyone needs help, give them three
speciic things to look for and suggest questions to
ask. Extend this by creating a group of ‘reading
leaders’. These should be children who need a deeper
challenge. Help them to set up mini reading groups, LEAH
using questions they’ve written themselves. WRIGHT
2 | LET PUPILS RUN CLUBS is a Y6 leader and
Extend peer leadership by asking children to set used ideas from
James Kerr’s book
up their own clubs at lunchtime, such as running and
Legacy (£12.99,
football. These pupils will be responsible for getting
Constable) to improve
out the equipment and supporting younger children.
her pupils’ attitudes
At the end of the summer term, help children ‘pass
to learning.
on’ the legacy of their club to pupils from the year
below. If you’d like the children to run more specialist
clubs, such as den building, invite in a company
to train a group of pupils who would beneit from
the responsibility.
3 | DREAM UP SPECIAL ROLES
Encourage pupils to apply for positions of responsibility
and increase the sense of gravitas via your selection
process. One such role could include morning helpers
who assist the teacher with photocopying, trimming,
sticking and handing out. Asking children to apply for
the role gives them ownership of it and means they
will take it more seriously.
4 | CELEBRATE SUCCESSES
Celebrate what you want to see more of. Seemingly
small things, such as tidy lunchboxes and speedy
lining up, all lead to higher expectations. Recognise
these things with gestures such as special stickers,
the reward of sitting on benches in assembly or a
class game of heads down, thumbs up.
@leah_moo leahlists.co.uk
5 | SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
If you don’t pick up on small things, the big
things won’t happen. Make sure children see you
being relentless about three key things: pride in
yourself; pride in your learning environment; and
learning time. Make it clear that these high
expectations aren’t going away. It can be hard at the
end of a long half term to summon up the energy
needed to make the most of every minute of learning
time, so make a special efort at these times to
reinforce expectations.
6 | USE THE SAME LANGUAGE
Make sure that all adults have the chance to read
Legacy by James Kerr and spend time explaining to
new members of staf the ethos set out in the book
and the impact it has on expectations. Ensure all
team members use the same language to ensure
that expectations are met. For example, the All
Blacks call tidying up as a team ‘sweeping the sheds’.
They take pride in their uniform and call this
‘respecting the jersey’. They support each other with
their learning because they’re a team and ‘there are
no egos’.
7 | SHARE FEEDBACK WITH ALL
Raise expectations among staf and develop a
transparent approach to feedback after learning
walks by adding comments to a document that can
be viewed by all team members. This encourages
conversations about sharing best practice and
helps to build relationships. Shared Google Docs are
also great for supporting everyone to keep on top of
ever-increasing to-do lists.
8 | ENSURE YOU HAVE SUPPORT
Before embarking on a culture change in your
classroom, ensure you have the backing of SLT. Your
school probably already has well-embedded values
and learning behaviours, so it’s vital to link your new
approach to your school’s wider ethos.
www.teachwire.net | 13
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Julie Price Grimshaw
DOES DIRECT
INSTRUCTION
REALLY WORK?
And if so, when should it be used and when is
it inappropriate, asks Julie Price Grimshaw
@julespg selfpropelledlearning.co.uk
T
he article’s headline was
certainly eye-catching: ‘Direct
instruction works, says 50 years
of research.’ Have the experts
finally decided on the winning
formula, the magic method, the never-failing
approach to teaching that results in fantastic
learning every time? After all, 50 years of
research sounds like a credible basis for
the claim.
And Nick Gibb is clearly a fan, having
embraced the research paper and tweeted,
‘More evidence of the importance of
well-structured, step-by-step teacher-led
instruction.’ So what exactly is this direct
instruction, colloquially referred to as DI?
I’ve always thought of DI as a rather
unimaginative, very highly structured,
almost scripted approach to lesson delivery.
Feelings of guilt and embarrassment
overwhelm me as I remember the poor
children who suffered from my totally inept
delivery of the QCA schemes of work all
those years ago. If this is DI, it clearly didn’t
work for me. I worry that we are facing
a return to the days of ‘lessons to please
Ofsted’ downloaded from the internet – even
though Ofsted has been saying for years that
inspectors cannot endorse or criticise any
particular approach to teaching.
But maybe I’m wrong about DI – and
whatever it is, 50 years of research can’t be
discarded without more investigation.
I decided to look into it further, but after
what seemed like 50 hours of my own
research, I’m still not sure exactly what DI is.
It’s compared to ‘inquiry-based teaching’ and
‘pupil-led learning’, both of which appear to be
touted as inferior approaches.
Apparently, according to John Hattie, DI
involves the teacher ‘deciding on the learning
intentions and success criteria.’ Surely it’s
possible to decide on a learning intention and
make it all happen through an inquiry-based
approach? And don’t we need pupil-led
learning at times, especially in Early Years?
If DI ‘works’, what does it actually work for
and how do we know? The original article said
that research found that students who were
taught using DI methods performed better in
reading, maths and spelling than those who
were not. But what is the measure of how well
any approach to teaching ‘works’? We’re in
the habit of restricting our evidence to test
results, but even Ofsted has recently admitted
to adding to the ‘teach to the test mentality’
by putting too much weight on tests and exam
results when rating schools.
If our job is solely to prepare children for
the phonics check and SATs, then there might
be a good case for full-on adoption of scripted,
formulaic and sequenced lessons in every
classroom, but we all know that there’s much
more to teaching than this.
However, the rest of Hattie’s basic
description of DI states that the teacher
‘demonstrates [the learning intentions]
by modelling, evaluates if they understand
VOICES
what they have been told by checking for
understanding, and re-telling them what
they have told by tying it all together with
closure.’ Actually, that sounds perfectly
reasonable and there’s a lot of common
sense in there. Nothing about having to
adapt tasks for kinesthetic and visual
learners, teaching children differently
solely on the basis of them being ‘pupil
premium’ or doing things just to please the
adult observing the lesson.
I recently spoke to some Y5 children
about why they enjoyed their maths
lessons. One child said, ‘Because our
teacher is so good!’ What makes a teacher
good, I asked. ‘She explains it in different
ways until we understand it.’ Enough said.
Hattie’s version of DI makes sense, but
there are some things we just can’t teach in
this way. We can’t teach social skills to very
young children through DI. We can’t teach
personal interpretation of a song through
DI. One of my favourite quotes is this:
‘The best teachers are those who show you
where to look, but not what to see.’
It’s taken much less than 50 years to
come up with the headline ‘Good teaching
works’. Good teaching contains a lot of
elements of DI as well as inquiry-based
learning and – dare I say it – the occasional
bit of child-led learning. The skill is in
knowing the right blend for the content.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that
another recent piece of research claimed
that the most inspirational teachers are
those who take risks, offer encouragement
and share their passions. Maybe not part of
the DI script, but as we all know, we’re not
here just to get the test results. TP
Julie Price Grimshaw is a teacher,
trainer and education adviser. She has
been involved in school inspections
since 2001.
www.teachwire.net | 15
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Each issue we ask a contributor to
pen a note they would love to send
A letter to...
eadeahers
rom a shol
librarian
You may see a library as a luxury,
but a successful one is so much
more than a depository of books
As school
budgets are
squeezed even
tighter, I’m
going to ask
you to earmark
money for
something that
you, oicially,
don’t have to spend any money on –
your school library.
I can anticipate your immediate
response already: schools are expected
to do so much already with decreasing
amounts of money. Believe me, I know –
I used to be a school governor and I work
in a primary school. And, since libraries
are not a required facility in schools, it
might make more sense to cross them
of the list. After all, often, school libraries
can hardly be called that – squashed
into corridors or located in a dark corner
behind a cloakroom, where battered
books ight for space among coats, bags
and muddy wellies.
If a library doesn’t look welcoming
or attractive, the children won’t want
to visit it, so what’s the point in having
one, you might ask. And, if most
primary classrooms have book corners
and bookcases with age- and ability-
appropriate titles, is there any need for a
separate library to exist at all?
Seen purely in this light, a library
becomes more a luxury than a necessity,
and employing someone to care for the
books is even more ludicrous. Surely
Samantha Pope is librarian at St Michael’s CE Primary in Oxford.
a TA with time on their hands (is there
such a person?) or an eager parent
would do the job just as well? All they
have to do, after all, is issue books, make
sure they come back, and shelve them
– and perhaps read a story or two to the
younger children, at a push. If that’s all a
library is, then why not?
The thing is, a successful library
is so much more than a depository of
books. It’s a place where the written
world can come to life. Dedicated school
librarians (and they don’t have to have a
library qualiication to be efective) try to
engage families and carers and the wider
community to instil a love of reading.
We help staf with reading materials to
support classroom education and create
interesting and entertaining challenges
in reading and writing.
We might work with children who
are either reluctant readers or who
struggle to achieve their age-appropriate
reading levels. We liaise with local
bookshops and libraries, keeping in
touch with authors and illustrators,
arranging school visits and sending them
photos, letters and tweets. In short, we
bring books to life, in an atmosphere that
is warm and welcoming.
In my library, I am fortunate to get
to know each and every child in the
school through weekly library sessions
and ‘library lunchtimes’, where I run
activities such as storytime and arts and
crafts sessions based on the books and
poetry we’re reading. It’s clear from the
@childtastic childtasticbooks.com
VOICES
queues waiting for the library to open
that the children see the space as a place
of creativity and calm, with cushions,
teddies and colourful displays alongside
the books, magazines and newspapers.
Individual children even come to the
library in lessons if they are becoming
anxious, emotional or overwhelmed.
Quite simply, the library is, as our
headteacher describes it to colleagues in
local schools, a ‘haven’.
This environment is vital at a time
where, according to recent surveys,
one in ten children and young adults
sufer from mental health problems
such as anxiety, depression and
conduct disorders. Schools are being
asked to deal with these issues as well
as everything else. Librarians aren’t
necessarily trained psychotherapists or
counsellors, but if they can at least ofer
a vulnerable child a refuge a few times
a week, then this can help ease the
burden on teachers, who have 29 other
children to care for.
Seen in this light, surely the
argument for libraries, and for a
dedicated person in charge of them, can
only add value to a school – and in more
ways than the immediately obvious ones.
Book lover, reading helper, agony aunt,
researcher – perhaps the question you
should be asking yourself is this: can you
aford not to have a librarian?
rom Samantha
www.teachwire.net | 17

“Dealing with other
TEACHERS was
STRESSFUL”
I
have nice memories Author Louis de Bernières spent many years as a they’re in, so I suspect
of my primary school.
It was called St Nicholas teacher – and it’s not a role he’s keen to revisit…
and was on the top of a hill
in Orpington. My sister
and I would carry our roller
skates with us, so we could
skate back down the hill at
the end of the day. We’d go
so fast we could only stop
by crashing into our garage
door. After he’d repainted
it, our father forbade us
from doing that any more.
I remember being
forced to have a rest
after lunch, even though
I wasn’t sleepy. I also
remember winning the
three-legged race, lashed to
a Californian girl called Jill
with whom I was totally in
love. I still have the photo of
us holding the cup.
At the age of eight,
I was sent to a prep
school in Birchington,
Kent. It was a brutally
violent establishment,
which happily doesn’t exist
any more. The headteacher
had been tortured during
the war and took it out on
us. He had lash marks on
his back. You survived by
shutting off emotionally,
completely, at the start of
term, and staying that way
until the holidays.
I’m grateful to have
had the chance to learn Latin, which
gave me instant access to most modern
romantic languages, as well as a taste for Shakespearean actor who would act out
the classical world. I would have preferred all the parts for us.
Greek, though.
I escaped prep school when
I was 13 and went to Bradfield College,
a public school in Berkshire, which was
characterised by a cult of muscular
Christianity. We were being trained as
little Spartan warriors (which I quite
liked), and expected to do sports every
day, which is a good idea. I wish my own
children were expected to do likewise. I
had two extraordinarily brilliant English
VOICES
today’s schools must be
doing something right.
I’ve had two
long-term jobs in
my life – landscape
gardening and teaching
– and if I had to go
back to some form of
employment other
than writing, it would
definitely be the
gardening. Teaching
is a stressful job; not
least, dealing with the
other bloody teachers.
Schools are full of little
dictators – or at least,
they were when
I worked in them. That
said, the impact you can
have on people’s lives is
wonderful. I worked in
a truancy centre once
and when I met one of
the kids afterwards, he
said, “If not for you, I’d
be in prison.” A girl who
came to me at 15 unable
to read and write sent
me a letter, years later,
telling me she’d just
got her drama degree.
It feels like I’ve had an
enormous family.
I think a lot of
what holds kids back
is a lack of parental
ambition for them, and
teachers – one was a modern intellectual it’s the teachers’ job to be relentlessly,
type who wanted us to understand positively ambitious for those young
The Wasteland; the other was a people. It’s hard, especially when you are
almost certain it’s a hopeless case. But if
you can prise open the boundaries within
I was a fast learner, and retained which they are living, fantastic things can,
what I learnt. I burnt with intellectual sometimes, happen. TP
energy. But then the hormones kicked
in and I felt full of melancholy. I kept the Louis de Bernières is most famous
intellectual curiosity up, but I seemed for his fourth novel, Captain Corelli’s
always to be in love with someone who Mandolin. As well as writing, de
didn’t know I existed. My own son has just Bernières plays the flute, mandolin
hit puberty and doesn’t seem to have been and guitar. His first album, The Songs
destroyed by it, which is something of a of Louis de Bernières Vol. 1, is
relief. He and his younger sister are both available through Blue House Music
prospering under the educational regime (bhmusic.co.uk).
www.teachwire.net | 19
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 FEATURES EDTECH

HOW TO...

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www.teachwire.net | 21

So-called ‘superheads’, with their long lists of non-negotiables,
are sending teachers into meltdown
@fakeheadteacher
O
ver the last five years I’ve seen many excellent,
experienced teachers leave the profession.
Many who haven’t left regularly talk about
how to leave. Those who can’t leave complain
about their job. I’ve witnessed brilliant teachers take
long periods of sick leave due to stress and caring
headteachers develop health problems because the job
has evolved in a manner they struggle to sustain.
In fact, in the last three schools I’ve worked in,
I’ve heard more teachers grumble about the job than
ever before. I’ve been clinging on by
my fingertips myself in recent years.
Sadly, a new breed of ‘superhead’ “In my experience,
started at one of my previous schools,
sending most staff into a spiral of progress in books
anxiety. I define this particular
type of headteacher as one who is seems to be a very
only interested in improving data
and exam results, whatever it takes. low priority for
They bring with them a long list of
demands, non-negotiables and pages of some heads”
‘conformity’ lists to adhere to.
So, what’s changed since I started in this profession?
Non-negotiables are probably one of the most
damaging aspects of current management
styles. In order for a head to prove their
impact on the school, they introduce long
checklists, then regularly look to see if
you are implementing everything.
I regularly get sent examples of
these demands from fellow teachers.
In one school, the new head introduced
a 20-point checklist. Staff had to show
evidence of completing each item on the list
during three unannounced learning walks each
half term. They were told that if they failed to cover
all 20 items, they’d be put on a coaching programme.
Unsurprisingly, the unions are heavily involved.
I have personally experienced a ‘superhead’ who told
us all that we had to use his new planning sheet which
involved writing three learning objectives for three
22 | www.teachwire.net The writer has taught in five schools across a 20 year career.
VOICES
headteacher-newsletter.com
separate groups. He banned whole-class teaching input,
saying that this would be too easy or too hard for some of
the children. We were told we had to immediately split
pupils into groups so that learning was always directed
at the correct level. When most of us found it hard to
implement, coaching programmes were set up and some
staff were threatened with capabilities.
And where did learning walks suddenly spring up from?
I understand the rationale behind them, but more often
than not they are simply used as a way of policing these
long lists of non-negotiables. If these
superheads see something they don’t
like in the ten minutes they walk around
your class, you’re told off and are then
more likely to have more visits to check
you are doing everything right.
It’s a similar story with book
scrutinies. Teachers are spending more
time ensuring they’ve included the
necessary things that need to be stuck
or written in books. When was the
last time your book scrutiny feedback
started with, “Amazing progress from the pupils – well
done”? In my experience, progress in books seems to
be a very low priority for some heads. What these
types of leaders tend to focus on is whether the
LO was stuck in and the date written. Did you
give feedback three times last week? Was peer
feedback given? Is there evidence of
you using purple pens, highlighters and
feedback stampers?
Luckily, the headteacher at my new school
is fantastic and has very sensible, manageable
policies (even though it’s a ‘requires improvement’
school). If it wasn’t for this recent experience,
which has restored my faith in good leadership,
I have no doubt that I too would have left
teaching. Teacher autonomy and trust has
almost disappeared. Unless headteachers start
valuing these attributes again, I worry that
many good teachers will continue to leave.
 VOICES

The Welsh dragon is stirring in education and

teachers are enthused by the growing momentum
for change in their country

Mick Waters
S
chools in Wales are in interesting
times. The whole system is
focused on how to make it
better for children. Teachers are
involved in what is being called
‘co-construction’ with government to build
a better future.
About five years ago, Professor
Graham Donaldson produced a report to
government about how the curriculum
needed to change to create ‘successful
futures’. Since then, teachers from just
under 200 ‘curriculum pioneer schools’
across the country have worked together to
build the new curriculum framework.
It is to be a forward-looking
curriculum, set around four purposes for
learners: healthy and confident individuals,
enterprising and creative contributors,
ethical and informed citizens, ambitious
and capable learners. The framing of the
new curriculum means real consideration
of pedagogy. Teachers are working to
12 pedagogic principles, trying to move
towards an authentic set of experiences for it to spread, ‘innovation’ which moves it inspectors working alongside teachers to
learners, building on their natural learning forward, ‘professional learning’ which takes develop the new learning agenda.
instincts, giving them practice in the skills it deeper and ‘leadership’ which helps it All those agencies that support schools
they will need for the future and seeing to grow. have recognised that they need to do more
teaching in different lights, depending The recognition that teachers to work together and avoid the risk of
upon the learner’s circumstances. aspire to be the best they can has led overwhelming teachers with advice. A very
Considerable development is taking to a concentrated effort being put into recent report on teacher pay and conditions
place to recognise and support children’s developing avenues for professional puts considerable emphasis on workload
additional learning needs and there is a learning which puts each teacher in charge and proposes significant change to current
multi-agency approach to children who of their own development. Leadership performance management arrangements.
have adverse childhood experiences. is being supported with a newly formed Teachers are seen as the lynchpin for
Of course, new curriculum and National Academy for Educational a better school system; teaching is a
pedagogy means teachers have to rethink. Leadership which, while initially focusing valued profession.
In order to try to ensure the best teachers on school leaders, will seek to influence Of course, while these changes are for
possible work with the children of Wales, leadership at every point in the profession. the better, they are not an easy option. They
the approach to Initial Teacher Education Teachers across Wales are enthused by do, though, appeal to the professionalism
is being reconsidered, with universities the growing momentum for educational of teachers and to the sense of integrity and
having to put their course forward for change. It accords with their core purpose; value within which educators want to work.
revalidation, with a focus on better for most it resonates with their reason for Teachers are rising to the challenge; offering
balance between in-school placement and coming into teaching. For some, however, their ideas, being taken seriously, having an
research-driven study. there is a nagging doubt. Is the government influence. They’re also enjoying the process
At the same time, new professional serious? Hanging over all of the excitement because they know that the benefits will be
standards for teaching and leadership sits the cloud of accountability. While there for children to enjoy in the future.
have been introduced. The emphasis is on teachers recognise its importance, in All of this work comes together
teachers being the best they can be, rather Wales, as in many nations, accountability under the banner of ‘Our national
than on meeting minimum expectations has been the wolf at the door for too long. mission’. The Welsh dragon is stirring in
to prove they are doing a satisfactory job. Recognising this, the government has education, breathing fire into the hearts
The standards offer five descriptors to help recently announced that publication of test of teachers. TP
each teacher explore their effectiveness. results should cease and recommendations
First, there is ‘pedagogy’ which is for significant changes to the inspection Mick Waters is professor of education
paramount, ‘collaboration’ which helps process are intended to see experienced at Wolverhampton University.

www.teachwire.net | 23
 Ben King
SO YOU LIKE
HANGING OUT
WITH KIDS, EH?
It’s not often spoken about, but there’s an
underlying suspicion of men who want to
teach in primary, says Ben King
@mrbking1988 kingintheclassroom.blogspot.com
Y
“ ou’ll be expected to
lift things, get things
off shelves and carry
anything heavy. Say no. Do
not let yourself be defined
by your gender.”
This was the instruction I received
at a ‘men in teaching’ lecture at
university in 2010. The seminar was
held in a room built for 200 students,
but there were only seven of us. To me,
the whole thing felt farcical. Firstly,
why assume that women are incapable
of lifting things and secondly, why
refuse to help a colleague? This kind
of confusion over gender identity
in schools is dangerous and has a
tangible impact.
Eight years later, the number
of men teaching in primary schools
still sits at around 15%. Why? What
prevents men from joining the
profession, inspiring our youngest
minds and taking on an incredibly
hard, but fulfilling challenge?
24 | www.teachwire.net
VOICES
assumption being made that I am a risk
or am under suspicion; an assumption
not made of my female colleagues.
It gets worse when changing for
swimming is involved. I’ve heard of
female members of staff staying inside
communal changing rooms while
boys get ready to stop them ‘mucking
around’. It sends a shiver down my spine
imagining the headlines if I were to do
the same thing.
Children routinely fling their arms
around my female colleagues, especially
younger ones. While I have fantastic
support in my current school, in previous
ones I’ve been told that I’m not allowed
to receive a hug because I’m male. In
a primary school in Liverpool, a male
teacher was told children couldn’t sit on
his lap if upset, but could sit on a female
member of staff. When he challenged this
he was met with, “Well, you’re a bloke.”
Apparently we can’t be trusted.
In pubs I’ve been drunkenly asked,
“You enjoy hanging around with little
kids, eh?”. Someone else said to me, “Guy
teachers always worry me. It’s like vicars,
isn’t it? They love touching kids too.”
Thankfully, disgusting comments like
that are rare, but they’re not unheard of.
Most male teachers will have had similar
comments directed at them.
Working in an industry dominated
by women has many benefits, but it
can have its drawbacks too. Many men
report feeling isolated and locked out of
conversations in the staffroom. Others
have told me that they are mothered
or treated like school boys themselves.
Some have had to leave their school
in search of a more professional
relationship with colleagues.
Part of the problem, it seems to me, is The #WomenEd movement does
reputation – or lack of it. I genuinely feel a fantastic job in supporting aspiring
that for many men, primary teaching is and existing female leaders in schools,
simply not presented as a ‘normal’ career but if I were starting my career again
option. “Did you not fancy secondary?” now, I’m not sure I would find anybody
people ask me when I tell them what I representing or helping young men who
do. This is a real issue for male teachers, want to work with small children. The
many of whom have got in touch with me negative assumptions that surround men
to discuss their experiences. in schools are, I believe, impacting on
There are also deeply rooted issues the numbers of men who want to work
surrounding safeguarding. It’s not often in primary settings. Being a man in a
spoken about but it’s certainly there: primary school can be very lonely.
there is an underlying suspicion of men I now work in a fantastic school
in primary. Once children reach UKS2, where I feel respected and valued,
they generally split to get changed. This but sadly this is simply not the case
is easy to implement if there happens everywhere. The vast majority of
to be a male and female teacher in a teachers are wonderful people that
two-form school, but what if it’s two would never mean to generalise about
men? I don’t enter the room when the men or women. However, these issues are
girls are changing, but female teachers affecting morale and men are leaving the
and TAs often think nothing of walking industry because of it. Something needs
in on the boys. One teacher told me that to change, or the problem will persist. TP
his TA entered the room and said, “It’s
OK, boys. I’ve seen it all before!” Let’s be Ben King is a Y5 teacher, reading lead and
frank: this is blatant sexism. There is an columnist based in West Sussex.
 FEATURES REAL SCHOOLS
School
profile

mary
Name: Surrey Square Pri
No ble
Headteacher: Nicola
don
Location: Southwark, Lon
rat ing : Ou tst and ing
Ofsted
Size: 480 pupils
mission
Extra info: the school’s
is, ‘Pe rso nal and academic
statement
ry day’
excellence; everyone, eve

Nicla Nbe, Headeaher

“Supporting parents makes

children’s lives easier”
Whether it’s practical help or simply a listening ear,
meet the staf going the extra mile for their community...
www.teachwire.net | 25
M
any primary schools have a set of school
values. You know the type of thing – resilience,
respect, compassion. Generally, they’re for the
benefit of the pupils; a set of guiding principles
for their young lives.
At Surrey Square Primary in Southwark, headteacher Nicola
Noble finds herself referring back to her school’s values frequently,
for her own benefit. “They help me to make difficult decisions,”
explains Nicola. She found herself facing one such conundrum
recently, when a mother of a pupil came to Nicola and begged to be
allowed to sleep in the school over the weekend, after having been
made homeless. “We have a value of compassion, but although
every bone in my body wanted to help them, we also have a value
of responsibility,” explains Nicola. “It’s very difficult to see people
in those conditions, but it’s our responsibility to empower them
in those situations. I had to say, ‘No, you can’t sleep here, but we’ll
take you to the homeless unit and support you in conversations
there.’ Often, the values are in conflict with one another, but I
always come back to them.”
It’s abundantly clear that staff at Surrey Square go above
and beyond the call of duty when it comes to providing families
with practical support. They hand out and wash clothing, help to
furnish flats via personal donations and write letters of support
to immigration solicitors working on behalf of some of the 10% of
families at the school who have no recourse to public funds. These
vital documents help parents prove how long their children have
been in the country. “Last week we wrote letters for a girl in Y4
whose family has no recourse at the minute,” explains assistant
head Carol Shone. “Dad is very poorly. In fact, we didn’t know how
dire their living situation was until Mum filmed it to show us – five

of them, including one child about to do his GCSEs, are all living in
one room.” In the summer, Carol arranged for the Y4 girl to attend
a week’s residential via an organisation that the school works
closely with, called Free To Be. “She absolutely loved it,” says Carol.
“We also have a link with a sports camp and we’ve booked her a
place there for half term.”
As well as practical support, a lot of what staff do is about
simply listening to families’ concerns, headteacher Nicola says.
“Often, families feel very judged,” she explains. “You wouldn’t
judge a child if they came to school not being able to read or
write, so equally we shouldn’t be judging people if they’re coming
with nowhere to live or have issues with their immigration. We
listen and signpost people to where they need to go, but it’s also
important to build capacity in people – it’s not about us doing all
the work for them. Ultimately, by supporting parents, it makes
their children’s lives easier, which then means they can access their
education. You have to see it as a wider responsibility than just
educating children – you’ve got to be there to support families.”
1
Building relationships
Surrey Square’s family worker, Fiona Carrick-Davies,
runs parenting classes twice a year, which mums, dads and carers
can choose to attend or are invited to. The eight-week
programme, developed by the Family Caring Trust, focuses
on improving relationships between parents and children.
“Being a parent is difficult, and when you add in living in very
challenging circumstances and having work and money
pressures, it’s often harder,” explains Fiona. “I like this particular
programme because it’s quite gentle, but it’s also very meaningful.
We don’t even talk about punishments until week six. Before
that it’s all to do with building relationships, giving children
responsibility, listening to them.”
As Fiona is happy to admit, she doesn’t count herself as a
parenting expert, and appreciates the chance to refresh her own
skills when running the courses. “My children are older now, but

Pupil Voice

Daniel Vaesa esmond

It was hard for me and my sister to
get British citizenship. I only got one
Christmas present, but a week later my
mum told me to close my eyes and asked
me if I was expecting anything. When
I opened them, my passport was in my
hands. I want to play for England but you
can’t do that without a passport.
Tomorrow we’re having the P
Factor, which is a talent show for
National Poetry Day. Each class
has to perform a poem in front
of judges. This school feels like a
family. I’m not saying that I don’t
like to be at home, but when I am,
I miss Surrey Square a lot.
We can stay in breakfast club until 8:30am
and they hand out free bagels. When we
had Night at the Museum, my role was
welcoming people in and telling them
where they should go. There was a cafe
where people could have a drink. What
I like best about Surrey Square is how
welcoming and fun it is.

26 | www.teachwire.net

values in the same
way that we teach
maths or history”
it’s still a challenge,” she says.
“The course builds relationships
between parents and helps
them realise they’re not the
only ones finding it tough.
Actually, we all do.” One recent
participant was struggling with
her teenage daughter, a former
pupil at Surrey Square. “She’s
trying to spread her
wings a little bit and
was becoming a little bit
rebellious, but her mum was
doing the same thing with her
that she had done when she was
five – she wasn’t being flexible
at all. We talked about the idea
that if you back a child into a
corner they can only fight, so it’s
much better to give choices. She
said the course has transformed
their relationship.”
Surrey Square was one of the
first schools in the country to set
up a partnership with Place2Be,
a leading national children’s
mental health charity. The
relationship began 17 years ago
and it’s something the school
continues to prioritise during
yearly budget discussions.
A school project manager works
in the school two and a half days
a week and offers one-to-one
play therapy sessions to 12
children a year. KS2 pupils can
also make use of Place2Talk, a
FEATURES REAL SCHOOLS
self-referral service that runs at lunchtimes for children who
want to talk through a problem with a trained professional.
The school is also proud to be able to offer a year’s worth of
counselling to three parents each year, as part of its Place2Be
provision. “If you were going through the NHS, there would
be a waiting list of six months and then you’d usually get a
six-week block of counselling,” explains Fiona. The fact that
the counselling is on site and during the school day is also a big
help. “It’s less intimidating for parents because the school is a
supportive, familiar place,” Fiona says.
2 Community spirit
All the hard work that staff put into developing
positive relationships with the families in their community
has obviously paid off. Recently, a group of parents came
together to film a music video to show to pupils
“We teach our around the theme of respect – set to Blame It
On the Boogie by the Jacksons (we urge you to
watch it at tinyurl.com/tprespect). “It was so
heartwarming,” says family worker Fiona.
“We do a lot of work with our parents around our
core values to help them embed them in family life,
so it was really meaningful.” Headteacher Nicola
adds, “In 12 years of being here, it was one of the
most special days I’ve seen.”
And it’s not parents joining together in perfect harmony.
Every year, Surrey Square uses two Inset days to take all
staff – including teachers,
support staff, cleaners and
meal supervisors – on an
5 IDEAS TO MAGPIE FROM overnight CPD event at a
Surrey Square Primary hotel in Ashford in Kent.
Both days are packed with
workshops, guest speakers and
l Use the Family Caring Trust’s eight-week team-building opportunities.
programme to deliver workshops to parents “A few years ago we used
about improving relationships with conference to review our core
their children. values and decided that we
l Invite parents in to create a needed to introduce something
heartwarming music video to around resilience, so Percy
show to pupils to highlight one of Perseverance was born,”
your school values. Set it to a explains Nicola. “We set staff
well-known song and help parents to come up the challenge of introducing
with appropriate lyrics. him to the children via a music
l Use two Inset days to take all staf on an video.” In just one afternoon,
overnight CPD event at a local hotel. Organise staff created artwork, dance
workshops, guest speakers and team-building routines and lyrics, before
opportunities around a certain theme, such as filming their masterpiece – to
talk for writing, wellbeing or oracy. Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off –
l Share best practice with external in one long take around the
colleagues by introducing corridors of the hotel (watch
paid-for professional it at tinyurl.com/tppersevere).
learning mornings. Performing was optional –
l Flip your quality “After all, not everybody wants
assurance process and to stand up and wave their
embed a practice of jazz hands around,” laughs
everyone continually Nicola – but the end result was
learning by asking a fantastic bonding experience.
teachers to Y1 teacher Fiona Redmond
self-assess against a was one of the staff who took
set of criteria before part. She says, “I’m tone deaf
meeting up to discuss what they’re so singing in a group was new
good at and what they need to work on. to me, but it was incredible.
Ensure every member of staf gets the same It pushed us out of our comfort
time dedicated to feedback. zone, which is what we expect
from the children.”
www.teachwire.net | 27
3 Learning mornings
When they’re not shaking their thing, the staff at Surrey
Square are well versed in welcoming visitors from other schools,
especially since they achieved an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted grade in
December 2016. At first, the number of visitors asking to come
was a little overwhelming, as Nicola explains: “It was taking up lots
of time and we had to be careful that we didn’t take our eye off the
ball when it came to what was happening in school.”
To make the process more manageable for staff – and more
valuable for visitors – Nicola and her senior team have introduced
professional learning mornings for external colleagues to attend.
The sessions look in detail at a specific area of practice, with the
opportunity to visit classrooms to see learning in action. Currently
on offer are workshops around
using values to improve
behaviour, curriculum design,
provision mapping and ‘flipped Meet the staf
quality assurance’.
The last of these was the
school’s response to a problem
that surfaced a few years ago. discount) to enable the school to
Nicola found that the school had provide cover for teachers running the
lots of competent leaders, but courses and cover the costs of resources
they often fell back on telling given out. “With budget cuts you have
staff what to do, rather than to be creative and this enables us to
building capacity in people fund other things that are needed,”
to make their own decisions explains Nicola. “Rightly, the fees aren’t
and take responsibility for huge, because it should be fair to other
LEILA DOUIRI, FIONA REDMOND, schools, but they ensure that our costs
their teaching. “We did a staff Y6 TEACHER Y1 TEACHER
survey and people said they are covered. After all, the time that we
I love our core values I think this school is spend doing that could be spent doing
felt quite ‘done to’” explains because I feel they teach special because it’s such a
Nicola. “That doesn’t build other things.”
the children morals and supportive environment.

trust or engagement from
staff so we quite literally
flipped the process. Teachers
now self-assess against a set
of criteria which the subject
leader has come up with,
before meeting up to discuss
what they’re good at and
what they need to work on. It
embeds a practice of everyone
continually learning. It places
the responsibility in the hands
of the teacher and makes them
really proactive in identifying
their own areas of development,
which is great.”
After running a second staff
survey, Nicola was pleased to see
that staff now feel empowered
and enjoy the feedback process
a lot more. It’s also no longer
just struggling staff members
who get extensive feedback.
“Everybody gets the same
amount of time for discussion
under this model and it
becomes a dialogue, rather than
a judgement, which is really
important,” explains Nicola.
Teachers attending the
half-day learning sessions are
charged £100 (with additional
participants from the same
school or trust given a 50%
4
beliefs, as opposed to I had a Schools Direct
simply giving them a set interview and moved
of instructions about what straight from Ireland to Always evolving
they can and can’t do. In here. I moved abroad by For Nicola, the idea that
the real world, they’re myself for the irst time Surrey Square continues to evolve
going to have to apply all but I’ve felt so supported is hugely important. “It takes time
of these values, whether since day one – it feels
to create the level of excellence that
it’s in further education or like a home away from
when they have their own home and there’s a real
we have here – it doesn’t happen
family or go to work. sense of belonging. overnight,” she explains. “Yes, you
can make significant changes in an
organisation in a short space of time,
but to sustain them and ensure they
continue to evolve takes time.”
Another benefit of a long-standing
body of staff is the relationships it
allows teachers to build with families.
“Loads of our former students come
back and see us,” explains family
worker Fiona. “If they’re in trouble
SERIFE MENTESH, FIONA CARRICK-DAVIES, they come back for support.” Nicola
LEARNING FACILITATOR FAMILY WORKER adds, “Our door is always open and
Our annual conference A mum came to see me we’ll continue to support them. The
is very special – I’ve recently because she’s reason the word ‘personal’ appears first
never heard of any not coping well and has in our mission statement is because
other school doing been signed of sick. we believe it’s so critical – perhaps
that for their staf. The Her tax credits have more important than the academic.
only time Fiona and I been reduced and she’s As such, we treat it that way and we
normally get to speak stressed. I contacted an teach our values in the same way that
is when we’re coming independent food bank
we teach maths or history. That’s
in through the gates or and she went that day.
are on the same bus, She couldn’t believe that
our responsibility. Staff do such an
but conference gives she suddenly had all incredible job here. They are a talented
you a chance to catch this food – she had been bunch who are incredibly committed
up and chat. It brings going without so that her and see that their work is more than
everybody together. daughter could eat. just about the academic.” TP

28 | www.teachwire.net
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www.teachwire.net | 29

Plan
LIKE A PRO
D
o you often ind
yourself scratching
your head when
planning a lesson?
Do your lessons sometimes
run over or feel like they lose
direction? In my NQT year, this
was my main brain ache – how
do I it all my activities into
60 minutes of lesson time? I
would spend hours thinking of
great tasks only to realise – and
be told in observations – that
I spent far too long with my
guided group and my plenary
was rather rushed. And – to
add to the frustration – there
was never a lesson structure
that suited every subject, every
lesson – no ‘one size its all’.
Only after years of trial
and error, did I get to a point
where I truly felt happy with
my lesson structures and
timings. What I came to learn
was, rather than thinking of
activities and forcing them into
a lesson, I should focus on the
type of learning I wanted to
happen and create activities
to fit the purpose. I came to
realise that there are only really
five types of purposeful lesson
activity groups; ive cogs that
30 | www.teachwire.net
Advice for
NQTs
Use these five ‘cogs’ to structure your
lessons and make them purposeful
BEN COOPER
bind together to create a great
lesson, full of learning and, most
importantly, purpose.
By understanding the cogs
that make up a successful
lesson, you can easily use them
to sequence tasks to make great
learning happen.
This is the beginning of new No one ever learnt to drive
learning – the eureka moment. by just being shown where the
These activities involve children pedals are. Likewise, the next
learning something new or step in a child’s learning is
building on an old idea. It’s practising what they have just
diicult to put a time scale on learnt – 15 to 20 minutes should
this cog as it all depends on the do the trick. This gives children
content of the new learning, time to make mistakes. Paired,
but ive to 15 minutes is a good group and practical tasks work
Having children who aren’t length of time. This lesson well here. Kids are great at
engaged makes teaching tougher. phase may be teacher-led, helping each other, especially
Kids need to be onboard with research-based or focused on when they are all ‘in it together’.
your lesson in order to learn well. identifying a misconception. Practise makes perfect,
These type of lesson activities The common goal is discovery. as they say.
excite and motivate children
and give them a reason to learn.
They make learning purposeful
and enjoyable. Children should
“Only after years of trial
be asked to do something fun, and error, did I get to a point where
practical or exciting that wakes
up the brain and gives a context I truly felt happy with my lesson
to what they are learning. These
should be short and snappy – structures and timings”
around ive minutes.

Apply, apply, apply! In this
modern educational world of
mastery and reasoning, children
should have an opportunity to
use their new learning, to give
it purpose. Pupils will now be
ready to solve problems and
apply their new skills to real-life
situations. Give children plenty
of time to do this – I’d say 20 to
25 minutes
Sometimes called a
plenary or even (shudder) a
mini plenary, these activities
are simply about relection.
They give children a chance to
review what they have achieved
so far, what they are inding
diicult and what they need
to do next. This helps children
to develop an understanding
of the progress they are
making. Although reviewing is
important, don’t spend more
than ive to ten minutes on
these moments. No one wants
to spend more time reviewing
than actually learning.
Lesson cogs ensure that
you understand the purpose
and focus of every activity so
that no time is wasted and
your whole lesson drives
towards a common learning
goal. They are intended to
be lexible – no single lesson
structure works all the time,
personalisation is key. Look at
what you want to achieve with
the children and structure
accordingly. The more you
think about it, the more
conident you will become.
Indeed, as you gain familiarity
with the cogs, so will the
children. In a recent lesson, a
child put his hand up and said
to me, “Sir, I think it’s time I
stopped practising now and
start applying. It’s only 30
minutes until lunch!”
Ben Cooper is assistant principal at GEMS
Wellington Al Khail, a UK curriculum
school in Dubai. He is also the creator of
LiteracyWAGOLL, a resource website and
teaching YouTube channel.
@literacywagoll literacywagoll.com
FEATURES NQT ADVICE
3 lesson
structures
to try today
THE STANDARD LESSON
In an ‘everyday’ lesson (if
there is such a thing), follow
this sequence. Engage pupils
with a warm-up, then discover
Free online a new skill or build on a
resources pre-existing one. Follow this by
rehearsing this new knowledge
Want to use and applying it to a real-life
this idea in situation. Finally, conduct a
staf training? review where children evaluate
Download their learning.
this poster
for your
stafroom
from teachwire.net/
teaching-resources/
cogs-poster. Watch a
video featuring Ben THE NEW SKILL LESSON
talking about lesson In a new skill lesson, the
cogs at tinyurl.com/ emphasis is on the development
tplessoncogs of learning something for the
very irst time. This lesson
needs to focus on rehearsal and
practice, with less application.
Start with engagement,
immediately followed by
discovery and practice. Add a
splash of extra discovery and
practice for those who need it
and a small dash of application
for high lyers. Insert regular,
short review activities too.
THE MASTERY LESSON
In contrast, mastery lessons
build on skills that children
have already acquired and help
them deepen their knowledge.
Practice activities are a little
more redundant here – the
focus is on application. Plan
diferent opportunities to
deepen pupils’ knowledge via
multiple application activities.
Combine this with short
engagement tasks to give
context and add excitement to
the problem-solving process.
www.teachwire.net | 31
 Who said mermaids
can’t run?
I
t was smiles all round
when a group of Y4
girls from St Joseph’s
Catholic Primary in
Pudsey, West Yorkshire,
completed their 5km Parkrun
challenge this summer.
After six weeks of dedicated
training, they ran, skipped and
danced over the finishing line,
accompanied by their proud
‘mama mermaid’, student
teacher Caroline Haunch.
Motivated by the aims of
the Mini Mermaid Running
Club organisation, and wanting
to further improve the physical
health and self-esteem of the
girls in her class, Caroline
introduced a running club with
a difference during her final
PGCE placement. She says,
“I noticed a ‘can’t do’
attitude’, as well as strained
relationships and,
at times, low
self-esteem
and
confidence,
among the
32 | www.teachwire.net
The finish line is just the beginning when it
comes to this special club for girls
BEV FORREST
girls. I suggested to SLT that towards lessons and school in she was struck by the aims of the
the Mini Mermaid general, ultimately impacting on Mini Mermaid programme and
programme would be a their progress. how it encompasses the
great opportunity to not whole child.
only discuss with the girls Physical and mental Since 2015, the organisation
the importance of exercise Caroline used Mini Mermaid has reached over 1,000 children.
and how this can positively materials to support the running Resources include everything
support mental health, but of the club. The programme needed to run sessions, but
also encourage them to listen is specifically designed to also gives coaches the freedom
to their own tackle lack of to introduce their own ideas.
inner voice
and know
“It’s about physical activity Teacher Caroline has always
within this loved running, but starting a
that they are
truly amazing
having fun age group and
increase levels
club is possible even if you are
a novice. The important thing
young girls.”
The senior and moving of self-esteem.
It comprises
is to be aware of safety issues,
particularly if you plan to take
management pupils off-site. It’s also essential
team from your body, bi-weekly
sessions held to get pupils to warm up and cool
St Joseph’s over six weeks. down, just as you would do in
couldn’t fail to no matter The programme regular PE lessons.
be impressed has its roots in In 2016, Dr Nicola Eccles
by Caroline’s
level of
what shape, the USA and conducted a research project into
the work of Mini Mermaid UK
was brought
commitment.
At a time when
size or ability to the UK by
Hannah Corne.
and found that the clubs created
a unique and supportive space
most student
teachers are you are” Her daughter
experiences
for girls to learn the necessary
skills to deal with everyday
focusing on surviving their selective mutism – her anxiety issues. Areas of
final placement, Caroline means that she cannot verbally impact included
realised that getting her interact with adults. Hannah helping girls to
pupils involved in this saw that when her daughter was
initiative would not just outside, being active, her anxiety
benefit them physically was low and she could
but also give them a talk in front of adults.
more positive attitude After further research,
 FEATURES FITNESS

get to know themselves better,
develop resilience, better
manage peer relations and
develop an increasing sense of
physical self-awareness.
participating in school events
intimidating. One parent
commented, “My daughter
says she feels happier and
more positive since she started
of time, and at the request of
both pupils and parents, staff RUNNING
are extending the programme. CLUB
Alongside this, a Young Tritons RESOURCES
club is being formed for boys.

Not just running

Don’t be put off by the term
‘running club’ either, as this
approach encompasses all
types of movement, whether
it’s walking, skipping or jogging.
This attracted Caroline, as she
explains: “It isn’t about being
the fastest runner. It’s about
having fun and moving your
body, no matter what shape,
size or ability you are.” Caroline
also found it was a brilliant way
to make stronger links with
parents, particularly those that
find more traditional ways of
running. She also said that
girls in the class are getting
on better.”
If you’re reading this and
wondering where boys fit in,
many of these ideas would
apply equally to them, of course.
Recognising a need to support
all pupils, Mini Mermaid has
recently launched Young
Tritons for boys aged seven to 11.
Caroline has now left St
Joseph’s to take up her first
teaching job but her work at
the school hasn’t been wasted.
Impressed by the results she
achieved in such a short period
Caroline has now
introduced a club at her new
school, Holy Name Catholic
Voluntary Academy in Leeds.
“I wanted to carry on the ethos
and importance of the Mini
Mermaid Running Club, and
it’s with great pleasure that I’m
now coaching a Y3 group,”
says Caroline.
Currently, Mini Mermaid
operates in Leeds, Liverpool
and London, but even if you
live outside these areas, there’s
no reason not to set up your
own club. The finish line is just
the beginning. TP
•website
The Mini Mermaid
has information
about the scheme and
plenty of inspiring ideas
to inspire you. There are
plans to extend the
scheme nationally.
minimermaiduk.com
• Visit the Parkrun website
for information about your
nearest junior run and to
read inspiring participation
stories. parkrun.org.uk
• Take part in a Race
for Life 1k running or 3k
walking route for Cancer
Research UK. Get a
free schools resources
pack from raceforlife.
cancerresearchuk.org

TIPS FOR STARTING A RUNNING CLUB • Just Run is US-based but

has some great ideas for
activities to add variety to
•healthy
Have clear aims. What do you want pupils to achieve? Is the focus on achieving a your sessions. justrun.org
lifestyle, being part of a team or is there a competitive element? Setting a
clear goal such as successfully completing a 2km run or taking part in a charity event • Marathon Kids is part
of the Kids Run Free charity
will help to steer the focus of the sessions and give the club a time scale. and explains how to help
• Keep it small. While you will have no problem recruiting pupils, you may have issues
inding suicient volunteers to help you run your club. This can be a headache and
pupils run the equivalent
of four marathons over
take up more time than running the club itself. a school year.
• Timing is key. While a lunchtime may initially seem preferable, itting in eating
lunch and a session of physical exercise can be tricky. Ideally, pupils should eat after
kidsrunfree.co.uk/mk

exercise, not directly before, but this may not be possible. Also, do you have suicient
facilities for pupils to change and wash at lunchtime? You may ind after school a
better option.
Bev Forrest
trains
primary
teachers in
the north
of England.
She is chair
of the Historical Association
Primary Committee and a
member of the editorial board
for Primary History.

www.teachwire.net | 33
 There’s been an
Find more at
INCIDENT...
When it comes to sharing the details of a
TEACHWIRE.NET
child’s bad day with their parents, it’s vital
to tailor your words carefully
What Ade Adepitan
Learnt At School DEBBY ELLEY
Athlete Ade Adepitan

contracted polio as a baby but
soon learnt to keep up with his
classmates.
Read it at tinyurl.com/tpade
SENCOs Must Make
Strategic Decisions
Clever planning has become
an increasingly important
part of a SENCo’s role, says
Michelle Haywood.
Read it at tinyurl.com/tpstrategic
Managing
Challenging Kids
Behaviour expert Sue Cowley
explains how to deal with
some of the most disruptive
classroom situations.
Read it at tinyurl.com/tpdisrupt
REQUEST YOUR FREE COPY
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insights into SEND provision.
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N
o one likes bad news,
but sometimes it’s
important that a parent
knows all hasn’t been
well at school today. On good days,
you can hardly wait for a parent
to show up so that you can share
that fabulous breakthrough – bring
it on, you’ve struck gold! Then
there are the not so good days. You
can’t exactly lie, but you’re not
looking forward to passing on this
unwelcome information.
Truth is, you’re
probably going to
need a glass of
“By talking
wine to recover
from it later.
about a diicult
Still, the child’s ‘situation’,
carer will know
exactly how it is. rather than
They’ll sympathise,
right? Well no, they
diicult
won’t. They’re far ‘behaviour’, you
too involved to
sympathise, but take the emotion
quite a few parents
and carers will and worry out of
empathise, to the
point of actually
the exchange”
taking the blame for it themselves.
If the news is broken badly, what
they’ll actually hear (whether you
say it or not) is ‘This is all your
fault.’ The response will depend on
the parent, but it can range from
defensive to depressed, which is the
last thing you want. Other parents
– perhaps those who are at tipping
point – will simply block out the
information as unwanted.
Information exchange
Any communication is a contract
in which information is exchanged,
so before making that exchange, it’s
worth asking yourself how you want
that information to be received by
the other person. For instance, if
you’re about to say, ‘He’s been a bit
aggressive today’, are you warning
of a difficult evening ahead, or are
you suggesting that help is needed
in tackling some tricky behaviour?
What do you hope the parent will
gain from the exchange?
Ask yourself what you hope
to gain from the parent. Some
parents might respond by bracing
themselves for what could be a
difficult evening, while others may
well go home feeling upset that even
a teacher seems to
have ‘given up’ on
their kid. Of course
you haven’t, but
when you say, ‘We
haven’t had a good
day’ with nothing
to support that
information, that’s
how it can feel.
The trouble
with passing on
bad news without
backup is that
there’s nothing
a parent can
actually do with the
information. They can’t tell their
child off, because it’s too late after
the event. It may simply have the
effect of making them feel downcast,
all because of one lousy sentence
communicated badly.
Openness and honesty
“That’s all very well,” you might
protest, “but I’m in a hurry when the
parent comes along; I haven’t got
time to think about tact, diplomacy,
strategies and so on.” Well, if you
haven’t got any time at all, don’t say
it – instead write your comment
down in the child’s record book,
email it to the parent or invite them
in for a catch-up.
When broaching the topic, keep

34 | www.teachwire.net

your information neutral. Use words that
focus on how the child was feeling and why,
then talk about how that was translated
into behaviour. To use an example
involving my own son: “Alec was upset and
angry today because we had to leave the
park and he didn’t want to.”
Show the parent that you’ve
understood and acknowledged the child’s
feelings, even if they were expressed in a
less than perfect way. This will give them
confidence that you’ve acknowledged the
child’s distress, rather than purely seeking
to punish them. Then go on to explain
how you tackled the situation and whether
you thought the strategy was successful
or not. For instance, if your response was
successful, say, “We found it really helps
if…”. And if it wasn’t, say, “We don’t think
this approach really worked this time, and
we want to try some different strategies.
Do you have any suggestions? Would you
like to have a chat about it?”
If you need more information and
support from the parent to get to the
bottom of something, then ask for it.
Contrary to popular belief, parents don’t
expect teachers to have all the answers.
What we do appreciate is openness and
honesty, and being asked for our views as
the experts in our own children. Confident
teachers will appreciate that it isn’t a sign
of weakness to ask for a parent’s view – if
anything, it’s quite the opposite.
Be specific
It helps to make specific requests, rather
than throwing negative information into
the air and hoping it’ll land in the
right way. Central to this approach is
making it clear that you’re in this together.
By talking about a difficult ‘situation’,
rather than difficult ‘behaviour’, you take
the emotion and worry out of the exchange
and allow a parent the perspective they
need in order to see clearly. Your news
then becomes practical and useful, rather
than just baggage.
When reporting bad news, there's
also the risk that a parent will interpret it
as you being at the end of your tether, or
not liking their child. Believe me when I
say that even the faintest hint of this is all
it takes. We’re finely attuned to reading
between the lines, so ‘Not the best day
for Alec,’ is far better than a judgemental
phrase such as ‘Alec attacked another
student,’ or ‘We’ve been disappointed with
Alec’s behaviour today.' He didn’t ‘lash out’
(highly emotive); he ‘felt angry’.
The very worst way to broach a difficult
subject is with the phrase, ‘There was
an incident.’ Call the police! Cordon off
the area! This kind of phrase trips off the
FEATURES SEND
tongue quite easily, but for most parents
it’s a word formulation they’re only ever
likely to hear on the news. My son’s school
is great at broaching bad news. One of the
nicest things his teacher says is, ‘We’re
trying to help Alec so that he has some
control when he feels angry’. Because that’s
what we’re all really trying to do, isn’t it?
An out-of-control child doesn’t want to feel
this way. They simply don’t have a better
strategy. The school’s job is to help such
pupils find better ways of doing that than
through physical means. You don’t have to
hide bad news from a parent, but broaching
it sensitively is your best route to finding a
good solution. TP
Debby Elley is
co-editor of AuKids, an
award-winning positive
parenting magazine for
children with autism.
She has twin boys on
the spectrum. Her book,
15 Things They Forgot to Tell You About
Autism (Jessica Kingsley Publishers), is
available now.
@aukids
aukids.co.uk
www.teachwire.net | 35
36 | www.teachwire.net
 GET YOUR FREE
Sign up to our free Brilliant Teacher
Box Sets and your chosen CPD package
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What else is trending on Teachwire.net?
1 GREATER DEPTH WRITING
It can be quite difficult to put your
finger on exactly what ‘greater
depth’ writing is. Even three years
after the introduction of the teacher
assessment framework, there
are still misconceptions abound,
particularly at the upper range of
pupils’ writing. Quite often, you
know it when you read it aloud, but
aside from the teacher assessment
framework, use these critical
indicators from Tim Roach to help
guide you towards a definition of
what a ‘greater depth’ writer looks
like. tinyurl.com/tpdepth
2 KENSUKE’S KINGDOM
Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael
Morpurgo won Teacher’s Choice in
the most recent Teach Primary Book
Awards and is packed with exciting
cross-curricular themes. Use these
ideas by literacy expert Carey Fluker
Hunt to explore the book and its
themes in your KS2 classroom.
tinyurl.com/tpkensuke
3 MATHS ASSESSMENT
Beth Smith, senior primary maths
specialist for White Rose Maths,
explains how to ensure your
maths monitoring is purposeful by
focusing on five key areas. Explore
the benefits of spaced repetition,
low-stakes testing and classroom
talk. tinyurl.com/tpbethsmith
4 GRAMMAR GAMES
Rob Smith and Katherine
Simpson, creators of The
Literacy Shed, have dreamt up
these quick and practical ideas
that are perfect for dipping in and
out of during literacy lessons.
tinyurl.com/tpshed
www.teachwire.net | 37
 Dual control
CLASSROOMS
As mentors, it’s vital that we maintain standards while also
giving trainees the opportunity to learn through failure
S
am, an experienced Y3
teacher and respected
middle leader, finally
has a free morning to
update her subject leader file;
it’s long overdue. Halfway
through the morning, Sam
decides she ought to check on
her class. Peering through the
glass of the classroom door,
she’s pleased to see that things
generally appear to be well.
A few children are off-task, but
the trainee teacher and teaching
assistant seem happy enough.
She makes a mental note to speak
to the trainee after school about
some strategies he might use to
ensure every child is compliant
and engaged.
This scenario is common.
Indeed, we convince ourselves
that aspiring
teachers benefit
from being
left alone.
After
38 | www.teachwire.net
JOHN COXHEAD
all, who likes being watched?
There is definite merit in the
idea that a trainee will fumble
through and, through trial and
error, find ways to improve
and develop. The occasional
observations from their
mentor will guide them and,
eventually, their practice will
be transformed. The problem,
however, is the impact on the
children. Can it be acceptable
that the quality of teaching and
learning takes an unnecessary
nose-dive?
Simply put, Sam has
misunderstood her role as
mentor. Mentoring a trainee
is not an easy ride. If you’re
doing it properly, it’s hard
work, although also incredibly
rewarding. After all, you have
the privilege of moulding one of
our future teachers.
Two-way process
As mentors, we have two main
objectives. The first is to ensure
that the quality of teaching
(and learning) in the classroom
doesn’t dip below the usual
high standards. The second is
to support and guide trainee
teachers in their professional
development. Achieving these
goals is difficult, but far from
impossible. The experience may
even transform your teaching; it
is a two-way process of learning.
The easiest way to ensure
your class continues to receive
the highest possible standard
of education is to refuse to
relinquish control. The skill of
the mentor, however, lies in
maintaining standards while
also giving trainees the space
they need to practise, learn and
improve (often through failure).
This constant cycle
of reflective practice is
something we all engage with
throughout our careers.
It would be foolish, though, to
expect a trainee to start from
scratch – share your expertise
with them, tell them about your
own mistakes, explain what the
research has taught us. This
means they can quickly acquire
the skills they need to become
a competent teacher.
Taking the wheel
I know an exceptional driving
instructor who has taught me,
my wife, my brothers and many
of my friends. We all had the
same experience –
he was first-class.
He once
explained to
me that

the key to being a good driving
instructor is to do whatever is
necessary to ensure that, from
lesson one, your students drive
well on the road. This meant he
typically did the majority of the
driving for his students in their
first few lessons.
He began by modelling
everything, many times over,
while explaining what he was
doing with exacting precision.
When the learner took the
wheel, he used his dual controls
to make their job easier –
indicating for them, engaging
the handbrake. Gradually, as
their competence improved,
he handed over more control.
Eventually, and in a remarkably
short amount of time, they were
driving safely with 100% control
of the vehicle.
From inside the car,
the trainee’s progress and
development is clear. However,
if you had watched the vehicle
from the outside, you would
think the trainee was a natural;
they appeared to be driving
relatively well from lesson one.
Stepping back
This same model can be applied
to mentors and trainee teachers.
As mentors, we need to begin
by modelling everything –
establishing routines, managing
behaviour, planning, teaching,
reflecting, adapting, assessing,
improving. When the trainee
first takes control
of the class, you’ll be by their
side, planning and teaching
with them. Over time, you
can step back more and more.
Eventually, your trainee will
have full control. You can then
work with them to facilitate
further growth
and development.
Throughout your
trainee’s time in class, the
children will, hopefully,
experience very little change in
the quality of the education they
receive. Indeed, it will likely
have been enhanced by the
presence of another skilled adult
in the classroom.
At this stage your trainee
still has much to learn. Initial
teacher training is only the
beginning of a long journey
which involves a career-long
commitment to inquiry and
study, as well as practice.
However, by making the most
of your time with them, you’ll
be amazed by what you can
achieve together. TP
John
Coxhead
is deputy
head of a
primary
school in
Lancashire
and leads Shining Lights
Teaching School Alliance. He
is also a member of the DfE’s
Teacher Reference Group.
@johncoxhead89
@sl_tsa
FEATURES MENTORING
HOW TO BE AN
OUTSTANDING MENTOR
•thatBelieve in them. Your trainee needs to irmly believe
they will become a conident, high-quality teacher.
They have a tough year ahead but show them, at all times,
that you have no doubts whatsoever. If your belief in them
waivers, they could crumble.
• Facilitate self-reflection. Rather than telling trainees
what they need to do diferently, ask them questions until
they arrive at the solution.
• Always model. Avoid simply describing an abstract
teaching strategy or method. Instead, invite your trainee to
watch you teach. If this isn’t practical, model to the trainee
as if they were a pupil.
• Give immediate feedback. Rather than waiting until
after school, give feedback quickly and discreetly within
lessons. The timing of feedback is crucial to its impact.
• Don’t overload them. When teaching alongside a trainee,
you’ll ind yourself bursting with advice, but try to narrow it
down to just one or two pieces of feedback at a time. Ideally,
these should both fall under the same teachers’ standard,
giving purpose and focus to your trainee’s development.
Be relentless in referring to these and use them to focus
your trainee on speciic goals.
• Encourage playback. Sometimes a trainee’s memory
of what happened will difer from what you witnessed.
Encourage them to record audio or video from their lessons.
Let them watch it back alone – ask them to make notes on
what they noticed. What will they do diferently next time?
• Be sensitive. If you need to intervene directly in
behaviour management, be sensitive and discrete –
ensure it’s not done in a way that embarrasses or
undermines your trainee in front of the children.
www.teachwire.net | 39
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Andrew Percial
We n eed to
talk abo ut…
Pathwrk curiculums
Why are some teachers resorting to begging
for planning help on social media?
A
nyone who
spends their time
browsing education
social media will
know that alongside the many
pictures of classrooms and
displays, there are a large
number of requests from
teachers looking for support
with their curricular planning.
Of course, it’s great that
people are willing to generously
share their work on social
media, and I’m sure it’s a huge
help for busy teachers. However,
these posts often leave me
feeling a little worried.
I wonder why these teachers
end up having to reach out
on Facebook or Twitter to
plan their curriculum. Surely
this type of planning is best
done within schools, working
collaboratively with colleagues
on shared aims? Requests
for help tend to fall into the
following three categories...
R EQUEST 1:
Help! I’ve got too
much freedom
“I can’t decide whether to teach
Ancient Egypt or the Shang
Dynasty for my next topic. Can
anyone help?”
Giving teachers autonomy
to pick and choose topics might
seem attractive at first glance,
but it means that important
curriculum decisions are
probably being made with little
oversight from subject leaders.
A strong curriculum should
build on previous learning.
For example, the work done
on the monarchy in KS1, when
children might learn about
Queen Elizabeth II, can be
developed in LKS2 during the
study of Vikings by finding out
how Athelstan became the first
king of England. In UKS2, you
could study the changing power
of monarchs by looking at John,
Anne and Victoria. How can
big ideas like the monarchy be
understood when there is
such freedom to pick and
choose topics?
R EQUEST 2:
Help! I don’t
have enough
detail
“We’re doing
volcanoes next half
term but I’m not sure
what to teach.
Does anyone have
any planning they
can share?”
FEATURES PLANNING
These types of requests
indicate a lack of detailed
guidance available to teachers
within their own schools. It’s
unlikely that bits of planning
shared on social media will
fit seamlessly together to
form a coherent whole-school
curriculum.
The national curriculum
provides us with the bare bones
of what is to be taught and it’s
up to schools to flesh this out
in a meaningful way. Schools
that set out in meticulous detail
what children in each year
group should learn can feel
more confident that they are
building a solid foundation for
future learning. The alternative
is to metaphorically cross your
fingers and hope something
logical emerges from planning
that has been stitched together
from multiple sources.
R EQUEST 3:
Help! I need some
activities
“Has anyone got any
good activities to use for
teaching forces?”
Of course, busy teachers
appreciate a good activity
recommendation, but if focusing
on the activity comes before
thinking about the content
then we all know that learning
can suffer. A shift in thinking
away from envisaging lesson
planning in terms of one-hour
blocks to thinking of it as a
sequence of learning over time
can be more effective. Thinking
in this way helps free us from
the pressure of feeling like we
have to constantly move on
to new content and gives us
permission (if needed)
to revisit and review
learning regularly.
The more detail schools can
include in their curricular
planning, the better.
A curriculum plan which sets
out the specific knowledge
children should acquire, what
they are going to do with
this knowledge and how the
learning will build from year
to year will help schools design
a more cohesive programme
of learning.
It’s a huge undertaking
to specify a curriculum in
such detail, but if we don’t,
teachers will continue to seek
support on social media and
schools will be left with little
choice but to stitch together
a patchwork curriculum from
multiple sources that may not
give children the best possible
chance to succeed. TP
Andrew
Percival
is deputy
headteacher
and curriculum
lead at Stanley
Road Primary
in Oldham.
@primarypercival
primarypercival.weebly.com
www.teachwire.net | 53
41
 PARTNER CONTENT

Why I Love...
Sara Robson, school games organiser at Chelmsford School Sport
Partnership, on why she’s recommended Plusballs for a decade

Plusballs give
children more
time to react
We have been using Plusballs
in our Chelmsford schools for
the past ten years. I irst
started using them when
teaching in primary, then went
on to run courses for Essex
and teacher training. Plusballs
have been supplied to 60 of
our schools and are an
essential resource. They help
teachers diferentiate
activities for children,
especially when teaching
net-wall games. Because they
travel slower than a normal
ball or shuttlecock, Plusballs
give children more time to
react. This means they can
have long, safe, close rallies
which are impossible with any
other resource.

They are suitable

for SEN pupils
We use the larger, slower
Plusballs for children with
special needs, and have found
this to be really successful.
We also found that our Early
Years children beneit from
using these light,
non-threatening balls to learn
a whole variety of skills. They
provide the perfect solution
for helping children to practise
their sending and receiving
skills. They are also invaluable
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melon-sized balls.
They have
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We use Plusballs to implement
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most of which can be
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Y1 children and will use
Plusballs within our tennis
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There is
excellent
training on ofer
Roger from Plusballs recently
delivered a hands-on
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motion using their
non-dominant hand. This
convinced staf that if they
could succeed using their
‘wrong’ hand, pupils can
succeed with their dominant
hand. Staf also watched a
ilm of a class using Plusballs
(see it at plusballs.com) and
tried hitting Plusballs to a beat
while walking in a large circle,
conga-style – all great fun!
Plusballs are
great for
conined spaces
Depending on size,
Plusballs are a unique
35 Plusballs cost
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between £19.50-£23.50,
general hand-eye
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coordination work in PE –
Other quantities are
and not just in racket sports.
By using Plusballs, all also available
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and you can also ind
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Plusballs are reusable,
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for schools.

www.teachwire.net | 43
 Tables Together – a complete
programme for learning
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44 | www.teachwire.net

THE VOLUME How to cover volume and capacity without
resorting to simple pouring and filling
T
eaching mathematics
has to happen over
time, and the order of
introducing topics can
be quite predictable: addition
before multiplication, counting
before measuring, length before
volume. You might expect that
this order has arisen as a result
of research into the ease or
difficulty of learning different
topics, but it has rather more
to do with tradition – that’s
just the order we have always
taught them in. In fact, research
shows that understanding
multiplication is not dependent
Pump up
MIKE ASKEW
on first understanding addition.
In fact, evidence points to
curriculums that put more
emphasis on measuring before
counting leading to deeper,
stronger understanding.
The traditional order
means that the topic of volume
and capacity perhaps gets
less attention than it deserves
(or perhaps it’s the potential
messiness that means it gets
put off), but there is most
certainly a way to work on
volume and capacity that
goes beyond simply pouring
and filling.
FEATURES CHALLENGING MATHS
Party cups
problem
Often, in KS1, work on capacity
primarily means counting how
many times a larger container can
fill a smaller one. That’s all well
and good, but there is much more
that pupils can learn from such
practical work, as the following
problem shows. It is best set up
orally and needs to be worked
on practically with containers
in three sizes: small-size ‘cups’
(little yogurt pots are perfect); a
middle-size half-litre jug or bottle
(try an empty milk carton) and a
large two-litre bottle. While water
is the best pouring material, you
could substitute in dry rice.
The problem is worked on
in three stages. The context to
set up is about pouring out juice
for a party – everyone gets one
small cup. The juice comes
in a full middle-sized jug. Set
groups off to find out how many
of the small containers can be
filled from the middle-sized
one (let’s say the answer is
five). Ask the children to draw
pictures showing their solutions.
Typically, they will draw
something like this (overleaf):
www.teachwire.net | 45
Use this representation to talk
about the jug being five times
as big as a cup, and, conversely,
a cup being five times as small
as the jug. The next stage is to
explore the relationship between
The final challenge is to find out
how many of the small cups can
be filled from the large bottle.
Children could simply measure
and count how many times they
can fill a cup, but before setting
46 | www.teachwire.net
the bottle and the jug: the juice
is delivered in the large bottle,
and used to fill the jug. Can the
children find out how many jugs
can be filled from a bottle, again
recording their solutions?
them off, have a conversation
around whether or not the
middle-sized jug can be used
to help. With a little support,
children now produce something
like this:
The purpose behind working on
these problems is not simply to
get to an answer, but to arrive at
these representations and talk
about the different relationships
between them. For example, the
bottle is four times as large as a
jug and the jug is five times as
large as a cup – that means the
bottle is 20 times as large as the
cup. The language of fractions
now arises: the jug is one fourth
(one quarter) the size of the
bottle, and the cup is one fifth
the size of the jug. The cup is one
twentieth the size of the bottle.
You may think that this
Volumes of cuboids
Question 24 on the second
reasoning paper of the
2017 KS2 national test was
about volume. It was the
final question so presumably
the test setters thought
Cube A
4cm
6cm
is a somewhat complicated,
and possibly confusing, way to
introduce fractions (much easier
to give out a worksheet of halves
to colour in, perhaps), but the
research shows that children
working on problems like this
display a stronger understanding
of fractions as they move up
through school. They develop the
key understanding that a fraction
represents a relationship between
two quantities and that the
same quantity can be described
using a different fraction name,
depending on what it is being
compared to.
it would be challenging.
It provided two images
like this and pupils were
asked to calculate the
missing side (both had the
same volume):
m
6c Cuboid B
NOT TO
SCALE
?cm

Regular readers of this column
will know that I don’t advocate
‘teaching to the test’, but I
do think that looking at the
performance on such questions
and considering how children
might have answered them can
provide lessons for us about
pupils’ thinking, as well as
provoking ideas for teaching
The percentage of pupils
attempting this question was an
impressive 84% – the majority
of children obviously had the
stamina to get to the end of the
test and the confidence to
have a go. However, only 30%
got a correct answer.
Why might that be?
I suspect many pupils would
have answered, incorrectly, 8cm.
They may have arrived at this by
the faulty reasoning that as one
side of the cuboid is 2cm shorter
than the cube, this has
to be compensated for by the
other side being 2cm longer –
an additive reason rather than
a multiplicative one.
Others may have taken
the instruction to ‘calculate’
the missing side quite literally:
figuring out 6 x 6 x 6 = 216, 4 x 6 =
24 and then 216 ÷ 24 = 9.
There’s plenty of opportunities
to make a slip-up in
these calculations.
Calculating the
volume of the cube and
using that to work out the
missing side does involve
some reasoning about
the relationship between
the lengths of sides and
volume, but there is
another simpler way. We
know the volumes of both
solids are equal, so before
working out the volume it
is the case that:
6x6x6=6x4x[ ]
Pupils don’t need to be
formally taught about
dividing each side by six
(see below for ways to
explore that) to be able to
reason that it follows that:
6 x 6 = 4 x [ ] or
36 = 4 x [ ]
Good tables knowledge
reveals the length of
the missing side to be
9cm. What then might be
some teaching tasks that might
support pupils developing
such reasoning? Following
are three ideas to try. The first
provides a practical way of
exploring cuboids with equal
volumes, an experience that
could be valuably extended by
working with a spreadsheet.
The second explicitly sets out
the additive misconception
so that pupils have to think
through why it does not work.
The final activity introduces the
idea of simplifying expressions
by, somewhat paradoxically,
working on making them look
more complicated.
ACTIVITY 1:
36 cubes
Working alone or in pairs, ask
pupils to use small cubes to
make a six by six by six cube.
Without counting, can they
work out how many cubes
they used? Can they convince
others that their reasoning
behind finding the total number
is correct? Using the same
number of cubes, can they
build a different cuboid
(yes, a cube is a cuboid)?
FEATURES CHALLENGING MATHS
“The traditional order
means that volume and
capacity perhaps get less
attention than they deserve”
Ask pupils to record the three
dimensions of their new cuboid.
5+5=6+4
They should now find as many
different cuboids as they can,
12 x (5 + 5) = 12 x (6 + 4)
still using exactly 216 cubes.
Can they find a way to record (12 x 5 ) + 5 = (12 x 6) + 4
the three dimensions of each, so
that they are confident that they 12 x (5 + 5) + 45 = 12 x (6 + 4)
have found all the possibilities? + 45
If they have experience of it,
recording this in a spreadsheet (12 x (5 + 5) + 45) / 15 = (12 x
would be helpful, and starting (6 + 4) + 45) / 15
with cubes of different sizes
When the class has had lots of
could then be explored.
experience of reasoning about
such equivalences, challenge
ACTIVITY 2: them to make up their own.
Mike says Give them a simple starting
equation, say:
Mike says: “A cube has edges all
of 6cm. A cuboid with the same 5 x 4 = 2 x 10
volume has a side of 4cm and a
side of 6cm. As one side is 2cm Working in pairs, ask them
shorter than one of the sides of to make this ‘messy’ by
the cube, to keep the volume building in extra steps on each
the same the other side must be side, all of which still have
made 2cm longer. So, the cuboid to keep the statement true.
is 4 x 6 x 8 cubic centimetres.” They should swap their messy
Explain why Mike is wrong. equations with another pair
and check that the equation
is, indeed, still true, by
ACTIVITY 3: ‘peeling back’ to the
Make it messy original simple equation.
Put a pair of equivalent
calculations on the board,
for example:
6x6=4x9
Ask pupils to agree with their
neighbour whether they think
this is true or false. From this
‘baseline’ number sentence,
build in further changes to
each side. Is each subsequent
equation true or false? Ask Mike Askew is adjunct
professor of education
pupils to explain how they
know, preferably without at Monash University,
Melbourne. A former primary
carrying out the actual
calculations. For example: teacher, he now researches,
speaks and writes on teaching
and learning mathematics.
6+6x6=6+4x9
6x6x6=6x4x9 mikeaskew.net
7.5 x 6 x 6 = 7.5 x 4 x 9 @mikeaskew26
www.teachwire.net | 47
 M TERM P
IU L
D

A
E

N
M

U
KS2 PE ltimate frisbee is the perfect sport
to get your students excited about
physical education. Made official

ULTIMATE
by UK Sport in 2008, it’s a mixed,
non-contact team sport. The rules
are simple and the set-up and tidying away is quick
and easy. Unlike some other sports, ultimate frisbee
games don’t require a referee, so you can run

FRISBEE NICK EAST

multiple matches at once. The unique spirit of
the game adds a fantastic cross-curricular PSHE
dynamic to the activity.

– it’s cheap, easy to use and durable.

Ask pupils to stand about ten metres
apart and throw the disc back and forth.
Encourage them to concentrate on using
FREE RESOURCES! the correct technique for the backhand
Download FREE accompanying worksheets, scorecards and set-up instructions pass and crocodile catch. Ask them to
for this plan at teachwire.net/teaching-resources/ultimate-frisbee keep count and see how many catches
they can get in a row without dropping
the disc. Less able students can move a
couple of steps closer to their partner,
while more able pupils can take a few
steps back.
Drive children’s interest with the
take-home ‘design your own disc’ activity
sheet [resource 1]. They will love sharing
their creative designs with their friends
and family.

Assessment
For the backhand pass, look for a
smooth flick of the wrist, eyes on the
receiver and a smooth wobble-free flight
through the air. For the crocodile catch,
ensure students have extended arms
it spins, the less it will wobble, allowing and clamp their hands down on the
WEEK 1 it to fly straighter and further. Encourage disc simultaneously.
Learning objectives: children to concentrate on the wrist flick.
l Throw a backhand pass The faster the flick, the better the throw.
l Perform a crocodile catch This should improve over the course of
your lessons as pupils condition the
muscles in their forearm and wrist to this
Before you start the activity, explain throwing motion.
that ultimate frisbee is a non-contact team
sport and that the frisbee is called a ‘disc’. Crocodile catch: the receiver stands
Begin by modelling the following two facing the thrower, holds their arms out
essential skills: straight and snaps them together like
the jaws of a crocodile to catch the
Backhand pass: the thrower turns side on disc, one hand on top and one
to the person they are throwing to (receiver). underneath. This is a great
Hold the disc horizontally by the rim in beginner’s catch to teach
front of your body. With a quick flick of the your students.
wrist, throw the disc to the receiver. In order Practise these
to improve accuracy, encourage students to two skills in pairs.
look at the receiver and aim for their chest. A good beginner
The ultimate goal is for the disc to travel disc to use is the
through the air without wobbling. The faster Aerobie Superdisc
48 | www.teachwire.net

WEEK 2
Learning objectives:
l Throw an advanced backhand pass
Explain that today, children will be
further developing their throwing and
catching skills by learning some advanced
techniques. Model the following key skill:
Advanced backhand pass: the thrower
stands side on to the receiver, grips the
rim of the disc, draws their arm back across
their body, bends their elbow then swings
their arm with a quick flick of the wrist
on release.
Split the children into groups of three
or four, with one disc per student. Set
up the game space as per the diagram
in resource 2 and give each student a
scorecard [resource 3] and pencil. Pupils
must make their first throw from the tee
in the direction of the end zone and record
each throw as a tally on their scorecard.
The aim is to land your disc within the end
zone. Once the round has commenced, the
child furthest from the end zone throws.
Play continues until everyone has landed
their disc in the end zone. The group can
then proceed to the next tee once any
previous groups have finished.
Differentiate this activity by
encouraging less able students to gradually
bring their arm further back as they
grow more confident with the throw,
concentrating on a firm flick of the wrist.
Encourage more able pupils to step
forward with the throw and follow through
with their arm after they release the disc.
Assessment
For the advanced backhand pass, look for a
smooth throwing action with the arm fully
extended, aided by a quick flick of the wrist.
WEEK 3
Learning objectives:
l Learn the principles of marking
l Perform a pivot turn
Begin this lesson by explaining that you
are going to be practising the ultimate
frisbee skills of marking and the pivot turn.
Model these two skills as follows before
commencing the activity:
Marking: when the other team has the
disc in ultimate frisbee, a marker can stand
next to the thrower and use their arms to
block the pass. Make it clear that under no
circumstances can the marker touch the
thrower or take the disc from them.
Pivot turn: the thrower can pivot to give
themselves more room to pass. To do this,
keep one foot planted on the ground and
step away from the marker with the other
foot. You can perform a pivot turn several
times if necessary, prior to passing the disc.
Split pupils into groups of seven, with
one disc between them. This is the ideal
group size as this is how many players
constitute an ultimate frisbee team.
Nominate one player in the group to be
the marker. The other players must pass
the disc between them. If the disc touches
FEATURES PLANNING
the ground or if the marker catches it,
the last thrower becomes the marker. In
ultimate frisbee, the person who threw
the disc becomes the marker, regardless
of who else touched it before it hit the
ground. Encourage throwers to take their
time – new players can sometimes rush
their passes which can lead to misthrows.
Because ultimate frisbee is played without
an umpire, the onus is on players to
take responsibility for their mistakes.
Encourage the marker to stand an arm’s
length away from less able pupils. For a
group of more able students, introduce two
markers and two discs.
Assessment
For marking, look for energetic use of arms
to block the pass, while strictly avoiding
contact with the thrower. For the pivot
turn, look for a long step away from
the marker while keeping the
pivot foot fixed in place.
WEEK 4
Learning objectives:
l Learn to fake a throw
Explain that in this lesson, you are going to
learn to fake throws to confuse and distract
the marker. Very soon, children will be
playing their first game of ultimate frisbee.
Split the children into pairs, with one
disc between them. Ask them to stand
ten metres apart and pass the disc back
and forth. Before each throw, they should
to pretend to throw the disc, without
actually releasing it. This is called a ‘fake’.
Encourage children to quickly follow
the fake pass with a real one. Let less
able students stand closer together and
set an achievable target for consecutive
passes, such as five in a row. Ask more
able students to take a step back after each
successful catch, or a step forward for
each miss.
Next, split the children into groups
of three, with one disc between them.
Follow the directions on the leapfrog
set-up resource [resource 4]. This will
give students the opportunity to practise
passing to a moving player, an essential
skill in the game of ultimate frisbee.
Assessment
Look for a fake throw followed
quickly by a real one.
www.teachwire.net | 49
 WEEK 5
Learning objectives:
l Throw a curve pass
l Understand the ‘spirit of the
game’ principle
Explain that today you will learn to
throw a curve pass and will also learn
about the ‘spirit of the game’ principle
that encourages fair play and good
sportsmanship. Start by modelling a curve
pass as follows:
Curve pass: stand side on to the receiver
and perform a backhand pass. To curve the
pass right, tilt the disc slightly to the right.
Conversely, to curve it left, tilt the disc
slightly to the left.
Split children into groups of three,
with one disc between them. Ask them to
stand in a triangle and throw curve passes
to each other. Encourage throwers to aim
slightly to the side of the receiver to cater
for the curve of the disc through the air.
Encourage children to say the name of
the receiver to emphasise the importance
of communication in ultimate frisbee.
Less able pupils can keep the disc nearly
horizontal to minimise the amount of
curve in flight, while more able students
can add extra tilt and practise catering for
this added movement through the air by
aiming further from the receiver.
‘Spirit of the game’ is a central
principle of ultimate frisbee. At the end
of each game, all players form a circle and
say something positive or encouraging
about another participant. At the end of the
curve pass activity, encourage each group
to form a circle and say something positive
about another player. As a class, join
together in one big circle and ask pupils
to share a positive thought about another
person there.
Assessment
For the curve pass, look for a smooth tilted
action resulting in an arc through the air.
Listen for thoughtful remarks
that demonstrate an understanding of
the importance of the ‘spirit of the
game’ principle.
50 | www.teachwire.net
team to resume play.
WEEK 6 End the game by standing
in a large circle. Encourage
Learning objectives: children to reflect on
the skills, teamwork and
l Energetically participate in a game of
sportsmanship of the
ultimate frisbee
opposition team.
l Demonstrate competence in the keys
skills of the game
Lay out as many game spaces as necessary Assessment
for your class size, according to the During the game,
instructions in resource 5. Adapt the look for good
dimensions if necessary to suit the area backhand passes,
you have available. Divide the children into crocodile catches,
groups of seven and distinguish the teams marking, pivot turns,
by handing out coloured bibs or sashes. fake throws and curve
Flip a disc to decide which team throws pass techniques. After the match, look
first. Explain that both teams start roughly out for further positive contributions
20m from their end zone and play begins that foster teamwork and good
with one team throwing the disc to the sportsmanship. TP
other. This is called a ‘pull’.
Nick East is a Twinkl
Commence play and encourage players
content writer,
to use the skills they have practised over
primary teacher
the last few weeks to pass and catch the
and editor of a
disc. If the disc goes out of bounds or is
games-based learning
dropped, the nearest player from the other
website. Originally
team becomes the thrower. A point is
from Australia, he is
scored if the disc is caught in the end zone.
now based in Frome, Somerset.
After a score, the team that conceded the
point should ‘pull’ the disc to the other mrfunology.com
www.teachwire.net | 51
 Teaching
LITERACY
INSIDE THIS SECTION
IS A JOKE
Basing a lesson on puns is an
What’s going
excellent way to enliven some of the
5
p5

on in the minds
of children who
have excellent drier parts of the curriculum
decoding skills
but weak reading GARETH P JONES
comprehension?

Involved in
Q How many Ofsted
inspectors does it take
various unlikely reasons. The ones
that are interesting for our purpose
6
p5

teaching KS2 to change a lightbulb? are the jokes that stretch the elastic
writing? Here are
five lessons we
learnt from last
A Er, sorry, we don’t do the
actual changing ourselves,
but it definitely does need to
of language. A high number of jokes
for children involve wordplay and,
while it might be hard to generate
year’s moderations change and you have six months a belly laugh from a pun, children
to do it. love them. Puns are puzzles to be
Working in education, you definitely solved. Here are a few examples
Take a trip back
3

need a good sense of humour, but that could be used in class to explain
p6

to the 1950s with I’ve recently come to realise that linguistic terminology.
Joanne Schwartz
jokes can also be a valuable resource

Q
and Sydney Smith’s
multi-layered for teaching literacy. The Daily Joker Why was six scared
seaside picturebook by Rachel Delahaye and me came of seven?

What trying
out in September. This is our first
joke book and is a kind of almanac,
offering a gag for each day of the year
A Because seven ate nine...
This classic is an exquisite
example of a joke that uses a
7
p6

to tackle his and funnies about international days
own height in and famous birthdays.
children’s books Once a week, the reader is set
taught teacher a joke challenge, usually involving
Adam Parkhouse
about reading
them coming up with their own
one-liners. These challenges
provide a fun, interactive aspect
homophone. The noun ‘eight’
sounds like (but is spelt differently
to) the verb ‘ate’.
Q What do you get if you cover
a French person in flour
then put them in the oven?

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to the book. Having spent a few
months this year coming up with
jokes and challenges, while regularly
A Pain.
This one appears in the book
above a challenge to write a joke
visiting schools, I’ve come to realise using a word that looks the same on
how much educational value lies in paper but sounds different when
writing jokes. spoken. We don’t use the word
Creating a joke involves ‘homograph’, but that’s precisely
thinking about sentence structure, what we’re talking about.
punctuation, homonyms,
homophones and all of
those other finicky bits of
‘language about language’
that can be such a frustrating
part of the current national
curriculum for literacy.
More importantly than any
of that, children love jokes.
Ask your class if anyone
knows a good joke and plenty
of hands will go up. The results
will be varied in quality and will
always include a few surreal,
nonsensical ones involving
chickens crossing roads for

52 | www.teachwire.net
 TEACH READING & WRITING

“Creating a joke
involves thinking
about sentence
structure,
punctuation and
all of those other
finicky bits of
‘language about Jokes should be viewed like a short illustrating too. Our book is illustrated by
Beano legend Nigel Parkinson and we got
form of poetry. There are rules, but they
language’” are all allowed to be broken. Many jokes
are written in the form of a question and
him drawing some weird stuff. There was
a rabbit with nunchucks, a chef chasing
answer. Others are single sentences. And a kangaroo (hoping to make him into

Q How come elephants are such

good swimmers?
jokes are supposed to be performed – after
your pupils have written their material, ask
mar-SOUP-ial) and a pair of boxers having
a pillow fight (featherweight, of course).
Rachel and I use many of these
A They’re born with trunks.
This joke takes the homonym
‘trunk’ and uses it to conjure up
them to stand up and deliver it. Remind
your class that the correct way to respond
to a joke is to laugh or groan. Stunned
techniques when we visit schools and I
hope you’ll consider doing the same.
the image of an elephant in a silence is unacceptable. Listening to each You’re likely to end up with some very
bathing costume. other will spark off new jokes. Rachel silly jokes, but you will have also squeezed a
and I wrote the book by throwing ideas fun lesson out of some of the drier parts of
Having harvested a few jokes from the curriculum. TP
around, critiquing each other’s attempts
the classroom, it’s time to sit down and
and honing our efforts. A joke must also be
write some new ones. To do this, pick a
precise. Take this example from the book:
subject. It could be one you’re already
doing such as Romans, fairytales or
food, or pick an area that is an especially
fertile ground for puns, such as animals,
Q How did the fronted adverbial
go to the party?
superheroes or shops. Ask your class to
write down as many words associated
A Suddenly, he went to the party.
This joke may have many teachers
weeping and gnashing their teeth, but it
with your subject. They may need some
also gets across the concept of a fronted
guidance, but once you get them going
adverbial rather neatly.
they should be able to fill a page with
words and phrases.
Now they’ve got lots of options,
the real fun begins. Get them
Q Did you hear about the elves that
worked for Santa?
searching for words with double
meanings. These will provide
A They were
subordinate clauses.
OK, so it’s unlikely your class will
the heart of your jokes. It
be rolling around laughing at
is upon these linguistic
this one, but once you explain
ambiguities that the jokes
that ‘that worked for Santa’ is
will pivot. A good joke is
a subordinate clause, it does, at
an unexpected thing.
least, provide a more fun way
It leads you in
of explaining this device. Some
one direction
jokes even require some thinking
then pirouettes
about punctuation, such as:
around, revealing
something
new. It deploys
misdirection or
Q Why did Caesar have
sore feet?
Gareth P Jones and Rachel Delahaye
are the authors of The Daily Joker
sleight of hand,
just as you’ll
A Because everywhere he went
he was always Roman.
Encourage pupils to discuss whether
(£4.99, Piccadilly Press), illustrated by
Nigel Parkinson. Email examples of your
pupils’ jokes to the below address,
find in any good
the punchline should use the word or tweet @thedailyjoker1.
mystery story,
‘Roman’ or its sound-alike ‘roamin’’,
but in a
along with an apostrophe to @jonesgarethp
much more
indicate the missing ‘g’.
condensed @racheldelahaye
Once your pupils have written
way.
and shared their jokes, get them thedailyjoker@mail.com

www.teachwire.net | 53
 No. 1 for
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- th e mos imary Scie n ce
t
s cie n ce pr wid e ly u se d
o
UK s chool gramme in
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MODULE 1 SNAPSHOT ASSESSMENT:

Year group: 2 Module
|
ALL GROWN UP!
IN A STATE
: OCW Lesson 4
|
Curriculum stateme
Module 6: Growin
g Up; Lessons: 3,
nt: Y2 Animals 4, EL1, EL2

OPERTIES? notice that animals

, including human

AT ARE MY PR Activity instructions s, have offspring Questions to check

which grow into understanding

LESSON 1: WH
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by
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20:47
14/02/2017

14
www.c ollins.c o.uk
© Harper Collins
Publish ers Limited 2015
14
t_Book.indb
1094_Reprin

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✓
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 FEATURES COMPREHENSION

In the MOMENT
What’s going on in the minds of children who have excellent decoding
skills but weak reading comprehension?
TONY WHATMUFF

C
lass 5W’s joke book is
finally finished. It’s the first
read-through and everyone has a
copy. I scrutinise my four weaker
comprehenders as they read the
first joke:
The worst job I ever had was drilling
holes looking for water. It was well boring.
Not a facial muscle twitches. Nearby,
however, hilarity erupts, then spreads
throughout the class. My four weaker
comprehenders look around bewildered.
I know these four children have a good
sense of humour, and all of them can
read any word I give them (triceratops,
dodecahedron, etc), so what is happening?
I’ll tell you. They’re reading in a totally
different way to my splitting-their-sides
children. In the moment of reading, these
four are either neglecting key strategies
or experiencing vocabulary and language
Mckenzie
Mckenzie has good oral
language but is a passive reader
who focuses on decoding
and fluency rather than accessing his
background knowledge about ‘drilling
holes’, ‘well’ and ‘boring’, because he doesn’t
know it’s important. The knowledge is there,
but he’s not accessing it. This means he’s not
activating inferences either.
These four children illustrate the multiple
risk factors associated with weak reading
comprehension, despite having excellent
decoding skills. For effective reading
comprehension, children need
the following:
l Automatic decoding, fluency and
reading miles
l Good vocabulary and oral language
l Active strategies in the moment of reading
Do we teach these strategies explicitly?
Probably not. We’re all pretty good at asking
children questions after reading a text to
explore deeper meaning, but if our weaker
comprehenders neglect key strategies in
the moment of reading, they won’t build
basic meaning as they read. Asking them
questions after a text is like trying to build a
block of flats on top of a swamp.
Fortunately it’s possible to model these
‘in the moment’ strategies to a whole class
or group using teacher ‘think aloud’ bubbles
on top of text. Use your whiteboard to do
this. Modelling in this way is called ‘read
aloud, think aloud’ and makes the elusive
process of comprehension more concrete.
Children can then practise these strategies
on the same or a follow-on text, then share
and discuss so that more meaning and
enjoyment is gained from a text. TP

difficulties. Here’s my best guess at what’s l Effective after-text strategies to Tony

going on with each child...
Jacob
Jacob has OK vocabulary but
fails to spot the important
words and integrate them
together to build meaning (worst job,
looking for water, drilling holes, well,
boring). He probably hasn’t made the
connection between the first and second
sentence either. Unsurprisingly, as
Jacob generally struggles to read with
understanding, he reads little and may
lack knowledge about the genre of
joke reading.
Mala
Mala is still developing
vocabulary and oral language as
she’s only been in the UK three
years. She probably fails to understandthe
dual meanings of key words, such as ‘well’
and ‘boring’.
Abe
Abe was born in the
UK but comes from a
language-deprived home and
has similar vocabulary and oral language
issues to Mala.
answer questions Whatmuff
is a trainer
A problem in any one of these areas
will result in a problem with reading
and author
with 25
comprehension. But it’s this ‘in the moment
years of
of reading’ idea I want to focus on.
teaching
Us adults in school are skilled readers,
experience. He is also a
but the price we pay for our expertise is
consultant on Oxford
that the strategies we use have become
Reading Buddy,
hidden from us because we activate them so
a digital reading
automatically. For example, have you ever
service that develops
read late at night in bed when you’re feeling
comprehension
really tired, then realised when you reach
by coaching and
the end of the page that you’ve not taken
modelling key
a word in? In this scenario, you’ve been
strategies.
decoding the words but no key strategies in
global.oup.com
the moment of reading have been activated.
So, what are the strategies effective
readers use in the moment of reading?
Effective readers:
l Use their background knowledge and
make links with the text
l Predict or ask questions and then read on
to ‘find out’
l Visualise and use inference
l Notice meaning breakdown and use
repair strategies to understand
l Notice very important words, phrases
and ideas and put these together to build
basic meaning

www.teachwire.net | 55
 5from
LESSONS
last year’s
MODERATIONS Involved in teaching KS2 writing? Get into the mind of
the moderators with Clare Hodgson’s wise counsel
L
ast summer, post SATs,
Hertfordshire’s team of KS2
moderators visited 119 schools
over three and half weeks.
Some common threads emerged that
are worth sharing so that they can help
to inform your planning and teaching of
writing this year. I also hope that sharing
these findings will allay some of the
anxieties you may feel if you hear
that you’re going to be moderated.
Lesson 1:
CARRY ON WRITING
BEFORE, DURING AND
AFTER SATS
It’s understandable to want to focus on
SATs test preparation before the test
window. However, when this takes place
at the expense of continued writing
opportunities, it impacts on the number of
writing pieces available.
It’s often from April onwards that
children are able to more independently
apply teaching from autumn and the irst
part of the spring term to really show us
what they can do. Ideally, the majority of
evidence for most of your pupils should be
drawn from the later part of the year when
you can revisit, for example, efective use
of dialogue or features of formal writing –
topics that you taught in a more scafolded
way in the irst part of the year.
Having this bank of evidence from the
later part of the year is key. At the best
performing schools, extended writing
and editing was the norm and time was
devoted to explicit teaching of the writing
process. In these schools, moderators
reported seeing a wide range of quality
writing and saw how this facilitated teacher
judgements. Some schools presented two
or even three illed literacy books (with the
left-hand page sometimes left blank for
improvements or writing tips).
Moderators were also impressed by:
l a cross-curricular approach with an
emphasis on writing in all lessons for
56 | www.teachwire.net
diferent purposes and audiences
l the judicious and choice use of quality
texts that inspired the children and
raised the standard of writing produced
l a focus on promoting a love of reading,
to encourage writing
l plenty of role play and talk for writing
l skilful teaching of grammar through
reading and the children’s own writing,
rather than too many discrete grammar
exercises. It’s worth remembering that
the GAPS test does not form part of the
school’s headline accountability
measure, while the writing TA does
Overall, many moderators commented
on the obvious passion shown by staf
for writing and books. A key takeaway
is making time to develop a ‘writer’s
workshop’ culture in your classroom.
Make the writing process explicit and
allow time to critique and craft, building
autonomy over the year. Consider the use
of editing laps or leave the left-hand side
of books blank for redrafting sections.
In terms of quantity, let the STA/DfE
writing exemplification files be your
guide. These show not only the national
standards but also the quantity and range
of independent writing required. You’ll
want to produce around six pieces of
writing in the latter half of Y6, for
different audiences and purposes.
“If a number of
children have very
similar-sounding
pieces, it’s hard
to use this as
evidence”
Lesson 2:
WRITE FOR A RANGE
OF PURPOSES AND
AUDIENCES, BOTH
FORMAL AND INFORMAL
Keep in mind the ‘Purpose and audience’
and ‘Levels of formality’ pupil can criteria
when planning your writing for the year.
Basically, pupils need to know the purpose
and audience for their writing and select
appropriate language and sentence
structures to it this.
So what types of tasks and genres
should you cover in Y6? To answer
this question, it’s worth looking at the
exempliications and considering the range
of tasks and purpose and audience for
each. For example, the tasks in Morgan’s
collection include two short stories, a
recount, a letter, a balanced argument and
a science investigation. These give plenty
of opportunity to write for diferent
purposes and audiences.
You don’t need to complete the same
tasks. However, you do need to allow
opportunities for pupils to write both
formally and informally. For every
writing task, consider what its purpose
and audience is then think about the
types of language and vocabulary
the writing might contain.
In the main, pupils tend to write ‘down
the middle’: neither formally or informally.
It is the formal that most will struggle with.
Therefore, we need to model and provide
opportunities for formal writing, and then
show where else this could be used, such as
a character in a story trying to assert their
authority, for example. The trick is not
necessarily to tell pupils to include a long
list of features, but to consider purpose and
audience and ind a good model text.
Above all, pupils need to be able to
write with the reader in mind: does it make
sense? Can the reader follow it? Could I
phrase or structure any parts diferently to
make it more efective or easier to follow?
TEACH READING & WRITING

Free online
resources
Download a KS2 writing
assessment checklist
from teachwire.net/
teaching-resources/
moderation-checklist

Lesson 3:
REDUCE SCAFFOLDING
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
There need to be an adequate number
of independent pieces of writing. If you
use a ‘talk for writing’ approach, writing
towards the end of the year needs to
be at the ‘innovate’ stage, not heavily
modelled. If a number of children have very
similar-sounding pieces, it’s hard to use
this as evidence for a ‘pupil can’ statement.
This also applies to teacher feedback –
ease up on being too directive as the year
progresses. For example, instead of pointing
out a spelling or grammatical error, give
pupils time to ind them and correct them
independently. Find further guidance on
this at tinyurl.com/tpindependence.

Lesson 4:
MAKE SURE YOU
UNDERSTAND THE
NEW CRITERIA FOR
GREATER DEPTH
The revised ‘pupil can’ statements for
greater depth represented the greatest
change last year. Teachers only had one
exempliication portfolio (Frankie) so it was
not surprising that it was diicult to decide
on children who were on the cusp.
The ‘pupil can’ statement that was
hardest to evidence was the statement
regarding ‘assured and conscious control
over levels of formality’. During training
for lead moderators, the Standards and
Testing Agency stated that pupils working
at greater depth must demonstrate the
ability to ‘manipulate grammar and
vocabulary according to the context of the
writing. The emphasis on ‘assured and
conscious control’ refers to the fact that
choices made in their writing are
‘deliberate and considered.’
www.teachwire.net | 57
 Obviously, Frankie’s writing clearly
meets this statement, but how ‘assured
and conscious’ do Y6 writers need to
be? Here it’s worth turning to Leigh’s
exempliication ile as a
benchmark. Leigh only
narrowly missed the
greater depth standard
but met the ‘assured
and conscious control’
statement in piece B. If
your pupil can write like
piece B more often, they
are in with a chance of
being at greater depth.
The annotations on the
remaining pieces show where
Leigh was less consistent.
Relect too, as you read the
collection, on the purpose and
audience for each piece. Would
more opportunities for formal
writing have helped to lift Leigh into
greater depth? Why doesn’t the recount
provide any evidence for greater depth?
Was Leigh given adequate time to redraft
to consider precision of language or tidy
up punctuation? Greater depth writers
may need longer to craft their pieces, as
well as more exposure to a range of reading
materials and tasks that have a clearly
deined purpose and audience.
Lesson 5:
SPELLING REALLY
MATTERS
Moderators see Y3/4 spellings misspelt
more often than words from the Y5/6
statutory word lists. This is mainly because
Y6 pupils rarely use words from the Y5/6
spelling lists in their writing, whereas they
do use words from Y3/4. In addition, half
the words on the Y5/6 word lists are, in
fact, easier for pupils to spell than many
of the Y3/4 words. These Y5/6 words do
need to be evidenced, but this can be done
through spelling tests or dictation if they
don’t naturally occur in pupils’ writing.
Make sure you crack the Y3/4 words
before the Y5/6 ones, as these are the ones
pupils use most in their writing. Model how
to spell when demonstrating writing. Ask
“What spelling rule do I need to remember?
What could I do to try to spell this word?
Where could I get help?” Remember, too,
that pupils should be using dictionaries and
thesauruses in order to use and spell more
ambitious vocabulary choices.
“Some schools presented
two or even three filled
literacy books”
58 | www.teachwire.net
Despite the fact that moderation visits
are compulsory, I’m always impressed by the What stops pupils
warmth of welcome I receive. It’s a privilege
to spend time in so many schools with
HITTING A
staf who really care and to get to read the STANDARD?
thoughts and words of so many pupils. TP l Failing to meet ‘working towards’:
pupils often have diiculty with
sentence punctuation and spelling.
l Failing to meet ‘expected
standard’: pupils often have
diiculty with cohesion and writing
for a range of purposes (mainly
falling down on formal writing or
sentence structure variation).
Spellings (frequently still Y3/4) are
often an issue. Watch out, too,
for the comma splice.
l Failing to meet ‘greater depth’:
pupils may not demonstrate
accurate and considered use
of a range of punctuation, nor
conscious control over levels
of formality.
It’s useful to read pupil
drafts and place them
into three piles,
depending on what the
writing would most
beneit from:
l feedback
around sentence
construction or
punctuation
l input around
cohesion
l feedback around word
choice (particularly for more
formal or academic writing).
Consider, too, the importance of
verb form
The following day, ofer conference
feedback to one group at a time,
while encouraging other groups to
review spellings. Asking children to
read their work backwards, word by
word, is a good way to help them
notice spelling errors.
Clare Hodgson is
lead moderator
for KS2 writing in
Hertfordshire. She is
also an assessment
adviser at Herts for
Learning. Herts for
Learning is running a course on assessing
and securing greater depth in Y6 on 24th
January 2019. Find further guidance
regarding KS2 writing assessment at
tinyurl.com/tpks2
@hertslearning
hertsforlearning.co.uk
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www.teachwire.net | 59
 Book
We review five brand new titles that your class will love
KS2
Sky Chasers
by Emma Carroll
(£6.99, Chicken House)
In 2014, Neal Jackson entered the Big
Idea competition – a scheme that sees
the winner’s suggestion turned into a
book by an established children’s author.
Jackson’s notion was to conceive a story
focused on the famous Montgolfier hot air
balloon, unveiled before King Louis XVI
at Versailles in 1783, which transformed
a duck, rooster and sheep into the first
aeronauts. It’s a delightful tableau –
and in Sky Chasers, the author Emma
Carroll brings it to sparkling, thrilling
life with her wonderful imagination and
narrative genius. Teaming a smart, tough
and resourceful orphan, Magpie, with
Montgolfier’s thoughtful son, Pierre –
and throwing in a sinister pack of English
rogues determined to steal the French
inventor’s secrets – Carroll takes readers
on a truly captivating and unforgettable
journey. This title won the KS2
category in the Teach Primary Book
Awards 2018. HM
60 | www.teachwire.net
CLUB
KS1
Cereal Superfan
by Julia Donaldson
(£4.99, Bloomsbury Education)
Bloomsbury Young Readers are
illustrated, book banded stories by
well-known authors, designed to get
children aged five and over reading.
Writers in the series include Tony
Bradman, Joanna Nadin and Gruffalo
superstar Julia Donaldson. This tale,
which is suitable for children beyond
phonic phase 6, follows breakfast
foodstuff fan Stephen as he enters a
‘design-a-cereal’ competition – but when
he wins, things soon start to spiral out
of control. Each page features engaging
colour illustrations and the book also
contains cover notes to guide parents
when reading alongside their children
at home. Pupuils are also encouraged to
continue the learning once the story is
finished via activity ideas and discussion
points at the back of the book. More
titles in the series are promised, by
authors including Ben Bailey Smith (also
known as comedian Doc Brown). EB
KS2
Max Einstein: the
Genius Experiment
by James Patterson & Chris
Grabenstein (£9.99, Young Arrow)
Although two authors are credited
on its cover, this book definitely
benefits from the presence of a third
contributor. As the opening title
in the first children’s series ever to
be officially approved by the Albert
Einstein Archives, it is infused with
affection for the wild-haired physicist
whose theories have played such a
central role in the development of
our understanding of the universe
– and whose humanity was just as
important. The story’s heroine is a
fiercely intelligent 12-year-old orphan
with a profound sense of compassion
that defines her just as much as her
genius. The series combines fast-paced
adventure with an invitation for
readers to consider some of the most
critical problems facing our planet, and
to believe that through STEM skills,
and a willingness to work together, they
might be able to solve them. HM
 Find more online...
There are hundreds more book reviews of early years and primary titles
waiting to be browsed at teachwire.net/school-books
KS2
The Storm
Keeper’s Island
by Catherine Doyle
(£6.99, Bloomsbury)
Fionn Boyle and his older sister, Tara,
are sent to live with their grandfather on
the remote island of Arranmore for the
summer. Once he arrives, Fionn quickly
discovers that both the island and his
grandad have secrets of their own and
he is drawn into this strange, mystical
world, Fionn finds himself in the middle
of an epic battle between the forces of
nature that will affect his destiny in ways
he couldn’t have imagined. This moving
and lyrical novel weaves together themes
of love, loss, bravery and family loyalty,
all wrapped up in a magical tale of daring
adventure. It’s beautifully written,
with vivid descriptions and strikingly
original metaphors that will capture
young readers’ imaginations. Author
Catherine Doyle has created a gripping
fantasy story that is a perfect read-aloud
for a UKS2 class. I couldn’t put it down,
and the children won’t want you to,
either. AK
KS1
One Day,
So Many Ways
by Laura Hall
(£14.99, Lincoln Children’s Books)
November is National Non-Fiction
Month, so what better time to introduce
this glorious fact-packed book to your
KS1 pupils? It follows the lives of over 40
children from around the world – from
Mongolia to Mexico to Morocco – and
explores the differences and similarities
in their daily routines. Over 24 hours
we follow a wide variety of children as
they wake up, eat, go to school, play and
go about their everyday lives. Pupils will
learn lots, including which countries
get the least and most homework, what
food different children think is tastiest
and what kids around the world dream
of at night. Loris Lora’s illustrations are
beautifully retro and capture the variety
of living arrangements children around
the world experience. At the back of the
book is a fact file containing information
about each country’s population,
languages spoken and how to say
‘hello’. EB
Meet the
author
LAURA HALL ON
RESEARCHING
HER LATEST
NON-FICTION TITLE
How did you
research for
this book?
I started with
Facebook.
I asked my
international friends to ask
their children what they eat for
breakfast, what the best part
of their day is, what subjects
they like to study at school
and what they play with their
friends. I asked all manner of
nosy questions like that to get
a feel for how their days were
different and similar.
The answers were incredible –
I got so many great responses
and even letters sent to me
from children around the world,
and I used that as the basis
of my planning.
What did you think of Loris
Lora’s illustrations when you
irst saw them?
I had the biggest smile on my
face! I knew that her pictures
would be wonderful – my editor
and I chose her together as an
illustrator that we thought would
do the idea justice, and I couldn’t
have been happier. Seeing
illustrations is a way of seeing an
idea come to life – suddenly it’s
more than just words on a page.
How would you like
teachers to share this book?
My big vision for the book is to
show children how wonderful
the world is. We have so many
similarities, and so many
differences too. I see the book
as a celebration of all of that, and
hope teachers can share it by
talking about different cultures
in the book and maybe in their
classrooms too, allowing any
non-native pupils to share ideas
about their cultures, and to share
their own experiences from
travelling to different countries.
Where would you like to go?
What games would you like to
play? Have you ever tasted food
like this? There are so many
questions that come up from the
daily routines in the book, and I
hope exploring them will be fun
and educational.
www.teachwire.net | 61
 ING
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 Book
topic
BOOK TOPIC
KS1/2
Town is by the Sea
Take a trip back to the 1950s with Joanne Schwartz and
Sydney Smith’s multi-layered picturebook
T
his lovely, light-filled picturebook
has hidden depths and is well
worth reading and exploring with
your class. Told as a day in the
life of a boy living in a 1950s coastal mining
town, the book’s appealingly direct text is
complemented by Sydney Smith’s striking
illustrations which won him this year’s Kate
Greenaway medal.
“It’s in the quiet moments that we
see the stories we share,” Smith said
in his acceptance speech, and this is
certainly a book that celebrates the here
and now. Right from the very first spread
we’re drawn into the heart of our young
narrator’s family. ‘From my house, I can see
the sea’, he says – and so can we, sparkling
TEACH READING & WRITING
CAREY FLUKER HUNT
in the sunshine beyond the kitchen
window. Light streams through the open
door and silhouetted against it is Father,
off to join the other miners on their way
to work.
This expansive, airy book is full of
the sights, sounds and smells of summer.
The boy spends his day roaming the
clifftops, running errands for his mother
and playing with friends. He doesn’t
forget the sea, though. How could he? As
he keeps reminding us, deep beneath it is
his father, digging for coal.
Observant readers will spot more
than we’re being told. There’s a problem
in the tunnel: will Father come home?
The tension is subtle and swiftly relieved,
Published by
Walker Books, 2018
but the shadows this book casts are real. The
boy and his friend will go down the pit, just
like their fathers and grandfathers before
them, because ‘that’s the way it goes.’ And
once the dazzling summer light has faded,
we’re left to wonder what became of our
narrator and all the other boys like him.
This is a gem of a book and disarmingly
accessible – children don’t need to know it’s
set in the 1950s or understand coalmining
to enjoy it, but once they tune into the
book’s emotional landscape they’ll start to
read it in a different way. Town is by the
Sea offers an unusually rich experience: one
that is multi-layered and can be appreciated
on many levels, making it an ideal starting
point for creative activities.
www.teachwire.net | 63
 Book
topic

How to share the book

Talk about the (paid and unpaid) jobs that
people do. What do they involve? Do the
workers wear special clothes? Where do
they work? Is anything produced?
Look at the book’s cover. What kind of
story could this be? Do you have questions
you’d like to ask the boy on the roof? What’s
he doing there? What could he be thinking?
Share the story and discuss it. Did
anything surprise you? Did it remind you of
anything? Talk about the pictures. How do
they make you feel? Which one do you like
best, and why?

Practical activities
Daily routines
Make a timeline showing everything
that happens to the boy. Add post-its
showing what he hears, tastes and feels:
lupins rustling in the wind, a glass of milk,
butterflies in his stomach. How is the boy’s
day like yours? How is it different?
Take photos of your class at key
moments and use them to create a visual
timeline – a corridor makes a great place
to display it. Extend this by adding photos
of other people at work in your school at
the same times (headteacher, caretaker,
secretary, kitchen staff). Discuss your
timeline and write about it.
Use the book’s text to structure writing
about a day at home:
When I wake up it goes like this…
First thing I see when I look out the
window is…
When I go out in the morning, it
goes like this…
When I get home for lunch it goes like this…
At supper time it goes like this…
At night-time it goes like this…
Town is…
Where do you live? Find out about your
village, town or city. Go for explorer walks,
collecting photos, notes, voice memos
and found objects to record what you see,
discover, feel and do along the way. Use
these to create annotated maps of
your adventures.
If you had to finish the ‘Town is…’
sentence for your place, what would you
say? Your town might not be by the sea, but
maybe it’s in the hills or by the river or full
of people. Draw pictures to illustrate your
‘Town is…’ sentences, or join them to create
a whole-class poem.
A room with a view
Describe what you can see in the first
spread. Where is this house? Who lives
here? Does this room remind you of
anywhere? How does this picture make you
feel? There are more illustrations of the
boy’s house later in the book. What else
can we learn about his home and family by
looking at them? Draw a detailed picture of
room in your house and talk about it.
Summer snapshots
Look at the page showing six square
‘memory vignettes’ (sitting on the stony
beach; watching the birds fly across a pink
evening sky). For each, describe what you
can see, then talk about the sounds, tastes,
textures, feelings and smells that could be
associated with this memory.
What do your children remember
about summer 2018? Share as a class, then
choose six summer ‘memory moments’
and draw them as vignettes inspired by
Sydney Smith. Describe them in words
and/or writing.
The boy in this book is talking about a

Take it further
STORY TUNNELLING
Look at the underwater pictures.
Pretend you’re working in a tunnel
beneath the sea. Can you use your
body to show the limits of the space
by pretending to push up against
the rocks or touch the sides of the
tunnel? If you had to dig for coal in
this tunnel, how would you move?
Explore individually, then develop in
small groups. Show back and discuss.
Can you ind or compose some
‘mining music’ to accompany your
performances?
Working as a class, design and
make a sea-themed sensory tunnel
for younger children to explore. Join
extra-large cardboard boxes or buy
a budget pop-up tunnel to customise.
Cut holes to add sensory experiences.
Be inventive, but safe – think about
light (acetates and torches), sound
(recorded by your children, windchimes
made from spoons), textures (strips of
different fabrics inside the tunnel, bowls
of sand to touch) and smells (in pots with
perforated lids).
Once you’ve constructed and tested
your tunnel, invite some nursery children
for a sea-themed storytime. Create a
storytelling corner with blue drapes and
crawl through your tunnel to reach it.
A SEASIDE EXPEDITION
Visit the seaside to draw and paint
seascapes from life. Collect words to

64 | www.teachwire.net

summer long ago. Can anyone in your
school or community share memories of
the 1950s with your class? Display photos
showing your neighbourhood or children’s
families. Chalk a timeline outdoors to show
how many years have passed since the 1950s
and have fun jumping along it. Can children
count the years in twos, fives and tens?
Beneath the sea
Look at the third spread (coalyard and
trucks). Discuss it then list everything this
tells you about coal mining. Look at the
spreads showing miners working beneath
the sea. How do these pictures add to our
knowledge? (It’s dark underground, miners
use picks and electric cutters, they take
the coal out in trucks, the tunnels
are dangerous).
What else would you like to know
about coal mining? List your questions
describe what you can see,
hear, smell and feel, and have
fun being miners digging holes
and tunnels on the beach.
BEING AWARE
The boy in this book notices
lots of things. Take part in
mindfulness exercises in
different locations such as
the classroom, playground
and park to help you pinpoint
what you can hear, smell,
taste and feel, as well as
see. Spend a day being
super-aware of what’s going
on in class – make a shared
list of everything you notice,
then choose something to
illustrate for a ‘Being aware’
class poster.
TEACH READING & WRITING
and use non-fiction books and online
resources to answer them. Where does
coal come from? How was it made?
How do we use it? What else can we
use for power instead of coal?
Create seascapes
Look at the seascapes in this book.
How do they make you feel, and why?
List as many words and phrases as you
can to describe them, then choose one
spread to write about.
Create Sydney Smith-style
seascapes using rolls of wallpaper and
media such as watercolours, powder
paint, wax crayons, pastels, chalks,
inks and PVA. Explore techniques
like wax resist, bubble painting,
layering tissue with watered-down
glue and sprinkling dry powder on wet
watercolour. Which do you prefer?
Which will you use on your seascape?
Work as a class using big brushes,
sponges and your fingers to create
your masterpiece.
Take one cup
Make a cup collection – include lots of
shapes, textures, colours, patterns and
sizes. Choose a cup and talk about it.
What does it look like? Feel like? Why
did you select it?
Look at the picture showing
the cups on the balcony rail. When
Sydney Smith painted them, he had
to look carefully and draw what he
could see – not what he thought a cup
looked like. Use high-quality media
(charcoal, chalk pastels, graphite) and
lots of colours and textures of paper
to draw your cup in different ways,
then choose a ‘best version’ and make
multiple photocopies of it. Use to
practise adding watercolour washes
e...
Loved this? Try thesand
Arno Lawson
v Footpath Flowers by Jon
Sydney Smith
v Sunshine by Jan Ormerod Mac Barnett and
v Sam and Dave Dig a Ho
le by
Jon Klassen
before making a final picture. Display your
artwork alongside the actual cups.
What happened today?
Look at the wordless spread showing four
images of the front door. What’s happening?
How do we know time is passing? (Look
at the shadows). What could Father be
thinking as he opens the door?
Turn the page and talk about the next
illustration. What is the boy thinking as he
greets his father? Examine the picture of the
family at the table. What could Father be
telling the boy? What will Mother say?
Work in threes to roleplay greeting each
other when Father comes home. What will
Father tell the family? What will Mother
and the boy say? Record dialogues and use
to write text to accompany the illustration of
the supper table. TP
Carey Fluker Hunt
is a freelance writer,
children’s books
ambassador and
creative learning
consultant. She is a
founder member of
Seven Stories, the National Centre for
Children’s Books, where she was creative
projects manager for many years.
www.teachwire.net | 65
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eading
ROLE MODEL What trying to tackle my own height in
children’s books taught me about reading...
I
n primary, reading and teaching
go hand in hand. Promoting a love
of reading is not only part of the
job, it tends to be a way of life for
many teachers. A brief scroll through my
Twitter feed is often enough to verify this,
and sometimes it’s hard to find the tweets
about teaching between the new book
posts, recommendations and reviews.
I shouldn’t really be surprised. When I
started my PGCE, I was far more interested
in the fact that I had access to a selection
of children’s books than I was with any of
the academic writing. Over the last three
years I’ve worked incredibly hard to raise
TEACH READING & WRITING
ADAM PARKHOUSE
the profile of reading in our school, and I’m
now confident that our pupils leave having
experienced books outside of the ones they
would normally come across.
Initially, the things I did to raise the
profile of books had
nothing to do with “I identified instantly
my own reading
habits. We hosted with my pupils who
‘bookshop’ evenings
for parents, entered
flitted between books”
World Book Day display competitions
and used a Lottery grant to renovate our
library. Then, eventually, I decided I had to
change my own relationship to reading.
For the last two years, a
key feature of my classroom
has been a life-size, Quentin
Blake-esque self-portrait. Many
teachers use a competitive
element to get their class
reading more, and all power
to them if it works. For me,
I’ve found that this works for
pupils who are easily motivated,
but fails to reach the ones you
want it to. The goal behind the
portrait? To chart my attempt to read
my own height in children’s books. This
represented a fairly significant shift in
my own reading habits – I love to read,
but it tends to be science fiction, fantasy
novels or comics.
I failed miserably in my first
year. The format was all wrong,
and demotivating. It was too
abstract, too exact. While I was
reading a range of books,
I couldn’t tell you now
what they were. I read
more than I put up on
display, but made it to around half
my height. I also didn’t really
share what I was reading with
the children. They saw me
showing a huge interest in
books and some of the pupils’
progress was impressive, but
this wasn’t what I was after.
As with anything, things
get better with practice. In
my second year of the experiment
I displayed my choices via a
simple colour photocopy of the spine. Each
book I finished was cut out and left with a
different child to add to the pile. The ‘book
blether’, a phrase coined by the excellent
Teresa Cremin, grew and grew. Children
came to tell me
about their recent
choices; parents
told me about new
favourite authors
at home. Certain
books became legendary and were read by
a huge proportion of the class. I was hitting
milestones – my knee, my belt – and was
seemingly on schedule to reach the target.
In July I began to reflect on the year and
it dawned on me, as I tried to cram in extra
audiobooks during car journeys, that I had
changed. My reasons for book choices were
becoming almost mechanical, I was finding
ways to bend the rules (however arbitrary),
feeling overwhelmed, and cutting corners
wherever possible. I identified instantly
with my pupils who flitted between books,
or made a big show of choosing a title but
rarely engaged with it. I wasn’t reading for
pleasure any more. I wasn’t the role model
for reading I’d hoped this display would
turn me into.
This is not to say it was a negative
experience. I came across some new
favourite authors. I saw the value in reading
not just 300-page novels recommended by
others, but dipping in and out of beautiful
non-fiction pieces I found in my library,
and modelled this repeatedly to my class.
Having a mixed year group class meant that
children knew that this wasn’t a flash in the
pan either – their teacher is book-obsessed
and that isn’t going to change. You may not
be able to explicitly ‘teach’ a love of books,
but you can certainly be the change that you
want to see. TP
Adam Parkhouse was a
silver winner at the 2017
Pearson Teaching Awards
and is a senior teacher at
Cantley Primary in Norfolk.
@parky_teaches
www.teachwire.net | 67
 From the publishers of

Available
from
January
2019

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Lesson
PLANS
We’re taking the hard work out of planning with innovative
ideas from some of the UK’s most creative teachers
UKS2p70
WRITE LETTERS FROM
GALILEO TO THE POPE
The science we now accept as
fact was once heresy. Explore the
heliocentric model of the solar
system with Ian Goldsworthy.
KS2
p74
USE NEWS REPORTS TO
LEARN ABOUT MIGRANTS
Explore key vocabulary and
important statistics with the
help of The Week Junior, says
Emma Espley.
Find more online! Visit teachprimary.com/50-more-lessons
KS2p72
FIX A POST OFFICE
PARCEL MIX-UP
Practise your measuring skills by
working out what it would cost to
post a variety of packages, says
Julianne Britton.
KS2p76
LA MARAVILLOSA
MEDICINA DE JORGE
Use the Spanish version of
George’s Marvellous Medicine
to write your own wacky
recipes, explains Lisa Stevens.
LESSON PLANS
Even
more
ideas...
Wrting comettion
If your pupils saw a movie as
part of the Into Film Festival
programme, get them to review
it in no more than
300 words for
your chance to
win a Fire HD 8
tablet and £200 of
cinema vouchers.
tinyurl.com/
tpmoviereview
Box f renh
Box of French: Je Suis
Préhistorique! is a series of
nine half-hour French lessons
designed for Y3 learners. It aims
to complement the ‘Stone Age to
Iron Age’ section of the KS2 history
programme of study and contains
detailed lesson plans, a Powerpoint
presentation and all necessary
resources. ideaseducation.co.uk
Get hans-on
The CREST Awards scheme is
the British Science Association’s
flagship programme for young
people, designed to engage
children in STEM subjects through
inquiry-based learning. The CREST
Star and SuperStar programmes
encourage pupils to ask and
answer their own questions in a
structured project framework.
crestawards.org
www.teachwire.net | 69
 Science UKS2 LESSON PLAN

Write letters
from Galileo
to the pope
WHAT The science we now accept
THEY’LL as fact was once heresy.
LEARN Explore the solar system
with Ian Goldsworthy
l Order of the @ian_goldsworthy
planets
Have you ever looked at the stars and wondered
lNumber of moons
orbiting Jupiter, as what exactly is up there? Of course you have, and
observed by Galileo so has every child in your class. The wonder of the
l Theory of
universe is something that has transfixed humans
the heliocentric for millennia and the Y5 science unit of Earth and
solar system space provides a wonderful opportunity to explore
l Development of
both our current understanding of the solar system
our understanding and the misconceptions which used to hold sway.
of the movement Understanding that science is a constantly refined
of the planets in
the solar system and updated body of evidence is an important
concept which can be introduced through the story
of Galileo Galilei.

START HERE MAIN LESSON was too scared to release it

The order of the 1|GEOCENTRIC MODEL
planets can be Galileo Galilei lived in 17th
recited with a simple century Italy and is regarded
mnemonic (My Very as one of the originators of the
scientific method – all that
Energetic Mother
time we spend emphasising
Just Served Us fair testing can be traced back
Noodles) but for to him. However, the world he
many centuries it lived in then was very different
was a matter of great to the one we live in now,
with religion having a much
debate. Establish that
greater role in everyday life.
while we now understand that the sun is at the centre The Roman Catholic church
of the solar system (the heliocentric model), it was believed in the geocentric
once accepted that the entire universe orbited the model of the solar system. To
Earth (the geocentric model). It’s also important to say anything else meant taking
understand that the geocentric model was a perfectly a huge risk with both your
reputation and your life.
reasonable conclusion to come to; after all, if you look
Over 50 years before
up at the stars it does appear to the naked eye that Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus
everything is going around the Earth. developed a heliocentric
theory of the solar system but
until a year before his death,
so worried was he of the
repercussions. It is important
that children understand this
context – that what we accept
as fact was once heresy –
before investigating Galileo’s
discovery of the moons
of Jupiter.
2|GALILEO’S
DISCOVERY
Galileo helped develop a
telescope that enabled him
to observe objects in the
solar system that had never
been recorded before. These
included mountains on the
surface of the moon, sunspots,
and, in 1610, the four largest
of Jupiter’s 67 moons – Io,
Europa, Ganymede, and
Callisto. It’s worth noting
that these names only became

70 | www.teachwire.net

commonly accepted well after
Galileo’s time – he simply
referred to them with the
numbers one to four. These
were the first moons to be
discovered orbiting a planet
that wasn’t Earth and their very
existence punched a gigantic
hole in the geocentric model of
Galileo at the Inquisition
“Using drama helps
children solidify their
understanding of
Galileo’s discovery”
the solar system.
After all, if these moons
were orbiting Jupiter, then it
was clear that not everything
went round the Earth; maybe
the Earth wasn’t quite as
important as the church
would have everyone believe.
This is a great opportunity
for some role play. Imagine a
journalist interviewing Galileo
about his discovery. Can the
children capture his mixture
of excitement at his scientific
breakthrough and fear that
in telling the world about the
moons he was placing himself
in great jeopardy? Using drama
helps children solidify their
understanding of Galileo’s
discovery and also allows
them to explore how it would
feel to have an idea which is
revolutionary.
3|PERSUASIVE LETTERS
The church’s condemnation
of Galileo began in 1616 and
culminated in him being placed
under house arrest in 1633.
Despite the controversy, Galileo
continued to conduct scientific
research up until his death
in 1642. It is in this period of
house arrest that the children
can write a letter from Galileo to
the Pope, pleading for release
and trying to persuade his
holiness of the validity of the
heliocentric model.
In order to do this, the children
will need to demonstrate a
keen understanding of what
Galileo’s discovery of the moons
meant. He wasn’t just inventing
technology that allowed him
to find four new lumps of rock
in space – he’d discovered
evidence that completely
altered the accepted view of
the universe. If the letters are
to have a chance of convincing
the Pope to release him, the
children will not only need
to master this knowledge but
will also need to write with
appropriate formality and
deploy a range of persuasive
writing techniques.
Ian Goldsworthy is a
Y2 teacher at Manor
Lodge School in Shenley,
Hertfordshire. He also
does teacher training in
science for Essex
Teacher Training.
EXTENDING
THE LESSON
l The discovery of
Jupiter’s moons was not
the only evidence Galileo
discovered in support of
the sun being at the centre
of the solar system; he
also observed the phases
of Venus. Can your class
incorporate this evidence
into their letters?
l Consider what other
stories of scientiic
adversity lend themselves
to extended writing
opportunities. Jane
Goodall spent decades
studying chimpanzees
up close, but when a new
ape became leader of the
troop she found herself
expelled and unable to
continue her research.
l Marie Curie was the
irst woman to win a
Nobel prize and the only
woman to win two Nobel
prizes. She is also the only
woman whose daughter
(Irène Joliot-Curie) was
also a Nobel Laureate.
Almost any element of
her life, from poverty
in Poland to developing
mobile x-ray machines in
WW1, lends itself to some
extended writing.
USEFUL
QUESTIONS
l How would you feel
if you discovered
something that went
against everything
you’d always been
told was true?
l Why was the
discovery of the moons of
Jupiter used as evidence
for a heliocentric
solar system?
l Why did so many
people believe in the
geocentric model of
the solar system?
www.teachwire.net | 71
 Maths
KS2 LESSON PLAN

Fix a post
WHAT
THEY’LL office parcel
LEARN
l Measure,
mix-up
compare, add Practise your measuring skills by
and subtract
masses and working out what it would cost to
lengths
post a variety of packages, says
l Read and Julianne Britton
interpret
information @juliannebritton
presented
in tables missbritton.co.uk

lUse a range of This lesson takes a little bit of preparation, but

measuring tools it’s well worth it to see pupils engaged with
l Understand and
maths and enjoying problem-solving. During this
use scales with lesson, children will be apply their knowledge and
accuracy understanding of measure to sort out an imaginary
Develop
l post office mix-up, while also demonstrating
fluency, reasoning skills and teamwork. This lesson works so
mathematical well because children are engaged from the moment
reasoning and
competence in they set foot in the classroom. Maths really comes
solving problems to life for pupils when they have the opportunity to
apply their learning to a real-life situation.

START HERE MAIN LESSON 2|POST OFFICE

To begin, ask pupils 1|READING SCALES
to complete an Explain to your class that they
activity that involves will be working for the Post
Office today. Which maths
balancing masses
skills might you need in that
on imaginary job? Discuss children’s ideas
scales. Children before introducing the lesson
must work together objectives.
to decide which Recap and demonstrate
masses go on which side of the scales. Encourage less how to read scales. Use your
interactive whiteboard to
able pupils to take a practical approach in order to see
display scales with varying
the effect of the masses on a real pair of scales. To increments. Ask children to
challenge more able pupils, present them with a range read the scales, showing their
of mass cards (download these from teachwire.net/ answers on their whiteboards.
teaching-resources/ks2-measuring). They can use This is a good opportunity for
formative assessment, giving
these numbers to calculate which masses should be
you a better understanding of
put on either side of the scales illustration. Differentiate your pupils’ capabilities. This
the level of challenge for different groups by carefully may affect your decision about
choosing the masses you give them. where support will be needed
most during the lesson.
PROBLEMS
Bring the children back together
to play an interactive game on
your IWB. Find it at tinyurl.
com/tpmailgame. Explain
that this game is similar to
the activities pupils will be
completing today. Share and
discuss the Royal Mail price
list that they will use during
the lesson (download it from
teachwire.net/teaching-
resources/ks2-measuring).
Ask for a volunteer to measure
the dimensions and mass of
an item. Model how to find the
postage cost using the table.
Explain that there are
several post office tasks that
need to be completed and that
pupils will be working in groups
to complete these. Ask children
to suggest rules for effective
teamwork. This will help the

72 | www.teachwire.net
 ADVANCED
Prior to the lesson, prepare
several different parcels with
blank labels. Download an
example of our clues sheet from
teachwire.net/teaching-
resources/ks2-measuring.
You may need to rewrite
these clues before the lesson,
depending on the masses of
your chosen packages. Present
puopils with this problem:
There's a bit of a problem
at the post office. Some parcels
have been mixed up and they are
missing their labels. It is your
task to use the clues provided to
find out which parcel is being
sent where. You must also
complete the price tags on each
parcel by using the Royal Mail
price chart.
To complete this task,
children must measure the
EXTENDING
THE LESSON
l Continue the post ofice
theme by asking pupils to
convert the measurements
of different parcels from
metric to imperial in order
to work out international
postage costs.
l To enhance their
understanding of measure,
ask pupils to carry out
an area and perimeter
investigation in which
they contribute to
school improvements by
calculating the cost of new
fencing and looring for an
area of the playground.
l Following a similar

mass, height and length of approach, set a range of

each item, before choosing the problems involving time,
correct label and identifying the using the context of a
postage cost. train station.
l To build on their

MIDDLE understanding, encourage

Prior to the lesson, prepare a pupils to use their
range of different sized parcels. measuring skills at
Present pupils with home, eg accurately
this problem: weighing ingredients for
a recipe; ensuring that
William has sold some items
luggage meets an airline’s
on eBay and now he needs to send
guidelines; checking their
them to their new owners. Before
own measurements in order
he can send the items, he needs to
to buy clothing or enter a
know how much he needs to pay
theme park ride.
for delivery. You must measure
the mass, height and length of
each item in order to work out
the delivery cost using the Royal
Free online resources Mail price chart.
Download our free set of resources
to help you deliver this lesson from SUPPORTED
Prior to the lesson, gather a
teachwire.net/teaching-resources/
range of food items
ks2-measuring 1g 2g 2g 5g 5g 5g
Advanced
:
that you might send in a
Up Clues

charity parcel. Present

Post Office Mix

Mr Turner's
parcel is the
lightest.

g to Mr Richards
is the longest.
parcel.
10g 10g 50g Post Offic
There's a
e Mix Up
The parcel belongin heavier than
Mr Turner's bit of a proble
labels. It
is three times is your task m at the
Post Office.
Mr White's parcel £1.60. complete to use the
Jones will cost
Some parcel
the price clues provid
sent to Miss s have been

pupils with this problem:

tags on each ed to find
The parcel being than Mr White's. parcel by out which mixed up
and they
100g lighter g to Miss Jones.
using the parcel is are missin
on's parcel is Royal Mail being sent g their
Mrs Thomps the parcel belongin price chart. where. You
300g more than must also
Mrs Baker's
parcel weighs
50g 100g
Post Office Mix

Mr Turner's
Up Clues

parcel is the

The parcel belongin

Mr White's parcel
lightest.

g to Mr Richards
is three times
is the longest.
heavier than
Mr Turner's
£1.60.
parcel.
Middle:

eBay Deliv
ery Costs
We are sending a parcel of USEFUL
QUESTIONS
Jones will cost
sent to Miss William

food to Africa to help those less

has sold
The parcel being than Mr White's. send the some items
100g lighter g to Miss Jones. items, he on eBay
on's parcel is needs to and now
Mrs Thomps the parcel belongin height and know how he needs
300g more than
length of much he to send
each item them to
parcel weighs in order needs to
pay for delive their new owner
Mrs Baker's to work
out the delive ry. You must s. Before
ry cost using measure he can
the Royal the mass,
Mail price

fortunate. Your task is to weigh

chart.
Up Clues 5g 5g 5g
Post Office Mix 5g Support: 5g 10g
2gMr Turner's2g
lightest.
parcel is the
1g
The parcel belongin
Mr Richards
g to
is the longest.
Mr Turner's
parcel. 10g
heavier than
is three times
Mr White's parcel Charity

each item of food then find the

£1.60.
Jones will cost Packa ge
The parcel being
Mrs Thomps
sent to Miss

50g
on's parcel is
100g lighter 50g
than Mr White's.
the parcel belongin
g to Miss Jones.
We are sendin
food then g a parcel
of food to
20g
20g
10g Mrs Baker's
parcel weighs
300g more than send the
find the
package.
total mass. Africa to
When you
help those
know the less fortun
ate. Your
20g
total mass, task is to
we can work weigh each

total mass. When you know the

out how item of
much it
will cost
to
Up Clues
Post Office Mix

100g
parcel is the
lightest.
100g 50g
100g Mr Turner's
The parcel belongin
g to Mr Richards
is the longest.
Mr Turner's
parcel.
20g
total mass, we can work out how
heavier than
Mr White's parcel
The parcel being
Mrs Thomps
is three times
sent to Miss

on's parcel is
Jones will cost
100g lighter
£1.60.

than Mr White's.

more than the

parcel belongin
g to Miss Jones.
l Are the heaviest items
parcel weighs 300g
Mrs Baker's k

much it will cost to send

missbritton.co.u

always the largest?

. missbritton.c

lesson to run more smoothly as net/teaching-resources/

o.uk

children will have consciously ks2-measuring. Tell each the package. l What does each

thought about how they are going group to open their envelope, interval represent on
to work well as a group. Present read their problem and discuss Julianne Britton is a qualified the scale?
each group with an envelope what they think they need teacher with seven years’ l How much would

containing one of the following to do. experience and owner of it cost to post a
problems. There are three website Miss Britton where 500g parcel?
different ones to suit different 3|THE PROBLEMS she offers downloadable l What is the most

abilities – find printable versions Here are the three problems to teaching resources and appropriate unit of
of the problems at teachwire. give to your different groups: private tuition services. measure to use?

www.teachwire.net | 73
Geography & English KS2 LESSON PLAN

Use news
WHAT reports to learn
THEY’LL
LEARN about migrants
l Know where
some of the world’s Explore key vocabulary and
countries frequently
mentioned in the
important statistics with the
media are located help of The Week Junior,
Identify and
l says Emma Espley
understand
geographical @weekjuniorlearn
similarities and schools.theweekjunior.co.uk
differences

Appreciate that
l
The Week Junior is a current affairs magazine for children
people move aged eight to 14. This lesson uses an article that appeared
between places in a recent edition as a stimulus for exploration of a highly
(migration) and the
reasons for this topical issue – migration. It targets many aspects of the KS2
programme of study for geography, including place and
lUse maps, atlases, locational knowledge, human and physical geography and
globes and digital
mapping to locate geographical skills. It also has strong links with English,
countries and maths (using real life data), global learning and SMSC.
describe features
Download free resources to help you deliver the lesson from
teachwire.net/teaching-resources/ks2-migrants

MAIN LESSON
START HERE
1|MAP WORK
Use the photo of Read the report in resource 2 as
people in a boat in a class. This is an article from
resource 1 to lead The Week Junior about the
a class discussion. dangers faced by migrants. Use
an online mapping application,
Ask pupils what
such as Google or Bing maps, to
is often found ‘zoom in’ on Europe, northern
underneath a Africa and the Middle East.
photograph in an Identify the Mediterranean
article (a caption) Sea and key countries to show
the journeys people have made
and why this is the
(eg to Greece from Syria, Iraq,
case (to provide further information about the scene/ Afghanistan, Democratic
situation, who took the photograph, etc). Next, ask Republic of Congo and State of
the children to generate an appropriate caption to Palestine; to Italy from Tunisia,
accompany the image shown. Invite them to share their Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and Côte
suggestions with the rest of the class, then chair a vote d’Ivoire; to Spain from Guinea,
Morocco, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire
on the best one. After this, reveal the actual caption that
and Syria). Ask pupils if they’ve
appeared alongside the image in the magazine article: heard of any of these countries,
‘Many people make the perilous sea journey.’ know anything about them or
have visited them.
2|VOCAB AND STATS
Read the resource 12 article
together, then identify and
explain key vocabulary, eg
refugee (a person who is forced
to leave their country and
live elsewhere, often escaping
war or conflict); migrant (a
person who moves from one
place to another, usually for
other reasons, such as looking
for better living conditions
or work); migration (the
movement of people from one
place to another); immigration
(the act of coming to live
permanently in a new country);
immigrant (someone who has
come to live permanently in
another country); emigration
(the act of leaving one country
in order to settle in another);
emigrant (someone who

74 | www.teachwire.net

Free online resources
Download our free set of resources
to help you deliver this lesson from
teachwire.net/teaching-resources/ks2-migrants
leaves their native country
and goes to live permanently
in another one).
Highlight key statistics to
the children, eg 1,600 people
“Ask pupils to think about
what might happen next
to the people in the boat”
died or went missing attempting
the crossing during the first half
on 2018, compared with 1 in 42
in the first half of 2017.
Ask pupils if these figures
surprise them.
3|DIARY EXTRACT
Ask pupils to imagine they are in
the boat featured in the image in
resource 1. What might they see,
hear, taste, touch, smell or feel?
Record the children’s thoughts
in a table (resource 3). You
may need to give an example
of each to help ignite pupils’
imaginations. Invite children
to share their thoughts with the
rest of the class.
Next, encourage pupils to
use the ideas in their table to
help them write a diary extract
about spending a day or night
on the boat. Before beginning,
discuss the style and layout of a
diary extract. Ask pupils to think
about what might happen next
to the people in the boat.
Use resource 4 to share the
real-life story of 15-year-old
Amr, who originates from Syria
but is now living in Austria
after brief stays in Turkey and
Greece. Ask pupils to plot Amr’s
route on a blank map (resource
5). Discuss the distance and
direction that Amr has travelled.
Challenge more able students
to calculate the approximate
distance that Amr travelled in
kilometres or miles by referring
to the scale line in an atlas.
Emma Espley is an
experienced teacher and
freelance consultant based in
died crossing the Mediterranean Gloucestershire. The extract
Sea from northern Africa to featured in this lesson plan
southern Europe during the was published in the 15th
first half of 2018. In the central September 2018 edition of
Mediterranean, 1 in 18 people The Week Junior.
EXTENDING
THE LESSON
l Using resource 6,
introduce the following
question: how will
globalisation and climate
change afect migration
and settlement? Ask
children to write down
their thoughts, then steer
a whole-class discussion.
Remind pupils that there is
no right or wrong answer,
but justiication of their
viewpoint is required.
l Set up a silent debate
on the following topic,
using resource 7: what can
European countries, like the
UK, Spain, Italy and Greece,
do to ensure fewer or no
migrants die crossing the
Mediterranean Sea?
l Use a dictionary to write
deinitions of the keywords
listed in resource 8, then use
a thesaurus to replace them
with synonyms. Extract
key vocabulary from the
included passage and create
a word cloud.
l Utilise data from the
Desperate Journeys report
(resource 9) to produce bar
graphs and pie charts.
l Access Google Earth
and explore the homeland
of a migrant and the area
that they have moved to.
Use exemplars from the
Desperate Journeys report
(resource 10). Are these
areas similar or diferent?
USEFUL
QUESTIONS
l Who is making this
perilous sea journey?
l Why are fewer people
making the trip across
the Mediterranean than
in recent years?
l How can we make
sure fewer people die or
go missing?
l What is the United
Nations (see resource 11)?
www.teachwire.net | 75
 MFL KS2 LESSON PLAN

La Maravillosa
Medicina
de Jorge...
WHAT Use the Spanish version of
THEY’LL
LEARN George’s Marvellous Medicine
to write your own wacky
recipes, explains Lisa Stevens
l Listen to
and follow a @lisibo
chapter of a
lisibo.com
book in Spanish
Using a favourite story in another language is a
lRead aloud,
using phonic
great way of exposing young learners to longer texts.
knowledge Stories are a familiar, non-threatening form for
and rhyme children, and by using a tale that is already known
l Demonstrate in the child’s native language, the possible panic
understanding by of not knowing every word is avoided and learners
ordering a text are freed to appreciate the patterns and sounds
l Write a short of the language of instruction. Roald Dahl’s takes
instructional text have been translated into 58 languages and this
in Spanish
lesson focuses on the Spanish version of George’s
Marvellous Medicine but could easily be adapted.

that help with understanding,

START HERE MAIN LESSON
Start off by 1|APPRECIATING
presenting learners THE STORY
with a number of Get hold of a Spanish version of
George’s Marvellous Medicine
Roald Dahl book
(La Maravillosa Medicina de
titles in Spanish (or Jorge). Focus on the chapter ‘El
another language of maravilloso plan’ near the start
your choice – Dahl of the book. In this chapter,
has been translated Jorge/George considers what
into 58 languages, to do about his intolerable
grandma. He toys with the
including German,
idea of blowing her up or using
French and Italian). snakes or rats to scare her but,
You can find a list at es.wikipedia.org/wiki/roald_dahl. realising that he doesn’t have
Ask the children if they can work out who is the author the means to do that, instead
is and identify any of the titles. Discuss how they worked spikes her medicine and hatches
a plan.
this out, eg by recognising the names of the characters.
The chapter concludes
Extend this activity by asking pupils to find certain with a rhyme in which Jorge
words such as ‘peach’. Discuss how adjectives go after excitedly shares his plan.
the noun in Spanish. It lends itself well to dramatic
reading and has illustrations
plus there are quite a few
cognates. Additionally,
it’s only three pages long,
so is manageable. Ensure
that children can follow the text
by projecting it onto a screen.
Read the chapter, stopping
after each section to ensure that
learners are following the story.
Use lots of actions to animate
the story; there’s a perfect
opportunity to jump on a table
at one point!
2|READING ALOUD
Focus in on the rhyming
section in which Jorge makes
his ‘medicine.’ Read each line
and ask the class to repeat it,
then read it again together. Ask
children to read it to each other
in pairs or threes. This is a real
test of their phonic knowledge
as they’ve only heard it three
times. After time to rehearse,

76 | www.teachwire.net

Free online resources
Download our free worksheets to help
you deliver this lesson from
teachwire.net/teaching-resources/
spanish-recipe
ask groups to read a section
aloud together. More confident
individuals might enjoy reading
it as a soliloquy.
3|LISTENING &
RESPONDING
Read our recipe for a ‘medicina’
(download it from teachwire.
net/teaching-resources/
spanish-recipe). The
worksheet includes a version of
the recipe that you can cut up
line by line. Give the pieces to
pairs of learners then read the
recipe a second
time and ask children to
reconstruct the text using
their cut-up pieces.
Challenge learners to
identify the ingredients using
their language learning skills;
look for cognates, patterns
and associations with other
languages (we’ve included a
translation on the download).
Display the recipe in full
and examine the structure used.
This involves a sequencing
adverb followed by a verb, then
a quantity and an ingredient.
There is no need to worry about
using the imperative, as you can
use the infinitive form of the
verb. For example:
Primero, verter una botella
de champú en la cacerola (First,
pour a bottle of shampoo in
the saucepan)
Despúes añadir un litro de
aceite de oliva (Then add a litre
of olive oil)
Luego incorporar una lata de
comida de gatos (Then add a can
of cat food)
Give groups of children
three sets of colour coded
cards (download these from
teachwire.net/teaching-
resources/spanish-recipe)
– one with verbs, one with
quantities and one with possible
ingredients. Discuss how these
cards can be used to make a
recipe. Give children time to
create sentences then encourage
them to share.
Model writing a recipe for
‘una maravillosa medicina’
on a flipchart or IWB. The
children can now write their
own ‘receta’. At the most basic
level, this could involve writing
a list of ingredients. Other
pupils may specify quantities
as well as ingredients and give
instructions by adding a verb.
Some children may aim even
higher and add sequencing
words such as primero, después,
entonces, etc. This activity
also lends itself well to using a
glossary or bilingual dictionary.
Lisa Stevens is a primary
languages educator and
teaches at two Birmingham
primaries. She has consulted
on various projects, including
the BBC Schools Radio
series ¡Mi Madrid! for KS2
Spanish learners.
EXTENDING
THE LESSON
l Ask learners to explore
the text further by asking
them to ind speciic
English words in Spanish.
Conversely, ask them to
work out what speciic
Spanish words in the
text mean.
l Work further on the rhyme
and prepare a whole class
poem recitation. This links
well with and enhances
English literacy objectives.
l Use images instead of
words for another sorting
activity with a similar text as
an extra challenge.
l Demonstrate how
to use an online
dictionary such as
wordreference.com
to expand vocabulary,
discussing the information
given such as part of
speech, gender of nouns
and examples of usage.
l Ask pupils to present
their ‘recetas’ orally with
props, as if they were on a
cookery programme.
USEFUL
QUESTIONS
l What strategies can
you encourage pupils
to employ to decode
unfamiliar texts?
l How can learners
be discouraged from
looking up every word
in a dictionary?
l Are there
other well-known
episodes in books
that could be used for
a similar activity?
www.teachwire.net | 77
 HANDS–ON N EW
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Super science
New ideas to help you deliver an outstanding science curriculum
Farm for a day
There’s still time to win the chance to have
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and present your amazing STEM ideas at
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3 science
Easy & free
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There are three exciting problem-based
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www.teachwire.net | 79
Science
SPECIAL
INSIDE THIS SECTION
3
p8

Don’t know where to start when it comes

to forces? Try Beth Budden’s ideas...
7
p8

Fiction and science needn’t be separate –

engrossing stories can inspire learning I WONDER
why...
0
p9

How to promote curiosity in your

science classroom
KENNA WORTHINGTON

Always finding ways to avoid practical
science? Here’s why it really matters...
Don’t miss our Bett Show special
next issue, on sale 4th January
80 | www.teachwire.net
A
re you curious? Do
you model a ‘I wonder
why…’ attitude in
your classroom? I
sometimes wonder how many
teachers are explicit in letting
their pupils know what science is
for. Do your children know that
science is a way of explaining
the world around them, and that
is why we do it? Do they know
what science is for? If we can help
children to see science as relevant
to their own questions about the
world, they are more likely to be
engaged and motivated, and want
to find answers. Here are some
ideas for promoting curiosity in
your science classroom.
Hook them in with
power facts
Don’t be afraid of giving children
facts. Use your knowledge and
understanding to intrigue children
so that they are excited to find out
for themselves.
For example, if you’re about to
embark on the topic of investigating
local habitats in Y2, start with this
intriguing fact: did you know that
woodlice make the most excellent
mothers? (They have a pouch similar
to kangaroos and stay close to their
young until they mature.) How can
children find out more about this?
What kind of enquiry might they do
to find out if this is true?

Encourage
questions
Encourage children to develop
more ‘scientific’ questions that
can then be turned into an
enquiry. One way to do this is to
develop a ‘wonder wall’ about
your next science topic before
you begin your planning for it.
Encourage children to write any
questions they have about the
topic on a sticky note and add it
to the display. Now encourage
pupils to collaboratively
decide which questions can be
answered through scientific
enquiry, then plan your lessons
based on these.
The vital thing to remember
is that you should revisit the
wonder wall every science
lesson and make clear which
question you are going to be
investigating. Even though not
all of the children’s questions
will lend themselves to being
investigated, by the end of your
series of lessons, the children
should be able to answer
most of them with the new
knowledge and understanding
they have acquired. If there are
questions remaining that can’t
SCIENCE SPECIAL
“Develop a ‘wonder wall’
about your next science
topic before you begin your
planning for it”
means that pupils will revisit
their ideas again and again,
deepening their understanding
and moving towards more
scientifically accepted
explanations as they do so.
Older children, even in KS2,
should be given the opportunity
to explore. Apart from the
well-recognised cognitive
benefits of interacting with
concrete materials, exploring is
good fun and motivates children
to take ownership of their
learning. Who said that children
aren’t learning if they are having
fun? Help pupils deepen and
enhance their understanding of
tricky concepts by, for example,
roleplaying the bonds of solids,
liquids and gases.
In one particularly
successful Y3 lesson that I
observed, the children were
instructed to play with magnets
and make notes on how they
be answered, use the internet interacted with each other and
or books to research solutions. with objects in the classroom.
After all, this is a valid form of Pupils with different levels
scientific enquiry in its own of prior knowledge explored
right and demonstrates that all the magnets in different ways.
questions are valued. One child already seemed to
know much about the laws of
Enable play magnetism and quickly began
Play is a curious word in devising an experiment with
primary education. In the a ruler to measure how close
EYFS, we expect to see children the magnets had to be to each
playing and know that through other to attract or repel each
engagement with real-world other. Others didn’t know
materials, along with rich about the different poles so
questioning from adults and spent time observing which
peers, children begin to form would attract and which would
their ideas about the world. repel. Everybody, using varying
Some children play alone methods, built upon their own
and can demonstrate deep prior knowledge and experience
concentration as they engage to deepen their learning
with resources. and develop a curiosity that
In all of this exploring, they encouraged further enquiry.
are said to be ‘playing’, but they It’s my belief that children learn
are, in fact, doing important more and ask more questions
and serious learning. They are (the very bedrock of science
investigating their emerging enquiry) when they are relaxed
understanding of how the world and having fun.
works. It doesn’t always follow
that practical science leads to Develop autonomy
accepted scientific facts, but Piaget claimed that for a child
even if children’s ideas are to have intrinsic desire to drive
still emerging at this stage, the their learning forward they
nature of a spiral curriculum have to be curious, but also in
control of their own learning.
As teachers, we have to be able
to stand back and suspend
judgment to foster a belief in
our pupils that mistakes are
an important part of learning.
Without making mistakes in
deciding how to carry out their
own investigations, children
won’t develop this autonomy.
If children’s investigations
uphold their predictions, that’s
great, because it convinces them
of what they already knew.
However, when an investigation
doesn’t work, that teaches
them something new, so their
knowledge and understanding
of doing science is extended and
they make progress.
For me, the notion of
encouraging and developing
children’s sense of autonomy
with regards to their learning
is important. Since children
are likely to be more engaged
in learning when they can take
ownership of it, by fostering
autonomy we are also fostering
metacognition. When pupils
are aware of their own learning,
rather than mechanistically
doing what the teacher tells
them, a growth mindset
develops. This is what creates
our ‘thinkers’, surely? And who
knows, perhaps you have the
next Einstein in your class. As
Bernard Baruch famously said,
‘Millions saw the apple fall;
Newton was the only one who
asked, why?’ TP
Alongside
co-author
Amanda
McCrory,
Kenna
Worthington
is the
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Science. Get 30% off the
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www.teachwire.net | 81
 PARTNER CONTENT
Elevator Take two minutes to ind out how Explorify can
help you drop more science into your day easily
PITCH
1 Simple to use
Explorify’s simple
activities will spark
3 Accessible for all
curiosity in your pupils,
encouraging them to ask
the kind of questions that
help develop scientiic
thinking. It’s a great
resource to help enhance
your science teaching and
you don’t need to be a
science specialist.
2 Good for oracy
Lots of Explorify’s
activities are discussion
based which encourages
pupils to talk to and learn
from each other. The
tasks empower children to
explore ideas and lead their
own learning, developing
skills that are transferable
across many subjects in
the primary curriculum.
Sign up to access all the activities at explorify.wellcome.ac.uk
82 | www.teachwire.net
The online activities
use high-quality videos and
images to appeal to pupils
of all abilities. Explorify can
help build pupil conidence
because it provides a space
to explore different ideas and
think about many possible
answers, rather than only
considering what is right
and wrong.
4 Free and
easy to use
Funded by the charitable
health research foundation
Wellcome, Explorify is
completely free. Many
activities are around 15
minutes in length, meaning
you can easily it them into
your lessons. They are
designed so that you and
your pupils can expand on the
activities if you want to.
 SCIENCE SPECIAL

How to teach
forces with
CONFIDENCE
It can seem hard to know where to start
with these mysterious invisible concepts,
but Beth Budden is here to help

F
orces are, by nature, This means that we usually
‘the cup on a table’. This is a
hard to understand; see the effect of a force, rather
difficult concept to convey, but
often only their effects than the force itself. A nice thing
will help to separate objects
can be seen, while the to do is give children a pair of
from others they are in contact
force itself remains hidden. In cardboard glasses each and with, so the specific forces in
addition, forces are with us all call them ‘forces goggles.’ action become clear.
day, every day, yet we hardly With these on, we can think Give children paper arrows
ever notice their presence, differently and try to see (or
and ask them to stick them
which can make it even harder visualise) the invisible! onto an object to show the
to extricate them from our There are a number of key
direction of forces acting on
everyday experiences. concepts that are important for
it. Importantly, ensure they
All of this means that teachers of forces to understand
stick these arrows to the actual
teaching forces can feel like a and, in turn, make clear to object, rather than floating
walk into wonderland as we children. Firstly, establish this:
above. Alternatively, if you’re
try to elucidate things that are A force is acting on an using drawings, encourage
on the one hand invisible and object when it changes its children to draw arrows in
seemingly incomprehensible, shape, speed or direction contact with the objects. The
yet at the same time obvious important thing is to avoid
The second concept to
and everywhere. With all this the arrows floating beside
make clear is this:
mystery and intrigue, it can the object, because forces
seem hard to know where to There are two types act on, not beside, objects.
start. However, clearing up of forces: contact forces, This is a small but important
some basic misconceptions and like pushes and pulls, and point that will help to avoid
clarifying a few straightforwardforces acting at a distance, misconceptions.
concepts can help you to teach like gravity When teaching about a
forces with more confidence. Importantly, more than force like gravity, establish the
one force can act on an object, rule that a force is acting on an
What are forces? so it can be quite difficult to object when it changes shape,
It’s always a good idea to plan unravel which force is at work. speed or direction and that they
your explanations of difficult However, the one fact we can are balanced when objects are
concepts beforehand, just be sure of is this: still. Next, establish that gravity
like you plan other parts of When an object is still, the is a force that acts at a distance.
the lesson. This will ensure forces acting on that object Explain that gravity is a force
you teach difficult concepts are balanced and equal by which all objects with mass
accurately without getting into are attracted to each other,
a knot on the spot. Practical activities creating a pull. However,
Firstly, it’s important Before thinking about which objects with a larger mass have
to establish what forces are. forces are acting, the first step a stronger pull on objects with
Establish this from the start: is to isolate the object. For a smaller mass and this is why
A force is a process that example, when thinking about a objects on earth fall towards
causes a change in an object’s cup on a table, we need to think the ground – the massive
shape, speed or direction about the cup itself, rather than object that we live on.

www.teachwire.net | 83
 The rubber ring
is tied to the
coat hanger
with string.
The arrows Push up
are in opposite from ramp
directions,
representing
balanced forces
acting on the
object, making
it motionless. Pull up
Notice that from
the arrows string Friction –
are anchored pull of one
on the object surface on
to show that another
forces act
on objects. Gravity
– earth’s
Gravity –
pull
earth’s pull

As you introduce pupils to different types of

forces, like friction or air resistance, try giving
them more complex situations. Set up scenarios
like this (right) around your classroom and give
children lots of stick-on arrows. Ask them to
identify and explain the forces acting on objects.
The pull from gravity is greater than the push up from the ramp because the ramp
slopes. However, friction acts as a pull on the trainer so the forces acting on the
object balance and the object is still. An increase in the slope of the ramp would
have to be counteracted by a greater frictional pull. If the gradient of the slope
increases, the gravitational pull will eventually be greater than the surface fiction
and the trainer will fall forward.

When identifying forces:

• Isolate the object – put
on those forces goggles!
• Use arrows to show
the forces acting on
the object
• Anchor the arrows
in the object, not around
Push up
from floor or near it
• Watch out for ‘made
up’ forces that aren’t
acting any longer
Push Pull of air resistance
from kick
Frictional pull from floor surface

Gravity -
earth’s pull

Common errors pull of the earth’s gravity, but ball, but because no other force
to avoid it doesn’t fall through the floor is causing a change to shape,
A common mistake in the above because of the push up from speed or direction.
ball-kicking scenario is to say a the floor. The ball eventually This is the same if you
push is acting on the ball. The slows down because friction throw a ball up in the air. Once
kick was a push acting on the and air resistance act on the it’s in mid-air there is no longer
ball (it changed the ball’s shape, ball (changing the ball’s shape, a push up. The ball will keep
speed or direction). Once the speed or direction). If there was going up until gravity and air
touch ceased, so did the force no friction or air resistance the resistance change its shape, Beth Budden is a teacher in
acting on the ball. The ball stays ball would carry on and on, not speed or direction, then the ball south London and a fellow
on the ground because of the because a push is acting on the begins to fall back down. of the Primary Science
Teaching Trust.

“Clearing up some basic misconceptions can @bethbudden

help you to teach forces with more confidence” bethbuddenteacher.

wordpress.com

84 | www.teachwire.net
www.teachwire.net | 85
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Literature launchpad Fiction and science needn’t be separate
entities – engrossing stories can inspire learning
W
henever I take one of my
children to the latest Star
Wars or superhero film,
I’m always astonished at
what they take in and recall. They reel off
the names of planets, where characters were
born, how superpowers work and the speed,
size and age of
this, that and the
other. “Literature can inspire
It seems
effortless. So, children to see the science
too, is their
absorption of
all around us and notice
facts and figures
from gaming
its beauty”
with friends or
playground chatter. Their retention of this
information is sometimes encyclopaedic.
I still, even now, sometimes underestimate
what children are capable of learning when
they’re ‘not learning’.
I studied experimental psychology at
university and several simple concepts
about learning have always stuck with me:
children are ‘wired to learn’; they learn from
each other; context is vital; enjoyment and
interest are key. Over the years I’ve realised
that we can take advantage of all these ideas
by using literature as a vehicle for learning.
Reflecting on my own learning, I’ve
certainly absorbed information most
effectively at times when I was engaged,
interested and enjoying myself. When I
was young I loved reading Enid Blyton,
The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne and
Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Those
last two books particularly made a huge
impression on me. Most of us can vividly
recalls the films we watched and
stories we read as children.
They are locked in our
memories:
a time capsule
of characters,
imaginary worlds,
obscure details
and emotions.
However, do we
DANIEL PHELPS
take full advantage of this incredible power
of narrative across the primary curriculum?
I drafted my first novel, Xientifica SOS,
in the early days of the national numeracy
and literacy schemes. I’d only been teaching
for a few years but had become frustrated
with the prescriptive and rigid nature of
the lessons I
was having to
deliver. I wanted
to add some
more creative
techniques to
my teaching
repertoire so I set
out to develop a
series of
short stories, each focusing on a different
science topic.
I envisaged reading these to my class last
thing on a Friday afternoon as a fun activity
but I didn’t stick to the plan. Instead, this
series of individual stories developed into a
full-blown novel. While many children aren’t
fans of science textbooks, most love learning
amazing science facts and settling down to
listen to a great story. Literature, therefore, is
a wonderful vehicle for supporting learning.
When children are engaged and interested
they learn best. An engrossing story creates
the perfect learning environment.
Narrative can create context, which is
so vital in helping children understand new
concepts. It creates a scaffold or ‘context
SCIENCE SPECIAL
web’. By carefully constructing this context,
you can provide children with a strong prop
for their understanding. A context web also
supports retention of new information,
since children have something to ‘stick’ that
new information to. A story can also reveal
– through its context – how concepts are
applied. This makes the purpose for learning
about them evident.
The characters within a story can
also play a significant role in supporting
children’s learning. The children in my
story each have particular gifts, such as
the power of observation. The characters
pass on their knowledge and skills to each
other. The consequence of this is that the
reader also learns.
It’s important to remember that
children are canny, so the stories we
offer must be authentic. My novel is first
and foremost an adventure story. It just
happens to have science in it, because
science is all around us and we use it
every day.
Literature can inspire children to look
at the world differently, to see the science
all around us and notice its beauty. Use
it in your classroom as a launchpad for
encouraging children to ask questions
about science. TP
Daniel Phelps is
a researcher at
the University of
Winchester and
author of Xientifica
SOS. He also runs the
website Planet Poetry.
@planetpoetry
planetpoetry.co.uk
www.teachwire.net | 87
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 New
edition

Second Edition

Implement science
lessons with impact
Put working scientiically at the heart of your curriculum with
6 lexible units for every year, each containing STEAM content.
Save hours of preparation time with all the guidance and
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Assess children’s working scientiically skills and stay on top
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Try new units FREE with your class at risingstars-uk.com/SOS


EXCUSES
Always inding ways to avoid hands-on science? Here’s
why it really matters, plus practical ideas to help
T
he thought of teaching
science polarises
many primary
teachers. There are
those whose eyes light up as
they think of which inspiring,
practical lesson will make the
most mess, then there are those
who are filled with dread and
hope they can find a YouTube
video that will adequately cover
what their class needs to know.
I’m one of the ‘eyes light
up’ teachers, but I’ve spent my
11-year teaching career working
to inspire and support my
‘filled with dread’ colleagues so
that practical science becomes
a regular part of their practice.
Avoiding mess
When I became science
coordinator, I quickly identified
the teachers in my school who
didn’t enjoy teaching practical
science and set out trying to
convince them of its merits.
One such teacher, I’ll call her
Sue, was a very experienced
practitioner but admitted to
me that science scared her so
much, due to her own school
experiences, that in a 40-year
career she’d barely taught it.
Instead she covered the water
cycle through art and senses
through acrostic poetry. She
delivered other science topics
via video clips and worksheets.
To build her confidence
we team-taught science for a
term. To my delight, by the end
she was enjoying it so much
that she was looking for ways
to bring science into every area
of the curriculum. Just before
she retired she emailed me
and said she wished she’d been
90 | www.teachwire.net
No more
PAUL TYLER
introduced to the benefits you in delivering practical on what they’ve learnt. Science
of practical science many sessions to younger pupils. is all about asking questions, not
years ago. about knowing the answers. The
I hear similar stories from EXCUSE 3: exciting part is finding a solution.
others involved in primary “I don’t have the As a teacher it’s OK – in fact, I’d
science education across the say it’s essential – to be confident
correct resources”
UK. When I speak to these enough to say, ‘I don’t know’.
colleagues, the same reasons With the tightening of
budgets across the UK,
are cited for shying away from
and the focus on assessed
Asking questions
practical science: One of the fundamental science
subjects, science is often
skills pupils need to develop at
under-resourced. However,
EXCUSE 1: primary level is the ability to ask
most primary science can be
“I’m scared scientific questions as a starting
delivered without specialist
about getting point for investigations. Dr Lynne
equipment. Ask your local
Bianchi, director of the Science and
something wrong” high school or college if they
Engineering Education Research
Unfortunately, with a heavy have equipment you can
and Innovation Hub, promotes a
focus on literacy and numeracy, borrow if you need it. ‘WWW’ message – from wow to
many schools don’t see the wonder to working scientifically.
benefits of practical science EXCUSE 4:
In essence, using a ‘wow’ moment
so don’t invest in high-quality “What if the pupils will spark pupils’ curiosity and get
CPD. However, there is plenty ask a question
of free CPD out there. Reach I can’t answer?”
Out CPD (reachoutcpd.com)
Brilliant! That means they’re
has excellent curricular-linked
thinking about the science
modules, or try Facebook
and formulating ideas based
groups ‘Unleash 1’ (KS1)
and ‘Unleash 2’ (KS2)
– both are full of supportive
practitioners.
EXCUSE 2:
“Setting up and
clearing away
takes too long”
There’s no question that
organising practical science
activities takes time, but in
my opinion it’s time well
spent when you see the level
of engagement of pupils.
Organise your science
resources into topic boxes so
you can easily find what you
need. Train senior pupils as lab
technicians to help cut down on
preparation and clean-up time.
These children can also assist

them asking questions that lead
to investigations.
Lynne’s work on the
Great Science Share for
Schools places a spotlight on
this. Launched in 2016, the
campaign aims to inspire young
people to share their scientific
questions and investigations
with new audiences. In 2018,
over 40,000 pupils were
involved. Having this special
day in your school diary will
enable you to raise the profile
and focus of science and the
children will be utterly engaged
and inspired to think and work
as scientists when it is their
own questions being discussed.
Challenge the
status quo
Learning science in primary
school can impact on the life
chances and choices of young
people forever. The importance
of developing a scientifically
literate generation of young
people, in our increasingly
technological world, is higher
than ever before. More
immediately, the impact it can
have on pupils’ engagement,
behaviour and wellbeing in
school are often unrecognised
benefits that stretch way
beyond the science classroom.
It’s our job, as teachers and
senior leaders, to stand
together and challenge the
current status quo. It’s always
possible to find excuses to
not teach practical science,
but we must ask ourselves
what the consequences will
be if we don’t. If you want to
join the collective mission
to improve the science
experience children have in
schools, you’re not alone. Join
one of the many organisations
providing outstanding
support for primary teachers
to deliver this most vital
of subjects.TP
Paul Tyler
is science
coordinator
at Mearns
Primary in
Glasgow, a
member of
ASE and a PSTT fellow. He
writes a free monthly science
newsletter.
@glazgow
topicalscienceupdates.
blogspot.com
SCIENCE SPECIAL
HOW TO
TAKE YOUR
SCIENCE TO THE
NEXT LEVEL
� Become a
member of
Association for
Science
Education
(ase.org.uk) – this
organisation has a very
vibrant primary membership
and produces a
comprehensive selection of
resources and CPD
opportunities, many of which
are free. The primary section
of the annual conference is
packed with excellent
practitioners sharing
their experiences.
� Follow the
Primary
Science
Teaching
Trust (pstt.
org.uk) – PSTT presents
awards to teachers delivering
outstanding science and
produces a wide range of
excellent resources. Its new
WOW Science website
(wowscience.co.uk)
has science links
across the curriculum.
The 2019 international
conference (primaryscience
conference.org) is
unmissable for anyone
interested in primary science.
� Register for
the Primary
Science
Quality Mark
(psqm.org.uk)
– this is an award scheme
with three levels and a
stated aim of developing and
celebrating the proile of
science teaching, learning
and leadership. The PSQM
process encourages schools
to relect on their current
practice and guides them
through a year-long process
of improvement.
� Take part in
the Great
Science Share
for Schools
(great
scienceshare.org) – join in
with this national campaign
run by the Science and
Engineering Education
Research and Innovation
Hub at Manchester
University. It involves groups
of pupils coming together to
share their science learning.
The next date is 18th
June 2019.
� Find out
more from
STEM
Learning
(stem.org.uk)
– this national organisation
offers a world-class CPD
programme for primary
teachers and hosts a
comprehensive library of
peer-assessed resources.
www.teachwire.net | 91
 Join Julia Golding on her
time-travelling quest of discovery
COMIN COMIN
G G
SOON SOON

Cave Discovery Greek Adventure Rocky Road Hunt with Newton Victorian Voyages Modern Flights
9780745977447 9780745977454 9780745977522 9780745977539 9780745977546 9780745977553
June 2018 June 2018 October 2018 November 2018 June 2019 June 2019

www.lionhudson.com

92 | www.teachwire.net

Top of the class
Resources and activities to bring fresh inspiration to your classroom...
1
SPAG success
Frustrated by the lack of gap analysis tools
available for assessing children’s grammar
knowledge, SPAG.com was launched by a
Y6 teacher, some generous investors and
an award-winning software development
team. Now, ive years later, SPAG.com
is used by over 3,000 primary schools
and offers 120 assessments covering all
grammar and punctuation objectives from
3 and make it possible to run safe
Hip to be square
Izak9 combines the use of a set of
physical cubes with a portfolio of
online support material, facilitated
by two animated characters, Abacus
and Helix, who have their own virtual
set of cubes, identical to those used
by the children. The online resources
feature more than 30 tasks to get
you started and the cubes, which
were awarded ive stars in the Teach
Primary Resource Awards 2018,
can be used to teach fractions,
percentages, decimals, equivalence,
shape and more. Visit
izak9.com
Y1-Y6. Once the tests are completed,
view instant graphs of the whole group’s
results and quickly identify gaps in
knowledge. Alternatively, choose to view
results by question stem and identify the
types of questions pupils struggled with.
With all tests recently updated for 2018,
now is a good time to get in touch for
a free demo. Contact Liz at support@
spag.com for more information.
Paper PE
Plusballs are ultra-light, blow-up
paper balls used to rapidly improve
children’s coordination and motor
skills. They have been supplied to
thousands of schools in the past
20 years and are widely considered
to be the best way to introduce a
large number of sports. They are
particularly relevant for racket sports
keepy-uppy and rallying for large
classes in limited spaces. Children
love Plusballs because they move
slowly and evenly. See Plusballs in
action at plusballs.com
4 to over 4,000 schools nationally
PARTNER CONTENT
2
Creative computing
Make sure your computing curriculum
is up-to-scratch with Switched On
Computing. Gain the knowledge
and skills to teach computing with
conidence, with high-quality CPD
videos, and step-by-step teaching
notes, including creative and inspiring
project ideas. Enjoy time-saving,
ready-made, cross-curricular
projects to use with your class,
provide children with a broad and
balanced computing curriculum and
have conidence in your computing
curriculum right from Early Years
through to Y6. Find out more and view
samples at risingstars-uk.com/soc
5
Effective literacy
CLPE’s work raises the
achievement of children by helping
schools to teach literacy more
effectively and showing teachers
how quality children’s literature can
be placed at the heart of learning.
Since 2005, CLPE has delivered its
lagship Power of Reading project
and internationally. CLPE also
offers a wide range of professional
development training, a Power of
Reading whole-school subscription
and produces high-quality free
resources for schools. Try out a free
teaching sequence at
clpe.org.uk/corebooks/
free-resources
www.teachwire.net | 93

MATHS
Scholastic
Times Tables
Practice activities and digital assessment
tools to help pupils master multiplication
and prepare for the new times tables check
AT A GLANCE
l Practice materials, lesson plans and
expert teacher guidance
l Six books and a USB packed with
activities to build children’s confidence
l Includes creative games and quick-fire
quizzes to build skills rapidly
l Exclusive digital resources for tracking
pupil progress
l Informed by research-based pedagogy
REVIEWED BY: JOHN DABELL
My childhood headteacher used to say
that two things were crucial at primary:
table manners and learning your times
tables. Times may have changed, but
knowing your tables is still non-negotiable.
From 2020, schools in England will
be required to administer an online
multiplication tables check to Y4 pupils.
It might not be popular, but many schools
are preparing nevertheless.
To support schools to get children
times table ready, Scholastic has
produced a series of times tables practice
resources. These can be purchased
separately as books, but if you buy a
classroom pack you also get a plethora
of dynamic digital resources, ideal for
authentic practice and tracking progress.
The 5-11 years package fizzes with
brilliance and includes three pupil work
books with three corresponding teacher
guides and a USB of digital resources.
The pupil books are split into three age
groups: five to seven, seven to nine and
nine to 11. These have been organised to
provide children with plenty of meaningful
and enjoyable practice using imaginative
games, purposeful problem-solving
activities and tests.
The teacher guides stand out as
reliable resources full of inventive
activities and step-by-step lessons
with extension challenges.
Times Tables Classroom Pack including digital access, £175; individual books from £5.99, scholastic.co.uk/timestables
94 | www.teachwire.net
REVIEWS
These draw on concrete and pictorial
materials and tie into digital files.
Unique to the pack is exclusive
access to invaluable digital tests and
simple reporting tools. This, for me,
is where the real value of the pack is.
The children’s online area gives you
essential timed and practice tests. VERDICT
These can be practised without a time
limit too. What adds more value is that
you can tailor the tests according to 4 A practical way to prepare for the
individual or whole class needs, adapting multiplication tables check
the number of questions and test length. 4 Intelligently combines knowledge,
A third player of value is the understanding and skills
assessment feature. This gives priceless 4 Moves beyond rote learning by
performance information and target promoting concept building, maths
areas. Children need to be able to rapidly
thinking and mastery
recall multiplication facts so that they
4 Supports the learning of tables out of
can solve related division calculations.
What I like about these materials is that sequential order
they ensure tables are not presented in 4 Sharpens recall, improves pace
a linear fashion, but are arranged and and teaches children the value of
presented with plenty of mixed practice. perseverance and resilience
Times tables are one of those ‘like
it or lump it’ necessities. With some
creative input, times tables don’t have
to be hated. For inspiration and ideas UPGRADE IF...
about what you can do, the classroom
pack has plenty to go at. This is a pack
with high expectations that allows You are looking to teach times tables,
pupils to hammer away at their tables problem solving and reasoning and
so they have the confidence to be times help children be confident users of
table masters. multiplication tables.

PE
Plusballs
Ultra-light, ultra-slow moving balls that
can be used to rapidly improve hand-eye
coordination and racket skills
AT A GLANCE
l Innovative indoor resource for
teaching coordination, control
and timing
l Lesson workbook packed with ideas
l Highly practical, low-tech support for
improving racket skills
l Can be used by large groups in
relatively small spaces
REVIEWED BY: JOHN DABELL
Developing coordination and teaching
racket sports to beginners is not for the
faint-hearted. Visit any playground or
sports hall and you will see children
trying their best to bounce a ball on a
racket, only to spend most of the lesson
chasing it around on the loor. As for
rallies, forget it. Teachers tear their hair
out, children get discouraged and gravity
wins every time.
It doesn’t always go this way though –
much depends on the resources you use.
The ball you practise with matters, and
Plusballs might just be what many lessons
are missing.
Plusballs are essentially paper
balloon balls which start out as lat
objects and are inlated using a straw.
Although they are light, these pop-up
spheres are much better behaved than
regular balloons – they are slow-moving
with an even light path, which is why you
can soon get into and maintain a rally.
Because they don’t behave like regular
heavier balls and don’t bounce, they strip
away frustration. I wasn’t convinced that
they would stay inlated, but they do,
and they make lessons accessible and
achievable for everyone because they
increase reaction time.
The Plusballs are fun and have a high
engagement factor, but you also need
plenty of creative input to get the best out
Racket Skills for Beginners book, £14.95; 18cm Plusballs, £22 for 35, plusballs.com
REVIEWS
of them. Accompanying the Plusballs
is a teacher workbook that contains 20
lesson plans, along with key advice, tips,
drills and recommendations.
The lessons ofer detailed guidance
on how to use the Plusballs, along with
simple but useful illustrations. Activities
include rallying, using rackets, throwing VERDICT
techniques, playing overhead shots,
movement, footwork and awareness
of partners. Videos are available on 4 A fun approach to physical training
plusballs.com which show the balls that is perfect for all ages and abilities
being used in diferent settings. They 4 Superb for developing hand-eye
don’t just have to be used with rackets coordination and ball sense
either – hands and other parts of the 4 Develops technical, physical, mental
body can be used too. and social skills
The Plusballs and teacher book are
4 Builds strength, endurance, speed
an invaluable resource for teachers and
and lexibility
professionals across a range of school
settings and are particularly suited to
less conident children and learners with
special needs and sports disabilities.
UPGRADE IF...
They also have tremendous potential in
non-school contexts too. You’d like to develop pupils’
It’s a breath of fresh air when
racket skills using a sustainable,
something new comes along to disrupt
cost-efective and highly inclusive
the market. Plusballs inject new thinking
into how we train beginners and deserve pioneering resource.
to be widely used. They are stepping
stones to teaching racket sports using “he Plusblls and eaher
shuttlecocks and tennis balls and a
brilliant foundation for building skills
bok are an inalube
and conidence. resure fr eahers”
www.teachwire.net | 95

STEM
Prim-Ed
STEM Projects
Project ideas to help primary pupils
creatively apply skills and knowledge in
science, D&T, maths and digital technology
AT A GLANCE
l Child-friendly projects for high-level STEM work
l 28 unique project cards for short and long-
term projects
l Includes classroom and resource
management ideas
l Opportunities for efective use of
technology, including movie making, QR codes
and online research
REVIEWED BY: JOHN DABELL
The STEM ields are interrelated in
important ways, but are often treated
separately. Not surprisingly, children’s
experience of STEM can therefore be quite
lat. However, transcending the tedium is
possible when STEM subjects are combined
within a project, as children can start to join
the dots.
What schools need, of course, are
resources that support teachers so they can
help children engage with STEM in a
meaningful way. Prim-Ed has released a
whole new set of STEM materials that
promote project-based learning and give
children extended time to respond to
challenges set within a real-world context.
Project-based learning and STEM are a
natural it because learning occurs best
when children engage in inding real
solutions to real problems.
Each of the STEM Project boxes contains
a variety of realistic colour-coded challenges
that focus on topics linked to the science
curriculum but also step into every other
part of the curriculum too. You’re not
limited to the subjects in the traditional
STEM acronym either – the projects
incorporate humanities and arts too, so
if you want to make it STEAM, it’s full
steam ahead.
The boxes have been well put together
and start with a couple of introductory cards
explaining time management, ideas for
planning, pointers for differentiation and
96 | www.teachwire.net
REVIEWS
tips for assessment and support teaching.
The colourful and accessible project cards
include learning objectives and a learning
task that is provocative, practical and perfect
for inspiring collaboration, critical thinking
and enquiry. Written design process steps
are helpfully integrated, along with engaging VERDICT
graphics to inspire pupils.
There are six short-term projects on offer � Provides creative opportunities for
and one long-term project. They cover an meshing learning experiences across
impressive range of assignments including the STEM and STEAM landscapes
designing and making an aluminium Eiffel
� Perfect for promoting innovation,
Tower, a gas-powered boat, volcano village,
creativity, reasoning and
miniature golf course and a drought-
tolerant garden. problem-solving skills
The cards have the potential to enable � Promotes teacher conidence in
children to actively explore and establish teaching project-based activities
relationships between subjects, learn to � Builds real world connections,
ask searching questions, take ownership, resilience and leadership
discern and distil what matters, Before � Helps schools target rigorous
applying their understanding to learning and problem–solving
real problems.
Interdisciplinary, rigorous and
child-centred, STEM Projects fuel STEM
literacy by helping children recognise that
challenges and problems can’t be solved by
any one approach. If you are struggling to UPGRADE IF...
provide a well-orchestrated and cohesive
STEM curriculum, try STEM Projects. It will
help you achieve some of your STEM goals You are looking for project-based
with purpose. These are real doing and learning kits that build a common
thinking kits that dynamically engage language and holistically integrate
children and steer them into a much deeper curriculum subjects in rich and exciting
and lasting understanding of content. ways using authentic tasks.
£49.95 per box, prim-edpublishing.co.uk

ROAD SAFETY
5alive-Roadwise
Primary
Schools Project
A comprehensive road safety education
programme featuring teacher booklets and
classroom resources for every year group
AT A GLANCE
l Tools and resources to teach road-user
education to all year groups
l Expertly written 28-page booklets
containing four interactive and
focused workshops
l Printed copies of all resources, Powerpoints,
song CD, DVD and a bookmark for every child
l Tailored to the developmental phases
of schooling
REVIEWED BY: JOHN DABELL
When asked to list their top concerns
regarding their child’s safety, parents are
most concerned about bullying, followed
closely by accidents on the road. Britain
actually has one of the best road safety
records in the world. However, road traic
accidents are one of the main causes
of death and injury to children of school
age. In 2017, there were over 15,000 child
casualties aged 15 or under.
Teaching road safety is incredibly
important as all children need to be road
aware. Astonishingly, traic education isn’t
included in the national curriculum, so it’s
down to schools to teach it, normally within
PSHE and citizenship. 5alive-Roadwise is an
inclusive and well-planned programme for
easy implementation across your school.
The programme contains a project
booklet for each year group, each
containing four dynamic and purposeful
workshops covering awareness and
knowledge of traic, safe strategies
for crossing the road, visibility, and an
understanding of the meaning of signs
and symbols.
The planning, notes and photocopiables
that accompany the workshops are
impeccable and richly loaded with ideas,
questions, scenarios and things to do.
These are supported by author video
guidance for staf and a number of
informative Powerpoints for class use.
Schools package (based on 240 children from nursery-Y6), £225, 5alive-roadwise.co.uk
REVIEWS
Also included is a 72-page music activity
book and a road crossing song CD.
There are also bookmarks for every child
featuring the 5alive road safety steps.
The most efective road safety
programmes are ones that encourage
child-centred activities which promote
play, social interaction, self-awareness, VERDICT
personal relection and exploration
of the world. These actively engage
pupils, satisfy their natural curiosity and 4 Makes pupils aware of the importance
encourage informed decision making. of safety and the dangers associated
This is what 5alive-Roadwise achieves. with traic
It gives children opportunities to develop 4 Helps children take responsibility
the knowledge, skills and attitudes to help for their own safety and consider the
them make informed and safe decisions needs of others
in traic and makes an important
4 Ideal for building into your school’s
contribution to their health and wellbeing.
road safety policy
5alive-Roadwise will help develop
pupils’ understanding of the dangers 4 Encourages and promotes
of traic so that they develop safer school-community participation and
strategies and become more roadwise. home-school links
It would be brilliant for incorporating
into pupil road safety committees and
supporting junior road safety oicers and
will help you actively engage children in UPGRADE IF...
developing skills that focus on identifying
and responding safely to risk situations.
We all need to be passionate about You are looking for an age-appropriate,
supporting children to be wiser and practical and cross-curricular resource
safer on the roads and 5alive-Roadwise to help children develop independence,
is a vital resource, ofering sound counsel responsibility and knowledge about
and inspiration. how to use roads safely.
www.teachwire.net | 97
 FEATURES BACK PAGE

1 2 T H I NG S
teachers know about Christmas
IAN GOLDSWORTHY

3
@ian_goldsworthy

Nothing says
Christmas like 30
Devoting all your
boxes of the exact
energy to separating
same chocolates
1 children who know
the truth about Santa
from those who know
the truth about Santa

7
Wondering if it’s
Decorating the classroom seemed like a possible to pass of
great idea until you used your year’s supply The Muppet Christmas
2
of glue sticks making paper chains Carol as ‘the best
of what has been

4
5 thought and said’
TAKING THE CHOIR TO
THE LOCAL OLD PEOPLE’S
HOME, BECAUSE SINGING

Shoehorning so
ANYWHERE ELSE
MIGHT RESULT
8
many characters IN AN ASBO 6 That one smart
into the nativity Black Friday-style kid who knows
that it now features battles between teachers all the words
seven wise men fighting over rehearsal
and most of the space in the week before to Fairytale of
cast of Frozen the Christmas concert New York

9
Full-blown panic when Angel Gabriel announces that, actually,
he’s going on holiday the day before the performance

10
Your job at
3.30pm on
11
The fear in the eyes
of Reception as you serve them
their sprouts at Christmas dinner
12
the last day of
term is to eat
any leftover
chocolates from Somehow finding the energy to
the class advent make Christmas magical for your
calendar family after doing it for your class
98 | www.teachwire.net
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