The school classroom is an amazing place. It is simultaneously filled with dazzling complexity and profound simplicity. It is at once driven by reassuring routines and constant surprises. As all pupils return …
Should we worry about handwriting?
My nine-year old boy, Noah, has been working hard on his handwriting this week. He fizzes with ideas when he writes, but most often his handwriting and his spelling simply cannot keep …
Flipping Fronted Adverbials
Do you know your fronted adverbials from your prepositional phrases? As another week of home schooling commences, many parents, and teachers, are faced with tricky questions about grammar. It inspires feisty debate …
Five Things I Wish I’d Known About Literacy
When I started teaching nearly two decades ago, I was a teacher of reading, writing, vocabulary, academic talk, and more. The problem was that I could do reading and writing, but I …
Working Words into Writing
What connections can you make between these words? Are there any patterns of meaning or word families you notice? Could you even detect the author who penned these words? These disembodied words …
The curriculum challenge…renewed
People have gone relatively quiet about the ‘c’ word… curriculum. Whilst schools grapple with the challenges of having all pupils safely attend school, then everything has to be considered anew. The careful …
The Hidden Lives of Learners and Me
When I was growing up I sought out books that mirrored my world. I can name the narratives that walked me through my tortured teens, or those books that helped me attempt …
5 Successful Study Strategies
‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it ‘t ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it ‘t ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you …
Remote Learning and Making Plans
The reality of the Covid pandemic has seen millions of pupils thrust into a position remote home learning. A stark truth is that pupils learn most when they are in the classroom. …
6 Excellent Etymologies
When you explore the history and roots of a word – the etymology – you draw upon a rich story that can unlock understanding for our pupils in science, maths, geography, and …