Daily Archives: 27/01/2016

English, Library

Learn about your library

Do your children understand basic terms about books and libraries?

This set of 20 ‘print your own’ pdf posters is guaranteed to make library introductions easy and memorable.

These bright, colourful posters cover: Alphabetical order, Author, Blurb, Book Title, Borrow, Contents page, Dewey numbers, Fiction, Finding books, Front Cover, Glossary, Illustrator, Index, Information Books, Picture Book, Renew a Book, Return a book, Spine.

They are incredible value for money! You can see all the posters here http://www.carelpress.co.uk/HHLearnAboutYourLibrary/

Regards

Ann Batey
Office Manager
Carel Press

(01228 538928)

www.carelpress.co.uk

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Behaviour / Motivation, English, Special Needs

A cumulative approach to developing handwriting skills

The cause of underdeveloped handwriting in some pupils is not always immediately apparent. It could be that these pupils have poor fine motor skills, language processing, or visual perceptual skills, or perhaps it is attributable to the way that they grip their pen/pencil or to their handwriting posture.

In many instances, however, the reason for underdeveloped handwriting is because the approach that they are using isn’t cumulative, which is key to ensuring progress in the development of handwriting skills.

It is for this reason that we have produced The Handwriting Rescue Scheme – a complete programme for fully cursive handwriting containing over 300 structured exercises. It has been designed to establish the correct cursive letter formation and encourage an automatic response to frequently used spelling choices.

The programme is ideal for introducing cursive handwriting and also for correcting poor handwriting habits among pupils whose handwriting isn’t up to the expected standard for their age.

You can order the Handwriting Rescue Scheme in any of these ways:

Science

Book your more able students onto our workshops during British Science Week (11 – 20 March 2016)

It was revealed in Ofsted’s ‘2015 Report’ that “schools that had been recently inspected rarely offered a bespoke curriculum for more able pupils in KS3” and “only 50% had a curriculum tailored in KS4”.

In response to this, the School Inspection Handbook states that inspectors will “pay particular attention to whether the most able pupils are achieving as well as they should. They will also consider whether they are receiving the support they need to reach their full potential”.

Indeed, to help you prove to Ofsted that you are providing a bespoke curriculum to your more able students, Thinkers in Education are delivering an array of workshops during Science Week, designed specifically for Gifted and Talented students.

Workshops that we think your students will benefit most from during Science Week are Space Pioneers, CSI – Blood Pool, Towering Ambition, and Body in the Box. They require your students to develop their critical and creative thinking skills in a problem-solving context.

More information about our Double Session workshops can be found here.

We run these workshops not only during Science Week but throughout the year, and if you book a workshop for April or May, you will receive a 30% discount.

Or, if you think your more able students will benefit more from one of our Full-Day Sessions, there is a choice of three workshops, each of which focusses on developing a particular skill:

Target Mars – creative thinking

Dead on Time – critical thinking

Bunkered – strategic thinking

More information about our Full-Day Session workshops can be found here.

If you book more than one Full-day Session (so that your more able students from each year group can attend), there is the option for the workshops to either be delivered on consecutive days to save money or throughout the year as suits the school.

Furthermore, if you would like to know more about how we make provisions for Gifted & Talented children, and how we can help you make provisions for your more able students through our workshops, visit www.thinkersineducation.co.uk/gt_provision/.

For further information on all aspects of our work, or to make a booking, please call us on 01603 520866 or email events@thinkersineducation.co.uk

Behaviour / Motivation

How to make teachers twice as effective in the classroom and double the attainment of lower ability students

How to make teachers twice as effective in the classroom and double the attainment of lower ability students

This statement is bold but true, latest research shows that when carefully crafted seating charts are in place, teachers are twice as effective in the classroom and the attainment of lower ability students can be doubled.

This will come as no surprise to those more experienced teaching staff. By telling pupils where they should sit in the classroom you are immediately asserting your authority and can also take advantage of strategies such as peer to peer learning.

So does your school have a policy on seating charts? Are you able to ascertain which combinations work best for the classroom and lead to improved performance and behaviour, are you ready to impress Ofsted?

Class Charts links up with SIMS, Integris & SMIS. It instantly creates seating charts for your teachers and displays key data such as SEN, Pupil Premium & subject targets. This means that your staff will be aware of pupils’ abilities and needs at a glance.

But there is more!

Coupled with the seating charts is an optional real time behaviour management system (SIMS writeback supported) that is simple for your staff to use and provides the leadership team with detailed behaviour analytics – allowing them to pinpoint behaviour issues and trends and get support strategies in place.

Sound good?

Take a look at what is on offer at Class Charts and get in touch quoting ref HH for a chat or a quick online demo.

support@classcharts.com

0845 094 6427

Edukey Education Ltd, 1 High Street, St Davids, SA62 6SA
Numeracy

30 weeks of carefully graded written arithmetic questions for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

Although it might initially seem as though your pupils have understood a mathematical concept, it is not always easy to know which pupils have understood it to the depth that is required for the written arithmetic tests.

And so it is for this reason that we have produced the Weekly Written Arithmetic Questions series, offering 30 weeks of written arithmetic questions for your Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils to work through.

By ordering the resources in the series together, you can benefit from the Special Bundle Price which is naturally much less costly than buying the resources separately.

Therefore, even if you aren’t responsible for teaching written arithmetic to all year groups, you may want to see if your colleagues are interested in using the resources too – perhaps you could suggest creating a whole-school written arithmetic strategy.

This way, progress can be readily tracked as your pupils progress through the levels.

However, if you’d prefer you can order the resources in the series individually by clicking on the website link below. Here you will also find more information and sample pages.

As always, you can order any of our resources in the following ways:

www.topical-resources.co.uk
sales@topical-resources.co.uk

School News

Commemorating the achievements of your pupils is an ongoing process, which comes with enormous benefits

Displaying honours boards in the assembly hall or school’s entrance instills a sense of togetherness within the school and a sense of community cohesion without. It also presents an opportunity to communicate the school’s values to parents and visitor, instantaneously.

However, these enormous benefits are only applicable if the honours boards are kept up-to-date, for both parents and students will wonder about an honours board that does not go beyond a date some way in the past.

If the honours board itself is looking a little jaded it can be a good idea to bring in a new honours board, either starting it afresh from 2016 or copying across data from the last few years from an earlier board.

Indeed, bringing in a new board can be a particularly positive activity which helps re-establish the history of the school.

Greenbarnes Ltd has a long history of creating and supplying honours boards for schools across the UK. You can find examples of what we have created on our website.

You may also be interested in our extensive range of notice boards, trophy cabinets, display cases, and house score boards. More information on all of these can be found at www.greenbarnes.co.uk.

Alternatively, please do call us on 01280 701 093 or email sales@greenbarnes.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Michael Barnes