Since children have returned to school, we’ve had our ears to the ground, listening for the things that teachers are telling us about the transition from home schooling back into the classroom. One of the things we’ve heard again and…
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Traditionally, non-fiction has often played second fiddle to fiction in reading provision at school, in terms of quantity and quality. Nevertheless, it encompasses such a mountainous range of genres which the internet has only helped to enhance. Under this umbrella-term…
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'Building Bridges' Bridges feature widely in idiomatic language: we speak of ‘crossing that bridge when we come to it’. In education we may plan for ‘bridging a gap’ in learning and ‘building bridges’ is a term used for making…
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Change: a word that we in the teaching profession are over familiar with and experts at dealing with. In the classroom no one day is ever a facsimile of another and the best-laid plans so often end up in the…
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'Wild at Heart' The dictionary definition of wild is to be not cultivated or domesticated and to to be known as ’running wild’ is to ‘grow or develop without restraint or discipline.’ During August we’ve taken to being a bit…
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There's been many things we have missed about the routine of school in the past few months and we know plenty of teachers who have missed the treat of reading to their classes. But for many children being read to…
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We have been extremely lucky to receive advance review copies of some wonderful publications and so this month’s review theme is simply something for everyone. Finding a point of resonance and connection to literature is key to getting children to want to…
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Adventures of a Word Explorer Bewildered, antiquity, choreography - some of the words I have enjoyed recently with my two year old in ways I would never have imagined. These words are part of a ‘word of the day’ set of cards…
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Books to promote recovery following difficult times As the global health crisis that is the Covid-19 pandemic rumbles on and nations begin to move into a phasing out of lockdown rules and a phasing into what – we suppose…
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In our last blog we highlighted the importance of quality literature as a conduit for children when they return to school to process, share and write about their experiences during this time of upheaval and change. Children can vicariously travel…
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In last month’s review we spoke of the need to connect to nature. One could say we’ve spent more time ‘tuning in’ to the outside world and another one of the silver linings of the past ten weeks has been…
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When it is safe for most children to return to school, we know we won’t be able to pick up where we left off. Things have changed. Schools won’t straight away look, or feel, or be the places they once were. Children won’t be…
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Here are just some of our favourite books that could be used as whole-school texts. They are either books we have used or seen used across either an entire school. These books make good texts for use across a whole school either…
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We’ve grown into our home school approach over the last few weeks. Like wearing a pair of shoes that we didn’t choose, they’ve now worn in and we’ve found a way to walk in them. And do you know what?…
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When schools closed back in March, most children would have come home with a reading book that they wouldn’t have been able to change for sometime. Although some schools have arranged swaps since and some schools sent home more than…
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We talk at length about promoting this in school and since the tables were turned 6 weeks ago we’ve had a chance to really see how we can ensure there’s time for establishing a reading culture at home. I’ll actually…
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The last month has been different in more ways than one as we have all had to adjust rather suddenly to a new normal; a normal where our work patterns have changed, our socialising patterns have changed, and our life…
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This blog follows on from our previous which suggests some effective ways to approach the home teaching of English, namely using a quality book – whether fiction, non-fiction or poetry - as the springboard into learning. So, you are sitting…
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