We know our products and services will only work, and enable students to progress in Literacy and English, with input from experts and feedback from you, our teachers.
Alongside Professor Debra Myhill, we've developed Skills for Writing to provide an evidence-based approach to accelerating progress in writing at KS3, which:
Proven to significantly accelerate children's progress in reading, our primary reading scheme Bug Club has tried-and-tested methodologies at its heart. Learn more in our efficacy reports below.
All of our products and services are developed with our educational experts, and have the rigour and attention to detail that we know customers expect of us.
We also recognise that these products need to work in the real world - our customers are using our products each and every day to support their own best practice.
What makes an excellent teacher? Research shows that a good sense of humour and a conversational style are two of the key ingredients of great teaching.
At the heart of our literacy resources is the importance of how they are taught. Take a look at how we've worked with Professor Debra Myhill, at The University of Exeter, to embed the Grammar for Writing pedagogy.
Now that we've passed half term, have you been assessing children using the half-termly Power Maths Progress Tests? Don’t forget that you can enter scores into the online Markbook to track and analyse results against age-related expectations. (Just click the Markbook tile when you log into Power Maths. There’s a walkthrough video here.)
Classroom cliff hangers and library legends
Once upon a time, when chickens still had teeth, and horses still had feathers...
Have I got your attention? Stories do that, too, and this post is about storytelling and reading aloud. Stories grab and enthral, they stimulate thinking, they play with language, they celebrate listening – and they’re a high-octane way to motivate children, and model reading for pleasure.
All your pupils need the experience of stories (whether told from memory, read aloud, or on audio books), especially if they’re struggling with reading. They need to be reminded of the delights to come when they become more fluent.
By itself, reading is potentially a quiet and isolating activity. Reading groups, author events and online book chats are challenging this, but speaking aloud challenges the stereotype even more, bringing a buzz to books in class, and making it ‘loud in the library!’
Imagine a warm, colourful space where children can sit, or lounge, on the carpet – and just read: read what they’ve chosen themselves; read without follow-up tests; browse, skip and skim; become glued to books or magazines, or discard them at will; gaze at pictures as well as soaking up words. Imagine them talking to each other excitedly about what they’ve just read, or the amazing facts they’ve discovered from books or IT devices. Imagine a space that they feel is theirs; one that says ‘Be yourself’ rather than ‘Be careful’. And, in whatever size the space may be, imagine that (in Ted Hughes’s phrase) they’ll ‘turn the key to the whole world.’ (1)
