International Schools Blog

One of the major challenges for teachers and school leaders is how to meet the challenge of the Computing curriculum, especially at Primary and Lower Secondary and provide a rounded, thought provoking and engaging curriculum for students to help prepare them for the world ahead and inspire more to take computing-based courses at Key Stage 4 and beyond.

In January 2022, we held a webinar to share advice from our authors, Tony Staneff and Josh Lury, about how to use Power Maths flexibly in response to lost learning created by the pandemic. Many children are not going into each new unit at the usual, expected starting point, and the volume of missed learning is variable. Please watch the webinar if you have time (it’s 1 hour). Otherwise, this blog is designed to sum up some key points.

Our international schools blog is somewhere to share ideas, exchange opinions and take part in a bigger conversation about ideas and trends in the world of education. But with lots of articles, it can be hard to keep up to date, especially for busy teachers.

Mastery is not a new approach. In fact, the concept was first introduced in 1968 by American psychologist Benjamin Bloom with his idea that if learners don’t get something the first time, then teach them again and in different ways until they do. Teaching for mastery in maths is fundamental to the UK government’s education reforms and was reflected in the 2014 English national curriculum for mathematics. The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) and the Department for England (DfE) have all endorsed this evidence-based approach which is inspired by some of the leading performers in mathematics education, including Shanghai and Singapore.

Literacy skills are incredibly important for children and young people. The ability to read, write and communicate effectively is crucial in every subject and at every educational level, from primary classrooms to university lecture halls and beyond. What’s more, according to research from the National Literacy Trust, children who enjoy reading and writing are happier. So, how can we support students to develop these essential skills, and make literacy a priority in our international school classrooms?

After the challenges we’ve seen in education over the past year or so, we’ve been speaking to teachers and leading maths experts on how they see the changes to teaching and learning impacting on the future of primary maths.

In this article, Hannah Hirst-Dunton, author of our grammar and punctuation programme Building Blocks, shares the questions about grammar she’s most commonly asked!

11 February is International Women and Girls in Science Day – a day to show students just how exciting a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) can be. And it gives all of us the chance to encourage young girls to pursue a career in one or more of these subjects.

Since its launch 10 years ago, Bug Club, our blended whole-school reading programme, has been capturing the imagination of almost 2 million children across the globe, helping them to develop a love of reading and with it, nurturing lifelong readers.

Wherever you are, and whatever type of international school you’re in, it’s a fact that all students have had their learning affected by the school closures brought about by the global pandemic this year. It’s also true that all teaching professionals want to identify gaps in learners’ skills and knowledge, yet identifying those gaps and deciding if they are important or not isn’t always straightforward.