Ensuring a deep level of understanding in KS1 Numeracy

I really love the use of a flow chart to help planning

Teach Ideas

Planning 1 more and 1 less for my Year 1 class last week and decided to plan using this model that I made during my PGCE.

This is how I used this model with my planning, just a brief outline as an example. With the curriculum focusing on mastery and the widening of understanding it is important to build a good base knowledge on which to build and expand.

One more and One less using the ‘deeper thinking model’

1. Prior Knowledge

– Test the children’s prior knowledge of the terms, vocab and basics by approaching the subject from a different angle.

I removed the concept from numeracy and brought in ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson. I created a beautiful power point and told the story of the Gruffalo going for a picnic. Then one Gruffalo left the picnic. The children were then introduced to key vocab and questions. ‘

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Y6 SATs week

Predictably SATs week didn’t go entirely smoothly at RH primary, though they all worked extremely hard. Monday’s reading assessment led to one child running home, another had an asthma attack due to hyperventilating, and one tore his paper. By the end of the week they had fully earned their reward trip to a local park/playground (which was far from incident free).

One thing it did make me realise was how intense SATs have become – they never seemed to be that important when I did them just over 10 years ago. The year 6s sat their tests in full exam conditions in the hall, apart from those who needed special provision. The whole school was plunged into silence, with breaks for younger children postponed until the morning exam had been finished. It was eerie, and evidently not a pleasant experience for them. Nevertheless, I do see their importance, and the children can now look forward to the remainder of their time at primary school.

Fingers crossed that the year 2s aren’t aware that the SATs they are taking this week are the real thing. I’d hate to think that they would be put under as much pressure as the year 6s – it was bad enough that 11 year olds were as stressed as they were, let alone 7 year olds!

Dear Prime Minister….from teachers everywhere.

Dear Prime Minister,

Firstly let me introduce myself, I represent the many – the many teachers who today are worrying about the future of education. I am a newly qualified teacher. I come from a council house background. I have a 2:2 in my degree…and I’m probably not good enough in your eyes to be a teacher.

Mr. Cameron, you only have to glance at Twitter or Facebook and you will see thousands of teachers who today are afraid. Afraid of the future of education. Surely you must be thinking to yourself why? Why are so many teachers today afraid of what the future may hold? I can tell you some reasons why.

Gove. I hear he won awards for his teaching! No? I hear he was a real expert on education! No? But yet you trusted him to make a whole host of changes without really knowing what’s going…

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A Reminder

This is an example of what my school would call the ‘blue zone’, when pupils are engaged and working independently, time flies, and it feels easy and magical. ‘Blue’ is where everyone is supposed to aspire to be – it’s a new system, implemented after the Easter holidays, but the kids are buying into it.

Purposeful Living

Friday morning started off like every morning.  There was nothing special about it except that it was Friday.  I got to work and was told that a teacher would be out, and at my school, we don’t have substitute teachers.  So we split the students amongst our own classrooms and pray for the best.  My mood deflated slightly because these days can be challenging to say the least.

The day started off really smooth.  I was shocked.  Third period had the potential to be daunting as I had some of the most challenging students in my class.

This period ended up being one of those moments.  One of those out of body experiences where you see everything and just smile.

I was working on some paperwork, Pandora was playing, and then it hit me.  It was quiet.  Quiet is never a good thing when you didn’t ask for it.  I…

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To Teach is To Hope

A cute little poem that highlights some of the reasons I want to teach.

TARA AKTAR

by Mary Shaughnessy

To teach is to hope…
That one day a child will know
The meaning of confindence
And be able to touch other lives…

To teach is to pray…
That these newly brave souls will use their talents
To better the world,
instead of just themselves.

To teach is to feel…
That not all the hurts of those in our care
can be healed
But they can be soothed

 

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Poor schools

So the British electorate has voted in a majority Consevrative government, which is not the result I would have liked. I won’t bore anyone with explaining my political views, and quite frankly I’m a ‘floating voter’ so change my mind a lot. However, the next 5 years is promising to be very difficult for schools, with budgets being tightened and old fashioned approaches to education forced upon teachers who are desperately trying to jump through hoops. 

These are a few of the problems that schools are likely to face over the next 5 years of Conservatives:

1. Funding cuts – yes, the Conservatives have said they are ring fencing education spending, but it’s not that simple. They have not ring fenced early years, further, or higher education spending, so these areas will still face cuts. Even if all areas of education spending were protected, in real terms there will be a cut in spending as they have frozen the level of funding with no plans to increase it in line with inflation. Schools’ budgets are already stretched, further cuts will only exacerbate the situation. 
2. Academies and free schools – neither type of school truly tackle the issues that cause schools to fail, nor do they address efficiently the shortage of school places. I don’t know all the details of either school type, but I haven’t heard anything that convinces me of their merits. It also seems logical to focus on placing new schools in areas where they are most needed, not where there are mobilised parents or faith groups. 
3. Curriculum changes – there might not be new curriculum changes on the scale of those brought in by Michael Gove, but there are still significant elements of his policy that are still to be implemented; for example, national curriculum levels of attainment have been scrapped, but no new system has been introduced to replace it, which means that pupils and teachers face uncertainty as they move towards SATS. Similarly there have been drastic changes to GCSEs and A levels that are not fully implemented. 
4. Undervaluing of teaching staff – there are multiple facets of this: teachers are not respected/trusted by the Conservatives, TAs are seen as superfluous, wages will continue to stagnate, and unqualified teachers are allowed to teach.  

There are many other indirect threats to schools/education as a result of this election – not least the reduction in spending on mental health, social services, and childcare. Fingers crossed I’m wrong…

Being a Good Teacher

Finally on timetable

Today was the first day this week that I’ve actually been able to run the interventions that I’m timetabled to do – on Tuesday I was in Pine class (Y2), and yesterday I was supervising a Y4 child on internal exclusion in the morning and then went on a trip with Horse Chestnut (Y4). Yesterday made for an interesting day, especially as the senior leadership team (SLT) hadn’t communicated very effectively. 

Anyway, today I was back supporting the learning of Y4 and Y5 pupils. Most of my interventions are on a 1:1 basis and focus on reading skills. I also have two 1:1 maths sessions and three groups in the afternoon. Given that I’d missed my planning time earlier in the week I was worried that the day wouldn’t run very smoothly, but it went better than I’d expected. Over the last few months I’ve got into a rhythm and have banked a number of strategies and activities that help me out when planning time has been lost. 

One of my favourite games is fast sorting phonemes – it improves phonic knowledge and visual discrimination, both key for fluent and accurate reading. The child will be given multiple copies of two phonemes and they have to sort them according to their sound; for example, the child will be given magnetic letters consisting of 10 ‘a’ and 10 ‘c’ and I’ll time how long it takes them the sort the phonemes whilst saying the sound they make. The game can get clunky when using digraphs and trigraphs, but is still worth playing as an interactive/physical way to learn new phonemes. I can then challenge them to beat their previous time, or add in another phoneme so that they have three phonemes to sort. Saying that, it can get a bit tired and I’m sure there are even better ways to teach phonics in fun and memorable ways, so if you have any suggestions please let me know. 

Hopefully, I’ll be able to run my interventions uninterrupted till the end of term so that the children I work with can get some more consistency and get back into the routine of coming and working with me – it still surprises me how much difference a few days off can make to a child’s  progress. 

Child mental health

A friend shared the following article from The Guardian earlier on today, and to be honest nothing contained within it surprised me. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/02/crisis-in-childrens-mental-health-nhs-insider-speaks It’s definitely worth a read. 

At RH there are a significant number of children, and families, who really need additional support from Camhs, but aren’t necessarily getting it. We’ve had one boy who needed a referral/assessment in order to receive an Education, Health, and Care Plan (ECHP), but wasn’t referred by his GP; this means that he is not entitled to have a 1:1 TA to support his learning. Of course he is still receiving the educational support he needs, but at additional cost to the school when he should be allocated additional funding be the Local Education Authority. There is therefore no guarantee that he will be supported this way next academic year when budgets will be even tighter. I can’t imagine that his is an exceptional case. 

Countless other children could certainly benefit from counselling, therapy, and/or diagnosis. Every member of staff knows they need to be referred, but, because the school cannot make direct referrals, support is delayed and children fall through the net. Quite frankly it’s not good enough, but these deficiencies just don’t attract the attention or scrutiny they deserve. Until the situation changes children will suffer and schools will continue to try and pick up the pieces as best as they can.