In the last couple of weeks of the summer holidays most teachers turn their thoughts to getting the classroom ready for the pupils to return to school. Hopefully before the holiday the classroom walls will have been cleared of the previous terms work and the backing paper will have been put up ready for the new term. The topics for the autumn term will have already been decided on the school’s long term curriculum plan so it is a good idea to put up some of the titles on the boards and perhaps a few questions that could spark the children’s imagination. For example, if the topic is Space questions such as which planet is the largest/smallest, how far away is the sun and why is the sky blue could... Read More »
Now that the summer holidays are upon us some parents are eager to encourage their children to continue with some academic learning during the six week break as children can regress during this time. The activities that are presented to the child should however be fun so that they engage fully. Mathematical skills can easily be taught at home using everyday objects found in the kitchen for example an obvious resource would be a set of weighing scales. Your child could weigh different items and order them according to their weight whereas an older child could convert the weights from metric to imperial or work out the cost per kilogram given a price for an item. Capacity is often difficult to teach in a school setting but at home playing... Read More »
Children across Britain have undoubtedly missed out on huge chunks of learning during the two main lockdowns that we have had and although teachers and parents tried their best to provide pupils with educational activities during these times it fell short of the quality of teaching and learning that children usually have due to the difficulties with technology, the lack of expertise of some parents who were trying to support their children and the struggle to motivate some pupils to participate daily. Now that pupils are back in the classroom, schools are trying to help pupils to catch up on this missed learning, but it is a difficult task as some distancing restrictions are still in place meaning that classroom routines are different and normal teaching methods are having to... Read More »
For the last couple of years, the use of the internet has risen exponentially as we have had to use it to keep in touch with friends and family, work from home, shop for food and other items and connect with teachers during online learning. Children, who already went online on a frequent basis anyway now see it as an essential part of their lives but how do we teach our children to be safe online when they may be using the internet more now than ever? The rules and restrictions that parents or teachers need to put on a child’s online activity will usually be dependent upon their age. For example, young children should not be able to access the internet without an adult monitoring the content they are... Read More »
Many teachers and teaching assistants working in Primary schools with young children have had to think very carefully about the teaching methods they are using in the classroom presently as normal, well-recognised strategies for engaging children in their learning have been had to be changed and adapted as we try to keep children and staff in schools safe. This has been a big challenge especially with the youngest children who are mainly unaware of the need to distance from others and refrain from sharing toys and equipment. Many teachers have been incredibly inventive whilst trying to make school a safe place to be and have made children individual learning packs with pencils, crayons, erasers, rulers etc in them to avoid the need to share this equipment. Reading books are having... Read More »
