Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, interesting tasks, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘Animal Farm.’ Round 1. The characters in Animal Farm Round 2. Quotations from the text Round 3. Settings and Objects Round 4. Themes in Animal Farm The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels. A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Russell’s Dramatic Devices; The Features of Tragedy. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear, detailed and well-informed links between Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and its social and historical context. In particular, students develop their understanding of the 1930s American South, The Great Depression, and racial inequalities, before connecting this understanding with what they read in precisely-selected extracts. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Creating American South timelines using clearly explained context cards, in order to establish an understanding of context; Researching further information about the social and historical context of the novel, using a guided research sheet;’ Reading selected extracts from the text, in order to link ideas regarding context and text together; Analysing how the features of context are portrayed in the novel; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts; Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Timeline Cards Research Template; Selected extracts (from chapters 1, 9 and 15); Essay template Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 8 and year 13 with some adaptations. Please note that students will need internet access for the research introduction task. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise and detailed interpretations of Harper Lee’s language choices throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. In particular, students identify and analyse the effect of Lee’s language in her descriptions of settings in the novel, using precisely selected extracts, before applying these concepts to their own descriptive writing attempts. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Defining and exemplifying the descriptive writing techniques, through a fun and interactive bingo game; Identifying the language techniques that Lee uses in her descriptions of settings in the novel;’ Analysing the effectiveness of Lee’s descriptive writing; Creating their own descriptions of settings, using Lee’s model examples, a structure strip, and the techniques that they have gathered over the course of the lesson; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts; Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Bingo Cards Teacher’s Bingo Questions/Guidance; Selected extracts (from chapters 1, 12 and 15); Descriptive Writing Structure Strip; Descritpive Writing Helpsheet; Comprehensive Lesson Plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 8 and year 13 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge and understanding of the character of Crooks in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men: His dreams, his loneliness, and how his plight is a product of living in 1930s America. The lesson also aims to improve students’ analytical skills, so that they can demonstrate sustained and sophisticated interpretations of the character. This pack includes the full lesson presentation, with tasks and key information, an extract from the text with close reading questions, a writing to analyse help-sheet, and full teacher guidance. The learning journey is clear and progressive, following a pathway of increasingly more difficult tasks, including: - An opening task to ascertain what is known about Crooks, and racism in 1930s America - An extract from the text that highlights some of his characteristics and his loneliness. - Questions to encourage students to infer and deduce hidden meanings, and understand Steinbeck’s message, - Joint creation of an analysis success criteria; - An opportunity to answer an exam style question based upon the character of Crooks; - A chance to peer assess against the success criteria. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the presentation. You can choose to buy this resource alone, or as part of the ‘Of Mice and Men - All Lessons and Scheme’ bundle, which contains seven full lessons, resources, teachers notes, and PowerPoint presentations, plus a Pointless Of Mice and Men game, for just £5!

This checklist provides an academic overview of the writing curriculum content to be covered in Year 1. I offered this to teachers, who marked it off as they covered individual elements of the curriculum (their aim was to ‘tick’ each element twice over an academic year). They have found it extremely useful, as it offers a useful breakdown of the curriculum statements into individual components, which are not always self-explanatory. It is broken down into Composition, Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation, Spelling, and Handwriting sections. Please note that the spellings listed are indicative of the patterns to be learnt - it is not the exhaustive list. Furthermore, the composition section details our interpretation of what needs to be covered over a year, some schools vary from this. For this reason, the document is provided in Word, for easy editing. It is also provided as a PDF, to prevent formatting issues between computers. Hope that this proves helpful to you too!

This engaging and stimulating lesson enables students to create travel brochure texts containing appropriate and imaginative language choices, utilising a range of different language techniques with subtlety in order to craft writing that serves the dual purpose of being descriptive and persuasive. In particular, students learn how descriptive language such as of similes, metaphors, and personification, in addition to persuasive devices such as statistics, rhetorical questions, and personal pronouns, can help to create truly authentic and effective travel brochure pieces. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what travel brochures are and understand their purposes; - Identify the persuasive and descriptive language devices that travel brochure writers employ - Analyse the effects of the language in a model travel brochure text; - Utilise a clear and challenging success criteria document in order to construct their own travel brochure pieces; - Self/Peer assess travel writing attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - An interesting and ambitious travel writing extract (with a highlighted version for teachers): -A logical and challenging worksheet, encouraging students to analyse key features; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

I delivered this CPD session to all members of our staff team who maintain regular contact with parents and other stakeholders, in a bid to improve the quality, accuracy, and clarity of our written communications. I'd recommend that the session takes about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes to deliver. We had received some negative feedback comments, regarding our communications, varying from examples of poor grammatical accuracy, to instances in which the tone of emails, letters, and other forms of correspondence were perceived as rude. It is surprising how common this is across schools, and how little training is provided on these forms of interaction. Following this training, we are receiving far fewer complaints, and many staff members now keep the help-sheets pinned up by the desks to refer to when communicating with parents. Participants learn through: - Participating in a fun pub-style quiz to eradicate common spelling, punctuation, and grammar misconceptions and errors; - Considering the role of parents, their needs and interests, and what they expect from their child's school, as a means to understand why schools sometimes receive difficult communications; - Reading and analysing examples of poor written correspondence, considering how both the tone and the accuracy can be improved; - Exploring different language strategies to create a personal, polite tone within emails, by considering the connotations of different words; - Taking away help sheets that can be referred to whenever written communications are being drafted. The resource pack includes: - Colourful and engaging whole-session PowerPoint presentation ; - Examples of written communications for participants to analyse; - Quiz answer sheet; - Accurate Written Communication help-sheet; - Polite Written Communication help-sheet. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide. (Please note that the only section of the PowerPoint that you may wish to modify is with regards to the distinct features of parents at your own school - Aside from this, the resources are good to go!)

This CPD session offers an engaging and original approach to improving behaviour management practices. Grounded in educational research, this CPD session is interactive, well-structured, and has been successfully tried and tested. The aim of the CPD session is to develop the knowledge, skills, and strategies needed in order to utilise behaviour management even more effectively in lessons, and it achieves this by embarking upon the following learning journey: 1. Fully understanding the various reasons for challenging behaviour; 2. Observing and analysing behaviour management practices through a Youtube video; 3. Evaluating the main behaviour concerns in the participants' school/classrooms 4. Gaining familiarity with a range of research and theory suggesting the best methods and strategies for a number of different challenging situations; 5, Planning effective behaviour management strategies to prevent and combat challenging behaviour in the participants' real-life classrooms. Included in this pack are: Full PowerPoint presentation, a hyperlinked video for analysis, cards fro the Diamond Nine activity, a top tips helpsheet, instructions for the main group task, and guidance for trainers/ presenters. All images and videos are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Lord Byron’s love/relationships poem 'When We Two Parted.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Line-by-Line Analysis; Poetic Devices/ Language Devices; Themes; Form/Structure; Poems for Comparison; The Poet’s Influences. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Thomas Hardy’s love/relationships poem 'Neutral Tones.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Line-by-Line Analysis; Poetic Devices/ Language Devices; Themes; Form/Structure; Poems for Comparison; The Poet’s Influences. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to understand how the lead protagonist of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry himself) develops as a character throughout the narrative. In doing so, students learn the key structural features of the ‘Bildungsroman’ genre, and apply these to the different stages of development that Harry experiences. They then go on to design their own Bildungsroman storyboards! The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Comprehending how Harry is initially introduced to the reader; Reading extracts from Chapters 2, 10 and 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, identifying how Harry’s character develops; Analysing how the story fits the structure of a Bildungsroman novel, and tracking Harry’s development through the stages; Creating a storyboard for their own Bildungsroman novel; Self assessing their learning attempts. Included is: Whole lesson 30 slide PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Collated paper extracts of Chapters 2, 10, 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; Harry’s development tracking template; Create your own Bildungsroman novel storyboard template; -Comprehensive lesson plan. All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 3 and 10 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of J.K Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Context: Magic' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.' - 'J.K Rowling's Description of Harry' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.' - 'Severus Snape' and 'Ron Weasley' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.' - 'Vocabulary Inspector' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 24 pages in length!) I've also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising J.K Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.' It contains comprehensive sections on: - Context; - Chapter by Chapter Summary (with quotes); - Main Characters; - Themes; - Rowling's Language Devices; - Features of Fantasy Novels. All key words and ideas are compartmentalised for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to understand the key techniques used by J.K Rowling in her story opening of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.' In particular, students comprehend the plot and information in the opening chapter of Harry Potter and analyse what makes the opening effective, before utilising this understanding to compose their own imaginative story opening. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Collectively defining the features of effective story openings; - Reading the opening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, identifying the story opening techniques and comprehending the key events and information in the chapter; - Analysing the effectiveness of each of Rowling's story opening techniques; - Creating their own engaging story openings, utilising story opening techniques effectively and imaginatively throughout; - Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - The opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (freely available online); - Effective Story Openings analysis template; - Teacher answer sheet; -Comprehensive lesson plan. All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 3 and 10 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Context: 19th Century Britain' - to aid students with 'Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;' - 'Dickens' Description' - to aid students with 'Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;' - 'The Ghost of Christmas Past' - to aid students with 'Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;' - 'Editing the Text' - to aid students with 'Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I've also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to understand the key features of effective villains, as characterised by Lord Voldemort in J.K Rowling’s 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.' In particular, students highlight key character traits of Voldemort evident in Chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (e.g. lack of empathy, hideous appearance, links to the hero, and a clear goal/objective), before utilising this understanding to create and describe their own effective villains. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Comprehending Voldemort's role in the novel leading up to the Chapter 17; - Collectively defining the features of effective villains; - Reading Chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, identifying and explaining his characterisation as a villain; - Analysing the effectiveness of each of Rowling's techniques in creating the image of an effective villain; - Creating and describing their own imaginative villains, utilising the features of villains effectively and imaginatively throughout; - Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Paper extract of Chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (freely available online); - Lord Voldemort analysis template; - Create Your Own Villain template; -Comprehensive lesson plan. All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 3 and 10 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Sign of Four.' It contains comprehensive sections on: - Context; - Chapter by Chapter Summary (with quotes); - Main Characters; - Themes; - Doyle's Language Devices; - Features of Detective Novels. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This informative and engaging lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge and understanding of the character of Lennie in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It also aims to improve their analytical skills, so that they can demonstrate sustained and sophisticated interpretations of the character. This pack includes the full lesson presentation, with animations and key information, a worksheet with clear and concise instructions, an example analysis extract, and full teacher guidance. The learning journey is clear and progressive, following a pathway of progressively more difficult tasks, including: - An engaging memory game task to recognise and remember items and ideas that are related to the character of Lennie; - A worksheet that enables students to demonstrate understanding of key quotations about Lennie, and to link Lennie to key themes and ideas. - Close reading of a modelled example analysis paragraph; - Joint creation of an analysis success criteria; - An opportunity to answer an exam style question based upon the character of Lennie; - A chance to peer assess against the success criteria. Students should have read, (or during this lesson read) up to the section in which George and Lennie meet their new boss, in order to fully access the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the presentation. You can choose to buy this resource alone, or as part of the ‘Of Mice and Men - All Lessons and Scheme’ bundle, which contains seven full lessons, resources, teachers notes, and PowerPoint presentations, plus a Pointless Of Mice and Men game, for just £5!

This engaging and interesting lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge of the main themes (Dreams and Loneliness) in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It also aims to build their skills in retrieving information from texts, understanding the writer’s ideas and opinions, and making precise and confident interpretations about texts. The lesson uses a range of tasks, that require students to use their visual and interactive skills. It follows this learning journey: - Understanding what dreams and loneliness are, and how we each experience them; - Defining themes and understanding how writers use them; - Understanding how and why themes are used in other famous texts; - Retrieving evidence from the text to demonstrate where the characters experience dreams and loneliness; - Analysing how the themes are used to help get across John Steinbeck’s ideas about 1930s America; - Evaluating each others’ analytical attempts. The resource includes a comprehensive and visually engaging PowerPoint presentation, a worksheet for recording the retrieved quotations, a helpful template for the main task, and a lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation. You can choose to buy this resource alone, or as part of the ‘Of Mice and Men - All Lessons and Scheme’ bundle, which contains seven full lessons, resources, teachers notes, and PowerPoint presentations, plus a Pointless Of Mice and Men game, for just £5!