Here are some ideas for starter activities that require little or no preparation. They can be adapted to different subject areas.

There are twelve slides, each with a quote or an inspirational list, then exercises. I have prepared this for advanced young EAL learners, but it will suit mainstream years 6 and 7.

This is an EAL newsletter for staff that is fully editable. I have included boxes for a 'student of the month&' feature and an interview with a member of staff. This was very welI received at my school and we had a competition to choose a name for the newsletter. We are undecided between The ReadEMA&'; and 'The Chitchat&'. I will be uploading issue 2 very soon!

This is a list of things to ensure that EAL pupls particpiate as fully as possible in mainstream lessons.

A great picture, with a variety of suggestions and exercises on the present continuous tense.

Saltaire is a charming village in West Yorkshire. This is a little bit about Sir Titus Salt, who had it built and some exercises.

It’s a worksheet about the recent school strike. It is designed for EAL learners but may be of wider use, maybe in Citizenship or tutor period. I’m sure we don’t want them all downing pens, but knowledge is power!

An interesting starter to a lesson the Tudors, maybe. Not the most objective powerpoint. Anyway, I think this is what Anne looked like.

A narrative of the famous county Durham legend, with comprehension questions and language exercises.

A great picture, with activities to practise the present continuous tense.

Two pages - a great picture, by Laurie A. Conley. With a picture, I normally 1) play Splat! 2) Memory game 3) Barrier game (pupil A facing picture, pupil B not allowed to look) 'she&'s wearing a pink top - what&';s she doing? 4) Hot seat - e.g.you are Will 'what are you doing?&' &';what can you see?' etc.... Here, I have made a variety of exercises for writing or homework.

This is a ppt of 40 slides, exploring the reasons why there are so many words in English. It takes a brief look at the historical reasons, but concentrates on language awareness exercises. There are gap fill, true or false and rearrange the letters exercises, as well as picture description and comprehension questions. Finally, the students are invited to create some new words. This is intended for EAL, but most slides are suitable for native speakers.

This is an updated version of my 2016 powerpoint, which was very popular. There are lots of activities to keep them busy and get them thinking. It would be nice to get a few reviews on this one.

This is a worksheet about the Do’s and Don’ts for going back to school. Having read the guidelines, it looks like these will be the recommendations for students. They match up image and description, then consider the questions. A chance to explore how they feel about the return to school and to think about how they will need to behave. I have prepared this for EAL but it might be useful in the mainstream classroom. The font I have used is comic sans and it is so popular, it shocks me that TES can’t preview it in comic sans!

This is a worksheet to get them thinking about adaptations we have to make during the pandemic. They match up the image and greeting. I have prepared this for EAL, but it may be useful in mainstream teaching to get them thinking and for a fun starter.

The resource consists of a power point and two handouts. This was part of a topic we did as a department entitled ‘It’s a man’s world.’ The powerpoint looks at the Brontes in terms of the struggles they had as women, rather than looking at any specific writings of theirs. The ppt starts with the famous clip of Kate Bush as Cathy. My students’ reactions to this (a class of year 9 girls) were very interesting. Links are drawn between Kate Bush and her heroine. The two handouts are : ‘Kate Bush chose Wuthering Heights’ - they read and answer the questions on the handout and ‘The Brontes as feminists’ - they answer the questions on the ppt. I hope it will be useful.

Thirty slides with various different exercises: replace mundane verbs with exciting verbs, RC with questions, true or false activities, match-up, unscramble.

This is a ppt of 57 slides, with activities that students can complete themselves. My students have their English work, but these activities are extra. They are fun, although some lend themselves to writing tasks and where possible, a writing task has been suggested. I’m sending this to my students, in years 8 and 9. I have taken my Fifty Fun Activities ppt on here, which I uploaded for use in PHSC , adapted it and added to it quite significantly. I hope it will be useful. I would love some positive feedback; wouldn’t we all in these miserable times? Some of these activities are sourced from the net.

This is a ‘for and against’ worksheet to get them thinking in a constructive way at this very restrictive time. They read the sheet, compete the questions and carry out the four research topics. It looks a bit awry on the preview, but it is fine on download.

This power point looks at various topics that may crop up in language paper 2, section B. It focuses on the actual content (pros and cons), rather than language techniques. It is intended to make students think about where they stand on important issues. Each slide has a list of pros and cons, and a language task. I have put this ppt together bearing in mind that students are at home. It is easy for them to work through it without teacher guidance.