I developed this when working with a year 5 class, as I felt communication between school and home wasn’t good. Pupils filled this in on thursday, I checked it on friday and added any comments if necessary (usually not) and then pupils took this home on fridays for their parents. Logs then came back to me on monday and I could then deal with any issues the parents have. The aim is to improve school-home relations. Suitable for KS2 students.

This is the plan - with extra cast sheet, resources list and invites - for a Roman Castleford assembly. It lasted about 15 minutes, and the kids absolutely loved it. The bits about castleford could easily be adapted so that you keep the rest about Roman britain and change it to suit your local area.

I created this as a homework sheet for SEND pupils in secondary, who were working at KS1/2 level. We had been working on different sentence types and adjectives/adverbs, so this allowed them to put this into practise and gave them examples also so they had a really clear structure to follow. As this group had issues with retaining information and skills, I also made the home learning helper sheet, just to provide more scaffolding. This could be used with lower ability/SEND pupils in KS3 or pupils at KS1/2. It can be used as home learning task, as a lesson, or as a scaffolded assessment at the end a unit incorporating these skills.

My class were working through a unit based on our school community and Britain overall. I was becoming very concerned that in the political climate of Brexit, some of the students were beginning to repeat misinformed, ignorant and even bigoted opinions that they had picked up elsewhere… so I wanted them to consider immigration over time from the view of an outside observer. This worked a treat and I was especially careful to let students lead discussion, with me guiding/asking questions as needed. The information is something I’ve adapted from BBC timelines. If you have access to computers, students could do this as a research task instead. My class completed this teamwork task based on immigration to Britain over time and the attitudes that people were met with when they arrived. The opening starters really encouraged discussion and allowed us together to respond to negative ideas about immigrants. Then, students worked in groups of 4 and read each page as a group, breaking down who was coming to Britain, why and if the reaction was positive or negative. They presented this in different ways - it was quite open ended. One group presented this on a scale of a great reaction (Notting Hill carnival) to terrible (race riots) - depending on the class, you could explicitly ask for this as the open-ended nature might be too tricky for LA/SEND students. It’s also possible to differentiate if you have a weaker group by taking out some of the sheets as this is a lot of ground to cover for some. At the end, we talked about why the British reacted this way and linked this to our starter. All in all, this prompted some really interesting discuss and allowed some students to break down misconceptions of other students too. I used this with year 7 but I think this would with KS2 right up to KS5 classes if adapted slightly.

I used this with my SEND group who were in year 8, but working at KS1/2 level. We watched a clip from Youtube (Just search: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire: Hungarian Horntail Task.) Then we worked in pairs to put the pictures in order at first, and then match the correct sentence below and stick this in. One higher ability pair had to change their sentences as an extra challenge. This became the plan of our Harry Potter diary - we were completing a topic about Dragons - so students had all the events and information, and only needed to transform this into a diary style. This topic is suitable for KS2 and KS3 pupils and is easily adapted for different ages, abilities and needs. It’s very simple just to take out the sentences either in part or altogether and ask students to create their own from scratch.

Here’s a simple task I use with Y7 SEND students to reinforce and consolidate learning based on SPaG terminology. This would work as a pre-SATs revision task for SPAG - Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Children have the option to work in same-ability pairs and research at the computer if needed. I find that this makes follow-up slow writing tasks easier, as pupils can refer back to definitions when asked to include a word type etc. in their sentences.

At the end of a unit of work based on various Mr. Bean clips, my KS3 SEND students watch the clip from youtube of Mr. Bean, waking up late for the dentist. Here’s the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VumrpkL6RS0 Firstly, they cut out the pictures and in pairs, put these in order and discuss the events of the clip and how we might describe this to someone who hadn’t seen it. We split the clip in half and I show them my own slow writing from the first half of the clip. Then, their independent writing task is to complete the slow write for the second half of the clip. I’ve taught this to whole classes in year 5 and 6, and to small SEND groups in year 7 and 8. It’s always a hit, and I’ve found that the slow writing technique has made a big difference to the quality of writing that we’re producing.

Just a handy help sheet, showing 6 different women ‘who made History.’ I’ve used this as part of a discussion on ‘International Women’s Day,’ prompting students to think about: how these women faced adversity/were ahead of their time in some way what character traits and qualities they showed what it was that gave them the strength to be courageous, despite being afraid how we can use their message to find strength and courage in our daily lives.

A creative writing task, based on the XBox/Playstation game, Ark: Evolution. I've found this is a great task for KS2 students, though it's definitely suitable for KS3 English also. Great for inspiring those uninspired students (especially boys) by bringing their love of gaming into literacy lessons. See my blog - link at the bottom - for more details as to how I've used this in the past. https://skillswithfrills.com/2018/02/07/teaching-students-with-an-xbox-imagination-bring-the-game-to-them/

Here are 10 different teamwork-based scenarios which pupils (preferably in teams) can discuss, before teamwork gets underway. Each group is given a specific problem and has to discuss together how they would resolve the situation and encourage the team to work together. They then feedback and we discuss as a class. If I have time and students are keen to add some drama, I’ll ask them to act our their scenario and resolution as a role play. As a teacher of life-skills, I saw teamwork as a discreet skill-based subject, as well as linking this in throughout other subject areas. These scenarios are based on the situations that just seemed to happen again and again. I find it extremely useful to use something like this BEFORE teamwork begins - things seem to run a lot more smoothly afterwards. Inevitably, you may still have some problems within groups, but you can refer back to these scenarios and how the class chose to solve problems. I’ve also thrown in a ‘Top Ten Teamwork Tips’ sheet, which students can use alongside this activity and keep in sight to support any partner/group based task. For strategic advice, ideas, lesson plans related to Inclusive Teamwork - ideas that fit nicely with this discussion-based task, go to https://skillswithfrills.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Published-Optimus-magazine-pull-out-Inclusive-Teamwork.pdf for my 4-page pullout in Optimus Educations’ ‘Special Children’ magazine.

These slow writing prompt cards provide your KS2/KS3 writers with an opportunity to be independent, whilst also using a scaffolded approach. Children can shuffle and select from the 16 cards before including this in their writing, leading to a much more structured piece of work. Examples are included with each card to support understanding. I’ve used these cards with a range of different topics and I’ve had a lot of success with this approach, particularly with struggling writers, SEND students, and those who just generally lack confidence in their own skills and techniques. Slow Writing does take time and patience, but what students lack in speed, they more than make up for in the quality and progress of writing. See my blog from a while ago discussing successes with the Slow Writing approach and SEND students - https://wordpress.com/post/skillswithfrills.com/1340

This is a fantastic lesson that I’ve used many times as part of a skill-based curriculum. The topic here is ‘Time’ and this lesson takes students on a journey through time and space, through the ‘Cosmic Calendar’. This topic and the clips included are super engaging and thought-provoking. I’ve had some brilliant lessons following this structure (including tricky classes!) The lesson begins with a clip and brief discussion, relating to how we (the average person) spends our time - e.g. 1 of every 5 minutes on social media. Eeeeek! Students are then given questions for the quiz ahead and have a few moments to look at this as a team - the idea is that they work together to note down and recall specific pieces of information… but I don’t tell them this! We then watch a clip - link included - of Neil DeGrasse Tyson presenting ‘The Cosmic Calendar’ as students jot down notes. Following this, there’s the quiz which they answer in teams. We then peer assess answers, before uncovering how the winning teams managed to remember the info (this is where we discuss team strategies!) After a little discussion - lots of opportunities for SMSC - we have an independent sketching plenary which allows students to demonstrate understanding of this complex concept at its base level. I’ve taught this lesson as a single hour with year 7 students, but I’ve also extended it as a teamwork project in two or three lessons, with students presenting their own alternative version of the Cosmic Calendar. It’s easy to differentiate as low down as year 5 students and as high as year 11, with only a few tweaks! Whether your goal is to learn about Science, Time and Space; to build up note-taking skills in Literacy; or to work on teamwork/retention skills, this lesson is an engaging way of doing them all.

This is a lesson that I created for all year 7 teachers upon our first meeting with students - it’s a great project to try out with KS2 or KS3 pupils. It will help you to really see who they are, how they think, what their team skills and confidence are like, across different subjects. In a nutshell: there’s a mix of speaking and listening tasks, amidst the introduction of P.M.I (plus, minus and interesting.) At the beginning of the lesson, we model a task, via the example: ‘what if money grew up on trees?’ - Pupils have to really consider the realistic positive, negative and interesting outcomes. This isn’t so much about getting the ‘right’ answers (though one laptop or ipad per group will certainly help with research), but more about engaging students in thought-provoking, curiosity-based discussion. The P.M.I topics here bring up some really interesting ideas and debate, whilst students develop their teamwork, research and presentation skills too. Included here is: ppt. slides for the full lesson, slides to hand out to groups (different scenarios for each group), a blank P.M.I grid to support note-taking and group research/ideas, an assessment grid to judge presentations and a full walkthrough of the lesson.