This is a complete literacy unit of 15 lessons aimed at children aged 9 - 12 based on the poem The Listeners by Walter de la Mare. This is an amazingly rich piece of poetry and lends itself to some fantastic thinking, discussion, drama activities and creative writing. The resource contains a three week set of outline lessons plans learning objectives success criteria key teaching points to establish. lesson resources additional suggestions for cross curricular working. This will be of interest to you if you are working with children aged 9 - 12.

Take the time out of planning your spelling programme. The resource provides the half term overview, teaching points, word lists for use with children in Year 4. Suitable for teachers, parents, homeschoolers and trainee teachers. The remainder of the Year’s plan is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This resource aimed at 7 - 11 year olds, provides 8 starting points to investigate next door neighbour numbers or consecutive numbers on a number line. Each one can be used as a separate lesson idea or the different starting points could be given to different groups of children in the same lesson. Answers included!

Developing Mathematical Thinking is the key to effective teaching in mathematics. This resource takes a simple number line and shows you how to develop the key skills in mathematical thinking using 8 simple activities. It includes Starting Points, Key Questions, Teaching Points and Assessment Guidelines to help you introduce, develop and assess the children’s progress through the teaching activities. This resource also contains advice about how to structure your teaching to build the children’s confidence and how to gradually reduce the support as their confidence increases. Effective and practical advice to support you in the classroom and to raise standards in mathematical thinking.

This is simply a list of websites that I put together for some friends who are home schooling their children. Hope you find them useful.

This is a full lesson plan aimed at Years 5 and 6 to develop skills in finding the nth term. I used it in an Ofsted inspection and it was well reviewed. Our theme that half term was The Tempest - hence the links to Caliban! - but it stands as a discrete maths lesson. It contains learning objectives, success criteria, learning activities and key learning points to be established. Hope you find it useful.

Teachers, Home Schoolers and Parents. Take the time out of planning your spelling programme. This resource gives you the spelling lists, rules and word lists needed to cover the Y3 spelling programme in the first half term. The remainder of the programme is available on TES Resources.

Take the time out of planning your spelling programme for Year 5. This resource will give you the first half term’s coverage with teaching points and differentiated word lists. Suitable for teachers, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. The remainder of the Year 5 Spelling Programme is available from Teaching R ainbows on TES Resources.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 1 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y1 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 2 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y2 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 5 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y5 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 4 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y1 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This resource is to be used with Year 5 and 6 children working on a story writing unit. Contains success criteria and space for self, peer and teacher assessment.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 3 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y3 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from Teaching Rainbows on TES Resources.

This resource is a series of strategies to build in thinking time in the primary classroom to promote effective, active participation. The strategies suggested are all tried and tested in Key Stage 2 but there are a number of strategies suggested which would work well with younger or older children. This resource is for you if you are working with children in a group setting and want to encourage more children to take an active role in lessons. So often, less confident children will sit back and wait for other children to answer either because they lack confidence or have learned to tale a passive role in lessons. These strategies will ensure that all children have an equal chance to participate.

Wednesday Work was an initiative I introduced with my Year 5/6 Class following a seminar at the Global Leadership Summit led by Patrick Lencioni. He taught a session based on businesses who had increased productivity by allowing their employees 20% of their working week to follow their own lines of enquiry and plan their own time. These goals had to be in line with the companies aims but gave employees ownership of their time and their direction. This had a significant impact on both employee retention, and productivity. In school, we identified 2 hours a week with Years 5 and 6 and within the theme of that half term’s work, gave the children the opportunity to decide what they would like to learn, do or make. The rules were as follows: A full plan had to be submitted showing aims, outline plans, resources, predicted timescales and intended outcomes. This had to be discussed with a member of staff and resources had to have been either collected in school or brought in from home before work could begin. Each child was accountable for working to a high standard and for their progress in each lesson. Once completed, the results had to be shared with the rest of the class. The outcomes were amazing! Children who usually couldn’t wait for break time were asking to stay in to complete their work! The children displayed a variety of skills and talents and their general confidence grew as a result. Children who struggled with academic learning became experts in their own strength zones and were looked up to by the other children. The highlight of these sessions was a termly open afternoon where the children displayed their work and we invited parents into school for the children to present their work. These afternoons were great confidence builders and really showcased the children’s talents. Give it a try – you won’t regret it!

Developing Effective Group Work This simple resource is designed for key stage 2 teachers looking to promote effective group work in their classrooms. In life, people need to be able to work together but these group working skills need to be carefully developed to ensure that they are effective and positive. Much has been said already about the positive impact of working in groups, but this isn’t always the case. For some children, working in a group can be daunting as they are either over-powered by a more confident person or demotivated because their ideas are not valued. Structuring group work by allocating distinct roles within the group is a means of valuing each child and ensuring that they play an equal part in the decision making. The six roles are as follows: - The Leader The Leader is responsible for managing the group and ensuring that everyone has a chance to speak. They draw the discussions together and summarise what has been said or decided. Scribe The scribe is responsible for keeping a record of what has been discussed and what has been decided. Timekeeper The timekeeper is responsible for keeping time. They remind the leader when time is running out and suggest to the leader that the group move on if they feel that the group are not going to complete the task. Spokesperson The spokesperson is responsible for feeding back to the class at the end of the group task. Encourager The encourager is responsible for offering support to other group members to encourage them to speak and to celebrate good contributions. At the end of the task the encourager should nominate the person they think made the most significant contributions to the task. Challenger The challenger is responsible for challenging ideas. They should be asking the ‘hard’ questions to ensure that ideas are well thought through. Each session the children swap roles so that each child has the opportunity to take on each role. Some will be more of a challenge than others, but each child has a part to play.

This is a set of maths targets for use with Year 6 children in the first half term of the academic year. Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, home schoolers and trainee teachers. Can be used at home or at school to monitor progress, for homework or as a group activity. The full set of Maths Targets for Y6 and for Years 1 - 6 is available from E4MC on TES Resources.