I’m a TES Awards-nominated English Lead in an SEND secondary school predominantly for children with Autism. I’ve worked across SEND and SEMH, and mainstream too.
Here, you’ll find a range of resources for students of varying abilities that are hopefully interesting and useful.
If you buy a resource from me and leave a review, I’ll send you a resource from the same price tier. Just send me a Twitter DM.
Also, please feel free to get in contact if you have any queries!
I’m a TES Awards-nominated English Lead in an SEND secondary school predominantly for children with Autism. I’ve worked across SEND and SEMH, and mainstream too.
Here, you’ll find a range of resources for students of varying abilities that are hopefully interesting and useful.
If you buy a resource from me and leave a review, I’ll send you a resource from the same price tier. Just send me a Twitter DM.
Also, please feel free to get in contact if you have any queries!
I made this SOW for my Y7s in an inner-city all-boys school as a way of getting them familiar with some canonical gothic literature before they study it later on in KS3. They produced some wonderful writing. Hopefully it will save some time and afford you a glass of wine if you find it useful. Forgive any errors- it was written bleary-eyed in my first HT as an NQT. Some of the videos are long. Start the J&H cartoon at 5mins and the Dracula clip 16mins until 19mins or so. A few bits are lifted from TES, so am carrying on the sharing that has saved me time. Contact me if you need anything else!
Here are two 30+ page English work packs I made for my SEMH Y8 and Y9 students who are self-isolating. It has sections on SPaG, reading and writing, with an extras section at the back with some fun creative tasks. They will easily suit upper KS2 though. They might look a bit wonky in the preview but they are properly formatted- all you need to do is print them double-sided and staple!
One is aimed at low-ability KS3 students (at the old NC levels 3-4 or thereabouts) and the other medium- to high-ability students who are levels 5+.
Please leave a review if you can. I’d really appreciate it.
Hope they help you. Stay safe!
Here’s a set of three KS3 assessments for SEND students. They each come with a respective mark scheme that is thorough and can be used confidently by non-English specialists. You could use them to baseline or as an end-of-year test.
They are very visual and autism-friendly. I wrote them to take into account the very broad range of levels in our school and to minimise stress, whilst going some way to prepare them for the papers they will eventually experience. They assess reading and writing.
In terms of ability, I refer to the old NC levels below as our school’s won’t make sense to anyone outside of it!
Paper 1: P7-L1 or thereabouts. (similar in format to an EL1 Functional Skills paper)
Paper 2: L2-L6 (similar to an Entry Level Certificate)
Paper 3: L7+ (a much-simplified GCSE structure)
They are easily tweaked and changed so you can edit them how you like.
I hope they will save you an awful lot of time!
This is a PowerPoint quiz to go with a set of Jenga blocks (it can also function with three dice and a spinner too- or even just as a quiz).
There are three sections: spelling, punctuation and grammar. All slides are visual and multiple choice. The homepage is fully animated so tiles you click on will disappear- no confusion! It’s a lot of fun for end of term or revision activities.
As it is on PowerPoint, slides are easily editable for differentiation or colour scheme changes. I use it for a range of KS3+4 SEND classes but it could easily work for upper primary phases, as well as EAL/ESL learning.
There are 18 questions for each section as official Jenga has 54 blocks. I just marked a set with equal numbers of blue, green and red dots.
My students really love it and I hope yours will too!
This is a fun GSCE revision lesson that reinforces quotes and context, etc. It has rounds on themes, quotes and Pictionary, etc.
It makes for a nice break from the revision grind!
This is a 21-lesson scheme of work designed for KS4 SEND children on Romeo and Juliet. There is some Shakespearean language but for the vast majority, it is all translated. All lessons are differentiated/have challenge opportunities. My students are predominantly ASD so there is an increased focus on understanding feelings and some reference to the Zones of Regulation. It will work for your lower level students who need more age-appropriate material too.
For most lessons, there is a more straightforward PowerPoint in supplement to the other for those classes who need simpler language/themes. These are labelled C10. Most worksheets are at the end of the PowerPoints, ready to print.
All lessons are very visual, highly engaging have a range of writing activities, including my personal favourite resource I’ve ever made…Tudor dating app profiles for matching couples of the corresponding classes!
There is a bonus stage combat lesson too, which was very fun but might not be suitable for all learners/settings.
For Lesson 2, I used this fantastic resource from TES for the insults: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/shakespearean-insult-generator-11555694
Here is a very fun and interactive PowerPoint on the Eightfold Path and reincarnation.
I used this for a group of (very RE-reluctant) SEMH boys and it went down a treat- they especially loved the karma quiz. You may want to adapt or create a worksheet for a development task.
There is a worksheet where the students fill out each spoke of the dharma wheel.
I hope you find it useful, and if you do, I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to leave a review. Thanks so much.
This is a four week SoW that should introduce students to some key GCSE skills and terms. It is fully differentiated and suitable for KS3 (however, it would also be fine to use with UKS2 or lower ability KS4 students).
This is a unit created to fit my SEMH school’s Covid response (primary model- all lessons taught by the same teacher), so it is fully explanatory and designed to be taught by teachers of all specialisms!
As well as offering a robust introduction to debate skills and structure, the course has lots of opportunities for fun S&L activities and games.
(the preview can make the files seem wonky- I promise they’re all fully formatted and are ready to go)
In This Pack
90 files including:
1x short term plan
20x bright, fun and highly visual PowerPoints
45 x worksheets (15x HA, MA and LA)
4x weekly marking sheets
1x assessment paper
1x peer-assessment form
1x pupil reflection sheet
1x poster sheets
1x topic divider for books
lots of other activities and writing frames!
Please leave a review, if you can! It is beyond helpful for development of future resources and I’d really appreciate it.
Here are a couple of lessons I’ve made for my school around the issue of racism in regards to the Euro 2020 competition. It has lots of development potential- I made these lessons very quickly and there has since been some wonderful and positive news about communities coming together.
You will get:
2x Highly visual powerpoints
2x differentiated worksheets (writing a letter for the second lesson so no worksheets for this one!)
1x slightly abridged article
It should hopefully prompt some discussion.
This is a resource made for Y9 SEMH students. It touches on the idea of dystopias and utopias and will generate lots of student discussion about what makes a society ‘perfect’. It is part of our Y9 RE unit on suffering. It can be used for an English task or a standalone cover activity.
It is highly visual and creative. It also has a numeracy element.
There are two main tasks- the first is to create their idea of a better society with a budget and a differentiated question for each ability.
The second is to create a tourism poster for their society.
You will get a highly visual and engaging PowerPoint with differentiated outcomes for HA, MA and LA. There are three differentiated sheets, a price list and a poster design sheets.
There was an error on the Books round answer slide (Judith Kerr was written for Jacqueline Wilson- FIXED NOW)
This is a really fun, bright and visual quiz with a round to suit everyone! I use it with my KS3+4 SEND students.
It’s easily adapted for differentiation/interest purposes - and to update next year!
Rounds:
1: Pictures
2: Music
3: News
4: Riddles
5: Guess the Films by Emojis
6: Books
a bonus idioms Pictionary round
All answers are on the PowerPoint and there is a team sheet for students to record their answers. I’ve also an extended version with seven questions per round!
Here is a lesson that I used to get my KS4 SEND class’ imaginations going, and to also gauge their resourcefulness! It was lots of fun and involved banging everything from shoes to frying pans on the wall (sorry, caretaker!). You obviously don’t have to do this, though! It could be for UKS2, mainstream KS3 and EAL students too.
The PowerPoint includes fully differentiated WILFs, differentiated tasks and opportunities for self-assessment.
I hope you enjoy it and it saves you a bit of time!
Please leave a review to give feedback or to leave suggestions. I’d really appreciate it.
Here is a complete lesson that is fully differentiated and has clear links to the PSHE curriculum too. This lesson was observed by Ofsted and went down very well.
Used as a lesson on imperatives with KS3 SEND students, they become agony aunts and answer a dilemma by writing a response. It could used successfully with UKS2, LKS3 and EAL students too!
Download includes:
WALT and differentiated WILFs (purple = HA, gold = MA and Blue = LA)
3 differentiated letters for the students to respond to (included on presentation slides)
Differentiated Bingo Sheets
*Bingo sheets and differentiated letters are included as slides after the presentation!
I hope it goes well, and more importantly, saves you some crucial time!
Please review with feedback and suggestions! I’d really appreciate it.
This is a lesson that uses extracts to compare two very different, very gruff characters. It introduces a bit of 19th Century literature too, getting younger KS3 students at least a little familiar with what’s in store for them!
This download includes:
Detailed lesson plan
Bright, engaging PowerPoint presentation with differentiated objectives
Writing frames
Quote sheets
Extracts
Templates for the Boggle starter
Hope it saves you some time.
Please feel free to leave feedback or any suggestions. I’d really appreciate that.
This is a short pastoral scheme of work that I wrote after working with students who had been highlighted as being at risk of extremist behaviour or radicalisation at an inner-city all-boys school. This was in my NQT year.
We worked with the Foundation for Peace in Warrington on a 3-day residential and from this, I developed a scheme of work to be carried out whole-school in pastoral time.
You can run them in any order you feel is best for your students. The materials are simple, but powerful. Lots rely on games and collaborative activities. I have plenty more information and resources if this is an area that you have an interest in. Please just get in touch.
I hope you find it useful. Please leave any feedback or suggestions- it is always greatly appreciated.
This is a complete lesson aimed at G&T level students that looks at Lady Macbeth and how she could show signs of mental health illness, including PTSD. It encourages higher order thinking and incorporates looking for evidence to match to different diagnoses.
There is some reading of theory involved and an element of drama too- the students are to analyse quotes and create a prosecution and defense for Lady Macbeth in a modern court of law.
This was an unusual lesson that was graded ‘outstanding’ in an observation.
Included in download:
PowerPoint lesson
Mental illness conditions and symptoms factsheet
Detailed lesson plans
Writing frames
Peer assessment proformas
Hexagon matching task - blank to put quotes of your choice in
Academic essay
This is a fully resourced, fully differentiated and high-quality 9 document lesson that only takes about 5mins of prep time, depending on how fast you are with scissors! It’s based around creating recipes from random ingredients. Students will use imperative verbs to write recipes.
I created it for my KS4 SEND class but it would work a treat for primary, early KS3 and EAL learners too. It could quite easily work as a fun transition activity on an open/taster day etc.
I tried to make it as visual and fun as possible- Instructions isn’t the most exciting of topics! I used it for an observation and it was graded as Outstanding. You could easily extend it to include writing restaurant reviews or using some drama etc.
Included:
Lesson Plan - includes WALT, differentiated WILFs, primary national curriculum targets and differentiated ability group information.
3x worksheets (fully differentiated HA, MA and LA)
PowerPoint - visual with WALT, WILFs and opportunities for self assessment and challenge.
Starter cut-and-stick matching activity, which can then be used as a support sheet for the main task (you could differentiate this further by scrambling the words for HA, etc.)
Plenary cards
Differentiated food lists for tasks
…all you need is some envelopes!
Hopefully, it will save you some time planning and mean treating yourself to that glass of wine, extra boxset session or bath.
Please take the time to leave some feedback letting me know how it worked for you and if you can suggest any improvements. I’d really appreciate it.
N.B. I’ve left it how I use it, really- my class are far too competitive to have red, amber and green groups- they’d figure out who’s top and who’s bottom very quickly and it would cause no end of bother, hence why I have purple, gold and blue groups instead. I hope it’s straightforward!
Included are two files to coordinate a lesson where students are given random cards to formulate their own Shakespeare play.
The first is a document to cut up and distribute into different envelopes/boxes etc. This includes character names, plots, jobs, antagonists and so on. I’ve tried to keep them as Shakespearean as possible!
The other is a worksheet set that includes a plot mapper and a storyboard that they plan in six parts.
I’ve used this a few times and it’s always been brilliant. I split the group into two and call them the Bards and the Players. We have a competition and develop props and staging. There are LOADS of ways you can develop this.
I hope you enjoy using this. Please leave feedback or suggestions! It’d be really appreciated.
I’m super proud of this resource. I created it for an Ofsted observation and the HMI called it ‘Genius’. That was a first!
Aimed at KS4 SEND students, it’s got clear literacy and life skills links and can be easily adapted to suit most topics. I’ve left the WALT and differentiated WILFs to show how I used it, but the money cards blank so you can input whatever content that is most relevant to you.
Included:
Colourful, funny and pacy presentation with challenge opportunities and subject matter that the students can relate to.
Question cards with different monetary values (these are slides at the end of the presentation)
Engaging collaborative task
Opportunities for self-assessment
Full, detailed lesson plan
You can use fake money or create your own. I downloaded this fantastic resource and edited it to reflect my school: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/your-school-bank-notes-6160301
Please let me know how it goes, or leave some feedback/suggestions! I’d love to hear them.