Thursday 26th September 2024 is the European Day of Languages! This is an assembly that has been prepared to let children know this, and to encourage them to reflect on why there is a special day for languages. It would work well as an introduction to a whole day of European language themed small activities e.g. the lunch menu in other languages/teachers greeting you in other languages. There are opportunities to iterate to children that, even though we are leaving the EU, we are part of Europe, and will still be part of Europe when we leave (Not overtly mentioned - this could be held as a discussion on the ‘Europe’ slides.) It links to what I have called in the presentation ‘British Values’ (but for my school we talk of Core Values) and prompts children to reflect on how learning about another person’s language and culture can link to values such as tolerance. There are links to a clip, where children have to listen for the French speaker saying ‘hello- talk to me’ - as we teach French in our school (simply amend the photo and listen for the language(s) that you teach if it is not French). Later on there are some fun activities, in French, which are appropriate if you do or do not teach French, as ideally, throughout the school day, you would incorporate ways to engage with the other languages spoken in Europe (e.g. am register in Italian, pm register in Spanish - I have chosen French as we teach it in our school and it needs a ‘push/plug’. The material is designed to fill approximately 20 minutes assembly time. If I had more time to fill, I would show one of the excellent French language short animations afterwards, such as Du Tout Cuit I hope you find this resource helpful.

Come on England! We are behind you. Triangular-shaped bunting on a power point to print out for children to colour in. Red coloured pencils at the ready! Hastily put together in time for tomorrow’s game! The alternative activity is to complete the second half of the flag, symmetrically. Would make a lovely classroom/window display if we do manage to get through to the finals! I hope you enjoy using this resource. :-)

This assembly looks at the issue of single use plastic. Children are asked initially to use words to describe an idyllic scene, which they later find out is cropped, and the image reveals a litter-strewn beach. The slides talk through the origins of plastic and explore some of the benefits of plastic, so children can understand how we have arrived at this situation. The assembly goes on to look at the drawbacks -in simple terms, not too hard-hitting or upsetting. The final part of this assembly encourages children to think about what they can do to address the situation. There are slides encouraging recycling, not using in the first place, and participation in litter picks. The assembly ends with a prayer, but a good alternative would also be a silent promise - one thing the children will do in the next week to help the situation. There are also external links to two clips that could be used in the assembly - one a classroom clip about different types of plastic and another You Tube clip that’s quite a nice opportunity to ask children what unsustainable choices the man is making, and what the drawbacks for him of each of his choices are. I hope you enjoy using this resource. It is such an important issue and I’m very pleased it is becoming increasingly topical. I would be grateful if you would leave a review, once you have used the assembly.

End of term fun. A classroom quiz full of topical and relevant questions. This was lots of fun in the making and I think it will be lots of fun in the doing! This quiz consists of four rounds of 5 questions each. The answers are multiple choice apart from the two bonus rounds. The rounds have been carefully selected to appeal to a wide cross-section of interests and abilities. Each new round is introduced with a sound bite to catch attention and each question also has a sound bite that plays automatically to gain silence, so you can read the question out. The answers are given after each round, groups being asked to swap to mark by passing to the left. The rounds are: Football (World Cup) Strange but True In the News Fads and Crazes The bonuses are pixelated images of famous people, books and films, to identify, some easy some more difficult, and can be done as timed extra rounds, or printed and given to children to do as a less-structured part of the quiz, and a quick break for the adult reading the questions. This quiz is written primarily for a KS2 audience, but could be used for older children, too. I have not had a chance to use this in the classroom, yet, but I did pre-test it on my own (key stage two) son, who loved it, and was begging for more the next day, even writing his own questions. I would appreciate feedback. In the end-of-term spirit, some of the questions are a little ‘colourful’ and be warned - the England chant as a sound bite on one slide will add to that ‘end of term’ vibe. :-) I have included lots of ironic potential answers to keep us quiz masters and mistresses amused, too. I hope you enjoy using this resource.

This is a whole lesson encouraging children to think critically and evaluate whether the information they see on the internet is real or fake. This resource includes: lesson (or session) plan and an activity. The plan details how to encourage children to think about what we use the internet for, and through the use of classroom clips introduces the idea of fake news. Children are given tips about how to evaluate whether a story etc might be fake or genuine. The activity is to look at a screen shot of a news story/twitter feed/web page/email/viral photo and decide whether it is is real or fake. Children click the answer each time (real or fake) -most are fake - and then there is extra information about how they might have reasoned this, what clues or warnings there were etc. These are mostly real-life examples. Although the activity has been entitled ‘Fake News Spotter’, the scope of the lesson is actually much broader than ‘Fake News’ as it also touches upon scams, trusted sources of information and using the internet for research. Tip: The activity is designed to be completed by the children individually/in pairs in ppt, but if that is not possible, it can be delivered as a whole class activity, or the slides can be printed and children can examine them in groups or pairs and sort them into a pile of ‘real’ or ‘fake’ before the answers are talked through as a whole class. This makes a nice reading-based activity in mixed ability pairs - perfect if there are carousels of activities taking places as part of a whole school approach to Safer Internet Day. I’m really pleased with this lesson which I have used with Year 4. I did notice that, when using the ppt, they all were very keen simply to see if they were correct or incorrect and whizzed through the slides without really reading the important information, so I would advise that you put in place some incentives to ensure that they actually read the slides - perhaps partner has to ask a question based on the content, or each taking it in turns to read the slide aloud before moving on - I had to make at least one quarter of the class go back over it again when finished. I hope you enjoy using this resource - there is so much misinformation out there, even for us adults - anything that helps our young people think more carefully about what they see or share, or how they select what sites they visit, is, in my view, a good thing!