stay curious
PE1668 Submission from Anne Glennie to the Petitions Committee 19th June 2019 I am writing to the committee in response to the Deputy First Minister’s latest submission (17th June 2019). I agree entirely that ‘phonics is only one part of
I just had to share these fantastic clips and email sent to me by a lovely teacher that works in Sgoil na Pairc on the Isle of Lewis. I had to email you and tell you about our day! We
The following article appears in this week’s copy of TES Scotland (8th December) Do I have to spell it out? Synthetic phonics works Last month I gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament on my petition to improve literacy standards
You can feel it in the air. The end of term. Proms, prize-givings, leavers’ assemblies and celebrations for all that’s been achieved in another full-to-bursting academic year. As schools close their gates for the summer, many involved in Scottish education
A Journey to the Dark Side: from Phonics Phobic to Phonics Fanatic I am delighted to have a feature article published in the summer edition of the NATE Primary Matters magazine. It's quite a personal one, but it will hopefully
As 2016 drew to a close, Strictly Come Dancing, X Factor and The Apprentice all crowned new champions, as the losers clapped to hide their misery in the side-lines. In PISA, the biggest education tournament of them all, Scotland recorded
Upstart Scotland is actively campaigning to introduce a Nordic-style kindergarten system between the ages of three and seven, with learning being undertaken through ‘creative play’ rather than ‘formal’ learning. As a campaign that sits outwith Scottish education, I was shocked
I am delighted to be able to post this letter from Dr Marlynne Grant, to the Prime Minister, on the subject of tackling inequality through education. The Rt Hon Theresa May MP Prime Minister 10 Downing Street London SW1A
Today Nicola Sturgeon officially launched the 'First Minister's Reading Challenge'. Here is an article that I wrote for TESS about the challenge. It was published in TESS on 1st April 2016. TESS article: When it comes to literacy, let's start at page
Well, it has been just over a year since I started writing angry letters to the Scottish Government and campaigning about the need for proper phonics teaching in the classroom and in teacher training in Scotland. So today gave me
Would you like some *new* and *free* documents to help with planning and the assessment of Listening and Talking? Of course you would! Well, I have created the following that might be useful in your school to provide consistency in
Recent comments from Nicola Sturgeon suggest that national testing might be about to return to Scotland. I do support our forward-thinking curriculum, but I also feel there are bits of it where we could do better. We cannot ignore the
Dear Ms Constance I wrote to you in March 2015, although I realise that you probably don’t actually get to read every email you receive, given the demands of your job. I also wrote to my MSP Alasdair Allan back
I’ve just finished an interesting article in TESS: ‘When will literacy get its fairy tale ending?’ by Emma Seith. It has a great graphic showing the depressing SSLN results compared with two years ago, and there’s some super stats about
It has been a busy few weeks in the education world in Scotland, with what has felt like hunners of literacy reports and results being published. Having read them all, I am disappointed to find a lack of specific advice as
On 29th April the latest SSLN results were published, revealing the performance of our children in reading, writing, talking and listening. You would hope, that given the fact that almost all of our teachers now feel confident in delivering the
Over the last couple of days I’ve been following tweets from the Raising Attainment for All National Learning Session 2 in Glasgow with great interest. Even from the tweets it’s clear that there is a real buzz and feeling of
What does a giraffe have to do with assessment? Well, Jeffrey the giraffe, as well as being extremely intelligent, handsome, and good at telling jokes, actually performs a very important function in the classroom: he encourages formative assessment – reminding
Nicola Sturgeon recently announced that a new Attainment Scotland Fund, worth over £100 million over four years, is to be introduced as part of a support package to improve educational outcomes for children in the most disadvantaged communities. This is
In response to last night’s blog post ‘The Attainment Gap? What about The Teaching Gap?’ lots of people have contacted me looking for recommended reading and research. I could just tell you the name of the game-changing book that challenged
I’ve been biting my tongue. I’ve been trying to be patient. (I’ve written to the Scottish Government on this very subject, but am still awaiting a response.) I don’t want to be the messenger that gets shot. But with all
Dear Readers, Happy New Year! Well, as the first week back draws to a close, I'm sure that for most of you the term is already in full swing, the holidays are a hazy memory and you're ready for the
Well, there’s only a few days left now until the end of term and the start of the holidays – hooray! So today we have another prize – another poetry book – again ideal to have on your desk and
Well, here we are – finally, it’s the last week of school before Christmas! Woo hoo! Today’s prize is a very special one indeed! How would you like to win your very own Mini Jeffrey Puppet for your classroom? As
Ho! Ho! Ho! Here is Santa Jeffrey with another quick Christmas gift to save time planning for next week! Don’t resort to a DVD – keep the cherubs busy in the last week by giving them this tricky Blankety Blank
Well, can you believe it? Today marks the half-way point in our Advent Extravaganza! It also means that there are only 13 (unlucky for some) shopping days until Christmas… but that’s the bad news – the good news is, that,
As Anne is off gallivanting around the countryside, today’s advent treat is another giveaway. I know that many of you have remarked on Anne’s bracelets and bangles in the past, as she often tries to wear a ‘book bangle’ particularly
Well, today’s giveaway might be appropriate soon, if the weather forecast is to be believed. Anne has chosen a lovely book of poems called ‘Sun Time, Snow Time’ (RRP £6.99) which is a cross-cultural collection of poems, contrasting life in the Caribbean with
Bonjour mes amis! (see my 1+2 languages there!) Today on the blog we’re giving away another lesson download, one that you can file away to be used on a rainy day, or whenever you just need a quick literacy activity
Well, perhaps you’ve guessed from the title and picture that today’s giveaway has a Scots theme! ‘I dinna like the Midge’ (RRP £6.99) is a lovely anthology of Scots poems for children and is ideal to keep on the teacher’s desk, to
Woo hoo! All happy at Zoo HQ because it’s nearly Christmas, but more importantly – it’s nearly the weekend! Thank you to those of you have been dropping by the blog everyday so far, and an especially big thank you if you’ve
Well… I am thrilled to be able to introduce you to my new venture, The Learning Zoo, and to my new colleague – Jeffrey the Giraffe! The Zoo will offer in-service training and conferences in Reflective Reading (formerly Muckle Reading) as
Well… what to say… yesterday was my final day of being a Big Writing consultant. The last four and a half years have been wonderful, and it’s truly been an honour and a privilege to work with Ros Wilson and
Dear Mr Rosen, I notice you’re fond of writing open letters, so I thought you wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of one. Forgive me for thinking aloud, but I wonder if you are running out of things to
I have a confession to make. I still do Brain Gym in my classroom. I normally don’t mention it to people. It lost its credibility in the classroom after Dr. Ben Goldacres’s damning report on the Bad Science website. Its
Dear Miss Trunchbull, I’m writing to you to because I’m worried about Miss Honey. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but she’s not herself at the moment. Something is missing from our classroom, and I’m not sure, but I think it
Everyone loves Michael Rosen. He is one of my favourite authors to use in class to inspire children, through his books, poems and more recently the fabulous internet clips which bring poetry such as “Chocolate Cake” to life in the
This morning I finished reading ‘Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning’ by Sugata Mitra. It’s a short book but it promises much: “This important update on Mitra’s groundbreaking work offers new research and ideas
Reading my copy of TESS this week I was enjoying Fraser Speirs’ feature on using mobile phones in the classroom “Don’t run what ya brung”…until I got to the small print. Underneath the article some quotes from Fraser’s Tweets and