Education

Snorghs at Sgoil na Pairc

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

TESS Article: Do I have to spell it out? Synthetic phonics works

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

I’d like to teach the world to read… but I’d settle for every child in Scotland.

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

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

The Winner Takes It All

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

Why Upstart is a Nonstarter

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

Tackling Inequality Through Teaching: A Letter to the Prime Minister by Dr Marlynne Grant

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

TESS article: When it comes to literacy, let’s start at page 1

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

My Verdict: Education Scotland’s ‘Early Reading Briefing’

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

Planning and Assessing Listening and Talking

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

Read Between the Lines (TESS article)

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: An Open Letter

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

Identifying Reading Problems: How will I know?

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

Closing the Gap: Get a New Plan, Stan

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

It’s time to wake up and smell the /k/ /o/ /f/ /ee/

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

Raising Attainment for All or just for 85%?

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

Why Everyone Needs an Assessment Giraffe

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

We’re Too Hot (Hot Damn)*

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

Making Your Mind Up

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

The Attainment Gap? What about The Teaching Gap?

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

Happy New Year and Happy New Term!

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

So, tell me what you want, what you really, really want…

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

Jeffrey the Assessment Giraffe

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

Christmas, Cannibals and Cats

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

The Derk Isle

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,

The Giraffe Who Came to Tea

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

It will be Christmas in Snow Time…

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