stay curious
As most of you will be busy planning exciting reading activities, extreme reading photo competitions, and dazzling fiction-related fancy dress costumes for World Book Day tomorrow, I thought I’d share a reading lesson to help alleviate the workload… This Reflective
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
During the Easter break, as part of my other day job, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I had a fantastic two days at the fair, met lots of wonderful people, saw
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
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
KIA Briefing 2: Early Reading Back in February, Education Scotland published this: A Knowledge Into Action resource for practitioners and education staff Briefing 2: Early Reading. I blogged about the document and how it was a small step in the
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
A simplified timeline of events: 2010: Curriculum for Excellence (forward-thinking, aspirational and inspirational) begins full implementation. 2010: Standardised testing is abolished. BUT: HMI start asking to see our standardised testing. (But, erm, we just got rid of it… ) THEN: Schools
Well, the Christmas spirit is strong today – because here is another super festive-themed Task Map for you to download! Today we have Barry Donaldson from Aberdeen City to thank for creating this cute and Christmassy activity-fest! The text is another
Remember, remember the 5th November! Well instead – forget planning – because here is a Guy Fawkes Short Read Text and a Task Map for you to use in class tomorrow! Best suited for P3, P4 and P5 – but could
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
I have just finished reading the lengthy and repetitive report from Education Scotland: 3-18 Literacy and English Review. It’s a cross between an extended inspection report and a reminder of the content of the Experiences and Outcomes; as such it’s
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
Hey Everybody! Just a quick post to remind you that as well as being Valentine's Day on 14th February – it is also International Book Giving Day! And how lovely it would be to celebrate it by exchanging books – we think it
Well, it's approaching that time of year again which, being from Ayrshire, I used to love in school – Burns Night! No doubt preparations are already underway for Burns Suppers including learning some super Scots verses by the man himself.
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
Hi everybody! Today in our Advent Extravaganza we have another TexTplorers Task Map for you to use right now, or you can squirrel it away for the start of 2015. This one can be used as a whole class activity, with
Well, we had to do an extra post today, because when we received an email from Mrs Scott and her class P3/4 at Burgh Primary School – we just had to share their work with you! Jeffrey was so excited
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
Hello! Jeffrey here. Anne is busy with her Clean the Pets for Christmas project. Moomin (French Bulldog) is up first, followed by Rocky. (Crested Gecko) She has a special Wild Cherry scented shampoo that she is excited about… I hope
Hello! As 25th December gets ever closer, I’m starting to panic about my Christmas cards… I love choosing them, buying gold and silver pens to go with them – but I never seem to have the time to sit down and take pleasure in
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, here we are… another day closer to Christmas! As the nativity play and carol concert rehearsals start to take over the timetable, today’s Advent Giveaway is something to keep literacy on the menu, with an appealing Short Read Task
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
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
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