Saturday 18 May 2019

From the @TES Blog: Ditch The Three-Part Lesson


My latest for TES can be read here: https://www.tes.com/news/ditch-three-part-lesson-and-remodel-these-8-things-mind

Friday 17 May 2019

The Primary Curriculum Leader's Handbook


I am pleased to say that I have a short essay in John Catt's 'The Primary Curriculum Leader's Handbook', edited by Roy Blatchford who has 'has brought together some of the sharpest thinkers in education in a brilliant mixture of both practical and conceptual essays about what makes for a positive primary curriculum'.

Here's the opening of my chapter which is entitled 'Apprentices and Masterclasses' and which reflects the current practice that my school and my colleagues have been developing:

The National Curriculum, with a degree of effort, is fairly easy to cover, once you’ve got to grips with what some of the statements mean. If everything is planned out well, a school can ensure that all the statements are ticked off, at least in their intent, even if sometimes some objectives are lost at the implementation stage. But is that the sort of curriculum you want? One that is concerned with ticking
boxes?

You’ll have seen the delivery of this sort of curriculum in action. An afternoon’s art lesson often concludes with 30 pieces of near-identical artwork, 31 if you include the teacher’s piece that ‘inspired’ all the children. A Design and Technology unit that is concerned with making sure that at the end of the half term all children proudly present their parents with a glue-gunned photograph frame that, choice of embellishment aside, is the same each one of their classmates’...

The book costs £15 and is out on 22nd May abut it can be pre-ordered here now: http://www.johncattbookshop.com/titles/the-primary-curriculum-leader-s-handbook

Tuesday 14 May 2019

Book Review: 'The Maker of Monsters' by Lorraine Gregory

Dystopian fantasy/scifi inspired by Frankenstein from the author of the brilliant 'Mold and the Poison Plot'? Don't mind if I do. When I heard there was to be a new Lorraine Gregory book I was certain it was going to be another original tale of adventure, full of heart and soul.

This one is also full of gristle with a side helping of gore. Whereas 'Mold...' had the smells, 'The Maker of Monsters' gets its grim grittiness from the horrific creatures, so vividly depicted, created by the tortured Lord Macawber. Bent on revenge he raises an army of resurrected creations, pieced together from beasts both mythical and real and powered by his waning magic.

Brat knows what's going on; after all he has worked for Macawber (love the name - great etymological links with 'macabre') nearly all his life since he washed up on the beach of the island where the magical Lord has his forbidding castle. He knows that if the monsters break free then all hell will break loose. And when they do its up to him to warn the people of the mainland. Of course, no main character in a children's book goes it alone and thankfully Molly rescues Brat and proves more than useful along the way as she and her father help to break into the City.

Despite being based in a corner of a world completely different to our own, both the settings and characters are so well developed that nothing seems out of place, even the monsters. In such a short story Gregory displays absolute craftsmanship in the way that she writes. The fact that the people in the story are hardly any different to us (only a handful have magical powers) is the glue that holds it all together - they are just so incredibly human that everything else is plausible.

With several subplots involving rivalry, an estranged daughter and a people held captive under false premises, this hard-hitting tale (things really don't go to plan where in conventional children's books everything would be OK) is touching and warming: Brat's pets Tingle and Sherman play the role of adorable animal sidekicks (such as you might find in all good Disney films) and the real central theme here is love and relationships. The things we do, in good faith, in the name of love and their impact on the lives of others is a concept explored here in an upper key stage two-friendly manner, although it would probably suit KS3 readers even better.

If you're after a short-ish read for older children, especially one that would make a great read aloud and one which also would provide plenty of points for discussion whilst still falling into the fantasy genre, then look no further than 'The Maker of Monsters'. Lorraine Gregory has done it again.

Monday 13 May 2019

From The @TES Blog: Eyes Down, It's Time For SATs Reading Test Bingo


In what must be the article with the shortest shelf life that I've ever written I've made some tongue-in-cheek predictions for the content of the 2019 Reading SATs:

Read it here: https://www.tes.com/news/eyes-down-its-time-sats-reading-test-bingo