Year 6 Teachers, You've Got This! Your 5-Step Game Plan for SATs Week 2017

The latest in my series of blog posts for Third Space Learning focuses on SATs week itself. The focus is on teacher and pupil wellbeing and provides 5 steps to take to ensure year 6 teachers and pupils aren't too frazzled by the end of it.

So, the time has come. SATs week 2017 is upon us. On Monday morning, after months (hopefully years) of preparation, the nation's Year 6 children will sit down to the first of 2017's Key Stage 2 National Assessments.

Year 6 teachers across the land will be pacing halls and classrooms, catching glimpses of questions and hoping beyond hope that the primary school children in their classes will do their very best.

And I assume you're probably one of those teachers, or a supportive Head or SLT member.

You'll be feeling a heady mix of excitement and nervousness while anticipating the children’s chance to show off all they've learned. You might also be wondering what on earth the test-writers have come up with this time.

Click here to read on over at the Third Space Learning blog: http://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/2017/year-6-teachers-you-ve-got-this-your-5-step-game-plan-for-2017-ks2-sats

From the TES Blog: The Pre-SATs Checklist: An Eight-Point Guide To Ensure You're Ready

Here's one I wrote for the TES blog all about those little things that might be forgotten in the run up to SATs but that, if sorted, will make the week run much more smoothly.

By now, as a Year 6 teacher, you're probably fairly fed up of Sats-related advice, but bear with me. You see, there's always the chance that some minor detail has been missed. Sure, your scripts are all locked away in the safe, you know which test is happening on which day and you can bet that the children are as ready as they can be, but is there anything else you need to sort out in these last few days before the Key Stage 2 Sats tests kick off?

Here's my personal last-minute checklist, which I will be running through in the next few days.

Click here to read for free on the TES blog: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/pre-sats-checklist-eight-point-guide-ensure-youre-ready

Rocking My Reading World (Reading Rocks 2016 Review)

Last year’s Reading Rocks came about at just the right time: we had suffered in the 2016 KS2 reading test and I was on a quest to improve the way we taught reading.

Twitter had already come to the rescue in part – advice gained from blog posts by Rhoda Wilson and Martin Galway among others were formative in my thinking and strategising about teaching reading. I’d also been tweeting with a great group of people who had a similar outlook on education as myself – book talk was a regular feature in our conversations.

Read the rest over on the Reading Rocks blog: https://wherereadingrocks.wordpress.com/2017/04/29/rocking-my-reading-world/

Book Review: 'It Ain't So Awful, Falafel' by Firoozeh Dumas

Firoozeh Dumas is an Iranian author - right away you have a reason to be using this book, 'It Ain't So Awful, Falafel', in your classroom; the majority of us teachers teach very few texts by non-white authors. As Darren Chetty wrote 'diversity should start at story time'.

And whilst the focus of this laugh-a-page, partly-biographical novel is difference, it serves better to highlight the differences in how people treat those who appear to be different. In many ways the book's protagonist 'Cindy' (real name Zomorod) is no different to the group of friends she builds after she moves to California, yet she experiences varying degrees of treatment from other key characters in the book. It's useful in the classroom to have both positive and negative examples of how others should be treated - this funny and charming story has both.

Once the scene is set the story revolves around the Iranian Hostage Crisis of the 1970s - we see how events abroad cause people to stigmatise and behave  negatively towards those who they perceive to be linked to things happening in far-off places. The story is a safe place to start classroom discussions about stereotyping, ignorance and critical thinking.

The other main theme of the book is relationships (what book isn't about relationships at its core?); what's striking is that despite her embarrassment at times, Cindy clearly loves and respects her parents - positive parent-child relationships are not always portrayed in children's literature. 'It Ain't So Awful, Falafal' also shines a spotlight on close friendship groups (Cindy's contains a nominal Christian and a Jew), relationships between children and their friends' parents and it has a literal look at the concept of 'love thy neighbour'. All of this provides further opportunities to discuss the treatment of others, especially in a plurality of differing relationships.

For a light-hearted springboard for exploring some heavy subjects, an upper key stage 2 teacher couldn't go far wrong by introducing 'It Ain't So Awful, Falafel' to their classroom. With super-short chapters this is the sort of book equally as perfect as an end-of-day read aloud as it would be in a more formal reading lesson. Highly recommended.

Preparing For SATs: Advice For Year 6 Teachers (Part 2)

You might question whether or not I'm a legitimate 'wellbeing expert' but regardless of that I hope you find enough helpful advice on my latest blog post for Third Space Learning.

It's the second in a four-part series focusing on year 6 and SATs. In this week's article I focus in on the two or three weeks after the Easter holidays and look at what's best avoided and what should be prioritised.

Even if you're not a year 6 teacher you probably know someone who is so please consider sharing this link with them.

https://www.thirdspacelearning.com/blog/2017/tackling-sats-week-2017-tips-and-tricks-for-y6-teachers-to-help-pupils-smash-ks2-national-assessments

On the TES Blog: The 9 Essential Components of a KS2 Reading Scheme

After the shock results of the key stage 2 reading test last year, there is barely a primary school in the country that hasn't prioritised reading this year. There are many creative ways of encouraging not only a love of reading, but a high level of competence in the subject. You'll have your own, of course, but here’s a reminder of some of the basics that a good reading scheme can’t do without.

To read the 9 essential components head over to the TES blog:

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/9-essential-components-a-ks2-reading-scheme?amp

Preparing For SATs: Advice For Year 6 Teachers

If you're a Year 6 teacher this Easter, you definitely don't need me to wax lyrical about the pressure you're feeling right now. Teachers up and down the country are, in their own way, stepping up their preparations for that one week in May that so much of their year seems to have been geared towards. Instead, I’d like to offer some advice from my own practice.

Year 6 teacher, click here for my top 5 tips on how to preserve your sanity over the next few weeks!

Whole blog post hosted at the Third Space Learning blog.