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Let’s Go Outside!

The last 2 years have taught us a lot. One thing we’ve learnt is to appreciate the world around us more and enjoy the outside spaces we have. Whether it be going for walks, getting out in the garden or heading to the coast, we’ve all developed a new found love of being outside.   As a school, we’ve always embraced being outside and many schools are now, more and more, taking learning outside when they can.  Come rain, wind, sun or (without doubt) snow, you’ll find outside learning appearing on the timetable of one of our classes.  We are lucky as we have a forest area and have developed our status as a forest school over the past few years. Regularly, you’ll find children in the mud kitchen or making dens or cooking marshmallows over an open fire. But it’s not just the forest area. All of our outdoor spaces are regularly used by classes to help with learning.  We have an outdoor stage which is used for drama performances and music sessions. We have a gym trail which is used in PE lesso
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‘You may not know your perfect: A blog for newly qualified edupeeps searching for their perfect.’

I can still remember 16 years ago to when I had qualified with my BEd degree. It was a long, hot summer and I had just moved all my uni stuff back home.    I was excited to start my career. My very own class for the first time. Wow! The search was on for the ‘perfect’ job.    That’s what we want, don’t we? The perfect job, in the perfect school to start our teaching career.    It’s out there somewhere isn’t it? Surely the perfect job will come along and I’ll be sorted right? This is what I thought.  I went for 3 or 4 jobs, got turned down for some and was lucky to be offered a couple of jobs, but for me they didn’t fit what I had in my head as ‘my perfect’ so I turned them down.    Time went on, job adverts became less and it started to dawn on me that I needed a job quickly or else I wouldn’t have a job in September! Oh my goodness, not having a job in September would be a disaster! The end of the world! That’s what we think.  I’ll admit it, I started to panic, and at that poin
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You’re invited to the #FFBWednesday party!

Have you ever been to a gathering or a party or a wedding where you don’t really know anyone and it’s clear that everyone else there have met before and know each other? Everyone is really friendly and they walk around, chat to one another about things they’ve got in common and put the world to rights.  You might try and join a conversation about something you have in common with them and thankfully there are usually one or two who might chat back to you but they’re soon off on their way back to their group. This is my analogy of how edutwitter is for some people.  It’s like that party (and sometimes it really is like a party as it’s such an amazing thing to be involved in with so many amazing people) and even though you’ve been invited and are welcome to be there, it can feel like you’re not quite ‘in the room’.  You might have pressing questions, you might have great ideas, you might actually have so much that really is worth hearing but it’s like you’re on the outside looking in. Y
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Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork

During my 15 years as a teacher I have been blessed with being able to work with the most amazing teaching assistants. I know, as I’m sure you all do, that having a great teaching assistant working alongside you can make teaching and learning in the classroom so much better.  Someone once said that ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ when talking about the successes of a school and I totally agree and believe this to be true on a daily basis in our classrooms.  Having that person working with you who knows your ways, who knows what you’re thinking, who gives a little smile when you make an awful joke, who knows what you want from the children and who seamlessly works alongside you in delivering the objectives for the day is so powerful. The skills of a teaching assistant should not be (and I’m sure we don’t) underestimated or downplayed.  It makes me sad when I see schools having no choice but to cut teaching assistant hours to be able to balance the books but this blog isn’t
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Born to teach?

Born to teach?  Now there’s a question! You often hear people say, “x was born to be a teacher, they are a natural, teaching is in their blood!” Etc. Is that true though?  For me personally, I wasn’t born to teach. In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to be until I got to sixth form and thought, “bloody hell! I need to start thinking about what I’m going to do in real life!” I had never thought about teaching. I don’t have teachers in my family, I wasn’t in awe of all of my teachers nor did I think I could do a better job than them and want to prove it.  Some very generous people have said to me at points in my career all those quotes I started this blog with and I’m pretty sure that I’m undeserving of them but I’ve gone on to do alright so I’ll take them! So what is it then? When you see these really ‘gifted’ or ‘natural’ teachers, what is it that makes them this way? Is it purely the training they go through? Nah. Is it the fact they get on well with children? Can’t be.
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It’s Good To Talk

Imagine the scenario: a child has been taught regular online safety lessons by their teachers. So often the lessons go something like: ‘you mustn’t have a social media account until you’re 13’ ‘You should never send pictures on social media or as text messages that you wouldn’t want your gran to see’ ‘you can’t do this...never do this’ we focus a lot on the ‘legal’ side of things and the ‘don’ts’ but perhaps we need to think about the potential impact of this. This is something that came out of a conference I went on today. I’m not saying don’t teach them the don’ts but let’s think some more... So, why could this be a problem? Imagine the next scenario: the same child who has been taught the ‘do nots’ for years and years has been caught up in the moment and through peer pressure or just through exploration has sent a picture online they shouldn’t have done. Is that child going to come forward and talk to their teacher about it to try and get help? The answer is no. Remember, they’ve
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Pom Pom Lids and Chalk on the Walls

I like to think of myself as a fairly forward thinking teacher. I love new technology, new ideas, amazing new resources. I try them in my class regularly. If they work then great! If not, I drop them. As much as I love shiny new things and can see how teaching and learning can be made better through using them, I still use some ‘classics’. Here are my ‘old school must use’ resources that I think still work just as well as the shiny and new: Mini whiteboards One of my most used and, for me, most effective resources used in my classroom are mini whiteboards and dry wipe pens. I use them every single day. A great way for children to show their understanding during main teaching as well as many other uses. I love writing on the tables but there’s something lovely about the proud moment a child writes down an idea or answer and throws their hand up in the air while holding the board up against them so nobody can see (sometimes resulting in rubbing off their answer). Cheap and a
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