Interested in primary subject leadership or primary curriculum design? New contact details for enquiries to support schools & trusts with all aspects of subj leadership & curric development. Get in touch via emma
@emmalturner
.co.uk & see below what other HTs & Trust leads think.
Rick Astley at Glastonbury reminds me of the deputy thatโs been at a school for decades & who just quietly & modestly gets on with everything but when something happens they step up & knock it out of the park & everyone goes, โwowโ then the deputy just goes quietly back to work๐
My parents had to cut down some of the trees from our family home. A friend of the family has made them into beautiful bowls. Mum just asked me to choose one. A beautiful bowl made from the tree I used to play in as a little girl. This is just the loveliest thing. ๐๐๐
My middle one (y2) has been taught remotely by her teacher for 2 weeks. Teacher is back in today. Middle one just wrote this and I think itโs the finest phonetically plausible but incorrect spelling Iโve ever seen ๐๐๐๐๐๐
#PandemicPhonics
๐๐๐
A Year 4 blew my mind today.
Y4: I love maths
Me: Tell me your best Maths fact.
Y4: I can tell you one you wonโt know.
Me: ok whatโs that?
Y4: all odd numbers have the letter โeโ in them.
Me, tells
@HalilMrT1
& we both stand there counting on our fingers & spelling.
#MindBlown
So when a car fails its MOT on some fixable aspects you can get a partial retest within ten days, during which time you can fix any issues. The car is not written off or โfailedโ for the next few years. You get a window of time to fix it.
Seems sensible doesnโt itโฆ
๐งต Imagine you went out for a meal.
Youโre happily enjoying your starter when the waiter whips it away from you & plonks down your main course.
Youโre a few bites in & then the same happens with your dessert, then your coffee.
Then the waiter quickly clears the table & closes up
Most nursery or wraparound care settings donโt open until 7.30am
That means no formal childcare until 7.30am
Then thereโs the commute to the workplace after drop off.
Early morning work starts/meetings are hugely challenging for anyone with pre school or primary age children.
If we prioritise curriculum coverage over curriculum understanding then weโre just whipping away unfinished plates.
Everyoneโs hungry, thereโs loads of waste and no one quite knows whatโs going on.
Fewer plates, more time to savour and digest.
Was in a cafe today.A man with visual impairment (& a guide dog) started singing along to the song on the radio then when it reached the chorus, he held the dogโs face & sang quietly to him. It was,โIโve had the time of my life; & I owe it all to youโ I almost wept there & then.
When I started teaching, there were no emails. We all managed to teach, lead, keep everyone safe & function without weekends or holidays full of โessentialโ communication that just had to be sent at the weekend.
Just because we now can, doesnโt mean we should.
Ofsted in SATs week? For the love of God.
Seeing a few primaries getting the call. First SATs week since Covid began is surely not the time to visit.
How on earth are heads meant to juggle the SATs administration alongside an inspection?
Now I have 3 primary school age children I would quite like to build a time machine to go back in time and punch myself in the face for all the ridiculous holiday โprojectsโ I set for my new classes. To all parents of many of my former pupils, please accept my sincere apologies.
Musings from my non teacher dad yesterdayโฆ
So if youโre teaching 30+ children x5 per day all wk & you have to then mark the books, plan the lessons, adjust anything, attend training & speak to parents then there arenโt enough hrs to do this.Has no one done a time & motion study?
Anyone need a 1/2 term activity timetable? Might I suggest๐๐
1. Dragging kids on a pointless walk -everyone moans
2. Arguing over which film to watch
3. Clearing up flour for hrs & realising baking is a ridiculous idea
4. Craft...resulting in shouting
5. Freezing at the park
Youngest had โeagerlyโ as a spelling to learn.
Me: Do you know what eagerly means?
6 year old: Yes, itโs when youโre being a little bit like an eagle.
๐งตWhy Easter holiday SATs booster classes for Y6 get a hard no from me.
1. Because some of them are still only 10. They should be playing during the holidays.
Iโd want every very young child to like their teacher. Itโs a long old day to be in a room with someone you donโt like when youโre only little and everything in life is still very new and youโre actually still getting used to being on your own.
Even if you donโt work in EYFS, we should all be interested in the suggested potential scrapping of adult to child ratios. Provision and outcomes will be compromised and the knock on will be felt by all. We ALL need to be v concerned.Cut a tree at its roots & see what happens.
Whoever set these term dates for Leicestershire I am convinced has never taught in primary. The staff and kids are on their knees after this particular run and there are still 4 more days to go. ๐ด
๐งต So, if you know me youโll know I love an assembly banger! Hereโs a list of tried and tested assembly โhall fillersโ for primary. Oldies but goodies and guaranteed to make you smile. Oh and plenty more where these came from ๐
๐ ๐บ๐ผ ๐
Itโs my 25th year in primary this year. Hereโs what I know.
Education is cyclical; trends and approaches rise and fall in popularity. It really is a case of โwait long enough and itโll all come around again.โ
With this in mind, the only true constant is the child.
A story about spelling testsโฆ
Me: So you got 4/5 in your spellings today?
My youngest (5): yes
Me: Do you know what happened in the wrong one?
Yes.
Me: what?
I put a โyโ in โsheโ
Me: how come?
I wanted to practise writing a y. Theyโre nice and loopy.
Me: ๐ฌ
If youโre recruiting, please consider what your process would be if a candidate invited for interview tests covid positive. Missing out on my dream interview because of the two red lines has been really rough.
.
@nadhimzahawi
has a new team of advisers at
@educationgovuk
- so who are the new faces who will be helping to shape government policy affecting your school?
In an ofsted report,the only named educator on the report is the head. That is incredible pressure. Unless itโs been your name on that form, itโs hard even to imagine. To hear the weight of a judgement was so great, a colleague has ended their own life is so tragic. A community
Still chuckling that when I got my paper diary out today in a meeting I got accused of having the equivalent of a โsundialโ in my bag ๐
Big love to all my fellow paper diary devotees. I know youโre out there!
So my 3 kids can be in 3 different bubbles of 30-60 in school. As parents we can go to work, kids can go to their football training but as a family of 5 we canโt see both grandparents at the same time, even outdoors. In which world does this make even the slightest bit of sense?
Longer school days?
If we look at it as a proportion of very young childrenโs waking hours then an 8-4.30 day is approximately 75% of their waking hours.
Adult equivalent of 75% waking hours 5 days a week would be approximately a 60 hr week on site.
Sustainable for children?
Managed to track down a copy of this online after mine got lost in a house move.
My primary maths heart couldnโt be happier.
If you know, you know ๐๐๐๐๐๐
My eldest (10) is determined to be an Olympian - has been since she was 4.
6 days out of 7 she gets up before anyone else & runs on the treadmill. She also wants to be a footballer. I said I didnโt think anyone had ever managed both.
โThen Iโll be the first,โ she tells me.
After 7 years, surgeries, procedures and lots and lots and lots of appointments, our little teeny tiny preemie tinker (and DogDog) have been discharged. No more clinic! Hoooooray!!!!!!!
I have spoken to 4 women in the last month who have been driven out of roles or not secured roles due to wanting to work flexibly. 4 amazing, experienced teachers & leaders now out of work as of sept because of this. What a loss to our pupils. As a sector we have to do better.1/2
One of the beautiful resources in the old National Numeracy Strategy was the mathematical vocab booklet. It's still a thing of joy & you can download it here. Some things have shifted yr grps but as progression in mathematical vocab goes, it's still lovely
PPA at home as an option since 2005. 16 yrs says it works. It helps. Sometimes people stay in school, sometimes they go home depending on what/with whom they need to work. Insisting staff stay on site is a hard argument to win if what needs to be done gets done.
#FlexibleWorking
Day off so Iโm in the gym. Group of boys I donโt know all about 16/17 in there,
โAre you using this bench boys? May I take it?โ
โNo miss, take itโ
It appears that even in the gym on your day off your teacher voice is unmistakable and itโs seemingly transferrable cross phase ๐ณ๐
Omg itโs here! I wrote a real, actual book! Just got in from the kidsโ swimming lessons to find it ๐ฏ๐๐ฅฐ thanks
@JohnCattEd
@WomenEd
thatโs my 10% braver!
๐งต This yearโs SATs.
Tomorrow our y6 cohorts begin their SATs. Theyโve not had a year without disruption since they were little year 3s, fresh out of KS1. They have had a huge proportion of their little lives away from school, friends, normality, the rites of primary passage
Found my eldest 2 daughters (8&5) lying on the landing floor with their hands through the banisters.
Me: What are you doing?
Them: Weโre being suffragettes chaining ourselves to railings
Possibly my proudest parenting moment to date. ๐๐ซ๐
@WomenEd
@keziah70
@ViviennePorritt
New year, new job! After 5 wonderful yrs with my current trust, Iโll be off at Easter to pastures new as p/t Deputy Director of Education for a local MAT.
Iโll still be working independently around my new role, plus my next book is due, so 2023 looks like an exciting & busy year
The one teaching equipment setup guaranteed to work every time is a skilled teacher, a normal non-digital board and a pen. Some of the best lessons I've ever taught or ever seen are the equivalent of the teaching omelette - simple ingredients done beautifully.
Ofsted report โcoordinating mathematical successโ contains this key suggestion for primary.
Iโm not sure what to make of it, as after 25 years Iโve not seen any primary teacher who thinks a noisy class not paying attention during an explanation is a good idea in any subject.
My cousin and his fiancรฉe had their first baby a few days ago. Today I batch cooked them a variety of almost 20 home cooked dinners and a load of home made biscuits, flapjacks and cakes. Off to see them tomorrow to deliver it all. Because you canโt eat a babygrow!
๐งต
My 7 yr old comes out of school. "I'm going to do computing as my A Levels when I'm older."
"Huh? Where's this come from?"
"Because we did coding today & now I am brilliant at patterns & I am going to do all the things with coding now; I am going to get an A level in this!"
If everyone in education spent a significant chunk of time in or observing EYFS and Y1 then a lot of the messaging around what constitutes excellence in pedagogy, curriculum design and general teaching tips and approaches would be parcelled very differently I feel.
New job starts Monday.
Feeling really lucky to be starting another trust senior role part time.
My last three senior positions, Headteacher, trust CPD and research lead, & now my new role have all been p/t &/or flexi. Senior flexi roles can & do exist but sadly still too rare.
About to go out running for todayโs run in these festive bad boys ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐ป๐ ๐ป๐ ๐ป ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐๐
In today's trip down memory lane for the best resources in the history of the world of primary ever, I give you, "The mathematical vocabulary book". If you've never seen it,follow the link;if you've loved & lost it,prepare to be reunited with a lost love!
Sitting in the garden reading Edubooks whilst my eldest reads the books I read as a child which my mum brought over out of my parentsโ loft. Itโs like the โedu-circle of lifeโ watching her utterly engrossed, holding my treasured favourites from when I was little. ๐๐๐ ๐
I use this document every year with our
@ILSCITT
cohort as they move into their NQT year. It's a practical overview of pretty much everything they'll need to consider to get the ball rolling smoothly in those first few weeks.
Lots of posts asking if unions are worth joining. On my very 1st day in post as an NQT someone elseโs error caused something unexpected & awful which, had my union not been there for guidance, support & resolution couldโve ended my career before it had even begun. Join a Union!
For some children, primary school โisโ their childhood. We need to be mindful of the fact we teach very young children and so ring-fencing the unique state of childhood is an important part of curriculum design. No child has ever run out of school to wax lyrical about a worksheet
Slightly blown away by the fact my ten year old just came in as first female in our local adult 5km
@parkrunUK
@parkrun
14th overall against hundreds of fully grown adults.
She
Is
Ten
๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ
#DoesntGetItFromHerMother
When we design our offer in primary, we need to respect and actively champion Article 31 of of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, that of the right to play. Play is fundamental to all children's development.
๐งต Thereโs been a little sarcasm and sniping about TAs in primary. These wonderful colleagues are sadly an ever rarer sight and the full time TA model is now extremely rare. And this is sad for the pupils, many of whom are still very young and need help to navigate their
5 year old eyfs daughter went to school on non uniform day in full football kit including socks, boots (&pigtails). Class teacher said it was so great to see stereotypes being smashed & itโd been a real talking point amongst the children. Raising strong girls here ๐ช๐ป๐๐
@WomenEd
You finish still hungry.
You didnโt get to eat all aspects presented, youโve felt rushed, flustered & a bit bewildered as to whatโs going on.
This is not dissimilar to rushing onto the next lesson or section in a teaching sequence just because thereโs so much to get through.
I have officially graduated and I couldnโt be more relieved or proud after all my hard work over the last 8 years. My three kids no longer need me on the softplay. I can now enjoy a cup of tea and not have to get into the cheesey plastic snot pit of hell.
#mumgraduation
๐งต Things that are frequently badged as being super right or wrong that donโt always translate to primary (esp mixed age classes)& especially ks1 & eyfs.
1. Rows
2. Group work
3. Differentiation
4. Prescriptive lesson structures
5. Booklets
6. Centralised planning
If someone had told me that national media, Westminster & the DfE would want to pick my brains about
#flexibleWorking
3 years ago, Iโd have laughed. What a difference
@WomenEd
& 10% braver has made. Itโs now on the national radar & Iโm so proud to be part of the conversation.
๐งต My 2 youngest childrenโs reports made me well up. The teacher comment sections capture their personalities & unique attributes so beautifully; their teachers know them so well & as a parent I am absolutely certain they are not only making progress but
If you know anything about me, youโll know Iโll give away every idea, piece of time or any resource I ever have if someone might find it useful. Sadly 3 times this week Iโve had instances where my work has been used/copied directly, passed off as someone elseโs and not credited.
Understanding EYFS is so crucial for understanding how we learn. If you want to see pretty much any aspect of exceptional t&l practice,nip down to eyfs & have a brilliant eyfs practitioner explain the provision & approaches. Guaranteed itโll blow your mind.Iโll owe you ยฃ10 if not
So the boy just did his first Jnr parkrun. Only 3 years 3 months old & he ran 2km in 16 minutes. This is despite him falling over & cutting his knee at the 1km mark.
โWe donโt give up mummy!โ was his response when I asked him if he wanted to stop. ๐๐๐๐๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ป๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ
How on earth has my car insurance more than doubled with the same car, no claims and no changes whatsoever to me or the vehicle?
Whoโs your current/most recent best and cheapest car insurer?
Impossible decisions to be made by school leaders next week.Damned if they do, damned if they donโt. Everyone with an opinion,everyone hot & bothered & exhausted.Whatโs appropriate for 1 school or context or transport wonโt necessarily translate.
Solidarity & support.Stay safe
When youโre so tired that in a conversation with the school receptionist you forget the word for gum shield, go completely blank and call it a tooth jacket. ๐ฌ๐ณ