And we’re back! I hope you all had exactly the summer break you needed.
Our special section this issue is on assessment: Adele Darlington discusses ways to track pupil progress in art without stifling creativity (p60), while Marc Owen explains his favourite approach to whole-class assessment (p53).
In leadership matters (p45), we’re focusing on the, sadly widespread, issue of pupil poverty. Three experienced education leaders offer both tried-and-tested solutions at school level and suggestions for national policy changes. We also have advice from Hannah Mansell on how you can encourage pupils to think beyond barriers of socioeconomics and gender to reach for their dreams (p11).
On p45, Hannah Shaw has put together a six-week unit on healthy eating, with the aim of empowering children to make good food choices in a time of widespread childhood obesity.
In more light-hearted things, we’ve got lesson plans on comedy (p86), singing (p90) and using drama to generate creative writing ideas (p88). Plus Laura Di Pasquale has some fun ideas for ways to incorporate coding robots across the curriculum (p30). Children will also enjoy Aidan Severs’ maths activities, on page 40, which are all about money.
Literacy-wise, Pie Corbett shares findings from the very successful Punctuation Project (p72), and Laura Dobson demonstrates effective ways to teach compound sentences (p67). On page 75 we have a KS1 book topic based on Nadia Shireen’s charming The Bumblebear, while our expert WAGOLL (p70), on crafting an awkward scene, comes from Emma Carroll – bestselling author of Letters from the Lighthouse and Escape to the River Sea.
Wishing you all good things this term – and if you’d like to write an article for Teach Primary, just drop me an email.
Enjoy the issue!
Lydia Grove – Editor
