By Jean Gross CBE, formerly the government’s Communication Champion for children and young people. Oxford University Press recently published the Oxford Language Report – a study into the effects of the word gap on children’s learning and what we can do to combat this. Here, Jean Gross CBE, offers some practical suggestions about how we […]
Read more The first Oxford Language Report finds evidence of a significant word gap in UK schools, a problem which is holding back children’s learning and which teachers believe is getting worse. Here Jane Harley, Strategy Director ED-UK at Oxford University Press, gives some background to the report and explains why closing the word gap matters. Why […]
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Is spelling really that important any more? Especially in the modern world where children are growing up using onscreen documents, emails, texts, all with autocorrect? Unfortunately, as Jerrold Zar illustrates in his poem ‘An Ode to a Spellchecker’, we can’t always trust the computer to spot the ‘Miss steaks aye kin knot sea’. The truth […]
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by Rebecca Evans, Read Write Inc. manager for Abbey Catholic Primary school We teach children to read but how do we keep them reading? Here at the Abbey Catholic Primary school, reading is at the heart of our school. Not only do we have reading displays around school which include photos of parents reading to […]
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Read the Way with Project X: Teaching Thematic Clusters Some of you will know that Project X Origins is structured in thematic clusters of four or five books, but did you know that there are several key benefits to the theme/cluster structure? Read on to find four key ways in which the thematic approach of […]
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Why is non-fiction important for reading development? A guest post from Roderick Hunt, MBE Why is it important to widen children’s early reading experience into reading non-fiction and information books? It is because the literate, print-bound world for which children are being educated requires the ability to process information and master the many formats […]
Read moreSome stories have a kind of DNA. The characters, themes and ideas pass from story to story, evolving and changing along the way. Each new storyteller adds their own ideas and interprets the characters and the dilemmas they face in new and unexpected ways. In popular culture, we retell these great stories again and again, […]
Read moreIf you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. (N.Mandela) Our children’s world revolves around using huge amounts of highly advanced accessible technology. Surrounded by computers and social media, children “chat” more than ever, but spend less […]
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Good reading comprehension is a critical skill, fundamental to learning across the curriculum, to reading for pleasure and for success in life. Helping children to develop this skill can feel like a challenging process. However, a strong body of research evidence, including a recently published report from the Education Endowment Foundation , reveals three identifiable aspects that underpin […]
Read moreYear after year, when SATs and GCSE results are announced, the headlines shout about girls outperforming boys, but there is very little or no explanation for parents as to why this might be happening. As educators, we owe it to parents to show them what the issues are, what their school is doing about it, […]
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