It’s that time of year again, and whilst many children’s priorities may not be those of computational thinking skills and creative ICT, there are plenty of fun, seasonal computing activities we can run in class. In this post we will make 6 suggestions for activities, from foundation stage to upper KS2.

Of course, all of these activities could be adapted for other celebrations / festivals or for different themes altogether.

1. Program a drawing of a Christmas decoration. [ KS2 ]

Drawing shapes by writing code is a popular activity, and is often used for developing skills in and understanding of the power of repetition in a program. Why not have the children draw a Christmas decoration? This could be as simple or complex as needed to challenge the pupils, but in this example we have drawn a basic Christmas tree using a triangle and a square.

We used J2Code Logo [ https://www.j2e.com/logo.html ] for this example, but you could also use Scratch or MSW Logo, or any programming environment that supports drawing or pens (such as using the PU / PD commands in Logo.) Remember to ensure the children plan their program first, perhaps away from the computer, and write an algorithm from which they will create their programs to put into your chosen programming environment.

To use pen blocks in Scratch 3, first enable them as an extension from the very bottom left of the Scratch create screen.

2. Program a Christmas tune. [ KS2 ]

Scratch 3 has a set of ‘Music’ blocks, which enable us to easily select from a set of instruments, and choose to play specific notes for a specified length of time. Better still, as most of us are not blessed with perfect pitch, when selecting the note we want to play, a small piano keyboard appears allowing us to hear and choose the notes by ear.

Creating a complete tune in this way might be a lengthy challenge, but the first line of a well-known seasonal song is more achievable.

In this example we used Scratch 3 to program the first line of ‘Jingle Bells’. You can hear it, here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/343256917

To use music blocks, first enable them as an extension from the very bottom left of the Scratch create screen.

3. Christmas pixel art. [ KS1 and 2 ]

Pixel art can help children learn about how digital images are commonly made up of millions of tiny dots - pixels. They could create a Christmas decoration as pixel art on squared paper, by colouring in each square in different colours, to make up a larger picture.

Using a spreadsheet allows us to ‘go digital’ with this activity. Resize the cells first, so that they are square instead of rectangular (select all cells from the very top/left of the sheet and then drag a column border left so that all the cells in that column are square. All the other cells in the sheet will follow.) Then, use the Fill Colour tool to colour-in each cell or group of cells to create the artwork.

Thank you to Rachel Coultart for inspiring this idea!

4. Make a Christmas character talk. [ FS and KS1 ]

There are some great apps, especially for iPad, that enable the user to take a still image and make it talk by recording the user’s voice and adding an animated mouth (and even eyes and nose) to the image. In this way children could bring a Christmas bauble to life, make a gingerbread man read out a self-penned poem, animate a present that is sitting under a tree and much more!

 We used the iPad app Morfo 3D Face Booth to make this example. Younger children might try Chatterpix Kids app instead.

5. Augmented Christmas reality! [ FS and KS1 ]

It is easy to explore augmented reality (AR) through ready-made materials from Quivervision. It won’t surprise you that there are some suitable Christmas colouring sheets available which can be downloaded, coloured in and then brought to life using the Quiver 3D Colouring app, available for iPad and Android or Amazon devices. Just go to www.quivervision.com and download the ‘Holidays’ colouring pack, which includes the AR experience below.

6. Christmas content in JIT5 [ FS and KS1 ]

JIT5 is the collection of infant tools from the Just2Easy (J2e) suite of online software. The tools include writing, painting, drawing, animation, basic coding and more and can be accessed from www.j2e.com/jit5

The J2e team have recently added Christmas backgrounds, clipart and a word bank to the suite, opening up a huge amount of possibilities for creative, festive activities. Why not animate a reindeer running across a snow-covered background or create a digital painting of Santa and his helpers?

How often have you heard a pupil ask this question? They loved doing the investigation but don’t want to now write up all that information. Well the good news is they don’t have to!

There seems to be a belief that after completing an investigation children should write a full scientific including some or all of the following:

• investigation question
• prediction
• method
• results table
• conclusion
• evaluation

So where has this come from?

I often see schools using worksheets that require pupils to complete these full reports. A quick search of science investigation ‘write ups’ results in numerous examples of worksheets which require pupils to complete boxes for all or most of the above sections. However, it is not an expectation of the National Curriculum or the Interim Teacher Assessment Framework for children to be able to write a ‘scientific report’. There are a range of working scientifically skills that children need to develop such as recognising variables, recording results and drawing conclusions but trying to hit all of these areas in one go is time consuming and tedious for children meaning the outcome does not necessarily showcase their understanding.

There are also a number of skills which are assessed best by watching the children complete the practical or through discussion and questioning. For example, if I want to know whether a pupil uses equipment accurately then this is best done through observation.

Teachers are often relieved when they hear that children do not need to write up full enquiries but they often then ask what children should record. The simple answer is: what you are asking children to record should be directly related to what you are trying to assess (the learning objective). This could be one skill area such as ‘drawing a conclusion’. Focussing on a particular skill area, means you have more time for the doing of the actual investigation, the vital discussion and the modelling of the particular skill. It also means marking can be more focussed on the development of a particular skill area. Focused recording is considered to be best practice in science teaching and learning.

Remember children can also show their understanding from enquiries in a variety of interesting ways such as newspaper reports, cartoon strips, TV programmes, adverts, tweets and letters. Teachers taking part in the Herts for Learning ‘Making creative links between science and English’ training programme really enjoyed exploring creative links between English and science. Teachers have really let their creative ideas run wild after stepping away from the more traditional view of a ‘scientific report’.

Look out for ‘Developing Young Scientists’ Part 2 which will contain ideas and guidance for developing skills and supporting students to share their understanding in a variety of ways.

Interested in finding out more about making links with English or developing science skills then why not book onto one of the relevant Autumn training courses.

Jane Andrews (Teaching and Learning Adviser, English) and Charlotte Jackson (Teaching and Learning Adviser, science) have collaborated with schools to ensure meaningful and exciting links between the two subjects with the aim of raising standards in both.

I genuinely haven’t been more excited about an aspect of my work with schools for a very long time. It seems I’m not the only one.

Children and teachers alike in our pilot schools have been brimming with pride sharing their science books full of purposeful, creative and well written outcomes. 

See the document below to read a great recount from a seed’s perspective written by a Y2 child.

 From my own experience of cross-curriculum writing, I can remember preparing y6 for their secondary school future.  I would explain to them that English language (as distinct from English literature) is not a subject in itself; it is the skill set they will need to communicate effectively in all subjects and crucial to GCSE success.  Even so, it is tough to keep the standards (and interest in writing) up in other curriculum areas.

We have many potential barriers to application of the skills taught in English lessons, not least time and the fact that children can often leave the English learning / success criteria at the door when writing in other subjects.

Last year’s pilot science/English project saw overwhelmingly positive feedback from the schools taking part.  In fact, on more than one of the half-day consultancy visits, I was delighted to see teachers who were so excited about the changes taking place that they were literally bouncing in their seats.

Common feedback across the schools taking part was that the project was just a beginning and that they saw it as the launch pad for longer-term school development – perhaps even ranging across other subjects. This was not said with heavy hearts, rather keen anticipation as the way forward was becoming increasingly clear and achievable.

The foci of the project are:

• approaches to engage, excite and inspire children in science and writing
• developing spoken language – specifically listening skills
• linking quality texts with science topics
• creative writing outcomes which raise standards of writing in science books

An approach Doug Lemov advocates was used to begin the process. At the outset of a science topic, the children were encouraged to record their own ideas in response to a key question. This is done without speaking to anyone else. These ideas also form the basis of the initial discussions. The children later return to these first thoughts and consider what has remained the same, what understanding they have added to, tweaked and refined and what initial thoughts they might now consign to the bin. The rationale for focusing on this initial understanding through discussion was that children find it difficult to apply their English skills in scientific writing when they don’t really understand what they are writing about. By verbally consolidating a firm base of understanding, the children’s cognitive load is reduced, they have less to concentrate on and can also focus on the writing skills.

Discussion skills are taught e.g. how to show you have been listening; add other ideas; disagree politely; encourage others to speak and, importantly, to change your mind where appropriate. The children are engaged by a range of thinking prompts to deepen their scientific discussion e.g. ‘odd one out’ or ‘plus, minus, interesting’.  One reception teacher filmed her children discussing before teaching and then again after. Initially the children didn’t know how to ‘discuss’ and the first videos show little meaningful interaction. Following intervention with teaching and modelling, the final video sees not only a marked improvement in the ability to discuss but the teacher was surprised by how much the children already knew about the subject.

‘Opportunities to discuss fully the ideas led to better outcomes in their writing’. ‘Looking forward to sharing this new way in with colleagues next term, having highlighted the fact that there is so much more you can do in combining science and writing which not only engages the children but serves as both formative and summative assessment too - ‘they don’t normally pester me to carry on their stories.’

By the end of our initial launch day, as well as a renewed enthusiasm for the teaching of science, teachers and subject leaders also took away a broad spectrum of recommended texts to use in every year group, linked to science topics. For example, many teachers reported how much the children enjoyed using Varjak Paw and excerpts from Shadow by Marcia Brown when teaching ‘light’ in Y3.

These great texts aren’t just used for writing models, they are used to bring shadows to life – by responding to these texts through investigation, drama and art, the science lessons are enriched.

‘They are writing a lot more. Children are applying scientific learning and vocabulary to their work in a different and more meaningful way, showing their depth of understanding. English language being used as a tool. Children are proud of their work and want to share it with others.’

As a result of the approaches exemplified in our project launch, teachers reported that science books looked very different. There was a variety of writing and a move away from write-ups of science experiments. Science understanding had developed through the speaking and listening approaches and the children were keen to share their writing. 

Please note that this year’s programme will be delivered as a series of three live webinars. All sessions will be recorded and shared with delegates after the course to enable them to review sessions, access this training remotely and at a time of their choosing if they are unable to access the live sessions.

Please contact either jane.andrews@hertsforlearning.co.uk or charlottle.jackson@hertsforlearning.co.uk for details about this blog.

There are so many fantastic books to support the teaching of science. Here are five which are among my current favourites:

Christian the Hugging Lion

I discovered this picture book version of this true story in my local book shop which is a treasure trove of inspiration. At first, I wasn’t sure exactly where in the curriculum I would use it but I knew it was too good not to use.

The beautiful picture book tells the story of Christian the lion who was bought from Harrods in the 1970s by two Australian friends: Ace and John. They did their best at raising the boisterous cub in their London flat giving him plenty of love and affection.  They even asked the local church if they could exercise him in their grounds. Unfortunately, it was not long before it became apparent that they could not care for his needs. After much hard work, Ace and John successfully returned Christian to a nature reserve in Africa where he could live the life of a wild lion. Years later they returned to Africa to see their old friend Christian now a fully grown lion. Would he remember them? You will have to read the story to find out.

So where does this wonderful story fit with the science curriculum?

In the animals including humans strand of the National Curriculum children learn about the needs of animals for survival and habitats. Through this story, the children really question whether the needs of a wild animal, like a lion, can be met in London and how London differs from their natural habitat. As you can imagine, the story creates a very emotive response and the children are shocked that you really could buy a lion from a department store.

Although thoughts on animal welfare have thankfully moved on significantly since the 1970s, I was surprised to discover that there is still a worrying amount of trade in ‘exotic animals.’ This could lead to discussions in the classroom about pets and how we care for the needs of animals.

Steve Backshall’s Deadly 60

I didn’t realise how popular Steve Backshall was until I moved into primary teaching. However, I soon discovered that his enthusiasm and wonder at the animal kingdom is infectious.  I used this book when teaching about adaptations of animals. We enjoyed reading about some of the deadly creatures some of which already had a fierce reputation and some that were less well known.

For example, did you know that a honey badger can devour scorpions and can stand up to a lion or that the male platypus is one of the very few venomous mammals?

To show their understanding of adaptations, habitats and feeding relationships the children went on to create their own mythical deadly creatures with adaptations that helped them survive in their own habitats. They then adopted Steve Backshall’s dramatic style to write their own explanation texts about their animals and create their own deadly class book. Needless to say, this series of lessons really got the children’s creative minds going and the engagement and outcomes were both very pleasing.

A Pandemonium of Parrots and Other Animals

This book was another discovery from my local book shop. I was immediately drawn to the title and the colourful illustrations and I when I opened the book I was not disappointed. Each double page spread features attractive illustrations of an animal accompanied by a beautiful poem about that creature inspired by its collective noun.

Collective nouns for animals are fascinating. We all know some: dogs come in packs, fish in schools and birds in flocks. But did you know that a group of frogs is an army or that penguins come in a huddle? What struck me is how descriptive some of these collective nouns are in terms of the physical appearances or behavioral qualities of animals. I love a bouquet of hummingbirds and a conspiracy of lemurs. The collective nouns immediately create a range of images in my head. A conspiracy of lemurs reminds me of walking through the lemur enclosure at my local zoo and thinking back it certainly did feel like they may be conspiring.

The short poems pick out further features of each animal and could lead to some good discussions such as: Why do lizards lounge and penguins huddle? What does it mean to ambush and why do tigers do this?

After reading the book, I am sure the children will be inspired to find out the collective nouns for other animals and perhaps even write their own poems. I know I certainly was!

A Tiny Seed- Eric Carle

This is a fantastic picture book to use in the Year 2 plants topic when learning about the role of seeds in the life cycle of a plant. The book shares the trials and tribulations seeds encounter as the tiny seed in the story watches many seeds meet an unfortunate fate. The tiny seed in this story is lucky enough to make it to a suitable place to germinate and grow into an adult plant.

This story helps children remember what seeds need in order to germinate and then grow into a healthy young plant. Below is a Year 2 boy recreating his own wonderful version of the story.

Extract from Developing Young Scientists Part 2:

Little Changes, Tiffany Taylor

How the Borks Became, Jonathan Emmett

Evolution is a tricky concept to teach so why not use a rhyming picture book to help? Both of these stories use mythical creatures and rhyme to take the children through the steps involved in evolution. With attractive pictures, the books identify some of the key concepts for children to grasp in understanding evolution (variation, adaptation, survival of the fittest and inheritance). 

Hooking the process of evolution on to a story can make it both more accessible and memorable.  

The natural world is a treasure trove of beauty, wonder and ingenious design and we don’t have to travel to warmer climates to discover this. Nature is right here on our doorsteps!

Moreover, there is an increasing body of evidence which shows that engaging with nature and the outdoors is good for both our mental and physical health. In other words, children need nature and nature needs children too. It needs children to be guardians of the natural world: supporting children to connect with nature is an important part of this. As Sir David Attenborough says:

"No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced."

This blog contains activities, plants and animals to look out for, and resources to help children connect with, and ultimately champion, the natural world. This can start with something as simple as recording their observations in a nature diary, just like many scientists do now. The National Trust have included this as one of their 50 things to do before children reach 11 ¾!

Five ways to explore and connect with nature:

1) Flowers and blossom

Spring and early summer is the perfect time to ask the children to take a close look at some of the flowers that are in bloom (including tree blossom). Encourage them to draw pictures to show the detail of the flowers to promote careful observation.

Questions to ask children:

• what shape are the petals?
• how many petals are there?
• what colours can you see?
• what is inside the flower?

To help name some of the flowers and blossoms you may see, use this blossom spotter sheet or this Spring flowers ID sheet from The Woodland Trust or try the Plant Life website which shows which wildflowers to look at each month.

Linking with maths, children could try and find an answer to the following questions:

Do flowers always have an even or odd number of petals?

Do flowers of the same plant always have an even or odd number of petals?

Here is an example from a Year 1 child investigating this question with daisies:

Fascinating plants: some flowers like daisies close at night and open back up during the day. There are a range of flowers that do this such as dandelions, tulips, poppies and buttercups. Encourage children to look at them in the evening, early in the morning and during the day to see if they can spot the flowers opening and closing.

2) Bird spotting

Many people find watching and listening to birds a peaceful and relaxing pastime. Over a million people took part in the RSPB’s annual big garden birdwatch in January. It is one of the biggest ‘citizen science’ events and helps scientists and conservationists understand what is happening to bird populations. If you missed it this year, you can still access the results and it is worth putting the date in the school calendar or diary for next year.

Did you know that, as a nation, we spend more on bird feed than any other European country?  Scientists think that this has caused the length of blue tit beaks to become longer over time (an example of evolution)! The RSPB has some simple instructions for making bird feeders from items in our recycling bins and a few twigs. Why not get children to make a bird feeder and then record the birds that come to visit it? The RSPB also has some simple instructions for making a bird bath that might attract blackbirds, robins, woodpigeons, sparrows and starlings to come for a quick dip - a great addition to a wildlife area.

It is useful to remember that birds are often easier to hear than they are to see and listening to bird song is also incredibly relaxing. Children could use the Woodland Trust’s bird song identification resource to try and identify some of the songs and calls of birds that they hear.

3) Insect hunting

Going on a bug hunt is a favourite activity of many a child (and for good reason too): we have a range of beautiful and intriguing invertebrates.

Here are a few of my favourite ‘bugs’ to look out for:

Worms

There are lots of different methods for bringing worms to the surface without digging up the school field or garden (although you can do this too). Worms like moist soil so if you have anything lying on the ground such as plant pots or stones, carefully turn them over to see if you can find any there. You could also try making vibrations! This is sometimes referred to as worm grunting or charming and it is thought that some vibrations mimic the sound of moles, a predator, which send them hurrying up towards the surface.

Children can be encouraged to look closely at their worm (once found), its features and how it is moving. They often enjoy giving it a name and drawing it.

Questions to ask children:

• how long is your worm?
• can you tell where its mouth is?
• how does it move?
• what is its body like?

Encourage children to come up with their own questions and see if you can find the answers together. For more information, watch a clip from Spring Watch on the Amazing World Of Earthworms and check out the National Geographic website. If your school is a CLEAPSS member, there are instructions on the primary website for making a wormery which would be a great extension to this activity.

Ladybirds

Ladybirds are a favourite of many a child. Children can record how many spots each ladybird they find has, and what colour its head and body is (this differs according to which species they are). The Woodland Trust have a great nature detective sheet to help children identify the ladybirds they find.

Once children have spotted adult ladybirds, they can then look out for ladybird eggs. These will be clusters of small golden eggs on the underside of a leaf. Eventually, the eggs will hatch, and children will be able to spot ladybird larvae. The larvae are much easier to spot than eggs as they are quite active when they are feeding and growing. The larvae then eventually become pupa as they metamorphose into the adult form (the ladybird as we know it).

This photo shows two pupae from my garden last year. They stay like this for up to two weeks. If you find some, encourage children to take a picture every day to see how they are changing.   

For more information about the ladybird lifecycle, check out the BBC website or this ladybird life cycle iDial from the Woodland Trust.

Woodlice

Woodlice can also be easily found in damp and dark places. Children could think about where they might find these conditions, in the school grounds or their gardens, and then go on a woodlice hunt! They can carefully collect some to take a closer look at how they are similar to (or different from) each other. There are 30 species of woodlice that can be found in the UK, so they may find different species. One species, sometimes called roly-poly or pill bugs, are able to roll themselves into a ball as a defence against predators.

The children could investigate which material woodlice prefer to live under by placing small squares of material (plastic, paper, card, carpet) on to bare earth and leaving them for a couple of weeks. They can then go back and count how many woodlice they find underneath each material (an added bonus being they may also find some other invertebrates).

An interesting fact to share with children is that woodlice are actually crustaceans that live on land! This means they are more closely related to shrimps and crabs than insects. Children could look at pictures of crabs and shrimps and think about how a woodlouse is similar or different to these.

Butterflies

Butterflies are always a welcome sight.  Did you know that the UK has 59 species of different sizes and colours?

Why not ask children to spend some time looking for butterflies and draw pictures of those they see before using the Butterfly Conservation website or this butterfly spotter sheet from the Woodland Trust to identify what they find.

Bees and bumblebees

It is important for children to see and understand the essential role that bees and bumblebees play in pollination. They can do this through close observation, as it is possible to spot them drinking nectar from flowers and transporting pollen on their furry bodies. Children may even be able to spot a pollen basket which is a structure on the hind legs which certain species use to harvest pollen.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust have a range of educational activities and Friends of the Earth have a good identification guide for older children. The much- loved TV presenter, Maddie Moate, is also a beekeeper and has a series of videos on YouTube in a series called Beekeeping with Maddie.

While searching for invertebrates, children could think about entering the annual ASE Great Bug Hunt. Primary aged children have until the 10th of June to find a ‘bug’ and learn about it. They can share their learning in a variety of ways (producing posters, poems, stories or even a video). This is a great competition for encouraging first-hand experiences with the natural world, research and creativity.

4) Planting

Growing and nurturing a plant from seed brings joy and satisfaction and is a fantastic learning experience. Sunflowers are a great place to start, as they are relatively easy to grow (in the spring and early summer) and they provide opportunities for children to make observations and develop their understanding of plants such as:

• growth over time (height, number of leaves, bud formation and the flower opening)
• how the flowers follow the sun throughout the day
• bees visiting to feast on nectar and pollinate
• seed development

It is also hugely satisfying to grow and harvest plants to eat and is a great way to introduce children to new healthy foods. Take a look at Edible Playgrounds and the RHS Campaign for School Gardening for guidance and inspiration.

The NFU also have Farming STEMterprise projects where children can grow, design and market their own food products.

5) Books and documentaries

So far, all of the ideas and activities I have suggested provide children with first-hand experiences of nature. This is essential, as spending time outdoors in nature has many benefits.

However, alongside these first-hand experiences, there are also opportunities to engage children with nature using books and documentaries that provide the opportunity to ‘travel’ to distant lands and habitats and gain insights into the natural world which are less easy to encounter first- hand. Here are just a few suggestions:

• The Lost Words and The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
• Slow Down - Bringing Calm to a Busy World with 50 Nature Stories by Rachel Williams
• clips from the much loved David Attenborough documentaries on the BBC website such as Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II and Seven Worlds One Planet
• Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch clips to celebrate wildlife in the UK

The benefits of engagement with the natural world to both our mental and physical wellbeing are well evidenced. What is less certain is the future preservation of the natural world. Perhaps by developing children’s scientific observation, understanding and ultimately love of nature, we will also be able to encourage future generations to nurture (and be nurtured by) the natural world in the years to come.

Please follow us and share your learning in nature with us on Twitter @Hflscience.

Why not sign up to receive our regular subject leader emails which are full of resources and ideas to support science learning.

This is our moment.

We cannot turn back time.

But we can grow trees,

Green our cities,

Re-wild our gardens,

 Change our diets and clean up rivers and coasts.

We are the generation that can make peace with nature.

Let’s get active, not anxious. Let’s be bold, not timid

#Generationrestoration

Our planet is incredible and we are responsible for passing it on to the next generation in as healthy a shape as possible. In this blog, there are some ideas to educate and inspire children to protect the environment for themselves and future generations. The earlier we normalise this to children the more likely they will grow up to be environmentally aware citizens.

Being conscious to model good environmental habits to children is something all adults can do. There are many small changes that can easily be put into daily practice:

• recycle – activities where children sort different types of materials while explaining that sorting out different materials means there is less rubbish that will be never used again, move onto having recycling bins available
• reuse and repurpose – hard plastic from lunchboxes can be washed and used in junk modelling, water or sand play or to grow seeds in. Kitchen roll cardboard can be repurposed in construction. Bring in old clothes for the dressing up box. Ask the children for repurposing ideas before throwing equipment or resources away
• compost – have a food caddy alongside snack and meal  times so children can put their food waste into it, explain how farmers can use this food waste to grow new food
• collect litter – encourage the children to look after their community by picking up litter as an activity (always use litter pickers and gloves). Some local councils lend out litter picking resources such as litter pickers and high visibility jackets. Trash Hero Kids has activities and ideas to instil good habits.
• foster a love of nature – Spend time in nature to foster an early appreciation. This appreciation can lead to respect and conservation behaviour later in life
• don’t waste water – encourage children to turn taps off. See how you could safely reuse  water in the garden
• get parents involved – organise a book, toy or clothes swap to encourage reusing. Include sustainability ideas in your newsletter, share what you are doing and ask parents for their own ideas.

There are many organizations and events throughout the year to gather resources and ideas from:

For a small donation, Friends of the Earth will send you a children’s planet protector pack.

Earth day   – this site has ideas to share with older children that can be adapted for early years and

World Environment Day has links to projects around the world.

A good role model to introduce to children is Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist from Sweden, who started to learn about climate change when she was eight. She then lobbied Swedish parliament for change and has now become a spokesperson for climate change. You can introduce her message through books such as Greta and the Giants.

These are just a few activities you could try in your setting to inspire children to help save the planet and be responsible adults. There are more issues you can explore, such as keeping the oceans clean or endangered species, see what you can find out and share with the children in your setting.

Remember

Always keep your messages with children simple and age and stage appropriate.

Be positive about what we can do while not alarming children about environmental issues.

Make all activities fun and hands on.

Promote the idea that all small steps make a difference.

Useful books

• 50 Fantastic Ideas for Sustainability
• What A Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet
• A Planet Full of Plastic: and how you can help
• Somebody Swallowed Stanley

With the heightened status that spelling holds in the Teacher Assessment Framework at KS2, leaders will no doubt be looking to raise the profile of spelling across their school. This is particularly relevant if there are a number of pupils across KS2 who are struggling within this area or have gaps in their learning. The current disruption to children’s education will undoubtedly mean that some children will suffer further dents to their spelling knowledge and cracks to their linguistic confidence.

As a class teacher, I would always find it challenging to include the varied needs of all thirty writers in my class within a single lesson: spelling confidence varied hugely no matter which age group I was teaching. As an adviser, I could see other teachers dealing with the same issue. Furthermore, spelling schemes seemed to focus on end of year or phase expectations and there was no support to tailor materials for cohorts, where children were not working at that point.

Around three years ago, my colleague Sabrina and I began working with teachers on a spelling intervention project- Spelling SOS. Through analysis of reams of children’s writing, we had noticed that similar issues occurred universally from Y3 to Y6 and seemed to be preventing children from moving on in their orthographic understanding. We supported KS2 teachers to identify and target specific gaps in children’s spelling knowledge, prioritise the areas that would generate the greatest impact and work through a systematic programme of study with these children. The outcomes for each spelling cohort were superb what teachers told us each time was that they wished they had a resource that could support the rest of their class in this way! This made us realise that, detailed though it was, the spelling programme of study in Curriculum 2014 was not addressing the needs of all children. Could there be another way?

Thus, after much cogitating and deliberating, ESSENTIALspelling was born. This Herts for Learning resource is a whole class approach to teaching spelling that enables all children to succeed and gives teachers the unique tools to make that happen. ESSENTIALspelling can be used as a scheme for spelling on its own, or in conjunction with the school’s existing scheme to give supplementary teaching guidance. The complete resource features a year’s worth of teaching sequences for each year group; all inter-related and all following on in logical progression.

What is different about ESSENTIALspelling?

This spelling resource is different to other spelling schemes. It focuses more on the teaching of spelling so that children understand how to apply patterns, strategies and knowledge to other words and not just a list of words given for that week. It also provides links to prior knowledge and tracks back to related objectives so that teachers can give targeted support to children who are not yet able to spell words from their year group programme of study. In short, ESSENTIALspelling empowers children to build words- they are shown how to become spellers for life, rather than remember spellings for a week.

Unlike other resources, ESSENTIALspelling places an emphasis on the Review stage of the teaching sequence. This is not ‘what did we learn last week?’ but instead: “What do we already know that might help us to spell words in this sequence?” The Review session is vital because it gives teachers an opportunity for assessment for learning and gives pupils the chance to build connections between existing knowledge and new knowledge. Similarly, the Teach part of the sequence has a huge focus in this resource. ESSENTIALspelling provides essential subject knowledge that will support teachers to explain and unpick the learning behind the lesson.

Wherever possible, all children take part in these parts of the sequence regardless of prior spelling attainment. The Review section always tracks back to prior learning and the Teach section introduces new learning as well as strategies for tackling spelling. The premise is that unless children are supported towards age-related spellings, their learning gap will grow wider.

However, this resource does then offer a teacher the chance to tailor learning more specifically to the current needs and spelling attainment of the children. The Practise and Apply sections give children the opportunity to rehearse spelling patterns and use them in context. Then there are two further sections: Minor Gaps and Major Gaps. Every sequence shows teachers how to support the children who have small gaps in their previous learning -as well as those who have not secured the foundations needed for any given sequence- without the need for removing children from the classroom for a separate intervention and without the requirement of additional adult support.

The Practise sections suggest straightforward activities that can be undertaken independently by children during the lesson or even at home. The emphasis here is on exploration and word building, rather than practising a prescribed list of words. Likewise, the Apply sections follow a regular pattern of children discussing their learning and spelling words in the context of short dictations. There might be a suggestion of an extended writing activity to challenge the children to choose and use words independently and in context.

This resource is designed so that children can build on prior learning, make connections with existing knowledge and learn strategies that will help them develop their spelling competence.  Pupils are encouraged to articulate their learning throughout the sequence. It is through explaining what they have learnt about the patterns and processes of spelling that they will improve their ability to spell accurately. A key strength of the scheme is, I believe, the fluid nature of it, rather than being a ‘one-size fits all’ approach. There are opportunities for assessment for learning at every turn, so it is as much a diagnostic tool as anything else, helping teachers to identify gaps in learning and enable teachers to rapidly fill in those gaps and rebuild children’s confidence. Above all, ESSENTIALspelling is designed to put the joy of teaching and learning spelling back into the classroom!

ESSENTIALspelling can be purchased for KS2 or individual Year groups from the HFL Education shop. If you would like to see some sample materials, there are a couple of free sequences to download for each year group product.

Reading fluency remains high on the education agenda. For many pupils who have jumped through the first statutory hoop of reading skill acquisition – the Phonics Screening Check – yet stumbled when tackling subsequent hoops - the KS1/KS2 reading SATs - a lack of fluency is often the barrier. But, what is meant by the term ‘reading fluency’? This segues neatly to the first resource produced in collaboration with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), published as part of their Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 Guidance Report: 

Reading Fluency Glossary: tool for supporting pupils to develop fluency reading capabilities 

This single page document provides a succinct definition of ‘reading fluency’, alongside a brief outline of two core strategies proven to support pupils’ development: Guided Oral Reading and Repeated Reading. Its clarity and brevity make it an ideal tool to share with practitioners across the school to ensure agreed understanding of the key terminology used when discussing reading fluency. 

Reading Fluency Glossary

The recognition of the importance of ‘repeated rereading’ is also highlighted in the recent Ofsted Curriculum research review series: English, published May 2022. 

‘Repeated reading allows pupils to apply their knowledge to new material and is effective for a wide range of pupils from the early years onwards. The evidence reported in the review showed that repeated reading was effective for pupils with reading difficulties.'

Repeated reading is just one of a number of interrelated and highly effective strategies utilised to secure impressive progress for struggling readers on the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project. Teachers on the project note that when pupils read a text a specified number of times across the week, they developed proficiency, culminating in an ability to read the text with convincing expressiveness; in turn, the cognitive demand of simply word reading was reduced and pupils were able to focus energy and attention on the message that the text – read now with expert prosody – was giving them. By the time the pupils gathered for the second session of the week - the discussion session - they were buzzing with reflections and insights gleaned from the text, and most importantly, they were eager to share! 

‘Magic Moments’ collected from participants on the spring 22 round of the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project

• a child said ‘I had no idea that you could get so much from a book’ 
• parents have asked what's changed in school because they can't wait to share their text with them at home
• the children enjoy reading now and one child was really keen to talk about and share a book they were reading at home

For many, reading fluency instruction has become an embedded part of their school’s pedagogical practice. Yet, how many schools have been able to invest the necessary time, energy and money to provide high-quality training ensuring that any adaptations to practice are underpinned by sound research and informed best practice? Having run the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project since 2018, we know just how much time and space is needed for teachers to not only adapt their practice, but to do so in an informed manner that transcends simply introducing a few quick fixes or dropping in a number of isolated strategies. When this is a case, progress of the most vulnerable readers is hampered and enthusiasm, both of teachers and pupils, quickly wanes. This leads us to the second resource produced in collaboration with the EEF: 

Reading Fluency Misconceptions: misconceptions about what reading fluency is and is not 

This double-page document outlines 8 common myths associated with reading fluency instruction. This tool will prove helpful for schools who feel they have implemented reading fluency practices but are struggling to see dramatic improvements for their pupils, especially their weakest readers. The document will support schools to reflect upon the strategies and approaches they are currently using and whether these are best placed to yield the results they need for their pupils. 

Reading Fluency Misconceptions

‘I think the myths are really great 'interrupters' of what schools might have always done but not realised that some tweaks to their practice can make a huge difference to improving reading and comprehension via fluency’. 

Alison Wood, KS3 HFL Education Reading Fluency Project Adviser 

Disentangling the notion of fluent reading with fast reading has been an ongoing focus of the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project. Having worked with 1000s of pupils, we note that many struggling readers in KS2 and KS3 have quite a high reading rate at the start of the project; or, perhaps more accurately, their reading rate is erratic. Pupils often read super-fast for the first few sentences of the selected text and then when they hit a run of words they can decode with ease, then they fall into an excruciatingly slow pace as fatigue hits and decoding falters. Instead, through the project, we aim to support pupils to hone and refine a suitably paced internal reading voice that allows comprehension to flourish; this can alter throughout the text and be dependent upon a number of factors. Speed can be misleading as a measure for improved reading fluency; appropriate pace is crucial! 

‘Magic Moments’ collected from participants on the Spring 22 round of the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project

• ‘(The pupils) Now pause at the right time instead of reading everything in one go!’ 
• ‘Children are paying attention to the punctuation when reading and are using it to break down larger sentences.’ 
• ‘Hearing them read beautifully with wonderful expression and seeing how far they've come makes you realise why we love this job so much!’ 

In recent years, our fluency focus has extended to working with KS3 practitioners and pupils. Far from finding the experience of engaging this older age group challenging, our project participants have reflected on how well KS3 pupils have responded to the project strategies: 

‘We were not sure how this would work with older students, but with a very careful selection process, detailed discussions about pupil suitability with English teachers and the head of year, and as a result of using diagnostic reading tests (combined with my new found confidence in delivering the project) it was a success!’ 

Kelly Burke, second in department for English, Thomas Alleyne Academy, Stevenage.

Read more: HFL Education KS3 Reading Fluency Project: a practitioner’s perspective. 

‘I could see it working with KS2 students but how would those on the edge of teenagerdom cope? …In reality, this was not an issue. The HFL Education team had recommended to just ‘go in’ with energy, pace and an expectation that everyone would join in and this really worked…they really loved the power of having a pencil and ‘text marking’ as we read’.   

Catherine Root, Literacy Lead at Stationers' Crown Woods academy, Greenwich, southeast London.

Read more: HFL Education KS3 Reading Fluency Project: a practice-based review.

With pupils on the KS3 Reading Fluency Project making an average of 15 months progress in reading comprehension following the 8-week intervention, the evidence is clear that teaching reading fluency should not be seen as an age-limited intervention. In fact, the success we have seen with pupils in Years 7-9 has led us to explore the scope for a Key Stage 4 version of the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project. The HFL Education secondary specialists are well-underway with the development of this exciting project and will begin trials in autumn 2022 – watch this space! 

To find out more about the HFL Education Reading Fluency Projects and to book a place on the next round of CPD opportunities

HFL Education Reading Fluency Project

In this blog, Kathy Roe, Primary English Adviser for HfL, provides some strategies for supporting children in Key Stage 1 with reading, and outlines how the Key Stage 1 Reading Fluency Project might offer support children returning to school this term.

Writing as a parent, it’s been truly wonderful to send my children off to school this week. Don’t get me wrong, we actually like each other – quite a lot in fact. I am very fortunate that lockdown has happened for me with children who are young enough to still enjoy the company of each other and their parents, and who don’t mind being at home. Nonetheless, they have literally skipped in each day and are overjoyed to be back in the company of their friends and teachers.

The adaptations that teachers have had to make to comply with safety in the current climate have been meticulously planned, and thoughtfully carried out by this amazing profession and the children are responding with slight bemusement at most. “We all sit on our own table and face the front!” Schools have done a fantastic job of making the return to school as welcoming and consistent as possible for our children.

One of the questions that we are being asked by our teachers at the moment though, is how to assess and teach reading effectively, especially for our younger pupils in Key Stage One, when standard practice might have involved moving staff between classes for support, for instance. This concern is, of course, exacerbated by the fact that many of our children missed huge swathes of phonics and reading instruction last academic year. Unfortunately, some of our pupils have had very little, if any, opportunity to read over the last few months. Without very regular reading practice, young children will struggle to apply their phonic knowledge with automaticity, and comprehension will suffer. Both word reading, and comprehension need to be attended to in fairly equal measure for young children, to enable them to read successfully, and understand what they are reading. This will need to be underpinned with activities which promote a love of reading. Both learning to read, and fostering a desire to read, in other words.

The government document ‘Guidance for full opening: schools’ tells us ‘For pupils in key stages 1 and 2, school leaders are expected to prioritise identifying gaps and re-establish good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics), identifying opportunities across the curriculum so they read widely, and developing their knowledge and vocabulary.’

We hope to provide a few useful and practical activities here which will support you to meet the requirement above to identify the gaps, and to support with providing high-quality reading instruction which attends to the key components.

Engagement

In order to create that will to read, it will be important to make it really clear that we read because books are wonderful. We spend time breaking that code, and practising daily because stories are magical and, if we understand what we’re reading, they take the reader somewhere where catharsis and transportation through visualisation can take place. This sounds so obvious, but time and again, I have supported children who have managed to make it almost all the way through primary school without realising this – some think that reading is a chore that we must undergo for little or no reward. This motivation can be fostered through activities such as: reading aloud to them daily, from well-chosen and rich literature; reading poetry and learning it by heart; re-reading well-loved texts and performing them, and re-writing them; reading outside; using drama to act stories out or to improvise in role; making personal recommendations to each and every child in the class; bringing library sessions to life with story-telling and suggested reads.

Reading assessment

Accurate assessment in reading will underpin successful teaching. Effective systems to assess word reading, and comprehension along with fluency will need to be in place but we certainly don’t want to subject our young pupils to a barrage of tests upon their return to school as we are, quite rightly, prioritising their well-being and settling them back into routines.

Ensuring that the book-stock is very well-matched to the chosen phonic programme will be an essential starting point. For more guidance and support with matching book-stock, please read this blog. 

Using a well-matched text, spending time 1:1 with each child, listening to them read, reflecting carefully on that process, even carrying out diagnostic assessments as they read, asking some comprehension questions, gives great insight into what each child’s specific next step might be. For instance, do they substitute whole words when reading, rather than making attempts to blend? Do they have an overreliance on sounding out and blending, rather than reading some words with automaticity? Do they sound reasonably confident when applying their phonics, but demonstrate a lack of comprehension? Do they sound stilted and staccato to listen to, often not paying attention to the punctuation? Do they lack the ability to phrase correctly, taking odd breaks within and across sentences? Each of these difficulties will require a different approach, and having that precise knowledge as a teacher allows you to effectively group the children according to next step, and to provide appropriate and precise intervention. The HfL reception to KS1 guided reading toolkit can support with this.

Teaching of reading

Daily, systematic phonics instruction gives children the skills to encode and decode our written language, and in addition to this, children need plenty of opportunity to apply that knowledge into reading. Systems which support that independent application for young children, so that the teacher is freed up to target smaller groups for intervention can be helpful. Simply reading from a well-matched text is a perfectly valid and useful activity. This can be done in pairs, with children reading to each other. Children can be asked to read and re-read either a familiar book or one that that is easily and smoothly accessed based on their current phonic knowledge and progress in reading. This supports with reading confidence and fluency. You’ll notice that reading prosody, or expressive, phrased reading improves, when reading a book that is marginally too easy. Providing well-known and well-loved story books and modelling retelling those stories, perhaps with the use of puppets or small world supports children to develop their literary language. Listening stations are a useful and enjoyable resource; carefully tracking a text whilst listening to it being read can support reading automaticity. Phoneme spotter stories support children with both consolidating known and taught grapheme phoneme correspondences, but also support them with spelling as they begin to infer the ‘best-bet approach’. Adult-led reading groups will be most successful when the three elements of word reading, comprehension and promoting a love of reading are all attended to.

Shared reading allows the teacher to model the thought processes which we, as expert readers employ (such as visualisation, chunking longer sentences into phrases, re-reading for sense, self-correcting) on a text which is pitched slightly above that which they might read independently. This also allows the teacher to explore new vocabulary, teach comprehension skills, and foster a love of reading. The use of carefully chosen, high-quality literature, which both reflects reality, and transports away from reality is vitally important. Shared re-reading of these lovely books will allow the literary language to leave a trace and be replicated by children into their writing.

In addition to the independent, group and shared reading, children will also hugely benefit from being read to. There are some wonderful systems in place across our schools to ensure consistency and quality of the read-aloud. Again, high-quality literature and infectious enthusiasm on the part of the teacher are key. 

Reading Intervention

The EEF, in their summary of recommendations for Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1, recommend that schools ‘use high-quality structured interventions to help pupils who are struggling with their literacy’. As mentioned earlier, this will be underpinned by accurate assessment in the first instance. Where assessment reveals that reading fluency is the next step for children, HfL’s Key Stage 1 Reading Fluency Project supports and empowers teachers, through extensive CPD and bespoke support, to raise reading achievement for groups of children in a short space of time.

The project focuses on: accurate and supportive assessment of the chosen pupils, both before and after the 8 week intervention; modelled fluent reading of ambitiously pitched, real books; strategies to facilitate repeat reading and internalising fluency, improving accuracy, and improving comprehension.

To find out more about the project’s powerful impact on past cohorts, or to book one of our limited places on the upcoming project, please visit our project page.