light blue read me banner 26th Oct 2019

10 Tips For Teaching Imaginative Writing to Your Primary Class

“The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – William Butler Yeats.

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Blue pencil blog banner 17th Oct 2019

Five Stories to Encourage Friendship In Your Classroom (Anti-Bullying Week 11th - 15th Nov)

From name-calling to physical altercations, bullying is far from a new phenomenon – but that doesn’t mean we should regard it as ‘part of growing up’.

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Orange read me blog banner 24th Sep 2019

Writing Worries Away: Literacy Lessons for Anxious Children

Literacy can be an excellent tool to help pupils release their burdens.

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Red pencil blog banner 18th Sep 2019

Five Awesome Girls In Children's Literature - International Day of The Girl Child

On the 11th of October, the world will observe International Day of the Girl Child. Here are our five favourite girls in children’s literature.

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orange pencil blog banner 21st Aug 2019

Pack A Punch With These Primary Punctuation Games

Getting to grips with punctuation often involves a lot of correction, which nobody – teacher or pupil – particularly relishes. However, help is at hand!

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blue read me blog banner 18th Aug 2019

The Five Best Short Stories For KS1 Retelling Activities

Asking your primary class to retell a story has a host of benefits, here are our 5 favourite short stories for KS1 retelling activities!

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red read me blog banner 19th Jul 2019

Make KS1 Writing Fun With Our Top Tips

“The most difficult thing about writing; is writing the first line.” - Amit Kalantri.

Whether you’re an author on your tenth novel, or a six-year-old tentatively hovering their pencil, it’s certainly true that those first lines are the hardest.

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light blue read me banner 10th Jul 2019

The Three Most Challenging Aspects of Primary School Testing

Despite its difficulties, teaching is a great job. However, there are some aspects to the role that simply aren’t designed to be fun – and testing is one of them.

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Blue pencil blog banner 27th Jun 2019

4 Top Tips For Using Writing Prompts In Primary Classes

“Don’t you know who I am?” 

“Yes. I just don’t care.”

Nope, it’s not the first ten seconds of your lesson from hell – but one of many creative writing prompts that you may uncover with a little basic Googling.

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Light Blue Pencil blog banner 19th Jun 2019

Teaching Children to Write Opening Sentences | KS1 Literacy

“The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.” – The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson.

The very first line in a book can almost tell a story in itself.

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orange pencil blog banner 12th Jun 2019

Inspire Your KS2 Pupils with our Narrative Writing Checklist

Whether we read them ourselves or have them read to us, enjoying a story is one of life’s simple pleasures. However, when it comes to writing one, it can seem very complicated indeed.

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blue read me blog banner 16th Apr 2019

Exercises To Improve Sentence Structure

As essential as the morning bell, registration and lunch break, we all need structure in order for life to make sense. 

… And our literacy studies are no different.

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