Please ensure that orders for stocked products are placed by 12pm on Monday 23rd December for delivery on 24th December. Deliveries will restart from 3rd January 2025.
This unprecedented challenge has called for all us to think in ways we just aren’t used to. As lockdown measures were eased and children gradually returned to settings, there was a lot of uncertainty and guidance was sometimes difficult to interpret, leaving many having to work out solutions for themselves or feeling they needed to plan without the full picture.
What a brilliant idea! A display that charts the progression of a topic in any area of the curriculum; pupils interacting with the process; prompts and memory-joggers; a mapping of the learning journey so that everyone can refer back.
Working walls are current! Helpful! Engaging! Inspiring! Effective!
(Aren’t they?)
Working Walls are without doubt an insightful concept. But is it time to check that they are working for you?
The normal role of a teacher (if there ever was one) has been shaken and stirred. So in case you’ve forgotten - never forget that you (yes, you!) do a vital, essential, brilliant and important job, and deserve to be celebrated.
Teaching is rarely plain sailing, but this year has been something else. You’ve adapted, discovered new talents, worried, worked your socks off – had some highs, and a few wobbles. You’ve obeyed rigid rules and experienced crippling uncertainty. And all the time, felt deep concern for your pupils’ welfare and learning.
All pupils in all year groups are expected to return to school in September. Great news! After all, every pupil has the right to benefit from educational progress, wellbeing and their wider social development.
In the past two weeks, children in Early Years have been making their way back to settings in light of recent government announcements around easing the lockdown.
However, official statistics published by the Department for Education suggest that families still think it’s too soon. Just 10% of the usual number of children are attending settings.
We are now well into the new phase for schools. All of our planning, risk assessing, signing and deep cleaning has been achieved and schools are starting to look much more ‘open for business’.
Prior to this, teachers have been busy providing remote working for their students with support staff working behind the scenes to enable schools to continue to operate and carrying out admin functions.
Stress is great. Your body’s in-built stress response enables you to react brilliantly and deal with things in the short term. But just like a tap filling a bath – left on too long, there’s going to be a flood.
Your teaching day is demanding: planning, meetings, teaching, marking, discipline issues, sorting resources, parent consultations… to name a few. And let’s not forget your life beyond the job.
As Early Years settings begin to open more widely for children, teachers and practitioners have an important role to play in easing this transition.
Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that children’s experiences will have differed during lockdown, just as they will have done for the staff. One thing they will all have in common is the change in routine and restrictions placed on our lives. Some parents may have been furloughed, while others will have continued to work, changing their hours to accommodate having their children at home.
Following on from my previous article, the well-being of our staff is a key area of consideration moving forward.
Things to Consider:
The government ‘back to school’ directive will bring with it a myriad of emotion for all school staff, whether they work with primary or secondary children, with the key question: is it safe for the children and for us? The fact that this is unanswerable in any definitive way at the moment will inevitably be causing feelings of stress or panic for many.
Class visits and museum trips on hold?
Then it’s more important than ever to have the best resources to help your pupils learn history skills and knowledge in a fun and accessible way.
All teachers know that children need a little help to visualise and imagine a life different from their own. In fact, we all do! The right resources can aid in understanding about how we live now, how things have changed over time and how past events have shaped the world today.
KCS’s history catalogue pages are packed with ideas to help your history lessons reach every child. Our visuals, artefacts, learning aids and games will make history spring to life in your classroom.
