Latest from the Primary Review

The latest reports from the <a href="http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/" target="_blank">Primary Review</a> (look at this <a href="http://bcftcschildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/2007/10/primary-review.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> for information about the project) have again succeeded in making headlines. The claims contained in the new research form a mixed picture of primary education in the UK; pupils are praised for their positive attitudes towards learning, mathematics standards are said to have improved, and standards in reading and science are said to compare favourably to many other countries, although literacy skills as a whole are said to have remained static for several decades.<br /><br />On the negative side, researchers found that the curriculum has narrowed in recent years, possibly due to the pressure that teachers and pupils are under as a result of frequent testing. The reports also raise significant concern about assessment procedures, suggesting that many of the marks which are awarded in Sats Tests are inaccurate measures of an individual pupil's progress. To look at summaries and the full-text of all of the reports which the Primary Review has published so far, <a href="http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Publications/Interimreports.html" target="_blank">click here</a>.

Latest from the Primary Review

The latest reports from the Primary Review (look at this previous post for information about the project) have again succeeded in making h...

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Resource Banks

When you're out on placement, are you ever stuck for ideas on what to do with the children in your classroom? Or perhaps you just want to try something a little different to sessions that you've done before? If so, try taking a look at the <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Home.aspx" target="_blank">TES Resource Bank</a>. This is a collection of teaching resources which has been put together from materials suggested by teachers themselves, and contains lessons ideas, presentations, audio files, links to useful websites and much more. You can search through the materials according to the subject area or key stage (including the foundation stage) that you are interested in, so it should be fairly simple to find what you're looking for quickly. You must register with the site before you can gain access to the materials available, but this is free and only takes a couple of minutes.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Teacher Training Resource Bank</a> is a different kind of collection. As the name suggests, this site is aimed specifically at trainee teachers, but rather than lesson plans, it contains materials which should help to support your professional development; these can include news stories, research reports, government guidance documents, QTS standards, Teachers TV broadcast and plenty of other resources. You might have guessed that I'm quite impressed by this site! Again, you have a range of flexible search options to allow you to quickly pinpoint the most suitable content for your purposes.

Resource Banks

When you're out on placement, are you ever stuck for ideas on what to do with the children in your classroom? Or perhaps you just want t...

Read more »