Mr Know-It-All

Useful Resources

2007-02-08T14:52:00.001-08:00

Tell me about your school...

2007-02-08T14:49:00.000-08:00

I am interested in building up a body of information documenting school experiences in North Wales.

Inspirational....

2007-02-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Need inspiration? Google 'Tom Peters'. Wow!

Crime Check

2007-02-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

Mr Know-It-All is happy to oblige with any crime reference request. Please note that registration with personal-tutors.ac.uk requires this so you can be confident that this requirement has been fulfilled. Contact me for any further information in this regard.

Feedback please

2007-02-08T14:25:00.000-08:00

Please post any comments and feedback on the quality and content of this webpage.

Tuition...because:

2007-02-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

You're just not gonna sit and do this every week, week in-week out. You're just not. Get realistic and acknowledge that you want more for your child than you're able to sometimes give...so get help. Invest. I speak plainly.

People Mr Know-It-All has helped

2007-02-08T14:16:00.001-08:00

2007 PASS Examiner

2007-02-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Mr Know-It-All has been accepted as a PASS marker for yr5 papers this Summer! Strangely, he's quite excited about it!!

By the end of year 6....government guidelines! IS YOUR CHILD UP TO SPEED WITH ALL THIS?

2007-02-08T00:39:00.000-08:00

Year 6

The learner
Year 6 children are coming to the end of the primary phase of their education. The end of Year 5 assessment provides a clear benchmark of their attainment in literacy and mathematics, enabling teachers and children to identify how much progress they have made and what they still need to do to meet end of key stage expectations. These assessments will identify both the achievements children have made and those areas or aspects where gaps in understanding remain and needto be addressed in order to secure the necessary progression in learning. Use of the assessment profile, together with ongoing teacher assessment, informs planning and teaching across the broader curriculum. Helping children to recognise their progress maintains their motivation and desire to improve. Teachers balance the provision of support and the promotion of increasing independence in order to develop children’s sense of responsibility as learners. Children are increasingly involved in making decisions about their learning. As children come to the end of Key Stage 2 they select appropriate
strategies, techniques and skills to complete an activity or solve a problem and suggest ways tasks or problems could be extended. By posing ‘What if…?’ questions, children identify lines of enquiry for themselves and for others to follow. The home–school link continues to play a critical role and regular homework provides opportunities to consolidate and extend learning. Effective daily literacy and mathematics teaching provides new learning, consolidation through practice
and opportunities for children to use and apply their learning as they solve problems, research,interpret, analyse and present information. Teachers provide regular opportunities for children to apply their learning to practical experiences in all areas of the curriculum and beyond the school day. This strengthens children’s knowledge, skills and understanding and emphasises the role that literacy and mathematics play in securing effective communication, thinking and reasoning skills. At the start of Year 6, reading and writing are rapidly becoming confident, automatic skills for the majority of children. This gives children greater choice and control over what and how they learn as well as access to an ever-expanding range of printed and ICT resources. The challenge in Year 6 is to embed the skills and knowledge acquired over the primary years into learning that transfers to the next key stage – and lasts a lifetime. Entering the final year of their primary education, the majority of children bring well-developed counting skills, secure knowledge of number facts and a range of calculation strategies, mental and written. They break down complex calculations into simpler steps and make informed decisions to use one or more calculation strategies in the process of solving a problem. They use mental and written methods of calculation and use a calculator efficiently and accurately where appropriate. Children’s understanding of numbers and the number system includes positive and negative whole numbers, common fractions and decimal numbers with up to three places. They use their knowledge of the relationships between fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and proportion to express quantities in a variety of ways and to solve problems. Mathematics lessons provide an opportunity to develop the skills of analysing patterns, relationships and information that will prove useful to children throughout their lives. Children’s growing ability to select, use and apply their learning in literacy and mathematics and across the broader curriculum ensures that they are acquiring many of the key aspects of learning identified in Excellence and enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years. Speaking and listening Speaking and listening, as well as being critical skills in their own right, continue to underpin reading and writing in a broad and rich curriculum. Oral and mental work in mathematics continues to help children to derive and use number facts, to extend their thinking and understanding as they offer explanations and justify their decisions and choices, to work collaboratively on planning and to develop a chosen line of enquiry. The Year 5 work in literacy on persuasion informs whole-class debates in Year 6. Improvised and scripted drama reaches a high standard of polished performance, using a range of dramatic techniques and conventions acquired from play-reading and watching live or recorded performances. In mathematics, children take part in whole-class discussions and debates on the accuracy of measurement and the most efficient way to undertake a range of calculations. They evaluate and agree strategies and solutions to a problem. Children draw on appropriate techniques, images, vocabulary and resources to illustrate their ideas and conclusions. They use their knowledge of presentation styles and techniques to put forward their views to others with clarity. Group work provides social opportunities to speak and listen in a structured context, developing the ability to give and receive constructive feedback. Negotiating, resolving conflicts and reaching agreements using effective communication skills are key aspects of speaking and listening in Year 6, practised in formal and informal situations. Literacy The reading curriculum in Year 6 remains soundly based on a wide range of high-quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction, including ICT and other visual and multimodal texts, and continues to provide opportunities for children to extend and apply their repertoire of reading skills. Teachers choose from the full range of fiction and poetry available. They include longer novels, classic texts and significant authors as well as sophisticated picture books appropriate for this age group. A planned read-aloud programme continues to support and extend independent reading and keep up the interest and motivation of struggling and less-able readers, giving them access to texts well beyond their own reading ability. Including non-fiction regularly in the read-aloud programme immerses children in the linguistic features of non-chronological reports, explanation, discussion and persuasive texts. It helps to consolidate the transition to the formal, impersonal style needed for mature expression in some non-fiction genres. Hearing examples of complex sentences, which capture cause and effect in explanations and alternative viewpoints in argument and persuasion, gives learners access to forms of sentence construction less frequently used in everyday speech. Teachers continue to plan to teach reading skills and comprehension explicitly through shared, guided and independent reading of paper-based and ICT texts. Teachers plan frequent opportunities for reading in literacy lessons, for cross-curricular purposes and outside school. In Year 6, readers will be integrating and applying the whole range of independent skills gained over the primary years across all areas of the curriculum.
age an active and critical response to texts, with a growing awareness of multiple themes and meanings. Children compare and contrast texts in order to find patterns and to make links. They understand how perceptions can change with differing viewpoints and over time, through for example reading biographies and autobiographies or rereading familiar texts. Most children recognise how authors use sophisticated devices such as rhetorical questions to influence readers and they identify themes and viewpoints within texts. They have acquired a developed repertoire of reading skills for different texts and adapt them consciously to suit different reading purposes. The majority of children are able to decode effortlessly so that unfamiliar words are read with little or no hesitation. Their active attention is on the content of their reading and writing, not the individual words. When writing, children give most of their attention to what they want to say and how they can express it most effectively. In Year 6, children begin to increase their knowledge of morphemes and the origins of words so that they are able to access the meanings of words they have not yet encountered in print and words that are not even in their spoken vocabulary. They access and use a wide range of non-fiction print and ICT resources to compare and explore information and ideas in depth. They consolidate their research and study skills so they can locate, retrieve and record information efficiently. They are proficient at evaluating the usefulness of a range of materials for specific purposes, critically appraising them for bias and accuracy. Children with insecure reading skills benefit from carefully targeted group and individual intervention programmes, alongside guided reading. To avoid disillusionment and disaffection, learners must access and enjoy texts at their language comprehension level, for example through picture books and graphic texts, and listen to high-interest texts beyond their reading level. Year 6 is marked by confidence, control and fluency in writing fiction and non-fiction. Talking, firsthand experience, the read-aloud programme and personal reading continue to provide the foundation for writing. Children draw on a range of secondary sources. Writing still needs to be firmly located in a relevant, motivating context including those in other curriculum subjects and themes. Teachers emphasise the purpose and audience for all forms of writing. They encourage children to be experimental and adventurous and, wherever possible, give them choice and control over the content and organisation of their writing. Children use ICT and a range of multimodal devices to create both fiction and non-fiction texts. By the end of Year 6, the majority of children are secure in the different stages of the writing process and can review their own work critically. They choose different planning tools for a range of writing. They understand the need for re-drafting at organisational level for a whole text as well as surface revision of spelling and punctuation. They work consciously at writing as a reader. Narrative structure continues to develop in an adventurous way, for example including stories within stories, flashbacks, beginning in the middle or at the end of events. Year 6 writers are confident in organising their work through paragraphs, including correct layout and punctuation of dialogue and reported speech. Extended writing allows time for developing complexity in narrative structure, characters and settings, using a range of linguistic techniques experienced through hearing and reading good models, storytelling and drama. Children are competent in the main non-fiction genres and extend their range into journalistic writing, biography and autobiography. They are able to adapt and combine genres effectively. This is the year for gaining control over the use of a range of complex sentences and their internal punctuation to create subtle effects of meaning. Children revise the linguistic and grammatical features of non-fiction text-types and ways of ensuring coherence through paragraphs and cohesion through connectives. They write consistently in their chosen form, with the appropriate degree of formality for their purpose and audience. They learn the difference between active and passive voice, and use the terms ‘active’ and ‘passive’ in discussing those forms. They use conditionals to signal or hint at possibilities, uncertainty, doubt or ambiguity.

In Year 6, the majority of children routinely spell the majority of words correctly and have a range of strategies to apply to difficult or unfamiliar words. They use dictionaries, spellcheckers and ICT confidently to proofread their work. They have developed a personal, legible handwriting style which they can adapt to suit different purposes. Further guidance and support on planning to meet the needs of Year 6 learners in literacy can be found in the planning section of the electronic Framework. Mathematics In Year 6 children solve multi-step problems, including those that involve fractions, decimals and percentages. Through discussion and application, they develop and refine their strategies to solve increasingly complex problems, recognising that to simplify a problem is a helpful starting point. Teachers ensure that children have frequent opportunities to use and apply mathematics across the curriculum. This develops children’s understanding and enjoyment of mathematics and their ability to use mathematics as a problem-solving tool. The majority of children work more systematically and independently. They organise their work clearly, interpreting results and reflecting on the efficiency of their methods. They recognise that representing a problem may require a diagram, numbers or calculations, and that after solving the problem, the solution needs to be interpreted and checked in the original context. Children describe, interpret and use patterns and relationships which they observe. Most use words then letters as symbols to construct and use simple expressions or formulae. Children make and test predictions and general statements. They make deductions from given statements or information. They explain their reasoning and justify their choices and conclusions. The majority of children manipulate a range of types of numbers. They order positive and negative whole numbers and decimal numbers with up to three decimal places and position these on number lines. They find the difference between positive and negative numbers in context. They partition whole and decimal numbers, using place value to compare and order them. Children understand how to simplify fractions by cancelling, dividing the numerator and denominator by a common factor. They order a set of fractions by converting them to equivalent fractions with a common denominator. They express a larger whole number as a fraction of a smaller whole number and convert it to a mixed number. They find fractions and percentages of numbers and quantities. They solve problems involving direct proportion. They scale quantities up or down, such as the ingredients in a recipe. Teachers embed these experiences in practical contexts and activities so that children develop an understanding of the kinds of situations where proportional thinking is applicable. In Year 6, children continue to consolidate their knowledge of number facts involving all four operations and use known facts to derive related facts. The majority use these facts to add and subtract mentally whole numbers and numbers with one decimal place. They apply their knowledge of multiplication and division facts to multiplication and division of two-digit numbers that include decimals. They use their knowledge of place value to multiply whole numbers by 1000, 100, 10, 0.1 and 0.01 and by multiples of these. Most children have a secure, reliable method of written calculation for each operation and recognise when one method may be more efficient than another, for both whole numbers and decimals. They recognise when mental methods are more appropriate and use a calculator to solve problems where sequences of addition and subtraction calculations are involved. They continue to approximate first and check their answers. They are able to explain the method they use and the steps involved. Children make and draw shapes with increasing accuracy. They recognise, describe and visualise solids with parallel and perpendicular edges or faces. They use this knowledge to recognise how the nets of these solids are formed and how a solid can be made from a given net. Children use their growing understanding of angles to classify and describe 2-D shapes. They measure the angles in shapes they draw to check estimates and to test statements. They know that a complete turn is four right angles or 360º and use this to calculate the size of angles around a point. Children use the coordinate system to identify and plot points in the first quadrant. They draw shapes on grids of different types, determine and describe the positions of the shapes after a transformation, including a reflection, a translation or a rotation through a quarter or half turn about its centre or a vertex. The majority of children recognise that the shape remains identical after one of these transformations and use this knowledge to identify congruent shapes in patterns, pictures and diagrams. Teachers plan practical problems that give children hands-on experience of reading and interpreting the scales on measuring instruments where the intervals are large, few or mostly unlabelled. Children recognise that taking a measurement involves a comparison to agreed standard units and that the measurement made is approximate. They record their results using an appropriate unit and to a required degree of accuracy. Children calculate the perimeter and area of a rectangle and compound shapes that can be split into squares, half squares or rectangles. Children develop their understanding of the language of chance and likelihood by describing situations where outcomes are equally likely. They begin to place outcomes from observed events and from experiments onto a numbered probability scale to indicate the chances of occurrence, using 0 to represent ‘impossible’ and 1 to represent ‘certain’. Children solve problems by collecting data, processing the data using tables or lists and presenting it to show findings and to draw conclusions. They use the mode, range, median and mean to represent and describe a set of data. They construct frequency tables with single and grouped data items and represent these as bar charts. They extend their use of line graphs to interpret graphs where intermediate points have meaning, for example on a conversion graph. Children interpret tables, charts and databases they have generated using ICT or taken from a secondary source such as another subject area. The majority of children interpret pie charts and use their knowledge of fractions and percentages to estimate the size of sectors in a pie chart. They recognise that pie charts that look similar can represent different totals and that a small sector in one pie chart can represent more items than a big sector on another. Embedding key aspects of learning In Year 6, thinking, communication and social skills continue to develop through literacy and mathematics. For example, reading and writing narrative and poetry develop skills in questioning, reasoning, evaluating and empathy. Literature expands self-awareness and gives insights into other worlds and other people’s lives and emotions. Non-fiction reading and writing develops clarity and precision of expression. In mathematics, many Year 6 children have the knowledge and confidence to talk in depth about mathematical concepts and to explain their solutions, decisions and reasoning. Children develop enquiry, information processing and communication skills as they retrieve information from a wide range of texts, including ICT, graphic and multimodal texts. They learn how to locate information across texts and plan how to present it effectively, orally or in writing, for a specific audience. In mathematics, children plan and carry out a cycle of handling data, predicting possible and unlikely outcomes and making judgements about the quality of their enquiries. They consider how to present their results most effectively and discuss how confident they are in their conclusions, giving a rationale for their beliefs and taking into account the opinions of others. Most children use texts as evidence, applying their own knowledge and experience to interpret and understand them. They critically evaluate usefulness for specific purposes, bias and accuracy. Evaluating other people’s writing provides them with criteria and tools to judge the effectiveness of their own. In mathematics, children discuss and compare alternative approaches to solving a problem. They try different approaches and strategies when struggling to solve a problem or to others. They modify their steps towards a solution in the light of feedback. Children challenge their own and others’ assumptions. Literacy and mathematics offer children ideas and access to real and imaginary worlds that they can explore with endless possibilities. As they leave Key Stage 2, the majority of children evaluate progress in their learning and offer ideas for improvement. They use this self-awareness to set their own literacy and mathematics targets.

National Strategy: 1/4 of 11 year olds are still not confidently attaining level 4

2007-02-08T00:33:00.000-08:00

Standards in English and mathematics have risen significantly since the introduction of the Framework
but challenges remain. Nearly a quarter of 11-year-olds are still not confidently attaining level 4 or
above in mathematics by the time they leave primary school and more still needs to be done to
improve standards in writing. To ensure that all our children achieve well and develop the skills to read,
write and calculate with confidence and competence, there is a need to personalise further the use of
guidance in these original Frameworks.

Our English Language

2007-02-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

It is worth reflecting on the fact that everything that is said or written in
contemporary English is encoded in approximately 44 sounds (phonemes) and
represented by 26 letters in about 140 letter combinations. The power and
economy of such a representational system is second to none. The phonic work in
the NLS Framework is built around this basically simple idea. Children should
learn to identify the phonemes in their spoken language and learn how each of
these phonemes is commonly spelt. Some phonemes will correspond to a single
letter while others, for example the long vowel phonemes, will have several
common spellings using one or more letters. Through phonics, we should be
teaching children to:
◆ identify sounds in spoken words (phonological awareness);
◆ recognise the common spellings for each phoneme (phoneme–grapheme
correspondence);
◆ blend phonemes into words for reading;
◆ segment words into phonemes for spelling.
This systematic teaching gives children the essential key to the writing code and
moves them a long way into fluent reading by enabling them to recognise words
by their common spelling patterns.
It also greatly facilitates their independent writing by providing the basic rules for
most regularly spelt words. In writing, of course, children need to select the
appropriate spelling from a range of phonologically ‘logical’ options to encode
words (e.g. ‘chews’ instead of ‘choose’ or ‘chuse’). Teachers should therefore expect
an early growth of autonomy in writing together with a rapid growth in the
proportion of correctly spelt simple words or ‘logical’ errors and an equally rapid
decrease in random spelling errors. As children move through KS1 to KS2, the
emphasis in the teaching objectives shifts from the teaching of phonics for
reading to more focused teaching of spelling strategies, conventions and rules, to
build upon the children’s established phonic knowledge.

The arbitrariness of the spelling system

2007-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

The importance of systematic teaching of phonics and spelling needs to be
underlined, not least because it is often treated with suspicion. Young children do
not learn to discriminate the sounds of words automatically. Still less do they
automatically understand the common conventions for representing them in
writing. This is a skill, tied to our particular way of writing our language, with 26
letters to represent the 44 phonemes. Not all languages are represented in this
way. Japanese children, for example, do not need to break their spoken language
down into phoneme/spelling patterns because it is not written alphabetically.
Much of our contemporary spelling system was simply decided upon by Dr
Johnson when he regularised it in the first major dictionary. The way our language
is represented is thus arbitrary and, for most children, very hard to ‘discover’. Like
learning to form letters correctly or learning the correct fingering for the recorder,
these things need to be taught. Some children might work them out for
themselves and others will certainly learn from home or through other means but
many will either fail to learn or will misconstrue the rules. Just like incorrect letter
formation these misconstructions are very difficult to ‘unlearn’ or correct later.
Most beginning readers will have, at best, only limited knowledge of how spelling
patterns are used to represent words. The alphabetic nature of our spelling system
does not reveal itself to children simply through repeated exposure to books.
Beginning readers are likely to treat written words as images, each differentiated
by its overall shape and pattern, rather than as letter strings corresponding to
sounds. It is essential, therefore, that children learn from the outset that: words
have to be ‘spelt’, not merely ‘drawn’, that they are composed of letters set out in
particular combinations to correspond with spoken sounds, and which letter
combinations correspond with which sounds.

Language teaching.

2007-02-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

As a speaker of two languages, having taught school in French Canada, France and England; I have some experience of learning languages. Having taught English conversational classes for over two years, I have also grappled with some of the difficulties faced when learning English.

I cannot help but compare the way language is taught in France and England...the differences are startling. Take for example handwriting, which is generally beautifully formed cursive by age 10 in primary school in France. Boys and Girls. They empasise it and place great importance on it. They are explicity taught about the different parts and functions of language, and they generally outperform our students in their abilities' to understand language as a result.

Our understanding of teaching English has greatly advanced recently. Focus on phonics and...to be continued

MATHS...why tutoring?

2007-02-07T02:43:00.000-08:00

Maths is an entire language comprised of an alphabet of 10 digits and hundreds of symbols which each contain vast amounts of information. It is an area which is largely misunderstood...Mathematics is not a closed intellectual system, in which everything has already been worked out. There is no shortage of open problems.

Maths is complicated, and each individual encounters different barriers to understanding. The Mr Know-It-All approach to teaching maths recognises that understanding many of the abstract concepts involved in foundational mathematics can be incredibly difficult. Teaching successfully requires the teacher to take advantage of the child's particular learning style and preferences, and may require the teacher to make exceptions to 'normal' teaching protocol.

There are many problems with the way Maths is taught in our schools. Firstly it is important to acknowledge that teachers generally try really hard to teach Maths. They really do. I promise. Pupils' abilities in Maths is relatively easy to assess hence teaching quality is fairly transparent...so they work hard on it. But, having followed a teaching course alongside 100 other trainee teachers...I would say that only 20-30% were competent mathematicians. For those teachers who are not initially particularly keen on Maths, they do improve with time, and are able to teach limited quantities of information effectively. However, limited understanding restricts the options when it comes to teaching, and given the constraits of time and finances when children struggle the teacher has a difficult task to say the least.

Every school I have come across follows a fairly rigid programe of maths teaching. Such programmes are not bad, but I believe they need to be tailored to the individual child as it is all too easy to destroy confidence and cause the beginnings of disaffection with the subject. For many, Maths needs to be PERSONAL. Most kids 'hate' Maths by the time they get to secondary school; hence the current high demand for Maths teachers!

Gaps in knowledge must be plugged, or any progress can be restricted. Where a child struggles to grasp any one concept it can disproportionately show itself in assessment of other areas of understanding. A child who has not grasped the concept of time cannot answer a written question requiring the student to multiply hours and minutes.

There is no way a child can understand multiplication and division, fractions and percentages untill they have mastered the basic operations of addition and subtraction. No way at all. I have seen teachers, parents and students sweat blood trying to force that understanding without taking the time to fill in the gaps and develop the child's understanding at the child's natural learning pace.

Take me for example. By the end of primary school I had advanced far beyond the average child in terms of mathematical ability. But in secondary school I became disa ffected when teachers and parents were unable to answer my questions, and unwilling to take the time to help me grasp some of the more abstract concepts. It makes me angry actually.

The average parent, I believe, fails to engage with the mathematical curriculum. Do not underestimate the importance of getting this right. Doing so will open up doors for your child, whereas neglection can easily result in difficulties with many of the other more technical subjects. Think about it...engineering, computers, sciences, business. It is a life skill. Imperative that your child learn this, and sooner rather than later.

Homework for E 05/02/07

2007-02-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hi E!!
Welcome to my Mr Know-It-All website.

For your homework this week I want you to click on the following button on the 'Links' section of this webpage:

'English Games etc etc...awesome website for learning!!!'

There you will find a section titled:

'Read the stories and select the correct spellings'

Try the harder activities once you have clicked on this link!

After that, there are loads of other links for you to try...start with the ones based on adjectives, sentences and tenses (verbs)! Enjoy

Thanks for being a great student. You can email or call if you need help with anything!

Pete

Teacher Training Mentor = Guardian of the Faith ???

2007-02-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Reflection on my experience of teacher training leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. Infact it makes me sad. I am not the only one to have experienced adversity during my training period; it seems that there are many confident, vibrant trainees who have been bullied by the insecure Trainer seemingly eager to adopt a role not dissimilar to that of 'Guardian of the Faith'.

Could it be that Trainer, having had a difficult time during their own training period...feels to share that difficulty with Trainee? It would seem that teachers know that the successful teacher becomes so only after having endured a period of adversity designed to crush confidence, test commitment and proove allegiance?

I challenge all teachers and 'mentors' to examine the role of a mentor. Dare I suggest that the role extends beyond the classroom? Is it not the universal role of the teacher/mentor to lift, to inspire? Might you be crushing, hampering, squashing or shrinking your trainee? Perhaps you are doing so inadvertently. I dare you to ask.

To me, the bad teacher fails to accept the student. The bad mentor fails to appreciate. Fails to make time for the trainee. Ought Trainer listen effectively? Ask questions? Seek to understand the learner perhaps before launching into a beligerent attack and an eloquent monologue on effective classroom management techniques? Ought the same trainer comment on parenting standards in open contradiction of the rules.

When a learner is striving, the teacher is succeeding.

Teachers offered more freedom to tailor lessons-TUTOR HAS ULTIMATE FREEDOM!

2007-02-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Teachers offered more freedom to tailor lessons

Donald MacLeod
Monday February 5, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Teachers in English secondary schools will be given more freedom to tailor lessons to pupils than they have for 20 years, the government's curriculum watchdog promised today.

Launching a wide-ranging consultation on the national curriculum for 11 to 14-year olds, Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said the proposed programmes of study would give teachers a "more flexible, less prescriptive framework for teaching".

The education secretary, Alan Johnson, promised "more flexibility for teachers, more interesting for pupils".

He added: "These proposals move us away from a 'one size fits all' curriculum to one that offers more flexibility to tailor teaching to pupils' needs and aspirations."

But Mr Johnson said "tried and tested parts" of the curriculum would be retained and he has been adding to the list of "untouchable" topics that teachers must cover - Shakespeare's sonnets, the two world wars and the Holocaust, and novelists such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and George Eliot. He has vowed to "protect the classic pillars of the curriculum".

The QCA seems more concerned with the large number of young people who are being turned off school by a curriculum that does not engage them and is trying to create more scope for teachers to tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of each individual student.

As Mick Waters, QCA curriculum director, put it: "Our biggest curriculum challenge is to sustain a desire to learn."

Schools will be able to teach languages like Mandarin, Arabic and Urdu as well as - or instead of - French and German. Teachers will be encouraged to take children outside the classroom on field trips and to experiment with the traditional timetable - joint lessons on anatomy taken by a PE and a science teacher, for example.

Mr Boston said it was vital that the national curriculum, introduced in 1988, was developed over time.

"Whilst the content and core values of the programmes of study remain at the heart of the curriculum, we want to examine the aims as well - why a subject matters as well as learning about it. We are seeking to make learning an active rather than passive event, encouraging field trips and study outside classrooms in an effort to get pupils to understand how these subjects are related to the outside world.

"We also want to encourage schools to be innovative in the way that they plan the school timetable. Teaching subjects together, group projects or school visits can all help to make pupils more enthusiastic about learning. Through creating this kind of curriculum, we will achieve our objective of producing successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens."

The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, John Dunford, said: "This review will offer schools the prospect of opening up the curriculum in a way that has not happened since the national curriculum came into being in 1988."

Click here for more information on the secondary curriculum review.

What is Emotional Literacy? How can it benefit my child?

2007-02-05T07:03:00.002-08:00

Freelance Teaching...the future?

2007-02-05T07:03:00.001-08:00

11-14 Curriculum Reforms...towards a more interesting approach?

2007-02-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

Reforms to make the school curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds more flexible and better tailored to pupils' needs have been published by the exams watchdog today.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) proposals would keep the same core 12 subjects but offer teachers more choice in how to teach them, for example by scrapping traditional timetabling and doing more group work.

There will also be more flexibility in the subjects pupils can study – English teachers will still teach Dickens and Shakespeare, but also Benjamin Zephaniah and Philip Pullman, and history will include Britain's role in the slave trade as well as the world wars.

Education secretary Alan Johnson said: "The curriculum should evolve to meet a rapidly changing world, and enable teachers to teach in a way that will continue to interest and enthuse their pupils.

"These proposals move us away from a 'one size fits all' curriculum to one that offers more flexibility to tailor teaching to pupils' needs and aspirations. More flexibility for teachers, more interesting for pupils."

However, the government has been criticised by unions for advocating this new flexible curriculum but at the same time calling for ever more compulsory subjects.

For example, Mr Johnson wants a greater emphasis on teaching about national identity, beyond existing citizenship classes, and also wants schools to take on teaching pupils about basic life skills.

These include how to cook healthy food and how to exercise properly in PE, and personal, social and health education (PSHE) will be expanded to include learning about personal finance, mortgages, interest rates and balancing credit cards.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), welcomed moves to cut down the "desperately overloaded" secondary school curriculum.

But he warned: "Only one thing matters. Does the curriculum help maintain youngsters’ enthusiasm for learning?

"Cooking, Shakespeare and Mandarin are all important but at the moment they look like ministers’ bright ideas rather than part of a coherent curriculum that will enthuse teachers and youngsters alike."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the QCA had the right approach to a national curriculum, by providing a smaller framework and a menu from schools could choose what suits their style.

But he warned: "There is a danger that future ministers will fill the newly created space with their own priorities and the curriculum will become as crowded and inflexible as it ever was. Going forward, ministers must resist the temptation to add more statutory topics, trusting schools to teach the curriculum appropriate for pupils in their area." End of story

Freelance Teacher

2007-02-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

My Services and Rates

2007-01-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

Tutoring

Tutoring is provided by Peter at £20 per hour + travel expenses from Prestatyn @ £0.45 per mile charged per visit. Spaces are limited so you may need to join a waiting list. Initial commitments usually cover a period of at least 6 months reduction for standing order.

Initial Assessment

An in-depth assessment and professional opinion of your child's learning for a one-off fee starting at £100.

Supply Cover-Schools

Peter is available for supply cover as a PGCE at a daily rate of £150. Part time contracts may also be negotiated. Schools and organisations are invoiced on a 30 day payment term.

Schools

We are keen to learn of any learning programme aimed at primary school/lower secondary school level including cycling proficiency, sports programmes, mountain biking, golf, science projects, photography, emotional literacy programmes etc etc.

Bespoke Services

We invite you to negotiate with us for any other learning/teaching/requirements you may have. Serious offers for home schooling invited.

How will tutoring benefit your child?

2007-01-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

I have spent over 4 years studying learning and development now...and have amassed substantial experience in tutoring and education; and I still feel like there is an infinite amount to learn about learning.

Needless to say that if you are a parent you are well aware of some of the difficultiies that face a parent trying to help a child. Aside from the time issue there is the question of caring for siblings whilst devoting one-on-one time to any one child....(to be cont)

St Bridgid's! The entrance competition...why settle for mediocrity?

2007-01-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

It seems a lot of my clients are preparing for the entrance exam for St Bridgid's. A great reason to be tutored! My message to any parents or children hoping to attend St Bridgid's is to start early...I understand that there aren't that many places available each year (about 25?), so competition is hot hot hot! Having myself sat 2 entrance examinations as a child, I have a good idea of how scary the exam can be for a child. Even as a confident child I was terrified-big old building, super formal teachers, posh children...in retrospect I'd benefitted a lot from a lot more preparation. Seriously.

Very important for children to understand that the entrance exam (or 11+) is not a pass/fail exam...it is a COMPETITION. There are a limited number of seats, and those seats will be filled by those children who have performed best in the exam.

I could write a lot on this subject...but it probably boils down to this: there are pros and cons for attending an independent school, but it ought to be simple (depending upon how political one is). We live in a seriously competitive society, and the grades your child achieves will profoundly affect the course of their future like it or not. So hedge your bets. If the local comprehensive achieves an A-C pass rate of 30%, compared with a 90%+ pass rate at an independent school then it doesn't take much to figure that your child will achieve more at the independent school. Personally I'm all for independent schools. Why settle for mediocrity? Strive for excellence. Apparently It's ok to push/encourage your child. They'll thank you for it as long as you are sensitive and respectful and allow your child some degree of autonomy.

Welcome

2007-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hi, this is where Mr Know-It-All will post his thoughts on anything relevant to learning in North Wales.

Please stay a while and feel free to post your comments and feedback-especially if you're inclined to offer copious praise and unreserved recommendation...you might want to point out that I am absolutely fabulous?

Conversely of course, you may want to let everyone know that you had a terrible experience of my services. Just be honest ok!