Early findings from the KS2 Reading Fluency Project

With 150 pupils across Hertfordshire now involved in HfL’s KS2 Reading Fluency Project, Penny Slater reflects on what has been learned from the project so far.

researchED 2017 workshop 1: exploring the complexities of reading comprehension difficulties

In the first of a two part blog, Martin Galway shares his thoughts on presenting a pair of workshops (one on grammar and, here, a late-notice addition on reading comprehension) at this year’s researchED  conference.

If print be the food of love, read on!

End of summer hols? Survived the motorway? Survived nagging guilt to work on the beach?! Settle back with Kirsten Snook, English Teaching and Learning Adviser, and start visualising your new class of Reception-age children, classroom, ethos etc. Set out now with a ‘no excuses’ culture that’ll free Reception teachers, reassure young pupils and fire up your energy-levels for the new school year.

Trusting the texts in guided reading

Alison Dawkins considers how choosing quality books, broadly matched to children’s current reading competencies, can take the stress out of planning for guided reading.

First, a thank you to Sinéad Gaffney (@shinpad1) for her recent article at tes.com https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/whats-best-path-take-your-primary-reading-strategy where she considers the different strengths that both whole class reading and grouped guided reading can offer. Because of course, let’s have both. Let’s have all the reading we can.

Celebrating Primary Writing: Take One Book…and run with it.

Martin Galway shares some of the wonderful work carried out by the pupils and staff at Hare Street Primary School, Harlow, inspired by the Take One Book training and approaches offered by the HfL English team.

Come aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Monday 26^th June 2017 marks twenty years since the first publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  In this blog, Michelle Nicholson celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the release of JK Rowling’s fabulous book, with some ideas for bringing the story to life in the classroom.

2017 KS2 Reading Paper: A secret shared and some questions to ask – a year on

In this blog (a direct follow up to her popular entry from last year) Jane Andrews once again analyses the questions served up in the KS2 reading paper and updates her question stem resource for 2017, for use in school. 

From Riches to Rags: an analysis of the 2017 reading paper

Penny Slater unpicks the 2017 reading paper and concludes that despite the concepts within the texts being more easily accessible for most children, the challenge of the reading test remains high.

Following last week’s SATs, we now have two tests that we can analyse in order to gain a better understanding of what the DFE mean by ‘greater challenge’. What follows is an attempt to unpick this year’s reading test, and gain a better understanding of where those elusive assessment goal posts now stand.

Flexing Fluency Muscles with Great Texts (Oh…and they are free too!)

In this short blog, Penny Slater points to some texts that may prove useful in the last few weeks leading up to this year’s SATS.

Let’s cut to the chase…It’s early summer term. You are a Y6 teacher. You have a couple of weeks left before the 2017 Reading SATs paper. What you are probably looking for are some great texts that will give your pupils a final push to prepare for the challenge ahead? Oh…and you probably need those texts to be free and easily accessible. If so, read on….