With Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 SATS fast approaching many teachers are working hard to ensure that their students know all they need to in readiness for the exams. Key Stage One SATS are fairly low key and little pressure is put on to the children. The SATS at this stage are more for the teachers to gauge how much progress is being made an areas that individual or majorities are struggling with.
Key Stage Two SATS are undertaken in exam conditions and the rules and regulations are stricter.
You may need to revisit topics that you have covered early on in the year to ensure that the children still remember how to do something. It is often a good idea to print off some previous years’ exam papers so not only do the children have chance to practise the type of questions they may be asked but also to get used to how exam papers are laid out.
One vital point to make to students is to read the questions carefully. Often the exam papers are worded in a way that can trick the students if they mis-read it or scan read it. This can often cause children who are very intelligent to miss out on a number of points simply because they didn’t answer the question that was being asked.
Category: Teaching
How to deal with fall outs in the classroom
As a teacher, you have to expect that quite often you are going to get drawn into arguments between pupils. This often starts right from reception and is usually arguments over toys or friendship groups. Often this is not bullying, more just young children learning about how to behave and how to treat others in the right way, but it is always important to keep an eye on persistent problems that come up again and again. If for example, you have two children who are always falling out, try and work out if it is one-sided or if they are both causing the issue. If it is just one child then it is important to check that this is not a case of bullying. Often with younger children distraction can work well and it may even be the case that you put two children that usually do not get along together to work on something.
If you have not seen what has occurred during a fall out then it is often not to try and guest and instead explain that you do not know what has happened but reiterate what kind of behaviour you expect from both of them. Explain how important honesty is and try and encourage the children to tell the truth.
Fun Easter activities for teachers to do with pupils
With Easter just around the corner, many teachers are spending their last few days at school getting ready for Easter. Children tend to get quite excited running up to the holidays so often it is a good idea to have the last day or two just doing fun activities rather than trying to do too much work that requires them to use a lot of concentration.
There are a huge number of Easter activities that you can set for the children. If you are part of a teaching agency then you may find that they have a large database of activities and factsheets/resources that you can download to use in the classroom. If you are not part of a teaching agency then you can often find resources online or if your school is registered to Twinkl or similar then you can download information and ideas from there.
Making chocolate nest cakes, designing their own Easter egg or creating a basket and doing an egg hunt is perfect for younger children. You may want to include some fun facts and figures to explain where Easter started and the story behind it, this could be done as part of a religious education lesson or even as a history lesson.
Teaching life skills to children
Although schools often have a strict curriculum that they have to teach every term, there are other skills that are just as important if not more than should be introduced at an early age. As we go through life we often realise why we were told things as a child which at the time may have seemed meaningless, such as tuck your shirt in or being shouted at for being five mins late. As we get older it is easier to see why these things were actually important and how they play a role in our lives as an adult.
Punctuality is often something many schools are quite hot on. They like their pupils to be in the classrooms and ready to work at the correct time and can be seen to be quite firm if they are consistently late. As an adult when you go to college, university or in a job, punctuality is vital. If you are late for a job interview for example, then you may find that they no longer wish to see you. Turning up late for work on a regular basis is often frowned upon and may end up with you receiving a disciplinary. This along with being presentable and tidy are skills that we can quite easily teach our children to give them the best start possible.
Not sure what career path to take?
As a child at the age of 13 or 14, it is hard to know what GCSE subjects you should be taking as you may have no idea what career path you wish to go down. Schools should be offering you some advice and guidance on what subjects and qualification you will need to have for your chosen route, but if you are undecided you may feel that you simply get forgotten about and left to your own devices.
If you really cannot decide what you want to go in to then it is always a good idea to pick subjects that you enjoy as the likely hood is that you will want to end up doing something related to that.
It is important to remember that just because you have chosen to go down one career path does not mean you cannot change your mind at a later date or even retrain for a totally different career when you are older.
Do plenty of research to find out what you can expect for the job role that you are interested in and also research where you would need to be in order to get a job in your chosen industry.