Avoiding pupil misconceptions in primary science

scameron — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:25:08 +0000

Science is an important part of the core curriculum. It is a fascinating, but difficult, subject and requires a depth of knowledge and understanding in order to be taught well. Primary school teachers, who do not possess a science degree, often find themselves teaching science topics which they have not been taught themselves.

Teaching maths to EAL children

scameron — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:15:10 +0000

The importance of mathematical language can never be underestimated and we have been reminded in the recent Williams review of its importance in developing our pupil’s mathematical skills and understanding.
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PE lesson plans: Coordination, running and throwing skills

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:56:14 +0000

Match!
This ideal warm-up activity uses playing cards to improve running skills and coordination.
Duration: 20 minutes
Go for it!
This game will improve skills in passing, running and use of space.
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Keeper of the treasures
This game will give pupils the opprtunity to analyse and consider how certain abilities can be improved using carious types of equipment.
Duration: 20 minutes
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PE lesson plans: Fitness programme, choreography and game plans

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:48:32 +0000

The line game
The purpose of this activity is to move the whole team from one end of the playing area to the other using just the lines on the court
Duration: 5-10 minutes
A healthy approach
This activity is designed to allow students to contruct a fitness programme that will improve their performance.
Duration: 30 minutes
Performance
This activity will help students make use of choreographic principles when composing dances.
Duration: 20 minutes+
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Using PE to boost cross curricular skills

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:11:46 +0000

CASE STUDY Combs Ford Primary School, Stowmarket, Suffolk

A Suffolk primary used the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s PE and School Sport (PESS) initiative to rejuvenate the entire school and boost the skills and independence of pupils with special educational needs.

Overview
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Developing primary thinking skills with cricket

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:40:27 +0000

This Primary Know-How section from PE & Sport Today offers lesson activities for:

Year 3 and 4

Year 5

Year 6

Crispin Andrews first explains how striking and fielding activities can develop children's thinking skills
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Safety in sport: goalposts

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:32:47 +0000

We often don’t fully appreciate the need for safety measures until something goes tragically wrong.
In 1991 Brenda Smith’s 11-year-old son, Jonathan, was killed when a 200lb goalpost fell on top of him, rupturing his heart. Brenda, from Essex, was shocked to discover that a boy in the Isle of Wight had died and that a seven-year-old boy in Morecambe had died four years previously in 1986, both in goalpost-related incidents. Meanwhile a girl in Scotland had sustained a broken pelvis and suffered lifelong injuries when a goal fell on her.
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Sport spotlight: Orienteering

scameron — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:51:12 +0000

What is orienteering?
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A new curriculum for girls' PE

scameron — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:38:59 +0000

In the majority of secondary schools the teaching of PE looks very similar, with something of ‘an implicit agreement as to what should be included in the curriculum and how it should be taught, with the focus being largely on the sporting model’ (Capel, 2007: 493). Such a model appears to focus mainly on skill acquisition within a traditional curriculum, which places an unbalanced emphasis upon team games and is taught using a limited range of largely didactic pedagogic approaches (Green, 1998; Penney and Evans, 1999; Metzler, 2000; Ofsted, 2002; Kirk and Kinchin, 2003).
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Inspirational athlete: Desmond Douglas, table tennis player

scameron — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:56:43 +0000

Many billions of balls have pinged and ponged their way over the net since table tennis was invented more than a century ago. What began in Victorian Britain as an after-dinner amusement for the upper classes is, behind football, now one of the most popular sports in the world.
The game made a debut appearance at the Olympics in 1988 and, with London 2012 guaranteeing British participation in the four Olympic events for the first time since 2000, renewed interest in the sport is to be anticipated.
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Lesson plans: incorporating the Olympics into the primary curriculum

scameron — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:28:08 +0000

This information pack offers lesson ideas for the primary curriculum that use the Olympics as inspiration. It includes:
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Sport spotlight: Mini-basketball

scameron — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:42:14 +0000

The world development is administered by the Federation Internationale de Basketball (International Basketball Federation; FIBA) with headquarters in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The international objective is to introduce young people to the world of sport in a spirit of friendship and understanding.
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Monitoring learning and teaching

scameron — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:49:24 +0000

This activity comes from Improve your Leadership Skills, a school resource that tackles the issues that those with leadership positions in schools face.
It contains worksheets, guides and 20-minute activities designed to help middle leaders develop practical and straightforward procedures that will make a contribution to teaching and learning within their school.
Written by Kit Field, Elizabeth Hoult and Simon Hughes

Inspiring interest in literature with Manga

scameron — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:46:02 +0000

Since the Second World War, children have become increasingly dependent on visual images as a way of learning. Television, cinema, computers and computer graphics dominate their way of life. This is not surprising, given the fact that many children find it easier to visualise images rather than read words. Looking at picture books is, after all, the first introduction a child has to the world of books and stories. Current trends – particularly the growth of computer graphics and graphic stories – are emphasising this skill.
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Living Geography: mystery cards

scameron — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:16:15 +0000

Living Geography is a resource designed for geography teachers which draws from recent school-focused research, and supports teachers in developing a concept-based curriculum that is relevant, purposeful and exciting for young people.
Edited by David Mitchell
David acknowledges thanks to the teachers of Wycombe High School, St Ivo School and all involved in GA's Geography of Disease project who have developed these activity ideas.

Improving social skills using sport

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:11:04 +0000

The Bexley School Sports Partnership (SSP) was set up in 2002 with the initial aim of reaching and exceeding the national target of young people taking part in two hours of PE and sport a week. Over time, the remit and focus of the partnership has changed, as we have come to use sport as a tool for making fundamental changes to young people’s lives.
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Identifying primary G&T pupils in sport

scameron — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:55:47 +0000

A cricketer’s career

When he was 13, cricketer Nasser Hussain was well on the way to becoming an international leg spinner. But within three years, he had undergone a growth spurt and in the midst of this physical development his bowling fell to pieces.
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The importance of subject-based teaching

scameron — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:07:45 +0000

There is plethora of teaching and curriculum experimentation at present. Much gets reported in our pages, under such titles as thinking skills, building learning power, learning to learn. There is much talk of a skills-based curriculum and this is accelerating under the engine of personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS).
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PE lesson plans: Athletics, basketball and speed

scameron — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:58:39 +0000

Improving technique
These activities are designed to improve student's techniques in athletics.
Duration: 20 minutes
Shooting the basket
This activity is designed to improve a student's shooting and passing skills.
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Cones to drones
This activity will help improve speed and performance.
Duration: 5-10+ minutes
What a load of rubbish!
This activity is designed to get students to work together in a team on a 'recycling' activity.
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Girls from ethnic minorities: sports participation

scameron — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:47:42 +0000

Current research indicates that a significantly large proportion of females from ethnic minorities, particularly those from South Asian communities (e.g. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Indians) are failing to participate in physical activity in the UK. Reliable data on participation trends which pertains to women from South Asian communities is scarce. The aim of this study therefore was to make a contribution that will help to shed light upon the real and lived experiences of South Asian females and their engagement with physical activity in the UK.
Introduction
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Computer games to encourage fitness

scameron — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:18:51 +0000

Beneath Christmas trees across the country and around the world, Nintendo Wiis were wrapped and ready for action. And for once no one could complain about children and young people being couch potatoes as living rooms were transformed into sporting arenas.
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Boxing4Schools: tackling youth issues

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:04:37 +0000

Boxing4Schools is the first project of its kind in the UK, linking schools with local amateur boxing clubs and endeavouring to address disaffected youths, discipline, respect and the battle against obesity.

The scheme is run in conjunction with the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) and, for the first time in nearly 50 years, allows secondary school pupils to learn the training skills of non-contact boxing as a regular part of their curriculum.
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A gifted and talented sports programme

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:05:48 +0000

A progressive and forward thinking establishment, Bucklers Mead School is situated on the outskirts of the town of Yeovil in Somerset. Head of PE at the school is Craig Fletcher, a dynamic and experienced teacher who over the past few years has been involved in the National Gifted and Talented Scheme.
In a department of over five teachers and a schools sports coordinator (SSCO) – assigned to develop partnership with a local sports colleges and primary feeder schools – Craig has worked hard to improve the quality and performance of both students and staff.
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Sports assessment to encourage physical literacy

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:39:25 +0000

Assessment is much more than simply monitoring progress and ticking boxes. And there is much more to PE than aspiring to run the fastest, jump the highest and perform magical feats with bat or ball.
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Science lessons: the seaside

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:15:30 +0000

There are few things more quintessentially British, or more evocative of ‘summer’, than a day out at the seaside – and there are also few places in Britain which better lend themselves to scientific study than seaside resorts. Take a look at the picture on this page, for example.
Try showing your class this image or something similar, or get them to draw their own seaside pictures from suggestions made in a class discussion. You can then discuss what the pupils think they could study at the seaside that links to science. Just a few suggestions might be:
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Cricket games for primary students

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:09:02 +0000

Contrary to what certain Australian and Indian cricketers might have you believe, cricket is a striking and fielding, not just a ‘striking’, game. However, the slanging matches and posturing machismo that has taken place Down Under this year provides teachers with an opportunity to take the sort of lighthearted approach to PE that children love.
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Encouraging citizenship values through sport

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:57:30 +0000

Like any other international sport, cricket is full of the sort of controversies and drama that can bring a subject like citizenship to life.
Whether examining social and moral responsibilities, facilitating community involvement or developing political literacy, cricket can add contemporary relevance and link abstract concepts to high profile events and real life situations.
The following activity ideas will help children access one particular area of the Key Stage 2 citizenship curriculum – rules and fairness.
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How sports can engage students in maths

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:19:11 +0000

So Shane Warne has finally retired from first class cricket. The lure of the rupee and the poker table, not to mention family and many other business commitments, means that a year and a half after playing his last test match, the incomparable leg-spinner will not be turning out for Hampshire again.
There is a vast array of statistics on the web, so the study of sporting superstars like Warne can bring primary data handling projects to life.
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Sport spotlight: Cheerleading in schools

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:49:14 +0000

Cheerleading is a vibrant, high energy, athletic discipline that is exploding in popularity. Probably the fastest growing sport across Britain – and certainly the fastest growing spectator sport – major indoor arenas are frequently sold out. Part of its evident appeal is performing in front of large appreciative audiences and being a competitive sport in its own right that is also exciting to watch.
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Teaching wrestling

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:27:06 +0000

Do you remember Please Sir and the Welsh teacher (Mr Price) who used to mark his pupils’ books down the pub?
That was the first time I had ever pondered what these highly respected figures did to unwind away from the stresses and strains of ‘the chalk face’.
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The origins of the modern Olympic Games

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:02:09 +0000

Contrary to popular myth, Baron Pierre De Coubertin did not conceive the idea of the modern Olympics in Athens, 1896. So instead let us acknowledge Dr William Penny Brookes, father of the modern Olympian movement, the Games of which first took place in 1850 in Much Wenlock, a town in Shropshire.
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Inspirational athlete: Tom Daley, swimmer

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:48:32 +0000

Tom Daley is an extraordinary boy. As most children prepare to move from the comfort of their primaries up to ‘big school’, 10 year-old Tom was preparing to become British U18 Diving Champion. Then, in February this year, he qualified for the Beijing Olympics: he’ll be just 14 years and 79 days old when he dives for Britain at the world’s greatest sporting showpiece.
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Electronic interaction improves attainment

scameron — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:38:34 +0000

I have been in the very fortunate position of headteacher at Anton Junior School for five years now and, during that time, our school has progressed on a journey of investment and investigation into the use of interactive technology, in order to support and enhance teaching and learning. In this article I describe how a piece of new technology was used to boost attainment in the school.
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Education employment law: statutory leave and pay entitlements

scameron — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:02:10 +0000

One of the defining features of the last 11 years of New Labour government has been its apparent commitment to, and promotion of, measures designed to encourage a work-life balance and to facilitate what is termed a family friendly working environment.
‘Good’ employers, therefore, have taken the view that the remuneration and benefits package should in some way exceed the statutory minimum requirements in terms of leave and pay.
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Your positive moments in geography

scameron — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:09:02 +0000

“I took the 6th form Geographers to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. After complaining about the dorms, the weather and the walking they absolutely fell in love with the beauty of their surroundings and were eager to find out how it was created. Inner city pupils’ perceptions of the UK and its environment changed in the space of an afternoon.”
- AHT
Add your positive geography stories below

Exploring subject-specific enquiry skills

scameron — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:25:45 +0000

This e-bulletin concludes our in-depth focus on developing ‘independent enquirers’ – the first of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework. The thinking tools and strategies shared in recent issues have all related to the different stages of a generic model of enquiry. (See the Enquiry Wheel).
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Living Geography

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:58:43 +0000

Edited by David Mitchell
It contains 12 chapters that each focus on a theme relating to current UK policy, both in the national curriculum for geography and other overarching policy guidelines (including QCA and Every Child Matters 2007). These include;
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Creative thinking in literacy, art and design

scameron — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:49:27 +0100

Pam Smyth provides suggestions for enriching the curriculum in creative ways to help children achieve the National Literacy Strategy objectives.
Taken from The Literacy Coordinator's File, edited by Roger Hurn (no longer published)

Science enrichment activity: Crime scene

scameron — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:16:43 +0100

This 18 page lesson plan looks at forensic science, including forgery and chemical analysis.
It aims to capture the imagination of students by relating science to popular television programmes and films, by examining the different areas of scientific investigation applied when assessing crime scenes.
It also includes a 'student's notes' pack, with diagrams for students to examine fingerprints, and forms for them to print their own.
Written by John Senior and Angela Tuff

Maths resources: Sunshine Game and Rounders

scameron — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:52:17 +0100

Both these maths games encourage Year 3 pupils to understand numbers and the numbers system by engaging them in group activity.
Taken from Maths Games for ages 7 to 11, edited by Godfrey Hall (no longer published)

Maths resources: Addsub dominoes and Decimal Grand Prix

scameron — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:32:33 +0100

Both these maths games encourage KS3 pupils to understand complex addition and subtraction, utilising the laws of arithmetic and inverse operations, by engaging them in group activity.
Taken from Numeracy Games for Key Stage 3, edited by Barbara Clark and Godfrey Hall (no longer published)

Is two hours of PE a week enough?

scameron — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:42:58 +0100

Nearly every day you can read or watch an article in the news with regards to healthy living or obesity issues. On the news I watched a piece on how inactive adults have become – and that an adult is dying every day as a result of inactivity. If adults are inactive, what role model do they provide to their children? Very recently there was a newspaper article discussing how scientists have created a new formula for newborn babies that has a specific hormone in that could ‘end obesity’.
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PE lesson plans: Basketball, badminton and volleyball

scameron — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:30:00 +0100

Zone defence
This activity is designed to teach the fundamental concept of zone defence in basketball.
Duration: 20 minutes
Badminton hoops
This activity is intended to improve a studen's badminton skills.
Duration: 20 minutes
Slightly dodgy
This activity will allow students to develop their throwing skills and improve their performance.
Duration: 30 minutes
Foot volleyball
This activity promotes a student's ball control and also reinforces their volleyball skills.
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Subject Leader

Supporting disabled children in sport

Linking sport to positive behaviour

Integrating sports psychology into PE

Helping students who want to work in sport

Creativity: promoting discussion through a Concept Line activity

How can aspiring footballers be encouraged to gain academic qualifications?

Becoming an effective assistant headteacher

Avoiding pupil misconceptions in primary science

Teaching maths to EAL children

PE lesson plans: Coordination, running and throwing skills

PE lesson plans: Fitness programme, choreography and game plans

Using PE to boost cross curricular skills

Developing primary thinking skills with cricket

Safety in sport: goalposts

Sport spotlight: Orienteering

A new curriculum for girls' PE

Inspirational athlete: Desmond Douglas, table tennis player

Lesson plans: incorporating the Olympics into the primary curriculum

Sport spotlight: Mini-basketball

Monitoring learning and teaching

Inspiring interest in literature with Manga

Living Geography: mystery cards

Improving social skills using sport

Identifying primary G&T pupils in sport

The importance of subject-based teaching

PE lesson plans: Athletics, basketball and speed

Girls from ethnic minorities: sports participation

Computer games to encourage fitness

Boxing4Schools: tackling youth issues

A gifted and talented sports programme

Sports assessment to encourage physical literacy

Science lessons: the seaside

Cricket games for primary students

Encouraging citizenship values through sport

How sports can engage students in maths

Sport spotlight: Cheerleading in schools

Teaching wrestling

The origins of the modern Olympic Games

Inspirational athlete: Tom Daley, swimmer

Electronic interaction improves attainment

Education employment law: statutory leave and pay entitlements

Your positive moments in geography

Exploring subject-specific enquiry skills

Living Geography

Creative thinking in literacy, art and design

Taken from The Literacy Coordinator's File, edited by Roger Hurn (no longer published)

Science enrichment activity: Crime scene

Maths resources: Sunshine Game and Rounders

Taken from Maths Games for ages 7 to 11, edited by Godfrey Hall (no longer published)

Maths resources: Addsub dominoes and Decimal Grand Prix

Taken from Numeracy Games for Key Stage 3, edited by Barbara Clark and Godfrey Hall (no longer published)

Is two hours of PE a week enough?

PE lesson plans: Basketball, badminton and volleyball