Mixing up the Classroom Seating

Seating arrangements are a great way to encourage quick order in your class, however it can get boring sitting the same pupils next to each other week in and week out and your class will more than likely have a few troublemakers that like to stir things up. So what can be done?
download-300x160Why not try this simple exercise? Give each child a piece of paper to write on and ask them to write down the names of four children they would like to sit with the following week as well as a student that they feel has been a good Samaritan that week. You can get them to write the papers anonymously or you can ask them to write their names on the top.
hold-hands-300x292What this does, aside from giving your pupils a position to strive towards – Good Samaritan – is it will highlight children in your class that may be having difficulties making friends. It will show who was popular last week and who may not be so popular this week. It may even help to highlight those students which may be bullied, or those that are struggling with their class work.

After all, a cry for help is not always done in the form of a literal, verbal cry for help, and reading between the lines with exercises such as this is a great way to see, even as a supply teacher how your pupils are really doing when it comes to building friendships and relationships which are going to be essential life skills as they grow older.

Pupils to become Teachers of the Future

As Teachers we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders to help encourage and teach the next generation about the history and society of our world. By allowing students to express their creativity in a controlled and encouraging environment, we help children to develop key social skills, literacy, numeracy and cognitive thinking that will help them to grow and become working, fully fledged members of society. This includes helping to teach the next generation of primary teachers.
primary-tweacher-pupil-300x192Some government officials are stating that children should be scouted as young as the primary level in order to help prepare them for a future in teaching. This is thought to help combat the predicted teacher shortage that has taken effect over the past few years and may get worse as time goes by.
Chief executive of the National College for Teaching and Leadership Charlie Taylor has said that schools should encourage children to start aspiring to become teachers before they enter their teens, in order to ensure that they get the very best teaching opportunities as they grow. Examples include working part time as a ‘Classroom Assistant’ to get a sense of how it feels to be a teacher.
However although this may be a good-intentioned scheme to encourage children to consider teaching as a valid career choice, it is important to take into account each child’s individual preferences. After all, we are here to help children become who they really want to be, not to mould them into what is needed at the time.

Teaching Primary Children Code

As primary support teachers, we endeavour to teach our pupils a range of subjects designed to help give them a general understanding of the world we live in, while helping them to develop their own strengths and give them positive encouragement to continue to learn. Essential subjects include Maths, History and Languages, however Computer Science has taken a back seat in primary learning and it is becoming more important than ever that this is changed in our classes.

code-300x23215 years ago we were on the cusp of a technological revolution.

Information Technology started to creep into our everyday lives and although we as adults began to learn and incorporate IT into our daily routine, it has only garnered interest from younger children in the past few years, with the rise of mobile technology.

In order to ensure the future success of the technological age it is important that we teach young children Computer Science as soon as possible, as it opens up countless new job opportunities when you are Computer literate.

Plus, within Computer Science you will also gain a broader understanding of a number of other subjects including Literacy, Numeracy and the ability to express ourselves creatively.

Children are fast learners and are ready to absorb everything that comes their way. Why not introduce them into a world full of new opportunities with a comprehensive Computer Science course, even if it is just for one hour a week?

Schools No Longer Teaching Creationism

All public schools throughout the UK will now be prevented from teaching Creationism as if it were scientific fact in their classes. Although many public schools already took this into account when teaching Creationism, it has now been announced that all public funded schools as well as any existing and future academies will be following the new rule.
od-300x197The changes come as a result of ensuring that the education sector remains open minded to multiple religions and practises as a part of ‘multi-cultural Britain’. Although Creationism is still relatively important in teaching our young people how the Earth ‘came to be’ it has taken more of a back seat role in religion recently as many mainstream churches and religious traditions even go so far as to reject Creationism as a theory.
Because it lacks scientific evidence – a factor which is becoming more and more crucial every day with each new discovery we make as a species about our world – Creationism must not be taught as scientific fact. However this will not discredit the teaching of Creationism in public schools, it is just important to make sure that it is not taught as a reliable alternative to any scientific theory of our origin.