Brandon

Teachers get nervous too!

Brandon
With A Levels results released last week and GCSE’s later on this week, pupils are not the only ones getting nervous. The results a pupil obtains in exams also reflects on how well the subject has been taught by the teacher. If the majority of the pupils who were taught by that teacher do well then that is fine but if the majority of the pupils fail or get results below average then the teacher may be questioned on how they taught the subject. It may be that there is a particular topic within the subject that many pupils failed... Read More »

Helping your child learn at home

Brandon
With the summer holidays upon us, it is a great time to learn about how you can help your child’s education at home. Some people think that their child can learn all they need to in regard to education from school, but studies have shown that children who receive extra educational activities at home do usually excel at school. You do not have to be a teacher or be outstanding at maths and English etc. to be able to aid your child’s learning, there are many simple things you can do. Making worksheets in a notepad or on a piece... Read More »

How to make your lesson outstanding

Brandon
In the world of teaching the one thing most teachers dread is lesson observations, these are sometimes carried out by senior members of teaching staff or by outside inspectors such as Ofsted. The lesson is then graded from either of the following categories: Inadequate, Satisfactory, Good or Outstanding. Now obviously most are aiming for the highest level, outstanding, and so the question is what makes an outstanding lesson? Here are some key points that an inspector will be looking for:- Clear planning and a good route through the lesson to the main objective. High levels of student engagement. Good progress... Read More »

Pronunciation – Does it ‘appen to matter?

Brandon
Encouraging correct pronunciation can be the bane of the English teacher’s life with slang phrases and affected accents taking their toll on the correct pronunciation of words in the English language. Most commonly the letter ‘H’ is dropped from the start of words and words are cut short such as ‘going’ pronounced as ‘goin’. Affected accents picked up by children replicating their idols can also change the pronunciation of words such as ‘ask’ become ‘acts’ and can even combine words such as ‘do you’ becoming ‘dya’. The issue with this is that in a formal situation such as an interview... Read More »

Keeping children interested in reading

Brandon
Some children take to reading very quickly and enjoy being able to read different stories and poems with ease. For some, however, reading is a chore and as they don’t enjoy it their reading skills become quite slow to develop and progress. I think the key to this is igniting children’s interest in books, finding something that they are passionate about and allowing them to read around that subject. Many young boys, for example, don’t particularly want to read about a little girl who loses her teddy, and trying to push them to read a book like that will just... Read More »