As a teacher, I am passionate about bridging the gap between our highly able pupils and those who are navigating school but finding the daily learning a trial and difficult to understand. Every child is an individual, and of course, they will have their own needs, interests and hobbies, but shouldn’t education be universally achievable for all? Some children are just born ready to learn and come to school and thrive. Like sponges, they absorb everything taught and talk about it with their teacher. But how do you reach those kids who find school challenging? When the learning aspect does not come easy? These are questions teachers ask themselves every day.
I believe the early years are the most significant part of a child’s education and how they formulate concepts and ideas as well as skills. Whilst meeting these outcomes they are forging a path to how they learn and this will affect them all through their lives. Depending on how learning is approached can be the difference between a child who succeeds and those who feel like they are always trying to catch up. It is not only the job of the school or teacher to provide these experiences and opportunities to learn new concepts, but it is primarily the role of the parent to make sure their child is given the best start with ample access to a variety of learning experiences. School is designed to complement and enhance what was started at home, and this is why we have children who attend ready to learn and others who do not see the value in learning at all. Their early attitude to the learning environment comes directly from the experiences fostered at home.
Now, I am not referring to children who have other needs or may have an SEN diagnosis. These children face different challenges, and teachers are regularly retraining to ensure they are able to meet all pupils’ needs to the best of their abilities and resources. It’s the children who want to learn but find they are unable to make the connections as quickly as their friends, and this is why I developed a range of early and first-level (CfE – Curriculum for Excellence) numeracy and literacy books to help all children, no matter how difficult the concept, find a way to better retain their knowledge and skills. These books are designed to be completed, for the most part, individually with some parent/adult participation but the skills that we try to teach in school to our bigger classes, have been organised and structured on the pages of these texts.
One to one and with an adult to teach and direct, scaffold and build confidence in their learners, children can find the tools and strategies that work for them and push their learning forward. I’d love nothing more than to give each and every child in my classroom plenty of one to one support but when generally class sizes are 20 plus and sometimes reaching 30, even with their best efforts, teachers know they are having to accommodate larger classes by developing rotational learning inlcuding whole class, group and individual teacher time. This is supported with pupil paired instruction and group activities to allow children opportunities to teach and learn from each other. Peer support in invaluable and so necessary in our fast paced world. But what do we do when a child needs more one to one time with their teacher?
The books I have created are designed to allow the parent to be the teacher and follow up to date outcomes and currculum planning, with tips and examples of how these foundational skills would be taught in school. Working one to one with your child whilst using these books to give the learning focus and direction and compliment what is already been driven in the learning at school, will give your child the best possible access to the strategies and skills needed to become experienced learners who engage in concepts and make connections.
There are currently four educational books available with more under development to suppliment the early skills already developed and revisited in these first four texts.
My First Phonics Book and My Second Phonics Book (due to go live today or tomorrow) tackle the first 12 initial sounds that are taught in schools. These are usually supported with songs and rhmyes which can be found on YouTube as nothing helps a child learn quicker than song and actions (Jolly Phonics for example). It is a solid way to help them learn, remember and retain that knowledge. In book 1 we look at the letters a, s, t, p, i, n and the first few common words such as I, the, and, whilst introducing words that can be blended wih the letters they are learnig about like in, it, is, an etc.
In book 2 we look at building and expanding the child’s repertoire of phonemes and words by introducing the next 6 letters and layering the learning achieved in book 1. Both books give oppportunities to tackle early reading skills and applying those to writing too. If a child can quickly use the first 6 sounds and consolidate their learning regularly, they will learn to enjoy literacy and not see reading and writing as such an onerous task.
My First Book of Number and My Fractions and Time Activity Booklets are designed to complement the strategies and skills taught in school by helping children to become numerate in all aspects of how number might be presented and acquired. Again these books gently build skills with increasing difficulty so children experience success whilst also being challenged and stretched. This is a great way to enhance their early number skills. Currently the available books are only identifying numbers to 10 but as the series continues to grow, larger numbers and more challenging concepts and topics will be added.
I have attached the links below if you are keen to look at the books discussed. I have also linked some notebooks that may be useful for kids beginning to develop personal study skills and need something attaractive but convenient to store their notes.
Wishing you all a lovely day!
Becca
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE PUBLISHED 
Leave a comment