Review by Sarah Gallagher

Headteacher, Snape Primary School and PGCE tutor, University of Cambridge

4 Feb 2023, 5:00

Blog

The Conversation – with Sarah Gallagher

Poetry by Heart

There is no better virtual place to go in the winter months than a book site, and Just Imagine is perfect for perusing children and young people’s literature. But it is much more than that; It’s a one-stop shop for “blog posts, podcasts and reviews promoting excellent practice in teaching reading, writing and oracy.”

This week, the site’s guest blogger is Julie Blake, co-founder and director of Poetry By Heart and a  passionate advocate for the power of children learning poetry out loud.

Here, Blake talks about teachers in primary schools feeling intimidated by teaching poetry because they often think it requires GSCE-level analysis. She recommends that we turn poetry into something else instead, enjoying the sound of it and the pleasure of saying it aloud as it was meant to be. Her admonishment against rushing through the actual performance in order to analyse a poem to within an inch of its life is spot on, and her enthusiasm is infectious. It has certainly inspired us to rethink our poetry offer and re-focus on oracy, literacy and enjoyment.

Outdoor activities

Cosy Direct is a resources site with an active presence on social media that promotes hands-on early learning. It’s also home to an interesting blog site packed with practical activities for which you don’t need to buy products.

The latest blog ties in with the RSPB’s ‘Big Garden Bird Watch’ weekend. Green education and giving all our children and young people a love of nature grows ever more important. We know what being outdoors can do for all of us, and this post takes this as a starting point to promote activities that can build into habits for life – respect and kindness towards nature, and simple tricks like walking quietly to spot more wildlife, or cupping our hands around our ears so we can listen more closely.

More than that, the post argues compellingly that outdoor learning must be given the same consideration we give all other aspects of the curriculum. We can’t expect children to simply grow their own understanding of the environment. If we wish our children to look after their planet, we must first promote awe and wonder, but we must also support them to turn those into something meaningful. This blog is a great place to start.

Thinking time

This week’s episode of the John Catt podcast, Mind the Gap sees hosts Emma Turner and Tom Sherrington interview Efrat Furst, a researcher at the Mofet Institute, a centre for research, curriculum and programme development in teacher education in Tel Aviv.

Sometimes the world of cognitive science seems very geared towards secondary schools, particularly with regard to retrieval practice. This sparky and down-to-earth conversation bucks that trend.

All three educators warn that an obsession with organising and neatening curriculum design risks outweighing whether children are truly making meaningful long-term connections. Instead, they argue for the importance of providing much more consolidation time for learners to encode what they’ve learned.  I will certainly be taking this back into school to apply to our work… after a little more thinking time.

A New Idea of Resilience

Building resilience in our teams, in ourselves and in our learners is key to coping with the ups and downs of education and life. However, resilience has come to mean different things, which is the starting point for this episode of The Social Matters Podcast with Nadia Galvani, Fran Feeley and Eugene Ogbewele.

Their discussion with resilience coach, Josh Connolly centres around definitions of resilience. I’m certainly guilty of describing children as remarkably resilient, but is what I am describing really a well-developed coping mechanism?  Connolly uses the analogy of a piece of plastic which can endure a lot before it eventually breaks. By contrast, a piece of elastic may go profoundly out of shape but will return to its original state.

It’s a powerful argument for acknowledging that we all fall and all despair from time to time, rather than presenting a front of unshakeable strength as a model of resilience. After all, it’s not healthy to be a superhero – and lycra doesn’t suit everybody!

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