Number Agents

At the beginning of this term I wrote a blog post about the changes I wanted to make to our reading.  This blog post is located here. Currently we read individually with children that are developmentally ready, this may be after four months at school, or eight months, or even a year.  It really doesn't matter and we do not engage with reading until we feel a child is ready. Currently in our group of 38 we are reading with around 14 children.  We make sure we check in with them at least twice a week.  We have about ten children who are close to being developmentally ready. My lightbulb moment at the end of last term was around phonics.  I have always believed that exposure and specific teaching (when ready) of the letter (symbol) and sound relationship was absolutely essential.  However I then just expected children to know how to use this understanding in the reading process.  Often I pushed on with the development of other strategies in readi...

I have a few blog posts on my mind at the moment, but chose this one, because it was much simpler for me to write on a Tuesday night after a long day, and with thoughts of a busy week ahead. The title of this post gives away my intentions and my ultimate message, and it absolutely is a simple one.  Play, for me, this journey into play has been a gift.  A gift for me, and ultimately one that truly has benefited all. It is sad in one way, that something that should be such a right for children, took me such a long time to come to, and is still something that so many children around the country and the world for that fact, are being deprived of, sadly in the name of 'learning.' But why is it such a gift? Well that is quite hard to explain, but very basically, it is a gift because it places the power of dynamic, real learning back in the hands of those that should hold it, the children.  Not only that, it gifts us with the ability to truly see children, their urge...

Right so this is my third full year into play, and I have certainly come a long way.  It has been a journey full reflections and answers...answers in fact to questions I didn't even know I had. Over the last few weeks I have come across some discussions online that are echoes of the old me, the discussions are robust and the opinions are based on personal viewpoints and some research into learning.  This is not unusual, but what has dismayed me is that there seems to be a very real misunderstanding around what it means to be operating a 'play based' or developmentally appropriate environment.  "Play" and the simple nature of this powerful practice is being used as if it is 'frivolous' and inconvenient once children are at primary school. I wanted to spend some time talking to the misunderstandings I have read, as they were also misunderstandings that I probably would have expressed four or five years ago.  In fact, I went back and read this old po...