Some of you may have been following us a while, some of you more recently and we thought it might be useful to reflect on a few of our most searched for and read posts.
This selection relates to the teaching of writing: Continue reading
I have a question for you. Which childhood habit from summers long-gone have you kept? Which has turned into a life-long act, something you pick up again every year in July when schools close their doors and traffic is once again calm around 8.45am?
Is it spending hours roaming around with your mates getting up to mischief? (Not unless a night in The Kenilworth Cocktail bar applies. And no, it wasn’t me who tried to drink the cocktails in alphabetical order. Someone cannot leave work behind in the office). Maybe eating 10 ice-pops in a row for a dare? Or ripping the heads off your mum’s roses so you can make perfume, which after one day has the whiff of rotting compost with high tone of cat?
For me, it is rediscovering my love of the library. Don’t get me wrong, I do go regularly in term time, but it is very often a rushed ten minutes to look at the ‘new titles’ shelf and hone in on a particular author’s output. But when the summer holidays arrive, a visit to the library becomes the habit of my childhood.
When I was a kid, we spent hours in our local library. I can remember the buzzing excitement of walking to the library and crossing the threshold. Mum would say ‘Right, we’ll meet up here later’, and then we would be released like stones from a slingshot. A fast walk/run to the Children’s Section then a long, leisurely mooch, pottering from one shelf to another, picking up, putting down, maybe stopping to read a chapter or two. Then furtively exploring other sections – books a 10 year old possibly should not have been looking at. These days I skulk around Cookery and Personal Growth, hoping I don’t bump into anyone I know as I read up on how to make the perfect muffin whilst performing a downward dog.
Libraries are brilliant. There is a wonderfully nostalgic comfort in knowing they are there. More importantly, however, they are vital to our communities. They provide something that cannot be recreated elsewhere. This is my Top Ten of Stuff We Need to Remember about Libraries: Continue reading
The Firework-Maker’s Daughter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman has to be my most recommended book in the schools I work with – and I don’t apologise! I could probably fit it to any given unit! Historical story? Tick. Adventure Story? Tick. Strong female main character? Tick. Multi-cultural story? Tick. Story with issues and dilemmas? Tick. Story by a significant author? Tick. Persusive adverts? Tick. Newspaper reports? Tick. Voyage and return story? Tick.
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Charlotte Reed – Primary English Consultant
lovetoreadtomyclass 