CLOSED – WIN – I’m Going To Big School Starter Kit
QA Education has two I’m Going To Big School Starter Kits from My Busy Bots to give away – two lucky readers will receive one each. I’m Going To Big School Starter Kits are a selection of flashcards with questions such as: “What do you do in your day?” and “Can you think of any words that rhyme with these pictures?” – great to spark conversations about a range of subjects and help develop language and communication skills in time for primary school. Over the summer, children are starting their journey getting ready for big school. Buying uniform, talking about new friends and teachers and getting ready for the new routine are all part of this. For My Busy Bots, the brainchild of Candice and Leanne, this summer is the perfect time to gently prepare children for their learning journey through their fun, colourful ‘I’m Going To Big School Starter Kit’. Leanne, a maths teacher, decided to design activities to help her three-year-old to improve his fine motor skills, as her children grow she knows only too well the importance of keeping things fun and educational. My Busy Bots – I’m Going To Big School Starter Kit The I’m Going To Big School Starter Kit is suitable for young children from 3 to 4: The flash cards are designed as conversation starters for your children. There will be different levels of easiness and whilst some may be easier than others, these cards are a great opportunity to bond with your child, and chat about the pictures you see. Language is the most important thing you can prepare your child for at this early stage. Each card covers the Early Years Curriculum – Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design. The skills the cards are designed to develop include: Fine Motor Skills – pre-writing skills, finger isolation, hand-eye coordination and control Visual Preconception skills. Visual tracking and scanning; visual discrimination; visual figure ground Cognitive Skills: Concentration. language skills and vocabulary; early reading skills. Early maths skills. Life Skills. Patience and perseverance; creativity and imagination; awareness of one’s emotions. My Busy Bots – Busy Bags The Busy Bags contain fun, educational activities that will encourage learning through play. They engage children and keep them having fun, learning and occupied for as long as you need. Busy Bags are an excellent resource for all parents and can be used at home or on the go – the perfect accompaniment for keeping busy minds occupied while you are eating out, travelling or at home making dinner, and alternative to having your child glued to an iPad they are interactive so the family can get involved too. ll activities are presented in brightly coloured, waterproof, wipe clean bags. Each bag includes an activity with all the relevant materials required and an information card. Recommended for children aged 18 months – 8 years old (indication of age on each bag). The information card explains: How to use the activity How to extend the activity as your child develops or for more capable children A list of all the skills being developed whilst doing the activity Fun, educational and creative My Busy Bots products are fun, original and jam-packed with creative ways to foster essential skills for your little ones. We love seeing the fascination and delight radiate from our children while engaging in the activities (and drinking the odd cup of hot tea while we can) and this feeling is something we want to share with other mums and their rascals. Order from – www.mybusybots.com For your chance to win one of two School Starter Kits from My Busy Bots, worth £10 each, click on the Rafflecopter competition here. ***The administrator of this competition is QA Education Magazine (“administrator”). By participating in the competition, each Entrant unconditionally accepts and agrees to comply with and abide by these Official Rules and the decisions of Administrator, which shall be final and binding in all respects. Administrator is responsible for the collection, submission or processing of Entries and the overall administration of the competition. Entrants should look solely to Administrator with any questions, comments or problems related to the Competition. Administrator may be reached by email at socialmedia@euromediaal.com during the Promotion Period. * This giveaway will close at 12.00am, 28th August 2019. * The prize is a “I’m Going To Big School” starter kit. The prize is non-transferable, non-refundable. There is no cash alternative. * Open to UK residents aged 18 or over, excluding employees of the Administrator, the sponsor, their families and anyone else professionally connected with this promotion. * There is one compulsory entry which requests that to enter the competition you answer a question based on the books. Additional entries are available. * The prize winner will be asked to provide their email address so that contact can be made to arrange prize delivery, and their name and county be published in the next issue of the magazine * By entering the competition, you grant the Administrator permission to add your details to the mailing list, share your email address and any other personally identifiable information with the other competition Entities for the purpose of administration and prize fulfillment, including use in a publicly available Winners list. * Entries will only be accepted as instructed and any entrant that does not complete the qualifying requirements will be disqualified * The winners will be chosen using the random entry selector built into the widget. * The winners will be informed by email within 5 days of the closing date, and must respond within 5 days to claim their prize. If there is no response within the 5 days and new winner will be drawn at random. *This prize draw is governed by English law and the courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising in connection with it. For further T&C and our privacy policy please see here Euromedia Associates Ltd: Privacy Policy https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/66331438/legal**
Road safety highlighted by primary children’s march
Schoolchildren took to the streets today in a national day of action to raise awareness of road safety, as horrifying statistics surrounding traffic deaths and injuries were highlighted. More than 63,000 children of primary age took part in Brake’s Kids Walk with Shaun the Sheep, as 45 children are killed or injured every day on roads across the UK. The national project, in partnership with the Ocado Foundation, saw Shaun and his flock help youngsters learn key road safety messages and call on grown-ups to make roads safer, so more children can enjoy the health and CO2-saving benefits of walking. Shocking road safety figures Road safety charity Brake highlighted the true extent of child casualties on the nation’s roads. Latest official figures show that 16,566 children were killed or injured on roads in the UK in 2017. On average, that means 45 children die or suffer injuries as a result of road crashes every single day. Department for Transport (DfT) figures show that 14,226 children were killed or injured on roads in England in 2017, while Welsh Government statistics reveal there were 577 child road casualties during the same period. Transport Scotland says that 899 children were killed or injured on roads in Scotland in 2017, and numbers were similar for Northern Ireland, which reports 864 child road casualties in the same year. Nearly 400 schools and nurseries took part in Brake’s Kids Walk, calling for five measures to help keep children safe near roads: footpaths cycle paths safe places to cross slow traffic clean traffic Short, supervised walks are taking place today and all week at or around schools and nurseries. Children will walk in a crocodile formation and hold hands to highlight the importance of being able to walk without fear or threat from traffic. Some schools are teaming up with their local fire service or police. Schools were also urged to run special road safety-themed assemblies, lessons and activities, using free resources featuring Shaun the Sheep and his friends. Funds were also raised for Brake, which supports families who have lost loved ones in road crashes. Dave Nichols, community engagement manager for Brake, said: “Every child should be able to walk in their community without fear of traffic and pollution. Unfortunately, many kids are unable to do so because they don’t have access to simple measures such as footpaths, cycle paths and safe places to cross. “Many more must contend with fast traffic and pollution from vehicle emissions. If we want children and their families to walk, we need to make sure their journeys are safe. We’re delighted that so many schools and children across the UK agree with us on this and are taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk. Together we can raise awareness about the issues that matter to them and help make their roads safer.” Dorothy Pegg, assistant head at Seven Sisters Primary School in Tottenham, said: “Our school is delighted to take part in Brake’s Kids Walk with Shaun the Sheep and help raise awareness about how we can all make our roads safer. We’re passionate about encouraging our children to live healthy lifestyles, which includes walking in their local community. That’s why we support Brake’s call for footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic to help keep children safe near roads.” Stuart Reid, Interim Director of Vision Zero at TfL, said: “We completely agree with these children – death and serious injuries on our roads is unacceptable. Children should be able to walk to school, play, and enjoy London without worry. We are committed to making streets across London safer, as part of our Vision Zero ambition, by improving dangerous junctions, implementing our new bus safety programme and working with schools on Junior Roadwatch.” For more information on how your school can make getting to school safer, see brake.org.uk
UNCOVERED: Maths mastery for four-year-olds
Katie Hiatt is a Publisher at Pearson and has led the development of Power Maths Reception. Here, she explains the CPA method and how it’s suited to children in early years. With a mastery approach becoming increasingly popular in primary schools, many school leaders are starting to consider how to embed mastery in their reception classrooms, without compromising on giving children a rounded experience of early years. Here are some ways you can align a mastery approach with early years best practice: Focus on foundations Don’t worry about teaching reception children to count to higher numbers or the names of every 3D shape you can find – these things can come later. What’s really important is that children begin to develop a sense of the underlying concepts and structures of maths. Some children may come to school already fluently counting to ten and beyond – but do they really, deeply understand what these numbers mean? Can they recognise and represent five in a variety of ways? Can they pick five pencils from a pot of ten? Do they know what pairs of numbers make up five, and when they’ve found all the pairs? Children need to master these foundation skills in order to succeed in KS1 and beyond. CPA the early years way CPA stands for concrete, pictorial, abstract – an approach that is being championed by the NCETM and Maths Hubs. Many teachers find that using concrete resources in maths comes naturally in EYFS – and that’s great! Being able to touch, feel and manipulate the maths is an ideal way to help children develop an understanding of the underlying concepts. But some teachers find it more difficult to move children from that great starting point to a pictorial and then abstract approach. Teaching children how to represent objects is a good starting point – it’s not practical to get three elephants and two camels into the room to sort them, so what could we use instead? Moving from a representation with a clear link (such as toy elephants and camels) to representation with something less obviously linked (such as counters and a part-whole model) ensures children understand the concept of representation as well as the underlying structure of this particular problem, building a firm foundation for later success in maths. Abstract maths doesn’t have to mean formal written maths. Try using sound and movement – how many claps can you hear? Can you hop five times? Can you line up in threes? Activities like these ensure children are not relying solely on visual cues. Develop a growth mindset in maths A key way to help children become ready for KS1 is to embed a growth mindset right from the start. Made a mistake? No worries! Learn from it, and have another go. Something you tried hasn’t worked? What could you try instead? Growth mindset attitudes to learning will help children become confident, curious and resilient learners, not just in maths but across the whole curriculum. Power Maths Reception combines a mastery teaching approach with Early Years best practice to help children be ready for maths in KS1 and beyond. It also includes built-in professional development for teachers. Find out more at: pearsonprimary.co.uk