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Drama is an Expressive Arts subject which children need to learn about and experience, as Drama makers, performers and responders. This course will outline what children need to learn about, the skills they need to develop, and the Drama experiences they will hopefully have during their primary school years. A possible curriculum framework for Drama will be presented, that focuses attention on the continuity and progression of Drama learning and skills. Ways of mapping Drama across your curriculum will also be considered, as Drama can support the teaching of other subjects and areas, and help learners develop towards the four purposes.
- A Drama Curriculum Framework
- The Powerpoint (as a PDF)
- 2 cross-curricular primary lesson plans
- A published article
With the Welsh Government setting up a National task force on Attendance it is safe to assume a drive to improve School Attendance figures will follow suit. Let’s be prepared …
This course will look at good practice for supporting pupils with Anxiety.
You will learn about various strategies and ways to support your pupil’s needs.
You will deepen your knowledge of anxiety and anxiety based disorders. You will be signposted to relevant support and have access to coaching and guidance moving forwards.
The course will cover:
- What is anxiety?
- What is an anxiety disorder?
- How is Anxiety affecting Attendance?
- Truancy V Emotionally Based School Avoidance
- Teaching and learning strategies
- Working with parents
- Sharing of good practice and case studies
A half-day online course to refresh the teaching of reading.
To become effective readers pupils need to crack the phonic code and learn to make meaning independently. Pupils need explicit teaching to become effective readers and many daily opportunities to practise and apply their skills in live contexts. The 9 Reading Behaviours help pupils to learn what to do as they read. Initially, pupils learn each behaviour one-by-one, and overtime they learn to synthesise the behaviours, choosing the most useful strategies to unlock a text in any given context.
The 9 Reading Behaviours help pupils to solve problems as they read, engage with the text and to reflect on content.
Participating Schools have the option to purchase The Reading Behaviours pack at the discounted price of £365.75 (25% reduction), which contains 325 ideas and 175 bespoke resources to help busy teachers to provide engaging, stimulating and purposeful reading tasks.
At the time of writing there are over 500,000 teacher support staff in the UK education system with approximately 31,000 of these being registered with the Education Workforce Council (EWC) in Wales and approximately 18,000 of these working in primary schools in Wales where they are now a larger section of the workforce than teaching staff (Department for Education, 2018; Education Workforce Council, 2017).
Research into the deployment of primary school support staff in Wales 11/07/19
As you can see above, it is vital that use these members of staff are used effectively. This course will look at good practice in the mainstream classroom. You will learn about various strategies and ways to effectively use your staff to support children with ALN.
The course will cover:
- Encouraging motivation, morale and CPD.
- The role of Support staff in progression of children with ALN
- Driving routine, consistency and reward systems forwards
- Scaffolding V Spoon-feeding
- Independent skills
- Examples of timetables and models.
A half-day online course to reboot the teaching of reading comprehension.
The 3-part reading lesson facilitates the development of reading comprehension as outlined in WM2 whilst teaching pupils to respond to and appreciate text. It promotes high quality discussion of ideas and concepts.
This course provides teachers with a clear framework to teach fiction and non-fiction to the whole class.
Course Objectives:
- Show teachers how to organise a 3-part reading lesson.
- Provide teachers with a bank of resources to investigate fiction and non-fiction texts.
- Explain how to build a community of readers who support each other to explore ideas and concepts.
Working as a class or in groups and pairs supports pupils’ growing ability to read independently. The 3-part lesson is also effective and enjoyable. Delegates will also receive a course booklet to support implementation of this approach.
The ALN reform act (Wales) has placed statutory obligations on schools to decide if a pupil has ALN or not. How confident are you in meeting the needs of all learners in your class? This course will look at good practice in the mainstream classroom. You will learn about various strategies and ways to attune to your pupil’s needs. You will have the opportunity to access observations made by specialist teaching. These will be presented as examples for
you to take back to school and support pupils who may be struggling or identified as having ALN.
The course will cover:
- Awareness of various additional learning needs (including Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Pathological Demand Avoidance)
- Strategies/Targets for various Additional Learning Needs e.g. channelling behaviours.
- Awareness of different tools for measuring progress
- Points of reference for breaking down goals into smaller steps
- Insights
- Interpreting behaviours
- Attuning to individual pupil needs
- Role of Support Staff
- Q and A session
A half-day online course to map extended writing opportunities
Estyn stresses the need for teachers to plan opportunities for authentic, independent extended writing across the curriculum. Estyn notes:
Overall, pupils do not have regular opportunities to write independently, particularly when writing in other areas of the curriculum.
This course helps you to plan for effective extended writing.
It will:
- Look at a model for planning extended writing in PS2 and PS3
- Explore how to map writing across the AoLEs and consider effective task setting
- Investigate ways to help pupils to retrieve and use information in their own writing.
- Enable you to give your pupils meaningful opportunities to apply skills learnt in literacy in authentic ways.
The Additional Learning Needs transformation programme came into practice on the 1 st of September 2021. The idea was to create a unified approach for young people from the age of 0-25.
An important part of this system is accurate and relevant assessment of Additional Learning Needs of pupils already identified as needing extra support. It is also important to develop screening systems within the mainstream setting in order to recognise needs in pupils that might not be presenting their additional learning needs in an obvious way in class.
We will explore different Assessments and ensure that practitioners have a plethora of tools to assist in ascertaining the needs of all pupils.
The course will cover:
- Boxall profiling
- Coventry scales Grid
- Well being scales
- Readiness for learning scales
- Goodman’s SDQ
- Differentiation in the mainstream class
- Sharing of good practice
The Spring and Summer modules can be booked together to gain a saving. The days can also be booked as stand-alone days.
This 1-day course is part of a 3-day rolling programme. The days do not have to be done in any order and can be stand alone 1-day courses.
Current research across local authorities in Wales, suggests that employing Nurturing practices for well-being can result in reduced exclusions.
Do you have a Nurture Group/Class? Are you looking to link up with other Nurture Groups?
Are you looking for guidance for planning for well-being/Nurturing principles?…
This course aims to provide Nurturing activities and ideas to support classroom practitioners with classroom management of pupils with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties.
The course will cover:
- What is the pure model? – Majorie Boxall version of Nurture
- How does the Nurture Group fit in with the ALNET?
- Psychological effect of environmental cues.
- Relaxation and calming.
- Nurturing Principles in the classroom and whole School.
- Using story and other vehicles for communication.
A half-day online course to make shared reading a key part of a school’s scheme of work
Shared reading is an essential strategy in each teacher’s literacy toolkit. During shared reading pupils practise increasingly complex skills in a supportive and engaging environment. This course shows how shared reading changes as pupils grow and mature.
Course Objectives:
- Explore how shared reading flexes and changes as pupils mature and look at models for teaching in PS1, PS2 and PS3.
- Examine the skills we need to teach pupils in each Progression Step and study a sample scheme of work.
- Look at ways to involve pupils in shared reading.
- Consider what goes into a shared reading toolkit.
Delegates will receive a sample scheme of work and resources to build a shared reading toolkit.
Date: Wed 5th March 2025
The Additional Learning Needs transformation programme came into practice on the 1 st of September 2021. The idea was to create a unified approach for young people from the age of 0-25.
An important part of this system is providing reasonable adjustments in daily classroom practice, this may be enough to meet the needs of most learners but how do we know?
Many questions still exist around how to track those pupils in the ‘grey ‘ area.
We will explore what to do with those pupils who are facing barriers to learning and look at
how to ensure we know if their needs are continuing to be met.
The course will cover:
- The ALNET
- Who are the pupils we are looking to track and why? What are ‘barriers ‘ to learning?
- Case studies and different scenarios.
- Sharing of tracking ideas from other schools.
- Pros and cons of programmes and various strategies.
- Working with Parents.
- Opportunities to shape future support sessions.
A half-day online course to enhance the teaching of writing.
Pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar errors far too frequently make their writing clumsy and hard to read. Their creativity and knowledge can be obscured by weak transcription skills.
This course will consider techniques to help you and your pupils to focus on accuracy in writing.
We will:
- Explore ways to help pupils to learn from their spelling errors
- Investigate how to support pupils to edit their work after completing the first draft and before marking
- Consider what pupils can do after marking to learn from any highlighted errors
- With support and guidance pupils can learn to write with clarity and precision.
‘The Languages, Literacy and Communication Area of Learning and Experience (Area) addresses fundamental aspects of human communication. It aims to support learning across the whole curriculum and to enable learners to gain knowledge and skills in Welsh, English and international languages as
well as in literature.’(CFW)
Whether you have a French qualification or if you get by with ‘oui oui’ and a lot of gesturing this course is for you! Join us for a fun day that will develop confidence in teaching and meeting the Modern Foreign Language aspect of the New curriculum for Wales.
The course will cover:
- A Free vocabulary/topic book to take away
- Ideas and activities for planning
- Ensuring progression across the curriculum
- Exploration of Free apps
- Assessment
A half-day online course to refresh the teaching of writing in WM4
Schools are charged with developing pupils’ creativity in WM4 (Literature Fires the Imagination) as pupils create their own literature.
Story writing allows pupils to explore ideas; expand their imaginations and express their unique view of the world. Opportunities to compose stories help children to grow.
This course will:
- Explore ways to use fiction texts to stimulate pupils’ imaginations
- Investigate ways to help pupils to plan narratives
- Consider how to help pupils to describe character and setting
- Think about the tips we can give pupils to write with flair and inventiveness.
- With focus we can help pupils to enjoy writing stories.