Who has to pass the literacy skills test?
All prospective teachers who want to work in England comprehensive schools as a qualified teacher must pass both the numeracy and literacy skills tests. You sit the two QTS skills tests separately.
What is the literacy skills test pass mark?
The pass mark for the literacy skills test varies depending on the difficulty of the test on the day you sit it, so it is standardised against other tests people have sat. However it is reported to be in the region of 60-65%.
Do you have QTS literacy skills test tutors who can help?
Yes we have qualified literacy skills English tutors in most area of the country who can help you to pass your exam. If you are looking for a literacy skills tutor in London or Leeds, or any major city then QTS Maths Tutor can help.
What content will there be in my qts English exam?
There are a number of different types of questions that can come up but these will all fall under one of the following topics which will in total be worth between 41 and 49 marks:
- Spelling- Is worth 10 marks
- Grammar – Is 10-12 marks
- Punctuation- 15 marks
- Comprehension – 10-12 marks
The spelling part of the test is the only part in which you have to answer each question in turn and you are unable to go back to previous questions in this section. English American and UK English versions of words are both accepted so stabilise and stabilize would both be acceptable spellings for example.
How many attempts do I have at the professional skills tests?
You get as many attempts as you require to pass both professional skills tests but training providers will set a deadline by which the test has to be passed.
Is the QTS literacy skills test hard?
Some people find the qts English test difficult whilst others who tend to have a lot of recent experience studying English don’t find it as tricky. Both qts skills tests are considered tricky by most people and it is essential that you practise and get the right support if you are struggling.
How do I prepare for the literacy skills test?
The 4 qts literacy practice tests on the government site are a must in order to get use to the format of the exam and from there on learning the knowledge and content for the exam is essential. Take a look at the list of documents below which will give you even more information about how to prepare for your literacy skills test.
> Literacy Skills Test specification and content
> QTS literacy skills test features and format
> Glossary of terms to learn
Are there are any QTS literacy skills practice tests?
Yes you can access these via governments, DfE STA website. We have also developed some literacy skills test revision matrerials which you can access for free via this page.
How do I book my QTS Literacy skills test?
You can book your exam through the learn direct website. More information about what you will need in order to book your literacy skills test can be found in the document below.
> Preparing for the literacy skills test
How will your literacy skills tutor help?
Whether you are looking or a literacy skills tutor in Leeds or in London, our tutors can help. They can either focus on the areas that you know you are weaker on or take you through the entire content that you need to know for the exam. If you are looking for a qts English tutor then get in touch today.
At QTS Maths Tutor we are committed to helping prospective teachers prepare for their QTS Skills Tests. Whether you need more help with your numeracy skills test in the form of excellent resources or you are looking for a literacy skills test tutor in London or where ever, QTS Maths Tutor can help. Take a look at our free literacy skills test resources and why not have a go at our free numeracy skills test. Whatever help you require with your professional skills tests, we can help.


The process of goal setting is pretty well embedded in schools across the globe. We know that we make better progress when we have a clear outcome in mind and set reasonable goals to grow – and in an industry which can be slow to implement change, we’ve largely accepted this as a good practice to some degree. The first few weeks of school sees a flurry of goal setting for teachers, administrators and of course students. Practice varies and can be anything from lesson objectives to SMART goals to data targets and any number of other options and approaches.
But, there’s some that bothers me a little about goal setting – we almost always look at it from a deficit perspective. We ask some version of ‘What do you need to get better at?’. Now, don’t get me wrong, plenty of teachers/administrators also ask ‘what are you good at?’ – but those answers rarely factor into the goal setting. My hesitation (concern? discomfort?) here is covers a few points. Firstly, there’s the emotional barrier for some people in being challenged to strengthen something you aren’t good at – if you’re struggling with multiple aspects of school this is magnified. Cognitive load theory tells us that there’s a limit to how much information we can take on board, now imagine those early weeks of school and repeatedly listing all the things you cannot do. For some students this might help them focus, but it you’re struggling at school I wonder what impact this might have? I think the fact that teachers were usually at least moderately successful at school maybe leads to a situation where we don’t know what it would be like to struggle for multiple hours a day. Secondly, when we’re highlighting what doesn’t work it might sometimes feels like that devalues what we are good at. We’re not taking the same amount of time to focus on those strengths and think about we continue to grow those skills. And finally, I wonder if we’re missing a way to help kids (and adults) grow and flourish.
At the IB conference we listened to a Key Note speech from Sir Clive Woodward. His work with peak performance athletes (from rugby to the Olympics to skiing and more) was inspirational, and his speech also sparked an idea. What if we set goals based on what are students/teachers are really GOOD at? Supporting this, Dr. Siva Kumari challenged educators to focus on what IS working, rather than what is not. Whilst a base level of foundational skills are critical for all students, could we not set goals that identify what you are great at and find ways to leverage that as well? Is the talented artist going to be an economist? Who knows – but perhaps the passion for art could be used to unlock some skills and understandings that are a struggle at this point in time? I’m not saying we ditch looking at areas we need to grow in, but that we begin from a different place.
By taking time to focus on what we are already good at/passionate about and how we will grow in this area we can help our students/colleagues grow in confidence and feel appreciated for what they bring to the table.
This also builds into another idea from Sir Clive Woordward – Talent alone is not enough. Being passionate about something or talented won’t take our kids to the heights we know they could reach – they have to work hard and be prepared to chase down their success. By goal setting for things we’re already passionate about and good at we’re driving towards peak performance. This makes me think about the connection between school and life after school. When I set myself professional goals they’re connected to my strength – I’m a PYP Coordinator – my goals don’t ask me to strengthen my rugby skills (fortunately) or my understanding of different economic models (again…lucky on that one too).
With this in mind, we created a template for a goal setting sheet (its an easy way to start the conversation) and some prompt questions that could support this way of beginning goal setting. This would be less specific to a subject area, but more about general growth as a person.
We’re now going to try this out with some of our students, and hopefully a couple of teachers too! I’m interested to see how this impacts mindset, determination and the feeling of success. I hope, that as we grow stronger at things we love to do that confidence and success will spread. Let’s see!
Download an editable version of the goal setting sheet here:
Interested in learning more? Click below to see more from Sir Clive Woodward (we earn a small commission on sales at no cost to you!)


Morton Feldman was an American composer and influential figure of 20th-century music known for writing exceptionally long pieces.
Feldman was born in Queens, Brooklyn to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father was a manufacturer of children’s coats and Feldman supplemented his early career income working in the family’s textile industry.
His childhood piano teacher instilled in him a vibrant musicality. He went on to study composition with Wallingford Riegger, one of the first American followers of Arnold Schoenberg, and Stefan Wolpe, a German-born Jewish composer who studied under Franz Schreker and Anton Webern.
Feldman met the composer John Cage by chance in the early 1950’s during a performance of Anton Webern’s Symphony, op. 21 by the New York Philharmonic. The two quickly became good friends and Feldman moved into an apartment in the same building Cage lived in.
Feldman and Cage inspired and encouraged each other in their work. Feldman started to write pieces without constraints of traditional harmony, serial technique or other systems of the past, preferring to experiment with non-standard systems of notation and chance. This in turn inspired John Cage’s use of chance operations in his music, and his use of the Chinese I Ching as a compositional device.
Through Cage, Feldman met many contemporary artists and composers including Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Philip Guston. He was particularly inspired by the paintings of the abstract expressionists and wrote a number of pieces based on them including Rothko Chapel (1971, written for the building of the same name, which houses paintings by Mark Rothko) and For Frank O’Hara (1973).
Feldman’s works are characterized by notational innovations, free floating rhythms, softly focused pitch changes and recurring patterns resulting in a quiet evolving music.
His later works (after 1977) moved away from chance operations towards pieces of precision and extreme duration. These include Violin and String Quartet (1985, around 2 hours), For Philip Guston (1984, around four hours) and String Quartet II (1983, which is over six hours long without a break.) The pieces consist of mainly quiet sounds and maintain a very slow almost static developmental pace.
Feldman once claimed that if he could only find a comfortable chair, he would rival Mozart.
About this Contributor
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Back to School: Music for Change
“If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change.” – Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer After many…
Minute of Listening Bristol Weekly Challenge
Our friends at Bristol Plays Music made 60 minutes of Bristol sounds which you can find here on the Minute of Listening…
Discover a treasure trove of music education resources created by the experts at Minute of Listening.


"Jose Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema ("the system") in 1975 to help poor Venezuelan kids learn to play a musical instrument and be part of an orchestra. 30 years on, El Sistema has seeded 102 youth orchestras — and many happy lives.
The gulf between the rich and the poor in Venezuela is one of the worst in the world. Jose Antonio Abreu, an economist, musician, and reformer, founded El Sistema ("the system") in 1975 to help Venezuelan kids take part in classical music. After 30 years (and 10 political administrations), El Sistema is a nationwide organization of 102 youth orchestras, 55 children's orchestras, and 270 music centers -- and close to 250,000 young musicians.
El Sistema uses music education to help kids from impoverished circumstances achieve their full potential and learn values that favor their growth. The talented musicians have become a source of national pride. Several El Sistema students have gone on to major international careers, including Gustavo Dudamel, soon to be the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the bassist Edicson Ruiz, who at 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic.
There is a simple concept behind Abreu's work: for him an orchestra is first and foremost about togetherness, a place where children learn to listen to each other and to respect one another." (Ted Talks Website)
“Music has to be recognized as an ... agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values -- solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime feelings.” — José Antonio Abreu


By Diana Masny (auth.), Diana Masny (eds.)
Read Online or Download Cartographies of Becoming in Education: A Deleuze-Guattari Perspective PDF
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Extra resources for Cartographies of Becoming in Education: A Deleuze-Guattari Perspective
No longer thought as an egology (personological and egoic), Guattari would relaunch subjectivity along ecological lines capable of thinking the group-subject as an ecological assemblage born from differences of group association, connection, and alliance (Guattari, 2000). Eschewing the psychological image of the egoic whole over subjective ‘partcomponents’, Guattari (2000) would commence a mode of therapeutic action sensitive to the heterogeneous ecology of the subject and those institutional objects that palpate the subject’s becoming.
Deleuze and Guattari’s writing on music is perhaps best embodied in their seminal text A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1987). In this work music is described as a “rhizome”, or weed, “that has always sent out lines of flight, like so many transformational multiplicities” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, pp. 11–12). The rhizome is a type of plant that spreads out over new ground forming a matrix of shoots and runners across the ground. ). The rhizome provokes a different kind of thinking about education in and through music.
As a field of study, institutional music education has in modern times been insular and introspective, in and of itself, remaining as it were untainted by the interests and provocations of other educational domains. The study of music has been primarily concerned with the demands of music itself as “tonal moving forms” (Hanslick, 1986) or “humanly organised sound” (Blacking, 1973) concentrating on both formalist and human-centred expressions of music study like performing, composing, and music scholarship.


I read one of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Math Teacher
articles. I was looking for some motivation to move forward with my agenda on diversity and Mathematics for all. In the past, I have recommended that math teachers engage in personal problem-solving as part of their ongoing professional development. The premise is that by continuously placing ourselves in math problem-solving modes, we may be better equipped to support our students as they engage in the same process. These personal problem-solving activities such as, reading mathematics education articles, experimenting with math problems or puzzles, making sense of the history of mathematics, exploring art and mathematics, or investigating realistic, applied math problems.
I chose the November 23, 2017, monthly calendar problem from the Math Teacher to pursue my professional development around experimenting with math problems.
The number puzzle is from an 1852 algebra textbook: “A certain number consists of three digits, which are in arithmetical progression; and the number divided by the sum of the digits is equal to 26, but if 198 be added to it, the digits will be inverted. What is the number?”
After feeling scared that I might not be able to solve the problem, I wrote the problem down and tried to understand the problem. I then made sense of the problem by writing some examples of my understandings. I thought, since this is from an algebra textbook, I decided to try to use some algebra. After about 5 minutes of setting up some equations, I decided that it would be easier for me to follow my instincts and just try out some example cases of solutions to the problem. I then gave up a little bit and wrote some arithmetic progressions using the digits 1, through 9. I worked for about 30 minutes until I was successful.
Finding the solution was empowering. The selected problem has very little to do with an applied problem, often recommended for a performance task in math and often recommended so that student witness the value of a real-world problem. The answer is not obvious; there is more than one way to arrive at the answer or perhaps the problem has more than one answer; there is a perplexing situation that is understood; the solver is interested in finding a solution; one is unable to proceed directly to a solution; and the solution requires the use of mathematical ideas. (Find the reference.)
I felt stress and anxiety. I wondered why I was doing this. I believe it is essential for pre-service and in-service teachers to engage in problem-solving because it puts you in the shoes of the student. I had forgotten what it felt like to not know exactly how to approach any math problem. I had forgotten about the tension involved in solving a problem. If we expect students to do this, solve problems, then we have to engage the process ourselves, and students must be taught how to engage in this process.
The process of solving the problem may mirror the process mathematicians engage when discovering a solution to a theoretical question. I only felt a sense of courage and confidence about solving the problem once I solved the problem myself. The steps, the feelings, the success, the stress, and finding the answer, all might be transferable to problem-solving in general. If we expect citizens in our democracy to make decisions and solve essential life problems, then how do we use the curriculum to engage students in problems that provide them with the experiences we want them to have for the classroom and life.


We use Read Write Inc. as our phonics programme. When pupils are assessed to be ready, they begin the Literacy and Language programme which we supplement with additional writing and subject specific (disciplinary) non fiction reading and writing. This allows us to address the following aims:
1. To ensure that pupils learn to decode texts efficiently, read accurately and fluently with good comprehension.
The Read Write Inc. and Literacy and Language programmes are proven to efficiently develop reading and writing skills.
2. To ensure that pupils learn to comprehend and write subject specific texts.
Disciplinary texts use different vocabulary (tier 3), sentence structures and writing styles. We have developed a disciplinary reading and writing programme from KS1-K3 across the Trust to ensure our learners develop the necessary subject literacy skills to succeed throughout their academic careers.
All of our primary schools have received Read Write Inc. and Literacy and Language training combined with observation and coaching from Ruth Miskin trainers.
From September 2018 all Paradigm Trust primary academies will be using the programmes. This will be monitored both by specialists within the Trust and external Ruth Miskin trainers. Where older pupils would still benefit from intensive phonics instruction, we use the Read Write Inc. FreshStart scheme of work.
The disciplinary nonfiction programme has been developed to replace the Literacy and Language non fiction texts. The texts have been selected by the subject and English leads. The pedagogical approach has been adapted from the Literacy and Language programme.
Learners will produce three pieces of disciplinary writing each half term.
Please see KS1/2 assessment data which is available by visiting our academy websites.


Remedial small group instruction is a strategy used to address the needs of students who are behind. In order to support students in mastering foundational skills, I pull small groups of students who all require practice with a same skill. We go through a mini-lesson, sometimes using added supports like technology or manipulatives, working to master the skill and allow the student to fully access content taught to the whole group. This strategy is really important for my blended classroom, as I can thus deliver personalized lessons based on the skillsets that students have.
Planning is an essential part of a blended teacher’s practice. In blended environments, where students can be at different points in a course on various modalities, blended teachers need to be very intentional about how they plan. Check out the video below to see how Stephen plans for instruction in his blended classroom.
At any given time at my class, student grouping is fluid and ever-changing. A brief whole group lesson focuses on collaborative lessons and reviewing concepts. Students self-assess to determine how they will practice new skills, and what level of support they need. I also employ a model of individualized learning paths that I named Workshop, where students choose the way in which they will learn. Students who need help are grouped for that day in Tutoring, while others have their pick over a variety of websites such as IXL, FrontRow, and TenMarks, online re-assessments, collaborative activities, projects, and more. Student reflection is essential to making that much choice, work.
Number of Students: 26 students
Number of Adults: one teacher
Length of Class Period/Learning Time: 90minutes (Math Block)
Digital Content/ Ed Tech Tools Used on a Regular Basis: i-Ready; IXL; MangaHigh; Website; FrontRow; Kahoot!; BrainGenie; Poll Everywhere; TenMarks; Google Apps for Education
Hardware Used on a Regular Basis: five iPads; five desktop computers; five laptop computers; two Galaxy Tabs; SMARTBoard
Key Features: competency-based; student agency;individualized learning paths; online homework; gamification
I encourage my students to evaluate their peers whenever they are involved in discourse--both in side conversations as well as in class discussions. I implemented a system of Peer Evaluations, a process that involves students using silent hand signals, in order to give my students more voice in class. Some of my students want to say what they think and exert their opinions, but there isn't enough time for every student to share. Other students easily get distracted and need physical engagement to stay focused. Through Peer Evaluations, my students can share their thoughts and are pushed to stay focused throughout student discourse.


Resources › For Educators Free Weather Printables Share Flipboard Email Print Roberto Westbrook / Getty Images For Educators Homeschooling Spelling Geography Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Special Education Teaching By Beverly Hernandez Homeschooling Expert Beverly Hernandez is a veteran homeschooler and the former administrator of a large independent study program. our editorial process Beverly Hernandez Updated July 03, 2019 Weather is a high-interest topic for children because it's all around us every day and often affects our activities. Rain may put a damper on outdoor activities or even offer an irresistible opportunity to splash in puddles. Snow means snowmen and snowball fights. Severe weather such as storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes may be fascinating to study, but frightening to experience. Use these free weather printables to learn more about the weather with your children. Try pairing these activities with some games or hands-on learning. You may want to: Chart the weather for a week or a month and create a graph depicting your observationsMake your own weather station to observe the weatherCheck out books from the library or watch videos to learn about the water cycleLearn about severe weather events and how to be prepared for themVisit your local TV station to talk to a meteorologistLearn about the different types of clouds and what each means with regards to impending weather changesCreate an illustrated glossary of weather terms Watch the weather forecast on your local news. Make note of the predicted forecast, then note each day whether it was right or wrong. After a week, figure the percentage of time the forecast was correct. 01 of 10 Weather Wordsearch Print the PDF: Weather Word Search Use the word search to find weather-related words. Discuss the meaning of any terms with which your children are unfamiliar. You may wish to define each and add them to your illustrated weather terms glossary. 02 of 10 Weather Vocabulary Print the PDF: Weather Vocabulary Sheet Let your children test their knowledge of common weather terms by matching terms in the word bank to their correct definition. Let your child practice his research skills by using library books or the Internet to find the meanings of unfamiliar terms. 03 of 10 Weather Crossword Puzzle Print the PDF: Weather Crossword Puzzle Children will familiarize themselves with common weather terms with this fun crossword. Fill in the puzzle with the correct term based on the clues provided. 04 of 10 Weather Challenge Print the PDF: Weather Challenge Students will challenge their weather term knowledge by selecting the correct answer in a series of multiple choice questions. Research the answer to any questions about which you're unsure. 05 of 10 Weather Alphabet Activity Print the PDF: Weather Alphabet Activity This activity page will help young students can practice their alphabetizing skills while reviewing common weather terms. Fill in the blanks by placing the terms from the word bank in the correct alphabetical order. 06 of 10 Weather Draw and Write Print the PDF: Weather Draw and Write Page Show what you know! Draw a picture depicting something you've learned about the weather. Use the lines below to write about your drawing. Parents may wish to allow younger students to describe their drawing while the parent transcribes the student's words. 07 of 10 Weather Tic-Tac-Toe Print the PDF: Weather Tic-Tac-Toe Page Cut along the dotted line, then cut the game markers apart. Talk about the most interesting facts you've learned about the weather while you have fun playing Weather Tic-Tac-Toe. This could also be a quiet activity for siblings to play as a parent reads aloud a book about the weather or a weather-related event, such as The Wizard of Oz in which a tornado transports Dorothy to the wonderful world of Oz. You may wish to print this page on card stock and laminate the pieces for greater durability. 08 of 10 Weather Theme Paper Print the PDF: Weather Theme Paper Write a story, poem, or essay about the weather. After you have completed a rough draft, neatly write your final draft on this weather theme paper. 09 of 10 Weather Theme Paper 2 Print the PDF: Weather Theme Paper 2 This page offers another option for writing the final draft of your a story, poem, or essay about the weather. 10 of 10 Weather Coloring Page Print the PDF: Weather Coloring Page Use this coloring page as a quiet activity during read-aloud time or to allow young children to practice their fine motor skills. Discuss the picture. Do you enjoy the snow? Do you get much snow where you live? What is your favorite type of weather and why?


What is the most easily recognizable plaything for anyone, from a toddler to a grandparent? Consider the simple crayon. Safe, educational, and relatively inexpensive, crayons can tempt us all.
Surprisingly, coloring books, or properly, paint books, appeared first. McLoughlin Brothers of New York is credited with inventing books of line art to paint, in the 1880s. Even in the late 1700s, the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and later his student Friedrich Fröbel, who founded the concept of kindergarten, brought new concepts to childhood education. They believed children could benefit from art education as a means of enhancing conceptual understanding, developing cognitive ability, improving skills towards careers, and even enhancing spirituality. The early coloring books, like so many today, featured then-popular characters and stories. But paints were messy, and manufacturers soon came up with safe, clean alternatives.
Many different makers began experimenting with colors emulsified in wax around the turn of the 20th century. These were child-safe modifications of oil-based crayons used by artists for centuries. Beginning around 1902, Binney & Smith’s Crayola brand was by far the most successful and recognized. But other firms made crayons for kindergarten use as early as 1880. Teachers, as well as parents, soon learned the value and attraction of coloring with crayons. Color a picture of George Washington and create a history lesson; color a flower and learn some basic biology. Or just color—for the sheer joy of it!
The enduring popularity of crayons led to their induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. In recent years adults have taken them up, to help them cope with everyday anxieties. Coloring books titled “Stress-relieving Patterns,” “Color Me Happy,” and “Good Vibes,” are available everywhere. And coloring books for children continue to be a mainstay, bringing popular subjects such as trains, farm animals, and unicorns to life for any toddler with a crayon. Naturally, popular culture lends subjects just waiting to be colored. Star Wars, the LEGO Batman Movie, and video games such as Angry Birds are just a few of the subjects available. Crayons are so simple, but almost unlimited in the ways they can foster a child’s imagination. As tools for a child or adult to bring a character, a hero, or an idea only imagined into technicolor reality, crayons may be the ultimate plaything!
Nicolas Ricketts is Curator at the National Museum of Play at The Strong.
Explore classic toys and games that captured our attention and never let go.


The ISM Trust has produced a free practical toolkit to help primary school teachers better understand what music teaching is and how it can be utilised even more to bring the primary curriculum to life.
The toolkit, which can be viewed online or downloaded, comes in six parts:
The ISM Trust is also running three webinars that relate to the toolkit and offer delegates the opportunity to ask questions and signpost practical ideas. Register for free to join the webinars.
- Singing and vocal work (in conjunction with SingUp)
- Using musical instruments in the classroom
- Composing, improvising and doodling
- Using technology in primary music education
- Music across the creative curriculum.
First published 30 November 2017


What happens when the talibés turn 18?
Having received no other form of education, these talibés often cannot speak French – the country’s official language – and have no professional skills. Even basic numerical concepts like addition and subtraction need to be taught to them from scratch.
Most talibés become marabouts themselves, perpetuating this corrupt practice. Many others become homeless, unemployed, and often turn to crime.
How does Projects Abroad help?
Projects Abroad runs two main programmes in Senegal, which are aimed at assisting the talibés.
We have set up a Talibé Centre which offers a haven of rest to these children during the day, as well as a place where they can enjoy some aspects of the life of a child, and benefit from some basic education, hygiene and healthcare.
Volunteers teach the talibés some basic French, English and maths and, along with our nursing supervisor, tend to infected wounds and offer treatment for sick children. Talibés are able to have a shower, wash their clothes and brush their teeth at the centre. We also offer fruit juice and healthy, nutritious food for hundreds of talibés on a weekly basis.
Volunteers organise sports and leisure activities for the talibés who visit the centre, so that they have a chance to enjoy just being children, even if only for a little while. Beyond the centre, our volunteers also go to visit the daaras and help teach the children to clean, in order to maintain some basic sanitation levels, and tend to the wounds of those who weren’t able to come to the centre.
The motivation, ambition and sense of hope in each and every one of their eyes was magnificent, and every one of the talibés had thought of a sensible micro-finance venture, which were very viable on the whole. I distinctly remember one talibé coming into the office to have his interview with the biggest smile on his face and a sparkle in his eyes, merely delighted at the opportunity he now has.”
Maximilian Wieland, the first Senegal Micro-finance volunteer
This project is specifically aimed at adult talibés. With no education and no experience, it is impossible for talibés to find employment or to receive loans after they leave the daaras. We are the only institution in St Louis to offer an interest-free loan to talibés, to help them move away from perpetuating the cycle of abuse and exploitation.
Before receiving the loan, beneficiaries are taught basic subjects such as French, English, Maths and Business that will enable them to set up a small business. Beneficiaries so far have been able to set up businesses such as fruit stands, fast food stands, small shops, and so forth. By word of mouth, they are able to draw in more talibés interested in receiving a loan. Projects Abroad continues to monitor the beneficiaries, guiding them in the running of their business and how to increase their profits.
The repayment rate for many people has so far been positive, and some beneficiaries are making profit from their businesses. Though on a small scale, this project will help empower these talibés as adults.
Our plan for the future is to capitalise on the hard work of our volunteers and local staff, ensuring that we continue to provide vital care, basic education and skills training to these vulnerable members of society. Using our Global Impact Database, we can constantly monitor our progress in achieving our placement goals, such as improved literacy and numeracy skills. For example, in the past year alone, volunteers have made a significant improvement in ensuring children have access to reading materials and take part in activities to improve their French and English language abilities.
Volunteers have an important role to play on these placements in Senegal. By helping to train entrepreneurs in basic numeracy and business skills, or providing medical treatment to the young talibés, each contribution helps to improve the living conditions and future prospects of these boys.


4M Kidzlabs – Volcano Making kit : Make a solid volcano with the mould and plaster provided. Paint and decorate your volcano with lava flow and landscape. Put baking soda and vinegar into the crater and perform an amazing eruption that will erupt with bubbly fizzy lava.
Contains volcano mould (2 parts), 2 packages of fine quality plaster, a paint strip, brush, stirring tool, fun graphic boards for decoration, a volcanic scene, baking soda and detailed instructions. When constructed, the volcano is approx. 9.5cm tall.
Bring a little DIY volcanic activity to a tabletop near you!
For a DIY Volcano just make a 9.5cm tall solid volcano with the mould and plaster provided, then paint and decorate it with lava flow gullies and landscapes!
Prepare your own lava by placing baking soda and vinegar into the ‘crater’ and then perform an amazing eruption in front of your friends and family! Your very own volcano will really erupt, bubbling fizzy lava down the volcanic ‘mountain’ sides
4M Kidzlabs – Volcano Making kit : DIY volcano making kits are a great activity for rainy days, science projects for primary schools and they also makes a cool desktop decoration. Simply follow the instructions and make your very own volcanic eruption out of vinegar and baking soda. The eruption can be performed repeatedly so the fun is unlimited!
Chemistry and science for kids has never been so accessible! This is a classic home science project for developing a child’s fundamental understanding of science.
This 4M construction kit requires vinegar and baking soda which are not included in the kit lest they accidentally come into contact during storage, transit or delivery. Understandably, postal workers object to unannounced and fizzing simulated lava in the workplace. Fortunately both vinegar and baking soda are safely available from most pantries
Creative & Critical Thinking
Fine Motor Skills
Age: 8+ years.
Contains small parts.


|Jane Doe No More, Inc
Jane Doe No More is improving the way society responds to survivors of sexual assault through education, awareness, advocacy, and support.
|Realm of Caring
Music education should be an inalienable right. The day music programs became expendable was a very sad day indeed. There are seven ways to communicate information; words and numbers are only two of them. The other five are movement, sounds, images, objects, and spaces, all of which are provided through the arts. Few would argue that elementary music education isn’t a worthwhile cause. Support was needed to further the cause and what better way to facilitate this effort than music and art festivals all over the country to create awareness.
|Bumi Sehat Foundation
Based in Bali Indoneisa, Bumi Sehat means “healthy mother earth”, and is a women’s clinic operating solely on donations. They support local women by providing health and emergency care services, as well as community, environmental and educational programs. Bumi Sehat expanded to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake by opening a mother and child survival clinic in Jacmel, Haiti.
|Blues in the Schools
Blues in the Schools is an educational program created to promote, preserve, and perpetuate the art, culture, and heritage of blues music, and to examine the music’s influence on other genres.
|Blue Ocean Film Festival
Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit’s mission is to use the power of film, photography, entertainment and science to educate, empower and inspire ocean stewardship around the globe.


The classroom provides a structured, social space for children to grow as readers. How can parents and teachers ensure that literacy learning and development continues while children are at home?
Child language and literacy expert Catherine Snow provides resources and offers advice for parents and teachers looking to support literacy development at home.
How to support your child's reading
Snow emphasizes the importance of ensuring not only that children have access to books, but also that they have access to conversation — someone to prompt their thinking through questions and discussion. “Think of this as family book club time,” Snow says.
- For the youngest readers: read to them and talk with them about the text.
- For beginning readers: read with them, alternating reading paragraphs or pages and talk with them about the text.
- For older readers of chapter books or young adult novels: read the same books so you can talk with them about the text.
Continuing reading development
“Young readers build fluency and engagement reading fun books — the childhood equivalent of murder mysteries or romance novels,” Snow says. And while children should be encouraged to read for pleasure, it’s also important to ensure they’re being challenged (encountering new words and more complex ideas and themes) to ensure their literacy skills continue to develop. This may take the shape of finding a book that parents or an older sibling might want to read and discuss.
Writing for reading
Writing is a way of developing reading skills as well. “Figure out some topic your child is really interested in and suggest a little research project, with a final write-up, poster, slideshow presentation, or performance of what they’ve learned,” says Snow.
- Age-graded materials for pre-K through second grade
- For children in grade 4 and up, major opportunity for learning comes from talking about interesting things with parents. Resources to guide conversation and spark interest in reading further about topics can be found here: Social studies, ELA, science, and mathematical reasoning resources for educators
Read more in our ongoing series, Confronting the Coronavirus Outbreak, on how schools and communities can prepare and respond, support young people, build resilience, and keep the learning going.


Hyde High School is committed to raising the standards of numeracy of all students, so that they develop the ability to use numeracy skills effectively in all areas of the curriculum and develop the skills necessary to cope confidently with the demands of further education, employment and adult life.
We want our students to have the confidence and competence to use numbers and think mathematically in everyday life. When solving a problem, we want them to be able to make estimates, identify possibilities, weigh up different options, and choose the correct mathematical approach. When handling data, we want them to understand the ways in which data is gathered by counting and measuring, and how the data can be presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables. We want our students to have the necessary numeracy skills to handle money, finances, budgets, timetables and bills when they leave school.
Our students are given the opportunity to refine, practise and learn new numeracy skills, in all year groups. In particular, years 7, 8 and 9 have a short period of every lesson dedicated to numeracy skills. These skills are broken down into three key areas: mental strategies, times tables and key skills. Students also have access to a range of software that can be accessed at home, and in school, to help them with their numeracy and fluency when working with numbers.
As parents and carers of our students, you have a key role to play in supporting the development of your child’s numerical and mathematical skills. Our everyday lives provide countless opportunities to practice mathematics in real life contexts, allowing our students to see the relevance and importance of developing their numerical and mathematical skills as much as possible.
Click on the links below to see websites we use in school, to help with Numeracy.
Your child should have their login details in their planner.


Their hope was that the collaborative, deep dive into the science of reading and instruction would help educators work together to establish a common vision and build a solid foundation for instructional best practices throughout their growing district. Read all about their experience.
National Online Elementary Reading Academies Start Soon!
Ready to enroll yourself or members of your team in the online professional learning course trusted by more than 1,500 educators across nearly 100 districts? Click the button below to learn more and register.
Can’t make the scheduled courses? Create a custom cohort for 15 or more members of your team and start whenever it’s most convenient for you.
What’s included in the Online Elementary Reading Academy? The Online Elementary Reading Academy consists of seven flexible modules based on the science of reading and designed to be completed over 7 to 10 weeks. Complete each module on your own time and at your own pace. Most modules can be completed in about 5-6 hours.
Each module is collaborative, and teachers get the chance to share ideas with other course participants as well as with expert course facilitators. Modules provide educators with evidence-based instructional practices that will improve teaching and learning for students.
Course Orientation and Introduction to Dyslexia
The Structure of Language
Phonemic Awareness, Explicit Phonics Instruction and Irregular Word Reading
How will the Online Elementary Reading Academy strengthen my instructional skills? At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Articulate research on the essential components of reading instruction
Gain clear and explicit models of instruction immediately applicable to the classroom
Identify the best practices and explicit methods to develop phonemic awareness, phonics and irregular and multisyllabic word knowledge, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and literary and informational text knowledge
Understand the structure of the English and Spanish language system
Identify and use techniques to support academic language development for English learners
Understand how to use informal diagnostic measures of phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension as a basis for instructional decisions
After participating in the Online Elementary Reading Academy, 99% of educators say the course met or exceeded their expectations. Participants also report large increases in understanding of the critical components of reading instruction.
What is the cost for attending the Online Elementary Reading Academy?
The cost for attendance is $500 per participant. Fees include seven course modules; $150 worth of course materials, including the textbooks Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures and the Teaching Reading Sourcebook, rated exemplary by the National Council of Teacher Quality; and access to a robust library of lesson modeling videos.
Discounts are available for groups of 12 or more. You may register up to 75 people online. If you wish to register more than 75 people, please contact firstname.lastname@example.org or call (510) 540-4200 ext. 4.
1-11 people: $500/pp
12-25 people: $480/pp
26-75 people: $455/pp
76+: Please call for special pricing
Custom cohorts: If you would like to host your own district-specific cohort of 15 or more people, please contact email@example.com or call (510) 540-4200 ext. 4. With a custom cohort, you will choose your own dates and the length of the course. You will also receive a dedicated instructor.
Fees for college credit: Participants may receive 3 graduate-level semester extension units for an additional cost of $300. These units are typically used for salary advancement. There are no additional requirements beyond successful completion of the course for a total of 45 hours.
Contact firstname.lastname@example.org for more information – Subject Line – OERA College Credit


Classrooms are sacred places for our youth. This is where the foundational skills needed to graduate and reach their personal goals are established. Students who have solid foundations easily stand out in a crowd. Their Life Ready Skills speak loudly and clearly about the experiences in their learning environments. Equity plays a major role in student success. Access to educational resources and lack of cultural identification are just a few of the issues with equity and education.
It is evident when these experiences are lacking in students from Life Ready Skills to academic gaps that are often difficult to fill as they move through their educational journey. Investing in educational equity is crucial to student success. It demonstrates to students how much we value and care about them through acknowledgment of who they are, from where they come, and where they are headed. As educators, we must work tirelessly to ensure all children in our care are well equipped for what life may hold for them, be it college, the workforce, or military service.As educators, we must work tirelessly to ensure all children in our care are well equipped for what life may hold for them, be it college, the workforce, or military service. Click To Tweet
One of the biggest ways to positively impact equity is through campus and classroom environments created by educators. The environment or space within students and teacher experience learning speaks volumes and has an everlasting effect. A quote by Haim Ginott, renowned educator and child psychologist/psychotherapist, helps drive home the understanding of how an environment can be shaped by its leaders. “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.”
The classroom climate is often described as a culture by those in the field. Classroom culture is an essential tool that teachers can use to nurture skills like Critical Thinking, Autonomy, and Collaboration. It can also affect the results of Best Practices implemented by teachers within the classroom such as Assessment and Formative Feedback, Growth Mindset, and Differentiation and Scaffolding.
When an investment is made to understand students’ backgrounds, powerful connections and relationships are built and changes the climate in which a child has to develop. This loving environment can have lasting impacts and aid in increased student success. Below are a few ways to show some love and support to the students you serve. Choose something to establish as a norm on your campus or in your classroom. With minor changes in educational practice, we can impact students in a substantial way!
- Choose cultural text that relates to a student’s background,
- Use background music to teach acceptance (switch genres to expose students to different sounds),
- Allow students to request and receive help in a one-on-one or small group setting (e2L calls them workshops),
- Allow a student to lead peers in learning a skill or skill set (i.e. use of technology app),
- Create an incentive program where a LIFE ready skill is awarded (Autonomy, Growth Mindset, etc.), and
- Allow students to show mastery of a concept outside of an exam or paper (Poem, Speech, Rap, or Video).


The Home Literacy Environment: A Qualitative Investigation of School-Aged Children
Home literacy environment
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AbstractAs children become independent readers, they are expected to read, write, speak, and listen with increasing skill and complexity throughout the school years. Literacy is both an independent set of skills and what is used to access classroom content. Yet, less than half of California children in upper elementary grades are meeting or exceeding English language arts standards. In early childhood, the home literacy environment (HLE), generally defined as the interactions between parents and children concerning language and literacy development and the availability of literacy materials in the home, has been shown to be a reliable predictor of student achievement in literacy and an effective area for interventions. However, there is very little research into the HLE of school-aged children and a lack of a coherent definition of the construct for this age group. To gain a better understanding of the HLE for older children, and to develop better questions about how the HLE may impact contemporary child outcomes, an exploratory approach to researching the HLE in middle childhood was necessary. This study explored, through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the language and literacy activities and practices parents and children (in third to fifth grade) engaged in with each other and on their own outside of school. Interview findings showed ten components that made up the HLE of upper-elementary school-aged children: Homework or School Support; Child Non-School Literacy Behavior; Parent Literacy Behavior; Sibling Literacy Behavior; Family Home Literacy Activities; Family Literacy Outings; Technology; Foreign Language; Parent Beliefs; Child Characteristics. Observations confirmed these findings, while also highlighting the necessity to consider more than the number of books in the home when considering children’s access to text in the home. Overall, this study found that in creating an accurate and informative definition of the HLE construct for this age group to serve as a basis for continued and further research, as well as educational practice, a broader and more inclusive view of family practices and home environments must be considered. The HLE construct must be informative for use by families and education practitioners, and encourage culturally responsive research and classroom environments.


Teaching kids about money, coins and notes, can be such a fun topic. It’s also an incredibly important life skill that will help children navigate the big wide world they live in as they get older and more independent.
With more of us grown ups using cards for paying for items at the shops, children are also getting less real life exposure to coins and notes, reducing their opportunities to learn about them.
Teaching about money also helps children to develop their numeracy skills in general- such as counting and addition.
Here are some fun, hands on activities to help teach the topic.
- Coin Rubbings- Simple and fun. Place the coin under some paper, then using a wax crayon, rub over the top of the crayon on the paper.
- Imprints or Make Coins– We used some Kiddy Dough from Hobbycraft and pressed the coins into them to leave imprints. We also tried making our own coins and copying the detail and shape of the different coins we have.
- Play Shops– Really enjoyable imaginative play activity that enables children to practise using money (real or pretend) For more details of how to create a pretend shop for kids read here
- Real Life Experiences– I personally think one of the best ways to teach children about money is is to include them in real life experiences that involve money. Take them to the bank, show them the coins when you are paying for things in a shop, let them have a go at paying for items etc. Also bring back the piggy bank! You could give them a token amount of money for doing some chores and let them count their coins and save up their money using a piggy bank.
- Grouping- Help children notice the differences between coins by asking them to group them into piles of the same coins. You can then extend their understanding and ask them to put the coins in value order.
- Digging for Treasure– The children loved doing this activity. Hide some coins in sand/dried rice/couscous and then get the kids to try and find them! Make it more challenging by asking them to find certain coins, match them or even just state which coin they have found.
What do you do to teach your kids about money?


The piano is a great instrument to learn no matter what age you are when you start. How people learn to play the piano has changed dramatically in the last ten years.
Until recent years, sitting down one on one with a piano teacher and a few books, or being self-taught were the only options available. Now there is instruction in classroom settings, one on one instruction, video instruction and web programs designed to teach people how to play the piano.
To learn more about the options available, visit Piano Forum or continue to read below!
The most traditional way to learn how to play the piano is to meet one on one with a piano teacher. Some are licensed to teach, having a degree in music education or other certification through a national or state guild and others have just played for years and have a heart to share it with others.
Find a teacher through word of mouth, guild or the classifieds. Teachers often have contact with the local school music department and local churches, so they would also be great places to look for a piano teacher.
Group instruction is more impractical for the piano than other instruments but there are areas of the country where it is available. This type of instruction will general use music books including both lesson and theory and may require recitals or other public performances from time to time.
Music books have also changed dramatically in recent years. Most series available today have books for young beginners as well as books for older children and adults who wish to start learning the piano without having to use books designed for elementary students.
Along with lesson books there are theory books that explain the mechanics of music composition and technique books that offer drills for additional practice on difficult passages.
Older series tend to progress more quickly through classical pieces while modern courses use many original compositions aimed at reinforcing the lesson through repetition. There are several series of beginner books designed to be used as self-taught home courses. Those students who have an ear for music or previous music experience may find a home course the best option.
People can do just about everything online and learning to play the piano is no exception. Several websites offer virtual piano lessons. Many of these online courses are free to the public, but may require a faster internet speed and a keyboard.
These sites use videos for basic instruction and a chat room style question and answer session throughout the course. Some have successfully taught themselves how to play the piano through YouTube tutorial videos. Though it would be impossible to play classically in this manner, numerous videos have been posted that show would-be pianist how to chord through popular songs.
Deciding what type of music to focus on will have a great bearing on how to learn. Most traditional piano instructors offer more classical instruction.
For those who are looking at playing popular music to entertain themselves and friends a virtual class may be fine. Learning to play by ear just requires basic music theory and time.
No matter what path is chosen to learn to play the piano, it will take a fair amount of work and dedication. Daily practice is required by nearly all methods of instruction to train the hands, bolster eye-hand coordination and fine tune the hearing of an individual.


Improvising Early Music
Edited by Dirk Moelants and contributions by Rob C. Wegman, Johannes Menke, and Peter Schubert
(including 6% VAT)
Edited volume - ebookVIEW Edited volume - paperback
Studying improvised music is always a challenge, due to its volatility and unpredictability. But what about studying musical improvisation from before the age of sound recordings? In this book three experts give their view on aspects of musical improvisation in the late medieval, renaissance, and early baroque periods. Historical sources show us how improvisation was an integral part of music education and how closely improvisation and composition were linked. This gives new insights into the way music was played in its original historical context and a new way to look at written scores from the past.
Improvising Early Music will appeal to anyone interested in the historical background of our written musical heritage, and to musicians who want to gain a deeper insight in the way this music was created.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Johannes Menke (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel), Peter Schubert (Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal), Rob C. Wegman (Princeton University)
— Rob C. Wegman
— Johannes Menke
— Peter Schubert
Format: Edited volume - ebook
Publication: October 07, 2014
Dirk Moelants is a viola da gamba player and musicologist working as a Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and as guest Professor at Ghent University.
This book is the most valuable introduction to the topic of musical improvisation available now. Even a lay reader can at least get a good sense of the phenomenon of improvisation and of the scholarly approaches to it, though a full understanding of the essays requires knowledge of music and a familiarity with the repertory.
Giovanni Zanovello, Indiana University, Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 69, Number 3, Fall 2016
It is a fascinating, well-edited volume, and according to its editor, it “shows us through historical sources how improvisation was an integral part of music education and how closely improvisation and composition were linked”. [...] On the whole, Improvising Early Music is a thought-provoking publication. All three contributions encouraged me actively to engage with the subject of improvised counterpoint, and Wegman's contribution in particular made me rethink some of the issues that I deal with as a part of my own work.
Alon Schab, Fontes artis musicae, 2016, v.63, no.2


Music & music at home
Music at Home
- Music Activity 01 Bristol MoL (0.07 MB)
- Music Activity 02 Bristol MoL (0.25 MB)
- Music Activity 03 Bristol MoL (0.10 MB)
- Music Activity 04 Bristol MoL (0.17 MB)
- Music Activity 05 Bristol MoL (0.22 MB)
- Music Activity 06 Bristol MoL (0.11 MB)
- Music Activity 07 Bristol MoL (0.14 MB)
- Music Activity 08 Bristol MoL (0.27 MB)
- Music Activity 09 Bristol MoL (0.31 MB)
- Music Activity 10 Bristol MoL (0.32 MB)
- Music Activity 11 Bristol MoL (0.34 MB)
- Music Activity 12 Bristol MoL (0.30 MB)
- Music Activity 13 Bristol MoL (0.41 MB)
- Music Activity 14 Bristol MoL (0.33 MB)
- MUSIC LESSONS INFO (0.51 MB)
- Summer Music Challenge BF 2020 (1.52 MB)
If you play an instrument or would like to, online 1:1 learning is available here: https://www.bristolplaysmusic.org/learn/instrumental/virtual-academy/
Music at Ashley Down Schools Federation
Ashley Down Schools Federation delivers music education as a key part of our children’s development and an integrated subject in our enquiry-based curriculum. We understand how music, singing and instrument playing can aid the development of children’s overall literacy as well as developing socio-emotional, motor, auditory, language and intellectual skills.
Please click here to see our Music Curriculum.
Our Singing Strategy:
As a school, we want singing to occur, unabashed, both formally and informally in all areas of the curriculum and the school building. If children are singing in the playground and humming in the corridors it is likely we are succeeding in achieving this goal. We aim to give all staff the resources and development to confidently grow our singing provision.
Weekly singing assemblies are themed each term (KS2: world music, musical theatre, Bristol folk songs and sea shanties, rock and roll, 20th century music, classical music including part-singing) and integrate key celebrations and calendar events such as Black History Month, Children in Need, Harvest and Christmas into what we sing. We always sing for purpose as well as pleasure with a focus on conveying meaning and having an effect on the listener/audience/ ourselves. Children have an active voice in selecting the music we come into the hall listening to and there is always information, thoughts and questions about what we are listening to on the screen.
Please click here for more information about Musical Instrument Lessons.
The schools’ four choirs (a KS1 and a KS2 choir at each site) perform at major venues in Bristol including the Colston Hall, St Georges and the Bristol Cathedral. They have performed in front of small audiences (HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and local dignitaries) and large audiences (over 1,000 people at the Colston Hall). They aim to be a part of all the Bristol Plays Music events for KS1 and KS2.
Please hear the children's wonderful work below
Avengers theme played by 200 musicians!
Over 200 children packed the Anson Rooms on the 18th June from 14 Bristol primary schools. 37 of the children there were from Ashley Down and Brunel Field. Have a listen below to the fantastic sound they made. The Avengers theme (Alan Silvestri) was one of three pieces the children played.


Starting at the beginning
Kindergarten is a special place. Not because it is the beginning of one’s school experience but because it is where children have the greatest sense of adventure, gratitude, wonder, and perseverance. In Kindergarten, students don’t stop asking questions, literally and figuratively. Through playful inquiry, STS Kindergarten students explore the transdisciplinary themes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP), and early literacy and numeracy skills. Kindergarten is an environment rich with quality literature, hands-on math manipulatives, and provocative artifacts to engage young minds. A culture of curiosity and observation cultivates the learning process, meeting children where they are, so their development may be taken further.
Key to thinking, learning, and the establishment of a community model, the environment plays an essential role in helping students feel safe, comfortable, and continually intrigued by the sensory experiences carefully crafted for them. Play and design with open-ended materials and integration of the arts allow children to document their learning and understanding in a unique and meaningful way.
These are some highlights from our Kindergarten learning adventures:
- We imagine and build story characters who act in the stories we write
- We learn to express, identify, and wonder about our emotions. Story, art, and the 3D carver help to reveal our learning
- We find math everywhere. Literally everywhere! We designed one inquiry where number, pattern, and geometry came alive through our experiences
- As scientists and artists, we uncovered the processes and changes that occur when foods are brought to our tables


Tue May 12
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Reading Is Fundamental’s guest literacy expert, Erin Bailey, will offer a webinar featuring strategies and activities that families can use at home to support their child’s literacy development particularly during school closures resulting from COVID-19. The webinar will include ways to support phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary acquisition, and comprehension and can be adapted to meet the needs of children at various stages of reading development. In addition, this webinar will offer age-appropriate tips and resources to support children’s knowledge and awareness of health and safety practices. For the event site, click here.
MSDE does not endorse any particular event. We are sharing this for information purposes only. Please use at your own discretion.


Academic achievement plays an important role in children’s development because academic skills, especially in reading and math, affect many outcomes, including educational attainment, performance and income at work, health, and longevity. A new synthesis looked at the relationship between academic achievement (reading, math) and cognitive abilities (working memory, reasoning, executive function), and offered suggestions on how to improve educational and cognitive outcomes.
The synthesis was carried out by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. It is published in Child Development Perspectives, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
“It’s widely thought that being smart helps you do better in school, but does doing better in school make you smarter?” asks Peng Peng, assistant professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin, the lead author of the synthesis. “Research has long supported the idea that cognitive abilities are foundational, that is, that being smart leads to better academic achievement. For example, students who learn how to solve math problems at school can develop the reasoning abilities to solve problems in real life . We found that sustained and high-quality education directly fosters children’s academic and cognitive development, and that it may indirectly affect academic and cognitive development by triggering a sort of bidirectional action that amplifies both.“
This bidirectional action is especially important for children with disadvantages, who often lack the resources or foundational skills to trigger and benefit from it. The authors note that short-term cognitive training may be insufficient to improve academic performance. This is because beneficial relations between academic skills (reading and math) and cognitive abilities (working memory, reasoning, and executive function) are modest and take time to develop. However, over time, such modest effects can have large and lasting impacts.
“This emerging field suggests that it’s better to think of school-based skills such as reading and math, as well as cognitive abilities such as memory and reasoning, as part a system that has positive interactions among each other and that together, support development,” concludes Rogier A. Kievit, group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the synthesis. “The ultimate hope is to support both cognitive abilities and academic skills by better understanding these processes.“
The synthesis was supported by the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom.
Summarized from Child Development Perspectives, The Development of Academic Achievement and Cognitive Abilities: A Bidirectional Perspective by Peng, P (University of Texas at Austin), and Kievit, RA (University of Cambridge). Copyright 2020 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.


There is a growing body of research regarding the use and creation of popular music in school settings; in general this literature is targeted for the secondary level. Many teachers feel that children cannot and should not engage in popular music making, but children are perfectly capable and the music that is so meaningful to them should be a part of their elementary experience. Continue reading “Popular music, informal learning processes in the elementary classroom….is this really possible?”
Today I was re-reading Eve Harwood and Kathy Marsh’s brilliant chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Music Education. This paragraph gave me pause once again as I considered how to best enable children to compose and improvise in the ways that are natural for them and also help to guide without killing these natural impulses. I put the entire paragraph here because I think it is very powerful and one that pre-service teachers need to be aware of as well. You will find this quote on p. 329 of volume 1. Continue reading “Composing and improvisation in the lives of children”
This was part of a series of lessons dealing with the concept of melody. Students were introduced to several songs from South America, Japan, Europe and America. In these examples you will find lessons that are designed to enable students to work in cooperative groups in problem solving situations where they could draw upon their collective knowledge and act upon their decisions! Some of the lessons use puzzle cards that are simply iconic representation of the melodic shape and duration. While the concept of melody was the focus, the students noticed many more musical dimensions which led to creative projects dealing with musical form, expression, and timbre.
I was introduced to the puzzle card idea by Dr. Jackie Wiggins at Oakland University. See her book, Teaching for Musical Understanding for more information.
Album—World Music Playground
Album—Silver Burdett Making Music Grade 2 Book


Piano is one of the most ambitious instruments in terms of range and capabilities. Regardless of their main instrument, professionally trained singers and instrumentalists have always studied piano as a second music discipline. Famous contemporary musicians, such as the cellist, pianist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall, English classical musician and composer Benjamin Britten, legendary musicians Paul McCartney and Elton John are a few of the thousands of best examples of musician multi-instrumentalists.
Playing the piano allows one to perceive the world around us in harmony and balance, to meditate and find our inner self, to enjoy creating new music and to share sounds with the audience, colleagues and to socialise by participating in musical activities. The process of playing the piano requires concentration and develops aural skills and memory. According to Canadian researchers, musicians who have been engaged in piano playing for seven years have developed more advanced skills in all aspects of movement coordination.
We highly recommend piano lessons to children and adults, regardless of age. The Musica Nova Academy has developed several learning piano programmes for children and adults, including all levels from basic foundation (beginners), intermediate and advanced, with preparation for Music Grade and Performance Diplomas. Advanced students are also welcome to polish their mastership skills and technique and to build up their repertoire under the guidance of experienced piano teachers and renowned musicians.
Based on an assumption of Hungarian composer and educator Z. Kodaly that music education should begin nine months before the birth of the child, the Musica Nova Academy developed a unique approach ‘Music Wonderland’ on teaching younger beginners the piano. The programme works successfully both in groups and individually. Piano lessons are very important for a child. In the process of playing piano your child will develop orientation simultaneously in several processes. Psychologists proved that music helps children to achieve much higher results in academic study. It is not a coincidence that Microsoft firm prefers to employ new workers who have musical background.
Apart from classical traditional learning for the pinaotheMusica Nova Academy offers an innovative approach to learning jazz piano. The programme corresponds with all levels of the ABRSM Grade exams and provides music lessons on jazz technique, improvisation and introduction to the different styles and performers. Lessons are conducted by experienced teachers and established in the world of jazz concert performers.


Cooking with Kids
There are lots of great reasons to get the kids involved with cooking. Cooking is lots of fun and a lovely way to bond with the kids, and can also help with learning and development. Here are just a few of the benefits of cooking with your children at home:
- Cooking is a fun way to practise basic numeracy skills, such as measuring, addition and multiplication. The kids are having so much fun they don't realise they're doing maths!
- When you cook together, children are learning new vocabulary as you name the ingredients. The kids are also following directions, helping to improve language and comprehension skills.
- Encouraging children to cook at home helps promote a healthy approach to food and eating.
- Cooking is science! Children can find out what happens when you combine certain ingredients, and also what happens when measurements aren't quite right!
We've got lots of cooking activities for all different ages to try below, from easy recipes to challenging recipe comprehension worksheets. There are also recipe book printables so the kids can create and record their own recipes, and our growing set of themed cupcake toppers to print and decorate your bakes.


We are focused on math in a broad sense. Besides numeracy, we cover logical thinking, geometry and spatial skills, algorithms and much more. These are vital skills that form the basis for further learning in various fields.
Our curriculum and methods are based on modern research in mathematical education. Developing a strong foundation in early math skills is important for children's further educational success (Duncan et al., 2007
). And this is true not only for numeracy skills and counting.
There is accumulating knowledge on the importance of spatial skills to the STEM domains (J.Wai et al., 2009
) and the relation between spatial skills and science achievement (Hodgkiss A et al, 2018
). And patterning is believed to be a good predictor of math knowledge (Zippert et al., 2019


This article puts a fresh light on Jackson’s elementary curriculum in Western Australia which was a unique blend of the ‘new education’, designed to complement the Western Australia government’s economic development policies. In this respect, he followed the work of Rooper, who brought an agricultural emphasis to rural elementary education in England. In Western Australia, Jackson not only promoted the established practical forms of the ‘new education’ but, swayed by political leaders, encouraged a rural focus on the elementary government school curriculum, both for educational as well as utilitarian purposes, thereby serving the needs of the individual as well as the colonial economy.
Godfrey, J.I.F. (2007), "Sowing seeds for development: Cyril Jackson’s attempts to establish relevant schooling in a rural setting in Western Australia, 1896‐1903", History of Education Review, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 33-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/08198691200700008Download as .RIS
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


How Children Learn Motor Skills
Physical development consists of two major components: physical fitness and motor skill development. Physical fitness includes strength, endurance, flexibility and body composition. Motor skills include locomotion (running, walking, jumping, hopping), manipulation (throwing, kicking, catching, bouncing), and stability (bending, twisting, rolling, dodging).
Mastery of a range of motor skills, combined with good overall physical fitness, is critical to the healthy development of a child and forms the basis of their athletic competence.
Great Play helps each Player reach his or her full physical potential by building a broad-based foundation of skill, fitness and confidence that will last a lifetime.
The Science of Learning Motor Skills
To perform a task or movement, our brain sends signals to our motor units (individual nerves and collections of muscle fibers) at precise intervals to orchestrate the contraction of muscles throughout our body.
Learning a motor skill is like writing a computer program to a disk – the program, imprinted on the brain, plays back as a motor reflex. The method of imprinting a motor skill "program" on the brain is repetition (i.e., "practice, practice, practice").
Over time, basic motor skills can be combined and built upon to master more complex skills.
Implications for Teaching Motor Skills
There are several implications for learning, based on the way our bodies acquire new motor skills. To achieve the greatest success, children should:
- Start with proper form or technique
- Get plenty of touch time (repetitions) to "program" their mind and body with the technique
- Build up from a solid base of fundamental skills to the more complex skills over time, seizing key developmental windows
Using Proper Technique
Learning a skill improperly is, in many ways, worse than not learning it at all. Instructors of complex motor skill sports, like golf, tennis, skiing, baseball, etc., often describe having to get new students to "unlearn" their current technique in order to improve – or taking a step back in order to take a step forward.
Starting off with proper form is essential, particularly for the foundation skills that form the basis for the complex skills children need to learn later. Practice doesn't make perfect, "perfect practices makes perfect."
Great Play Approach: We start each class with skill development, to encourage proper technique; then we coach Players throughout the class through "directed play" to help ensure proper form is being learned.
Getting Plenty of Touch Time
Movement skills become ingrained in "muscle memory" through repetition. Children cannot master motor skills by watching or listening or standing around while others get their turn. They master them by doing – over and over and over again. Proper technique, repeated extensively, leads to mastery over time.
Great Play Approach: Our games are designed to maximize touch time and the ability to explore and master new skills. We also encourage learning to continue outside of the Arena, with parents and friends.
Building Skills During Key Developmental Windows
Just as the brain is ready for certain types of academic material (e.g., reading, counting or foreign languages) at certain stages, so too are the mind and body ready to learn certain kinds of motor skills and make different types of physical adaptations at certain ages.
Children need to build a strong foundation of fundamental skills in order to be able to learn and perform more complex sports skills as they mature. To achieve full potential, new skills should be consistently introduced when the child is ready to learn them. Introducing new skills too early will lead to failure and can be discouraging. However, missing the opportunity to introduce a skill for which a child is ready can delay or prevent them from ultimately achieving their potential.
As children mature, the fundamental movement skills learned previously are applied as specialized skills in a variety of sports, games, and recreational activities. For example, the fundamental skill of striking an object in an underhand, sidearm, or overarm pattern is progressively refined and later applied in sport and recreational pursuits such as golf, tennis, and baseball.
Great Play Approach: Our curriculum is based on continuously introducing and mastering age-appropriate skills through play – from building a solid foundation at younger ages, through developing complex movement skills over time, using our SCORE™ training methods.
The Bottom Line
Children who learn proper technique, get plenty of practice, and build up from foundation skills to complex skills at the proper developmental times will be in a good position to reach their full potential, and they will be well on their way to an active life.


Students at Reigate Grammar School in Surrey who learned a musical instrument achieved better A-level results than their non-musician peers in 2018.
Research by the University of British Colombia, Canada, shows that high school students who take music courses score significantly higher in other subjects than their non-musical peers.
‘Don’t Stop the Music’ an Australian TV series looks at the value of music education with Dr Anita Collins, and follows the progress of Guy Sebastian and James Morrison as they mentor disadvantaged children in Perth, Australia.
At the Music Mark conference in the UK in November 2018, Susan Aykin, National Lead for Visual and Performing Arts at Ofsted (the English government’s education
ECOS, Music for Development is a state music education programme in Mexico. To measure the effect of the programme, an evaluation was carried out in 2017 to gather information on its impact.
The first large-scale, longitudinal study in the Netherlands, finds that structured music lessons significantly enhance children’s cognitive abilities and academic achievement.


The Bartók Performing Editions Presents: The Well-Tempered Clavier
September 2, 2019
J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier is essential for the study and development of aspiring pianists around the world. As such, Bartók dedicated a lot of time to these pieces and gave a lot of thought to how they can be used most effectively to educate young musicians.
The four-volume The Well-Tempered Clavier was the first of Bartók's instructive editions. Bartók's editing reflects contemporary ideas about performance, and his primary goal was to create an instructive edition that was more detailed than any other which existed during his time.
This publication has been renewed as a two-volume edition (I-II and III-IV, respectively), and it includes suggestions, commentaries and fingerings by Bartók for the performer. In addition to correcting several editorial errors, this version also contains English and Japanese translations of Bartók's original Hungarian and German annotations.
A New Resource for Teaching Piano Pedaling
April 25, 2019
Pedal use is a fundamental part of expressive piano playing, but proper pedaling skills are not easy to acquire. Thus, it is crucial for piano students to become acquainted with the use of the three pedals as early as possible. As a result, Editio Musica Budapest has published Introduction to Pedaling in order to fill a necessary gap in the existing pedagogical piano repertoire.
Introduction to Pedaling is a collection of pieces adapted to all levels of manual dexterity, enabling learners to improve their mastery of both the musical function and technique of pedaling. The volume contains both individual and joint studies for the three pedals of modern pianos, and it was compiled and edited by prominent Hungarian music pedagogue, Ágnes Lakos.
In addition to ten selected pieces from Samuil Maykapar's Twenty Pedal Preludes (1937), Introduction to Pedaling includes keyboard music from across four centuries, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to contemporary Hungarian composers. Pupils can thus encounter pedal marks from different periods.
March 24, 2015
Embrace Music — That is the motto we have adopted this year. In other words, we want to help you to make music an integral part of your life.
Music is all around us these days; it stimulates us more intensely and prevalently than ever before. But do we relate to it passively or actively? Are we merely consumers or makers of music as well?
We at EMB know that making music brings joy. That joy is multiplied and shared by playing to others. What’s more, making music develops individual values, such as concentration, openness, sensitivity, collaboration, and concern for others.
Our aim is to allow as many people of all ages to experience the wonder and value of music.
Faces of contemporary music in music education
March 31, 2014
One of the gems of Editio Musica Budapest is its increasingly expanding series of piano pieces by György Kurtág entitled Games. Now the EMB catalogue is being enriched with two new related publications: János Bali’s exciting and inspiring work, Introduction to the Avant-garde for Recorder Players, and György Orbán’s two-volume, completely individual Aulos: Piano Pieces for Advanced Players to Practise Polyphony.
Beyond their basic differences (range, instruments, and target audience), the three works share common features, for example, an intensive connection with the music of the past and the stress on improvised elements, but most of all, going far beyond any educational aim, they enrich the repertoire of contemporary music with significant, exciting, unmistakeably unique-sounding compositions.
60 years' experience in music education
September 4, 2012
For decades, and today even more so, EMB’s scores have been appearing in every country of the world where music education is recognised as a factor of culturally-forming consciousness, where it is acknowledged that music plays an important role in the personality development of young people.
Our mission is simply to help as many young people as possible to become music lovers by playing an instrument or singing.
The main activity of our music publishing house involves music education, namely the creation and distribution of publications which provide teachers and students, from beginner’s to university level, with methods and concert pieces selected from every period of music history, including contemporary music.


This is most recent syllabus. Your final syllabus will be given during your first day of class
Experiencing Perugia I is an interdisciplinary course that focuses on achieving and strengthening an Advanced Intermediate level in cultural and linguistic-communicative competences (speaking, writing, reading and comprehension) regarding main points of clear standard input on familiar and more complex matters regularly encountered in work, school, and leisure and while traveling. At the same time, it asks students to reflect on various aspects of contemporary Perugian life and Italian culture, asking them to analyze their own experience of immersion in a different cultural environment. This course has three pillars: language, culture, and reflection. Advanced Intermediate Italian language instruction is at the core of the class. Students will consolidate fundamentals of the Italian language already learned and be exposed to new grammatical concepts in order to interact on a more sophisticated basis with Italians in various real-world settings. Second, they will use their language learning as a vehicle for delving into the richness and complexity of Italian culture. Third, students reflect on their experiences living in a new culture and understanding how this has impacted their perspective on the United States and their sense of their own identities. Through engaging in interactive assignments, maintaining a reflective course journal, and participating in group activities, students will learn to live in their new environment, build competence and confidence as global citizens, and understand how they can leverage their Perugia experience for their future personal and professional success.
Students will strengthen and improve upon their skills in speaking, reading, and understanding Italian, study Italian culture and experience it first-hand, and reflect on the what they have learned both about Italy, the United States, and themselves through their study abroad experience.
Course Learning Objectives
At the end of the semester, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate foundational skills in speaking and understanding Italian, including:
- understanding the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in their field of specialization.
- interacting with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.
- producing clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
- Convey their understanding of contemporary political and economic issues in Italy.
- Participate in somewhat sophisticated discussions of contemporary Italian culture.
- Engage in critical evaluation of their own culture, Italian culture, and other foreign cultures, including:
- Articulating U.S. cultural rules, norms and biases;
- Understanding how their own experiences have shaped their values and priorities;
- Knowing how to respond productively to cultural differences;
- Valuing what is important to members of another culture, including their history, politics, communication styles, economy, beliefs and social practices;
- Interpreting cross-cultural experiences from multiple worldviews and respecting the rights and feelings of other cultural groups;
- Asking complex questions about their own culture and other cultures, seeking out answers to those questions that reflect multiple cultural perspectives.
4. Understand and articulate the unique benefits of their study abroad experience and anticipate how to leverage those benefits for their future personal and professional success.
- Required Text: A. Mazzetti, P. Manili, and M. R. Bagianti, Qui Italia Più (corso di lingua italiana per stranieri), Le Monnier, 2006.
- Mandatory course reader
- Dictionary: you are strongly recommended to purchase an English/Italian, Italian/English dictionary. The library in via Bartolo also has a number of dictionaries available for consultation.


Growing Readers Together returns with a fresh series of GRT Quick Bites for 2020! These 20 minute webinars are intended to refresh and inspire your children and family services though micro learning opportunities on programming, policies, and best practices for early learning at the library. Mark your calendar and make the most of your lunch break with Quick Bites!
Join us Tuesdays at 12 MST this April:
April 7: Full-Spectrum Literacy with Kate Brunner
Libraries have a long history of supporting children’s print literacy development. Now, as we move further into the 21st century, the concept of literacy and the learning demands on young children seem to be expanding. Technology, emotional intelligence, communication, executive function, citizenship, cultural competence, and more are becoming significant parts of a young child’s early education. Join us in exploring literacy through a wider lens as we begin thinking deeply about what this means for children & families, as well as, formal & informal caregivers in our library communities.
April 14: Activating the Hidden Senses at Storytime with Melody Garcia
Young children of all abilities learn best when their senses are fully activated, but did you know we use SEVEN senses to understand ourselves and our environment? Two “hidden senses,” the proprioceptive and vestibular senses, are essential for balance and body awareness and keep us alert and attentive. Learn how to plan storytimes that provide sensory input, identify sensory seeking behaviors, and educate caregivers about these hidden senses.
April 21: Are Play Groups Right for Your Library? With Gail Yerbic
Playful learning is serious business in early childhood! It is a natural, everyday occurrence for children, and experts have proven its value with child development and success. Discover the different types of play groups out there, their purpose and potential impact, and why this may be a great niche for your library (in the spirit of equal access to all). Explore what it would take and identify measurable benefits. Whether or not you decide this is right for your library, we will point you to resources for further inquiry.


DES Circular 0055/2019 states that 'The Framework for Junior Cycle 2015 recognises that teachers need professional time to engage in a range of professional collaborative activities, a proportion of which will involve collaboration with teaching colleagues, to support teaching, learning, assessment and reporting.'
Here, we provide some suggestions for things you might consider as part of the range of individual and collaborative professional activities you will engage in during this time.
The resources below have been designed to support teachers and English subject departments in planning their first year English programme. In this section you will also find supporting materials linking with the primary school curriculum.
Teachers who use the JCSP programme may find the attached draft JCSP English statements useful to serve as a guide for planning for teaching and learning in junior cycle English.
Junior Cycle English places significant emphasis on the continuum of language development from primary school. The Specification for English explicitly refers to this in the rationale:
“The study of language enables students to build on their learning in primary school and further develop their skills and enjoyment in using it effectively. Through language learning and use, students discover information, develop thinking, and express ideas and feelings. They learn about language, and how to use it well in all areas of their studies.”
To read more about the links between the primary language curriculum and junior cycle English click here. As a way of easing the transition from primary to post-primary English we have produced a Student Profile template that can be used with a first year English class as they start secondary school. Watch the two videos below to hear a sixth class teacher outline the main areas of the sixth class English curriculum and also some of the strategies she uses for teaching writing and reading.