
Our team sorts through all blog submissions to place them in the categories they fit the most - meaning it's never been simpler to gain advice and new knowledge for topics most important for you. This is why we have created this straight-forward guide to help you navigate our system.
And there you have it! Now your collection of blogs are catered to your chosen topics and are ready for you to explore. Plus, if you frequently return to the same categories you can bookmark your current URL and we will save your choices on return. Happy Reading!
In this piece, Nadine talks about not being cautious when tweaking well known techniques and instead confidently make something relevant to the class that you’re working with. In this case, the superhero – Mr VCOP.
For many years I have used the strategy of a Big Write for extended writing roughly every two weeks and within this I incorporate VCOP to support my teaching.
Initially I spent a long time searching for visual aids to support these four concepts and I found some bright and vibrant superheroes. These were completely useable and many friends had also recommended them to, however I also found them to be quite impersonal, which I found challenging. I noticed that the children weren’t connecting to the superheroes and as a result it didn’t flow as I felt it should. I decided that in order for the children to relate to these characters they needed to make their own and not use generic images.
So, I set about designing a collection of VCOP characters. The first stumbling block I came across was that the characters were quite large and with limited wall display space, I wanted something that wouldn’t necessarily take up four of my walls. I decided to bring each of the letters together and create one large superhero.
V – Vocabulary
C – Conjunctions
O – Openers
P – Punctuation
I drew these out as large bubble letters and the children worked as table groups to decorate them, add details and also create a vibrant cape. Our personalised Mr VCOP was born and now he “rescues our writing”.
Nowadays Mr VCOP proudly adorns one of my wall displays and everyone refers to him not just in English but throughout the week. I have also taken a photograph of the completed superhero which I’ve printed onto stickers and each time the children carry out their Big Write, I mark them and identify one person who has worked really hard to use the range of skills the class have been learning about. This person gets the Mr VCOP sticker to wear home as a talking prompt with their families. Their work also takes pride of place on the writing working wall with certain parts highlighted to show the key skills that we have been working on. Then to support this and adding another inspiration to spur the children on, this child also gets to wear the Mr VCOP cloak, which is a patchwork cloak I personally made when on maternity leave.
Through all of this I’ve learnt that I don’t need to be cautious when tweaking well known techniques and instead I can confidently make something relevant to the class that I’m working with and with this in mind each year my class make a new Mr VCOP so that it is personal to them.
The author
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Securus provide market-leading monitoring solutions to safeguard students on ALL devices both online and offline. We also offer a full monitoring service, where we carry out the monitoring on behalf of the school, freeing up valuable staff resources. From the smallest school to large MAT groups, Securus offers safeguarding protection for all!
Vivify partners with schools across the country to hire out their facilities outside of school hours to enable them to generate much needed revenue that can be invested back into their facilities, teachers, and student experience. Opening up school facilities for communities to get together can improve mental and physical wellbeing, boost confidence, tackle loneliness and help people feel more positive about life.
As European leaders of Time Management Solutions, Bodet offer Lockdown, Clock, Bell & PA Systems. Harmonys, our five-in-one IP/PoE Bell System, provides a unique customisable lockdown or panic alarm alert. Melodys, a Wireless Bell System, is useful where wiring can be difficult.
Robotical makes Marty the Robot - a walking, dancing coding robot that makes programming fun and engaging for learners as young as 5. Our robots come with a full Learning Platform that has complete teaching resources, to make lesson planning a breeze.
https://www.fusionbusiness.org.uk/
As a group, Fusion Education People Solutions provide innovative HR Services and Software (SAM, SAMpeople and FACE-Ed), developed specifically for the sector by education specialists. We are trusted by over 1000 schools and trusts across the UK.
https://nexus-education.com/for-schools/funding/
Are you looking for solutions? Let us help fund them! Nexus Education is a community of over 11,000 schools that come together to share best practise, ideas and CPD via online channels and free to attend events. Nexus also offers funding to all school groups in the UK via nexus-education.com
Our website and ready-to-use resources bring to life the incredible stories of game changers from history – ordinary people who used their character strengths to help them achieve extraordinary things. Our site has been carefully designed to support learning and development on a whole-school basis, across the whole curriculum.
Chatty Learning are an innovative provider of software, training and speech and language therapy services to support the development of communication skills in the most disadvantaged children. We help overcome word poverty to get children talking, reading and thriving in schools and settings.