Focus News – Christmas Term 2017 … And 2017 is coming to a close… what a whirlwind of a year it’s been! Take a look at the highlights of the Autumn Term. Charity Fundraising It is important to us that we get involved in charity events and fundraising. This term... View Article
Christmas is just around the corner. As a special Christmas ‘thanks’ to our customers, we are running daily offers to get you in the festive spirit. All offers run for one day only. The discount codes will be emailed to you or can be found below. Day 1 £25 off... View Article
Embed a rich and engaging English and Maths Curriculum into your primary school... We were excited to hold our first ever VIP Event at Madeleine Lindley bookshop this month to introduce our latest product - Focus English, and give Focus Maths users a recap and refresh of Focus Maths. The... View Article
Are you using the Learning Challenge Curriculum? Win £250 for your school. Are you a school using Focus Education’s Learning Challenge Curriculum or considering using it? You could win £250. All you need to do is show us how you’re using it! How do I enter? We are inviting schools to submit a... View Article
The Latest News from Focus Education We’ve had another jam-packed term at Focus Education and we are all ready and excited for the summer break. Here is a short but sweet round up of the Focus Education news from the Summer Term. Focus Education Technology Our new website is now... View Article
The Latest News from Focus It’s been another busy term at Focus Education and we are ready for the Easter break. we have produced a quick round up of the Focus Education news from the Spring Term. Exciting Tech and Product Developments We are in the process of developing our... View Article
Focus Education at Inspiring Leadership 2017 What an unbelievably INSPIRING time we had at Inspiring Leadership this year. We loved meeting fantastic delegates and other exhibitors, and learning about different leadership experiences in the education world. We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who made our time... View Article
First things first. How do you like your brew? And would you like a biscuit for dunking? I love a cup of milky coffee in the morning (my 90 year old grandad, who works with us at Focus, always makes me the best brew). Then I drink tea for the... View Article
Are you using the Learning Challenge Curriculum? Win £250 for your school. Are you a school using Focus Education’s Learning Challenge Curriculum or considering using it? You could win £250. All you need to do is show us how you’re using it! How do I enter? We are inviting schools to submit a... View Article
Clive Davies OBE has put together his 5 top tips when writing your Self Evaluation Summary. 1. Prove your progress! Always make sure that your judgement on teaching and learning can be substantiated by the progress pupils make. 2. Don’t sabotage your school! Be careful not to be too generous... View Article
What do we mean by a coaching culture and what does it matter in our primary schools anyway? How many times have you heard people say that you need a coaching culture in your school, and how many times have you thought, ‘that sounds interesting, but probably not for my... View Article
What steps should we take to ensure leadership in primary schools is at its best in 2018? 2017 will have brought its successes and achievements and no doubt some difficulties and challenges, so you may be asking yourself, ‘what can I do this year to make progress in my school?’... View Article
OfSTED Report 2017. Extract taken from the Focus Update Service. To sign up to the service, please click here. This year’s annual Ofsted report finds the overall quality of education and care in England is improving, but areas of persistent under-performance remain. Amanda Speilman’s Ofsted Annual Report 2017 Launching her first... View Article
Teaching Assistants – 3B Communicating With Children and Adults This extract taken from the Teaching Assistants Training Programme, Unit 3 – Section 3B, looking at communicating with children and then communicating with adults. As with any organisation, communication is vital if everything is going to work smoothly and consistently. As... View Article
The below extract is taken from Writing at Greater Depth by Ros Ferrara. Click here to see sample pages. This publication looks at recognising greater depth in writing with children in each year group, it discusses a writing sample and offers suggestions to ensure progress and deep learning. The requirements... View Article
How can we help learners to think metacognitively and how can thinking metacognitively help in accelerating pupil progress? Get pupils to: think about the planning, monitoring and evaluation; talk aloud about how they think they can tackle the task (planning); talk about any adjustments they made as they were doing... View Article
Free History Learning Challenge Curriculum Template Our Learning Challenge Curriculum plan, ‘What has changed since my grandparents were young?’ sample plan will help primary school history teachers to provide their pupils with fun and engaging history lessons while also integrating the learning of other subjects. This particular Learning Challenge plan... View Article
Rethinking the Curriculum, the Learning Challenge Curriculum How introducing pre-learning activities can spark life into stale lesson plans Anfield Road Primary School in Liverpool is a recently amalgamated school, combined in September 2014 from the infant and junior schools of the same name. Eighteen months ago, Anfield Road Primary saw... View Article
How external advice, a curriculum revamp, and becoming an academy helped one school dramatically improve its Ofsted rating from special measures to outstanding. A school from Sheffield has revealed how a total rework of its curriculum has enabled it to move from ‘Special Measures’ to receiving an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating... View Article
Hopwood Primary School is in Rochdale. The school was judged outstanding by Ofsted. How the school has used Focus Education Over the last few years our use of Focus Education has grown from attending courses and purchasing publications to online updates, Finger Tips and consultancy. This year we have used... View Article
Miriam Lord is a large primary school in Bradford. Nearly all pupils are EAL and the proportion of children claiming FSM is well above the national average, as is the percentage of pupils on the SEN register. How the school has used Focus Education As a school we have used... View Article
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School is in the town of Leigh in Wigan local authority. The school serves children from a range of backgrounds and has been judged by Ofsted to be outstanding. How the school has used Focus Education Since 2003 the school have worked with Focus Education by... View Article
Westwood is in Oldham. All pupils live in a ward which is in the bottom 1% in the country in terms of multiple deprivation. All pupils are EAL learners and approx half the school is eligible for FSM. 98% of pupils enter the school well below expectations. Ofsted judged the... View Article
St Alban’s CE Primary School is in Camden. Most pupils are from minority ethnic groups and are EAL. Twenty six languages are spoken in the school. How the school has used Focus Education We have used Focus Education to work with our senior leadership team in helping us review our... View Article
As part of Sheffield’s overall school improvement strategy the Good to Great programme was designed to lead school transformation and facilitate school – to – school partnership work leading to improvement for pupils. How the school has used Focus Education Focus Education has provided consultancy to develop the Good to Great... View Article
This FREE download contains information about book scrutiny in primary schools. It includes the '7 strands of excellence' framework to support teachers in carrying out effective book scrutiny in classrooms. It also contains a summary explanation of book scrutiny and why it is necessary.
