Phonics Shed at Danesfield Primary School
Find out how Danesfield Primary School are using Phonics Shed to improve results in their school.
The Impact of EdShed at Pencoed Primary School
Pencoed Primary School are a fantastic Spelling Shed and MathShed Showcase School based in Bridgend, Wales. We spoke to them to find out the impact that EdShed has had at their school. “One of the key things we wanted to do was to improve our pupils’ higher-level vocabulary knowledge – this is where we came …
2025 KS2 Reading Sats Analysis by Jenny Cooke
Dare we say it, but the 2025 Reading SATs paper marks a welcome shift from the challenges of the past two years. The paper was still long, so children who struggle with stamina may have found it tough. However, from our perspective, it felt more straightforward than in previous years. After the notoriously difficult 2023 …
The Ultimate Guide to Preparing for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
The Phonics Screening Check takes place in June each year. All eligible Year 1 pupils will participate and some Year 2 pupils will resit it if they did not pass it when they were in Year 1. If children are absent during this week, then they will complete the check during variation week (the week …
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Key Stage 2 SATs Spelling Paper: Top Tips
Each year in May, all eligible Year 6 pupils are assessed using Key Stage 2 SATs tests. The KS2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) test consists of two papers. GPS Paper 1 is a 45-minute, 50-mark test which focuses on grammar and punctuation questions. For an analysis of GPS paper 1, read our ‘Play …
Working Knowledge of Texts
Ask a teacher to name a book about WW2; they can usually throw around the names of quite a few. ‘The Silver Sword’ (classic one), ‘Good Night Mr. Tom’ (Heart-warming one) and ‘Once’ (graphic one). Ask, though, which of these books describes the setting of a bomb crater the best and fewer books may be …
Play Your Way to SATs Success With Grammar Arcade
Can preparing for Key Stage 2 SATs really be engaging and unintimidating? The simple answer is yes, of course it can and why shouldn’t it be? Preparing for KS2 SATs often looks like completing lots of past papers and whilst some of this is important, it’s also important for your preparation to be engaging and …
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We Won a Bett Award!
We’re delighted to announce that Spelling Shed is the winner of Bett’s Primary Digital Learning Product Language & Literacy Award. What Did the Judges Say? “This is a comprehensive resource for teachers to support teaching, learning and assessment of spelling. Its assessment tool is effective and reduces teacher workload. Parents can see their child’s learning …
Signing Up Made Simple
We are always looking for new ways to improve your EdShed experience. That’s why we’ve created a new sign up process, designed to make it simpler than ever for schools, teachers, trusts, parents, guardians and learners to join us. What Does This Mean for Existing EdShed Subscribers? If you are an existing EdShed subscriber, you …
Reading Non-Fiction – Bridging the Knowledge Gap
How often do you read non-fiction texts in school? In recent years, there has been a shift towards whole-class reading lessons in the primary sector and a drive towards all children Reading for pleasure. This has led to reading lessons focussing on a high-quality class text; usually a novel or picture book. Recent discussions and …
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Log in to EdShed Using MyLoginSSO
At EdShed, we are always striving to make learning more effective and accessible for schools, teachers and pupils. That’s why we’re pleased to be part of MyLoginSSO. What is MyLoginSSO? Our integration partner, Wonde, has launched a super-fast single sign-on so you just log in once using one of the child-friendly sign-in options. This includes …
Using Spelling Shed’s Baseline Assessments
Spelling Shed has launched baseline assessments, designed for use at the beginning of the academic year. How to Assign Spelling Shed’s Baseline Assessments This handy video shows you how to assign Spelling Shed’s baseline assessments and how to view data. Assigning baseline assessments is easy. 1. Create an assignment like you usually would by clicking …
Stories For Pleasure: Choose Your Vessel
An adventure story about creating a story culture in school… I am not a great writer, but I enjoy it. Here is my attempt at an adventure story. Please take the time to have a little read. The adventurer struggled to place one foot in front of the other; each step on the burning sand …
SATs Spelling Paper: Top Tips
With the SATs season around the corner, we share some of our top tips for preparing your class for the spelling paper as part of grammar, punctuation and spelling tests. When? This year, the two papers for spelling, punctuation and grammar are on May 13th. Paper 1 covers grammar and punctuation and Paper 2 covers …
Unlock the Magic of 3 in Maths Week England
Mathematics is not just a subject; it’s a language that empowers pupils to think logically, solve problems and make sense of the world around them. As primary school teachers, you play a pivotal role in nurturing a love for mathematics among your pupils. To kick-start this year’s Maths Week England 2023, running from the 13th …
The Importance of Nursery Rhymes
Nursery rhymes may seem like catchy tunes we sing with young children; however, the origins and importance of the nursery rhyme should not be overlooked. Phonics Shed are a proud sponsor of World Nursery Rhyme Week 2023. This fantastic week runs from the 13th to 17th November. Our nursery rhyme planning and resources are based …
Important Literacy Shed Plus Information
Hello, We have made some important changes to your Literacy Shed Plus account, which will come into effect from the 2nd of October. Currently, access to our resources is assigned automatically to the teachers in your school. From the 2nd of October 2023, it will be necessary to assign access by allocating teachers to classes. …
How to Teach Spelling Patterns: I before E except after C
Spelling Patterns – to test or not to test? This has been an ongoing question posed by educators after realising that words learned for a spelling ‘test’ or ‘quiz’ are commonly forgotten shortly after said quiz. Spelling can be a challenge for many children and indeed teachers who are trying to find the best method …
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How to Teach Phonics
Phonics is a body of skills and knowledge that we need to be able to use in order to master the language. It is used to teach how the 44 sounds (phonemes) of spoken English are linked to the individual or groups of written letters (graphemes). Malcolm Gladwell famously stated that it takes 10,000 hours …
Using Spelling Shed alongside your phonics scheme
Does your Systematic Synthetic Phonics scheme meet the National Curriculum statutory requirements for KS1? Does it prepare your children for the more complex code they will encounter in their reading and writing in Year 3 and beyond? The simple answer is that almost all Government Validated Phonics Schemes do not adequately cover the National Curriculum …
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How to Teach Spelling
Why is spelling such a complex skill to master and how can we teach students to be effective spellers? A common misconception is that if you can read a word then you can spell it. However, there are many ways a phoneme (sound) can be represented in written form. Take the phoneme /k/. It can …
Emily Weston’s June Reading Round-Up
And just like that, we are halfway through the year! June has brought with it (some!) sun, busy weeks at school and some amazing books! Here, I’ve rounded up the best 5 new releases of the last month for you to choose from, as well as a sneaky preview of one that is coming soon… …
Top tips for using formative and summative assessment in phonics
What is summative and formative assessment? Formative assessment •Observation-led – responses to tasks and questions – assessing their input, instigating peer discussions, and completing a review of work covered during the plenary. •Planning prompts – For example, recapping the grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) taught, particularly as part of the plenary. Each lesson plan has an assessment …
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Etymology
How to use etymological information can improve understanding in reading and aid spelling Morphology and etymology go hand in hand and when joined together with orthographical mapping, they become a powerful trio in the learning of spellings. Other words with Greek origins: dolphin elephant alphabet hyphen triumph How do we use etymology in Spelling Shed …
Using Actions to Support Your Phonics Teaching
Why use actions in phonics sessions? •Promotes active engagement and participation – research suggests that the longer a child is actively participating in a lesson, the higher their academic success. •Targets kinaesthetic types of learners – movement •Helps to distinguish between similar sounds •Visual prompt – if a child is unsure of the GPC they …
Using Morphology to Help Build Vocabulary and Spelling Strategies for Your Learners
What is it and how can we use it in the classroom to support spelling? Do you know what a zyzzyva is and how to pronounce it? Key Terms Base word – A word that can stand alone when all of the affixes have been removed Root Word – The root carries the primary meaning …
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Using Songs to Supercharge Your Phonics Teaching
Why use songs for learning phonics? It has been proven that songs have a positive intellectual impact on pupils, as well as helping linguistic development that later aids learning to read. The power of music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people (Susan Hallam, 2010) Using songs in …
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Choosing and Using Flashcards to Accelerate Learning in Phonics
Why flashcards? The scientifically proven best way to learn is practicing recall by spaced repetition. You repeat the process of recall in certain time intervals (every day, every weekend etc.), and that’s how information gets stored in your long-term memory. Spaced repetition indicates that it’s better to learn every day for one hour, than one …
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How to use Orthography to get the Most out of Phonics for Spelling
What is Orthography? ‘The conventional spelling system of a language.’ ‘The study of spelling and how letters combine to represent sounds and form words.’ (Oxford English Dictionary) High quality SSP ensuring children have a solid foundational knowledge of GPCs The first way we use orthography is when teaching pupils phonics in KS1. We advocate the …
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Year 4 MTC Ready: How to build recall and conceptualisation of times tables with your class
What is the Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check? Designed to determine whether children can recall times tables facts fluently. Allow schools to identify children who need more help becoming secure in their times tables knowledge, but not specific gaps (sadly!). There is no pass/fail for the test, so no resits required (unlike Year 1 Phonics …
How to Get the Most out of Decodable Reading Books
The importance of stories Schools who score highly in the Phonics Screening Check note that building a love of stories and reading plays a big part in their success (DfE, 2021). 2019 survey by the Literacy Trust found that children who enjoy reading were up to three times more likely to have higher than expected …
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Using GPC Characters for Engaging Phonics Teaching and Learning
Why use GPC Characters? Associating the characters with GPCs lends itself to story telling and putting these characters in meaningful contexts, which the pupils can relate to. These characters underpin the whole of the scheme and are referenced in the flashcards, decodable books, lesson plans, interventions, teaching books and formation rhymes. The characters are used …
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What are bar models and how to use them to solve problems
What are bar models? Where did they come from? Bar models have been part of the Singapore Ministry of Education’s mathematics’ concrete, pictorial, abstract process since the late 1980s. Their origins date back further than the late 1980s, though. They were used as part of the American psychologist and educationalist, Jerome Bruner’s three-part lesson process …
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The best ways to run and prepare your class for the Phonics Screening Check
About the Phonics Screening Check What is it? A statutory phonic knowledge screening for Year 1 pupils was introduced in 2011/12 in England. It is conducted orally and 1:1 with teacher, usually lasts 5-10 minutes (although there is no set time limit). The test should be done with a teacher that the child knows to …
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How to Plan and Run Impactful Phonics Interventions
What are the essentials of an evidence-based intervention? Prior Knowledge By activating prior knowledge, teachers help students become ready to assimilate new information. This cueing helps the learner associate new information with previously learned knowledge. Wendling, B.J. and Mather, N. (2008) ‘Donald Hebb who was influential in the area of neuropsychology famously said that “Cells …
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An Introduction to Phonics Shed
Phonics Shed is designed to run from the Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 2; but can extend into Key Stage 2 for those children who need further support in phonics. It connects with the existing Spelling Shed scheme to ensure all curriculum objectives are met, while preparing the children for their Phonics Screening assessment …
The Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach in mathematics
What is the CPA approach and where did it come from? The concrete, pictorial, abstract approach to mathematics has been a key feature of teaching and learning in Singapore since the 1980s. The approach is inspired by the work of Jerome Bruner, an American psychologist, who developed the process in the late 1960s. It has …
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What is meant by mastery in mathematics and how to use MathShed to incorporate it into your classroom
What is mastery in mathematics? The term ‘mastery’ means pupils acquiring a profound, secure, lasting and adaptable knowledge and skillset in mathematics. You will sometimes also hear the phrase “teaching for mastery” which refers to schoolwide policies and classroom practices that come together to allow children the best opportunities to achieve mastery in mathematics. For …
Emily Weston’s February Reading Roundup
Like A Charm – Elle McNicoll If you have read either of Elle’s previous two books, you will know that she wraps emotional stories in adventure and mystery. Like A Charm has these elements, but with added magic! Ramya has learnt she can see through the glamour of Edinburgh, meaning she can see all the …
Ultimate Year 2 SATs preparation plan from MathShed
Based on our Year 2 SATs preparation training session, we wanted to put together an action plan in a blog format that you can return to in preparing your pupils for KS1 SATs success, as well as providing a video recording of a session and our training slides to share with colleagues. The blog post …
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Coordinates Head-to-Head Game
We recently saw a Coordinates Head-to-Head Game shared by a teacher on social media and thought it was a good idea worth sharing and building upon! In the blog we will show you: The post that inspired Coordinates Head-to-Head The rules of the game The three game versions Free PowerPoint and PDF downloads to play …
Emily Weston’s Top 5 Children’s Books about Love for Valentine’s Day
As we are in the month of romance – whether you have a valentine or a palentine – this is the time of year when we all start thinking about love. With that in mind, I have for you 5 brilliant books which have a key theme of love – be that platonic, romantic or …
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Ultimate Year 6 SATs preparation plan from MathShed
We hope to help you and your classes in your journey to Year 6 SATs success by providing: Why it’s key to prepare pupils to score marks based on their learning from prior KS2 year groups The importance of arithmetic for meeting National Standard in the KS2 SATs Where to prioritise revision by blocks / …
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Spelling Shed and the Science of Reading
Systematic instruction means that there is a planned sequence of phonics elements that comprises a logical progression of skills and knowledge, with sufficient practice and cumulative review for mastery to be achieved. Learning to spell is a key ingredient to becoming a good reader and is far more intricate than just memorizing words. Catherine Snow …
Top 5 Literacy Shed films for Year 1 and Early Years (ages 4 – 5)
The last of my ‘Top 5 films for..’ blogs. Again, I will reiterate that because I have chosen a film here for Y1 it does not mean that it shouldn’t be used with older children. There are many films that I have used with Y1 and then again further up the school with a different …
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Top 5 Literacy Shed Films for Year 2 (ages 6-7)
This is the 5th blog in the ‘Top 5 Literacy Shed films’ series. I have been choosing my favourite short films for different year groups. These films are not limited to only be used with Year 2 but have found them to work well within that year group. Little Boat by Nelson Boles A little, …
Top 5 Literacy Shed Films for Year 3 (Ages 7-8)
This is the 4th blog in a set of six ‘the best’ blogs. As with the earlier blogs, this is my personal selection of films for year 3 (Age 7-8). You may have you own favourites and some of the films I have chosen may be used in other year groups in your school. To …
Top 5 Literacy Shed Films for Year 4 (Ages 8-9)
This is the third blog in a series of six. I was asked recently by a number of teachers in my zoom training to recommend films for their year groups. There isn’t a right answer as to which films suit which year groups so I have just plumped for those which I have enjoyed using …
Top 5 Literacy Shed Films for Year 5 (Ages 9-10)
There are so many great films that can be used with this age group. When I first developed Literacy Shed, I was teaching Y5 and developing my ‘film for writing’ pedagogy, so I have used many more short films with this year group than any other. These are my favourites but definitely not a list of films …
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Top 5 Literacy Shed Films for Year 6 (Ages 10-11)
I have been asked by quite a few teachers recently, ‘Which are the best films to use with my year group?’ It has been quite difficult to decide on my favourites. There were the obvious ones that many people use: The Piano, Alma, Francis but I wanted to share some that may be under the …
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