From an Early Years Teacher based 'Beyond the Wall'. I feel a boycott coming on… Walking into any Early Years classroom, I expect to see mess. Toys strewn across the carpet, paint dripping from an easel, playdough that has fallen from the table onto the floor mixed with sand that has met a similar fate. Mess shows that children are interested in their environment, are engaged with it and are learning through their play. When I moved into my new classroom this summer, I removed roughly 3 tables. Tables that were for children to sit and ‘work’ at. The children are 3 and 4 years old. They should be learning through play not sitting at desks being forced to do work in a book. This week I was deeply saddened and angered by the Bold Beginnings report in which Ofsted claim that Reception aged children are being failed by a lack of emphasis on reading, writing and maths. The idea that 3 R’s should be taught formally, not through a play based curriculum, is one that ...

You have a limited amount of time. You are a teacher. You prepare for 5 hour long (or one 5 hour long) presentations every day. And each one has a potentially hostile audience. You have a limited amount of time. Technology can be such a massive help to this and for teachers we probably use two pieces of software more than anything else; PowerPoint and Excel. For someone teaching for longer than 10 years (approximately only half) the use of such tech may seem weird or unnecessary but today's tech savvy child expects nothing less and often a lot more to keep them engaged. Tech is great and a great cog in the machine of progress but only when used appropriately. So how is Excel used well by teachers? When a spreadsheet is used to record good quality informative and meaningful data about a child. Test results for tests created by teachers with that child in mind, data about how a child has completed useful work over time or just a record of what they have learnt over time. So how is...