Teach Primary 18.8

www.teachwire.net | 57 Shareen Wilkinson is a successful educational author and adviser with over 20 years of experience in education. Currently, she serves as executive director of education for a high- performing multi-academy trust, where reading at KS2 exceeds national averages. need to understand that they must find a point with evidence and then find another point. I teach pupils Point Evidence Explain as well, just in case they miss a piece of evidence. Remember – and remind them – that pupils do not need to write long essays. Working around characters’ actions, with a focus on ‘show not tell’, is beneficial here. Here is an example of a three-mark answer: He is protective (point), because it says, “They asked me if I had seen a leopard. I said I had not.” (evidence) He is brave. (point) Explicitly modelling how to give answers, and using mark scheme examples for discussions, are sound ways of teaching three- mark answers. Use fun and interactive revision strategies Who says that revision must be dull? I often hear this, but it doesn’t reflect my experience at all. Teaching inference skills can easily be covered by exploring the thoughts and feelings of characters in pop songs, rhymes and online videos. The best way to consolidate learning and enable retrieval practice is to get pupils to teach other pupils in the class. Give them an area of focus and let them create a poster, worksheet or digital presentation that they will present to the rest of the class. Being able to fully explain a concept is beneficial for embedding knowledge into the long- term memory. Explore and discuss language In 2024, many questions focused on exploring language, rather than looking at words in isolation. When reading together, explore metaphors, similes and personification and discuss what images they convey to the reader. Draw on strategies like visualisation and maximise spoken language opportunities to unpick texts, e.g. What do you think that means? Do you agree with that? What images can you see? Give pupils experience of the test papers It’s important to continue teaching, and to drip test- style questions throughout Year 6, but children still need to be aware of the exam timings. This is especially true for the reading paper, where pupils have 60 minutes to read through and answer questions for three or four texts. Rapid retrieval through skimming and scanning is needed for this; just try to keep test experience to a minimum. Work on whole-school strategies The more all teachers see the test papers and have CPD opportunities to increase their subject knowledge, and the more senior leaders promote a whole-school responsibility for SATs, the higher the likelihood of success. TP mrswilkinson.bluesky.social @ShareenAdvice Personality Evidence example • protective / respectful • non-violent (towards animals) • ethical / law-abiding / not mercenary He is protective, because it says, “They asked me if I had seen a leopard. I said I had not.” Table 1. T EACH PR I MARY SAT S SPEC I A L I N AS SOC I A T I ON W I TH