Creative Consultancy Within Schools
Bespoke support for maximum impact
One of the primary features of Literacy Bridge Education is the range of support I am able to offer. These areas can be broadly characterised as:
Curriculum and planning
"Claire transformed English teaching in our school..."
My teaching career has provided me with experience of both secondary and primary schools, whilst the years spent in a middle school make me particularly aware of the fluidity between Upper Key Stage 2 and Lower Key Stage 3. As a result, I have an excellent working knowledge of progression within the English curriculum, which I have used to plan and advise on curriculum overviews.
As well as writing long-term curriculum overviews, I have written many medium term plans for most primary year groups over the last four years. The impact of these on pupil progress and engagement was identified by staff and reflected in data.
I worked with a Norfolk County Council English Advisor to develop a planning format for schools that allowed staff to plan effectively and ensure knowledge progression. I subsequently helped train staff in the use of this planning format.
Within units of work I have supported staff in considering learning styles and the depth of learning available from texts. The impact of this was quickly seen within books and classrooms, whilst helping to provide foundations for future teaching - an NQT told me "I had no idea that you could get so much from a picture book before."
Developing Reading
"Claire has a mountain of knowledge when it comes to children's books and thanks to her, we have an amazing range of inclusive and diverse books in our library..."
I am passionate about the role of reading in a child's life and have been reading children's literature since I started teaching. This allows me to recommend books to children and to enthuse and encourage: I have rarely found a child I couldn't eventually entice to read! I have used my knowledge of children's literature to equip school libraries on three occasions as well as to purchase books for classroom bookshelves.
I have led multi-school CPD training on establishing a positive reading culture within schools as well as follow-up training in my own school.
I have developed a bespoke reading incentive project called 'The Reading Race' which encouraged children to read at home on a more regular basis.
I have developed a range of PowerPoint presentations to assist staff in teaching the reading skills necessary to read at depth and to respond to comprehension questions. I also led whole-school CPD on using these for maximum impact.
Coaching and Staff Support
"Staff confidence and subject knowledge and pupil outcomes rocketed with Claire's help..."
I have a great deal of experience of working with staff to develop skills and confidence; I pride myself on my ability to establish trust and provide support whilst building self-esteem, thus encouraging the open-mindedness required to improve practice.
My impact in this area is reflected in some of the testimonials included on this website, but I can provide further references if required. I have worked with both inexperienced and experienced teachers, supporting with planning, subject knowledge and classroom practice.
When working for an extended period of time at one school, my support progressed from providing short term plans to medium ones, before planning alongside colleagues, so that they were increasingly independent and confident.
I have led lessons to assist teachers with areas where confidence was low, such as demonstrating shared writing, and team-taught with teachers to support until confidence has grown.
Because I have had the privilege of working alongside staff for extended periods of time, I have developed an atmosphere of trust in which staff have felt able to ask for support or ideas with all areas of English teaching and as such, I have been been able to see a growth in confidence that has had clear impact within the classroom.
Pupil Intervention Sessions
"The children she has worked with loved her - they felt valued, listened to and left feeling they had achieved great things in their writing."
I have continued to work alongside children both inside and outside the classroom in a variety of ways:
Leading intervention sessions to help borderline Year 6 pupils. Last year every pupil I worked with attained their goal.
Working to stretch the most able readers and writers in Year 6
Working with specific groups of identified pupils within the classroom in both Year 3 and Year 6 to develop progress across Key Stage 2
Leading whole-school book-based assemblies and lunchtime library sessions
Working with pupils on a 1:1 basis to target individual areas within their writing
Resources
"The planning provided by Claire has significantly reduced teacher workload. Our English curriculum is transformed!"
I have produced a wide range of resources for many different year groups and am happy to write units of work to support the English curriculum or provide guidance for inexperienced, or non-specialist staff.
In particular, I have led training within two different schools on the writing and use of a series of resources I've developed to support the teaching of reading skills. These PowerPoint presentations are centred around a focal text and encourage the discussion and competent use of key reading skills - I have used the terms adopted by the outstanding Literacy Shed website for these: VIPERS (Vocabulary; Inference; Prediction; Explain; Retrieve; Sequence/Summarize)
Please take a look at the free examples on the 'Reading Resources' page - you are free to download them and try them for yourself.
Theme Days
"Watching the children listening, wide-eyed, to the announcement that the dragon egg had hatched was just wonderful!"
I am able to offer theme days based around any English unit or book. I am a great believer in the power of hooking children in and as such, a theme day can be perfect for launching a new unit. Similarly, they can be a fantastic way to finish a unit, particularly one that has been based around a novel. I can plan these days to tie in completely to the outcomes you are aiming at for your pupils and they can be designed for individual classes, year groups or even key stages.
Charges:
AlI initial discussions are free of charge, to enable us to meet and for you to decide whether you feel that I am the right person to support your school. Subsequent days are charged at £300. However, as I offer a range of forms of support, some of which may not include whole-day requirements or involve creation of resources, detailed costs can be discussed on request.