Embedded Files
SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONAL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE ENHANCEMENT
Core subject knowledge every primary trainee must secure before placement.
Articulation of pure sounds knowledge enhancement
Pure Sounds Video
Pure Sounds Video
Focus: Accurate phoneme articulation for SSP delivery
As a Primary School teacher, I watched this video consistently and so should you. Knowing how to articulate all phonemes correctly is imperative. It's vital that you're producing those initial sounds accurately to all children.
Grammar Subject Knowledge
Oak Academy
Oak Academy
Focus: Form, function, and terminology across KS1–KS2
Simple and clear teaching and learning resource with specific grammar lessons and information. Organised by year group to enable focus during different placements.
Grammar Subject Knowledge
Grammar Subject Knowledge
Focus: Form, function, and terminology across KS1–KS2
A collection of grammatical terms explained with video guides to explore. Please do contact me (mtobin@brookes.ac.uk) if there are missing terms you would like defined or added to the slideshow.
SECTION 2: INCLUSION, EAL & ACCESSIBLE LITERACY
Core frameworks for adaptive English teaching, language barriers, and SEND.
The Bell Foundation: EAL Assessment & Classroom Framework
The Bell Foundation: EAL Assessment & Classroom Framework
New: EAL-specific strategies, scaffolding language without lowering demand.
Focus:Comprehensive, evidence-based guidance for supporting multilingual learners in primary classrooms. Explores practical strategies to scaffold language demands across reading, writing, and spoken English without lowering cognitive challenge.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Provides clear diagnostic principles to help trainees distinguish between English language acquisition needs and underlying special educational needs (SEND), ensuring appropriate support without misdiagnosis.
Explore EAL Classroom Guidance
Dyslexia Friendly Schools: Good Practice Guide (BDA Abridged)
Dyslexia Friendly Schools: Good Practice Guide (BDA Abridged)
New: Dyslexia strategies for Inclusive Teaching
Focus:A practical, direct-access guide featuring the British Dyslexia Association’s classroom checklists and evidence-informed strategies. It provides immediate tools for creating inclusive primary environments that support pupils with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Highlights practical adaptations to reduce working memory load during reading and writing, including multi-sensory teaching techniques, dyslexia-friendly print and visual formatting, and whole-class structural scaffolds that benefit all learners without lowering expectations.
EEF Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools ('Five-a-Day')
EEF Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools ('Five-a-Day')
New: Adaptive teaching framework (explicit instruction, scaffolding, metacognitive tools)
Focus: An evidence-informed framework from the Education Endowment Foundation detailing five high-leverage strategies that can be integrated into daily practice to support pupils with SEND in mainstream primary classrooms.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Moves trainees away from outdated, deficit-model "differentiation" (such as lower-attaining worksheets) toward genuine adaptive teaching. Focuses on maintaining ambitious English learning goals through explicit instruction, metacognitive strategy modeling, scaffolded prompts, flexible grouping, and visual/technological supports
SECTION 3: CURRICULUM PROGRESSION & EVIDENCE BASE BY STAGE
STAGE 1: NOVICE STAGE
Focus: Early Reading, Phonics & Early Comprehension
CORE TEXTS & NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
Understanding & Teaching Primary English: Theory into Practice
Understanding & Teaching Primary English: Theory into Practice
A comprehensive, highly practical guide designed to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world primary practice. Grounded in research-informed pedagogy, this text walks trainees step-by-step from foundational principles (the why) to concrete classroom strategies (the how). Packed with illustrative models, lesson frameworks, and practical examples, it serves as an essential roadmap for building robust subject knowledge in early reading, writing, and language development.
We have a 25% discount code (SAGEAUTH25), plus free UK delivery, via the Sage website sagepub.com and for ebook versions via ebooks.com – that should all currently work with the first edition
Tell Me & The Reading Environment: How Adults Help Children Enjoy Books
Tell Me & The Reading Environment: How Adults Help Children Enjoy Books
A foundational text in children’s literature pedagogy that transforms how teachers facilitate book talk and foster genuine reading communities. Aidan Chambers sets out a landmark framework for encouraging rich, pupil-led dialogue about texts using 'Tell Me' questioning routines. Essential reading for learning how to create an inclusive 'reading environment' where every child's voice, response, and interpretation are valued.
The_reading_framework.pdfThe Reading Framework (DfE, 2023)
The Reading Framework (DfE, 2023)
Statutory and guidance-level framework setting national expectations for primary reading instruction, language development, and curriculum design. Provides essential reading for understanding how systematic synthetic phonics (SSP), fluency, high-quality book selection, and oral language instruction interconnect from EYFS through Key Stage 2. A key reference tool for aligning your classroom practice with national standards and inspection criteria.
EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDANCE & PRACTICAL SCAFFOLDING
EEF Improving Literacy in Early Years Guidance
EEF Improving Literacy in Early Years Guidance
Focus: Evidence-informed recommendations focusing on early communication, spoken language, and the foundational decoding skills required to give young children a strong start in literacy.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Emphasises high-quality, language-rich interactions and early diagnostic monitoring. Helps trainees identify early communication gaps or baseline language delays, allowing for targeted oral language scaffolding before formal reading barriers develop
EEF Improving Literacy in KS1
EEF Improving Literacy in KS1
Focus: A research-backed framework outlining core recommendations for teaching early reading, systematic synthetic phonics (SSP), fluent decoding, and early reading comprehension in Key Stage 1.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Focuses on diagnostic assessment to pinpoint exact early literacy barriers (such as phonemic awareness vs. oral vocabulary). Guides trainees on how to adapt Tier 1 phonics instruction using multi-sensory tools and targeted visual scaffolds, keeping expectations high for all pupils.
Oracy & Voice 21: Structured Spoken Language
Oracy & Voice 21: Structured Spoken Language
Focus: Practical guidance and expert input on embedding structured oracy across primary classrooms, treating spoken language as a core discipline that directly underpins reading and writing success.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Spoken language is the ultimate inclusive engine. Provides structured talk roles, sentence stems, and scaffolded listening routines so pupils with SEND, EAL learners, or lower baseline language can articulate high-level ideas verbally before being asked to write.
STAGE 2: ADVANCED BEGINNER STAGE
Focus: Writing Composition, Transcription & Grammar in Context
CORE TEXTS & NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
Teaching Primary English: Subject Knowledge and Classroom Practice
Teaching Primary English: Subject Knowledge and Classroom Practice
A comprehensive, research-informed core text that explores the interconnected strands of English, with particular strength in framing writing as both a creative and communicative act. Bearne and Reedy foreground the role of talk, purpose, audience, and authentic contexts in developing young writers. Packed with practical models, it helps trainees balance structural support with writerly freedom, offering inclusive, child-centered approaches to grammar and composition.
Bearne, E. and Reedy, D. (2024) Teaching primary English : subject knowledge and classroom practice. Second edition. London ; New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Available at: https://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781000887396
On the Write Track: A Practical Guide to Teaching Writing in Primary Schools
On the Write Track: A Practical Guide to Teaching Writing in Primary Schools
An indispensable, highly practical guide that breaks down the complex journey of teaching writing into manageable classroom steps. Clements offers a clear progression framework alongside real examples of children's writing, genre-specific guidance, and actionable strategies for building writing stamina and independence. Ideal for helping trainees move beyond formulaic writing frames to plan purposeful, high-quality writing across the curriculum.
Clements, J. (2023) On the write track : a practical guide to teaching writing in primary schools. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003142461.
CLPE WRITING SCALE REBRAND.pdfThe CLPE Writing Scales: Progression in Writing
The CLPE Writing Scales: Progression in Writing
A landmark developmental framework from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) that supports teachers in identifying, assessing, and nurturing children's progress as writers. Moving far beyond reductive checklists, these scales offer a holistic, child-centred view of writing development—helping trainees recognize authentic voice and composition while providing clear indicators for planning targeted next steps.
EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDANCE & PRACTICAL SCAFFOLDING
EEF Improving Literacy in KS1
EEF Improving Literacy in KS1
Focus: A research-backed framework outlining core recommendations for teaching early reading, systematic synthetic phonics (SSP), fluent decoding, and early reading comprehension in Key Stage 1.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Focuses on diagnostic assessment to pinpoint exact early literacy barriers (such as phonemic awareness vs. oral vocabulary). Guides trainees on how to adapt Tier 1 phonics instruction using multi-sensory tools and targeted visual scaffolds, keeping expectations high for all pupils.
Voice 21: Student-Friendly Oracy Framework
Voice 21: Student-Friendly Oracy Framework
Focus: A highly practical, visual translation of the Oracy Framework designed directly for classroom use. It breaks spoken language down into physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social strands, providing clear, pupil-facing vocabulary to help children structure their talk and build on each other's ideas before putting pen to paper.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Scaffolds verbal rehearsal as a crucial bridge to written composition. By providing explicit "talk roles" and sentence stems, it ensures pupils with SEND, EAL learners, or those with working memory difficulties can actively participate in high-level discussions without the immediate cognitive load of transcription.
EEF Improving Literacy in KS2
EEF Improving Literacy in KS2
Focus: Evidence-informed recommendations outlining key practices for developing writing composition, transcription, spelling, and grammar in Key Stage 2. Focuses on explicitly teaching the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, and editing) alongside fluent transcription skills.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Outlines metacognitive strategies and targeted scaffolding to support children struggling with writing stamina or working memory overload. Helps trainees adapt writing tasks through graphic organizers, sentence-level practice, and targeted diagnostic feedback without lowering compositional expectations.
STAGE 3: EFFECTIVE STAGE
Focus: Reading for Pleasure, Deep Comprehension & Literature Selection
CORE TEXTS & NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
Guiding Readers - Layers of Meaning
Guiding Readers - Layers of Meaning
A definitive practical handbook for teaching deep reading comprehension in Key Stage 2. Grounded in cognitive and reader-response theory, it equips trainees with concrete frameworks to take children beyond surface-level decoding into high-level inference, textual interpretation, and critical dialogue using rich, authentic texts.
Tennent, W. et al. (2016) Guiding readers - layers of meaning : a handbook for teaching reading comprehension to 7-11-year-olds. London: UCL IOE Press. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1642884 (Accessed: August 20, 2025).
House of Commons Education Committee: Reading for Pleasure Inquiry Report (2026)
House of Commons Education Committee: Reading for Pleasure Inquiry Report (2026)
A landmark parliamentary inquiry into national reading habits, policy recommendations, and classroom practice. Features written evidence (RFP0071) on prioritising reading identity, high-quality talk, and literature-rich primary environments. Essential reading for trainees evaluating whole-school reading culture and policy context.
Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure
Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure
An inspiring, research-backed text exploring how developing your own identity as a 'Reading Teacher' directly transforms classroom reading culture. Grounded in extensive empirical research, it provides practical strategies to help trainees broaden their knowledge of children's literature, build authentic reading communities, and foster genuine, lifelong reading engagement across primary settings.
Cremin, T. et al. (eds.) (2023) Reading teachers : nurturing reading for pleasure. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003215615.
EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDANCE & PRACTICAL SCAFFOLDING
Focus: Children's literature knowledge enhancement
OU Reading for Pleasure: Evidence & Practice (OU RfP)
OU Reading for Pleasure: Evidence & Practice (OU RfP)
Focus: A research-informed hub from The Open UniversityClick to open side panel for more information detailing five core findings for building an authentic reading culture: wide literature knowledge, reading aloud, informal book talk, creating inviting reading spaces, and becoming a 'Reading Teacher'. Includes hundreds of teacher-created case studies and actionable classroom resources.
SEND & Inclusion Focus: Provides clear, inclusive frameworks to engage reluctant, disaffected, or struggling readers. Emphasizes pupil choice, non-judgmental reader response, and varied text formats (such as graphic novels and audiobooks) so every child builds a positive reading identity regardless of decoding confidence.
The Home of Children's Books
The Home of Children's Books
I put this slide-deck together so you have a one-stop shop for all children's books. You can use this slideshow to:
Build up your knowledge of children's books
Supporting children and parents in finding the right book for the right child
Look to children's book awards and recommendations
I have attached a little video on the first slide to guide you through
CLPE Reflecting Reality 2024 v6 WEB.pdfThe CLPE's Reflecting Realities Annual Report
The CLPE's Reflecting Realities Annual Report
This important annual report from the CLPE examines how children’s books published in the UK represent racially minoritised characters and communities. It helps educators reflect on the diversity of the texts they share with pupils and highlights ongoing gaps in representation. Essential reading for teachers who want to build inclusive classroom libraries and ensure every child feels seen and valued in the stories they read.
Serroukh, F. (2024). REFLECTING REALITIES Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature 2023. [online] Available at: https://clpe.org.uk/system/files/2024-12/CLPE%20Reflecting%20Reality%202024%20v6%20WEB.pdf.
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