Courses

Reading Rocketeers – John Murray (King of Comprehension) – Friday 1st November – 13:00-16:00 – at Spinney Primary School, CB1 9PB – Cost: £75 – to book email syoung@spinney.cambs.sch.uk

This course considers the reasons why learners can find the transition into skills-based reading problematic, discusses how these might be addressed and explores the structure of a good reading intervention session.

Find out how to boost reading comprehension levels in order to:

• Develop a learner’s higher order reading skills using decodable text.
• Improve their understanding of what is being read at word, sentence and whole text level.

Key Learning Aim:

• To consider the difference between Shared and Guided Reading and explore reasons why some learners find it difficult to understand what they are able to decode across Key Stages 1 & 2.
• To equip teachers with the necessary strategies and techniques that will enable their learner’s reading comprehension to move forward.

Stretching and challenging Year 4s and Year 5s to pave the way for greater depth in writing – Martin Galway – Starts on Friday 22nd November 2019, 09:00-16:00 and continues 13:00-16:00 on 7th Feb and 24th April – at Spinney Primary, CB1 9PB – Cost: £300 – to book email mailto:syoung@spinney.cambs.sch.uk

This programme will focus on identifying and developing writers that have a solid grasp of the requirements of the lower Key Stage 2 curriculum, and that are in the exciting process of developing their own voice and style. Deliberately timed so that teachers have had the opportunity to build up a bank of classwork, the course will explore the skills and knowledge evident in their children’s writing, and explore how to develop these further so that confidence, voice and control are more fully developed. Follow up sessions will provide the opportunity to respond to children’s development as they progress across the year. Participants will be guided in how to navigate the requirements of the national curriculum for writing, whilst nurturing writers that not only have a keen sense of audience, but are able to have real effect through their control of technical aspects, content, and literary features. The course is grounded in the use of high quality texts, the value in exploring language use in context, and the importance of individual voice. As such, the course provides a solid foundation towards achievement of the greater depth standard in Year 6.

Empathy Lab Training Day – Miranda McKearney – Tuesday 19th November, 10:00-16:30 – 44 Webber Street London – Cost: £175 – to book email syoung@spinney.cambs.sch.uk

Empathy Lab is a whole school approach using stories to integrate empathy education into existing school priorities. Young people are growing up in a society with a major empathy deficit; hate crimes are at their highest level since records began and there are increasing concerns about the negative effects of social media. Increased empathy is good for society and vital for young people’s life chances. Psychologists highlight its central place in the bank of social and emotional skills young people need – without strong empathy skills, they will struggle to form the strong relationships they need to learn and thrive.   This is a first-step training day with EmpathyLab. Learn about;

• The different elements of empathy and its educational importance
• The research showing how books and book-talk can build empathy
• How schools are achieving school development priorities by integrating work on empathy with literacy and reading for pleasure
• How to teach children about empathy, and develop their empathy skills and social activism
• Which books are good for empathy-focused work, and why

  The approach helps to build young people’s empathy, literacy and social activism through a more systematic use of high-quality literature. It builds on scientific evidence showing the power of reading to build real-life empathy skills. With 11 primary school partners (including the Spinney Primary) they have spent the last three years testing new approaches. Their latest report (see www.empathylab.uk/empathylab-school-trial) shows the significant impact of our Empathy Explorers programme on school improvement and ethos; empathy skills and wellbeing; improvements in literacy, pro-social attitudes and behaviour. 
 
Empathy Lab Training Day Information – November 2019

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