A Slice of Everyday Primary Leadership

If you've not read anything I've written previously on these subjects, you can catch up here:KS2 Continuous ProvisionFlexible Lesson DesignLearning SequencesAnd now you're up to speed, you might be wo...

If you’re implementing continuous provision in KS2, you likely want two things: • Pupils who are genuinely independent • Work that clearly shows progress and quality But what happens when those two ...

I've noticed an uptick in people downloading Year 6 SATs resources, and if your thoughts are turning to KS2 SATs then you might want to have a little explore of the resources I've got available to hel...

Improving Outcomes: A Clear PriorityMatthew and Leona had one clear priority on their Self Evaluation Form: to improve their combined score at the end of KS2. They ran an excellent school, and had don...

Someone walks into your school - an Ofsted inpector, say - and you pray that they see all the good that you know exists. You worry that they won't get it. That they will have no clue about all the har...

Can Early Years-inspired practice help us meet the needs of all pupils in later phases?TLDR: Yes.Implementing a version of Continuous Provision in Key Stages 1 and 2 (and who knows? perhaps beyond) ca...

This morning I had a call with an assistant head/class teacher who I worked with in the summer (you can read her glowing testimonial here). Back one very hot and sunny day, I spent a day with her at h...

When I started teaching we had three kinds of plans (of course it was three - 3-part lessons, 3-way differentiation - we loved a good three): LTPs, MTPs and STPs (or lesson plans).I'm not sure how muc...

The key thing you need to be aware of with regards to the final report from the government-commissioned Curriculum and Assessment Review is right there in the title: Building a world-class curriculum ...

Use this free lesson plan to explore how your school and local area have changed over time, using maps, digital tools and fieldwork...

Have you been following the news about the government's curriculum and assessment review?Is it putting a hold on your primary curriculum development as you wait to see what they say?You can be doing s...

The only Curriculum and Assessment Review headline that really matters is this: It's c200 pages of suggestions FOR THE GOVERNMENT, not for you, your school, your trust or your educational organisat...

The only Curriculum and Assessment Review headline that really matters is this: It's c200 pages of suggestions FOR THE GOVERNMENT, not for you, your school, your trust or your educational organisat...

Why don't you need an intent subject for your subject's curriculum? Because no one says you have to, not even Ofsted... However, whilst ‘intent statements’ aren’t a necessity they can help curriculum ...

Tier 2 words are a really important part of academic language, even at primary level - assuming children will learn all the correct meanings of these words without them being explicitly taught them is...

Words are the building blocks of all learning. If we don't know what individual words mean, we won't understand the meaning of the phrases and sentences that they make up. Whether we read or hear info...

Garbled title aside, this blog post is a very simple one. And the message is this:You don't need to mandate pedagogical choices.You don't need to spend your curriculum-writing time on telling teachers...

Summer's nearly here and you might be itching to get into your new classroom to spruce it up. But what should you spend your time on?

No two weeks are quite the same when you're implementing continuous provision in key stage 2... Crucially there is a gradual release of responsbility which provides the necessary support for pupils to...

One of the key challenges when designing and delivering continuous provision to any age group, but particularly in KS2, is ensuring that there is curriculum coverage. By delivering masterclasses, sett...

In the first blog post in this series, I posed the following question:"What can subject leaders and school leaders do to replace onerous primary assessment practices with better monitoring and evaluat...

I've written previously about how, in the school where I was a deputy head, we developed a way of providing a KS2 version of continuous provision. If you'd like to find out more about what we did, rea...

Your curriculum is great. You meet the needs of your pupils with SEND. But you know you could be doing more for those working at Greater Depth. But what? I have the answers.

Explore how a UK primary school transformed its KS2 curriculum delivery, emphasizing open-ended challenges, same-day interventions, and creative learning.

Icky name aside, the idea of identifiying sticky knowledge on behalf of pupils is a tricky one.The Origins of Sticky KnowledgeI think the phrase originated from Gabriel Szulanski and that he originall...

Icky name aside, the idea of identifiying sticky knowledge on behalf of pupils is a tricky one.The Origins of Sticky KnowledgeI think the phrase originated from Gabriel Szulanski and that he originall...

If you read my recent post on assessing foundation subjects in primary and were left wondering about the lack of evidence and data that the process would result in, you're in the right place.In this b...

If you read my recent post on assessing foundation subjects in primary and were left wondering about the lack of evidence and data that the process would result in, you're in the right place.In this b...

Have you been following the news about the government's curriculum and assessment review?Is it putting a hold on your primary curriculum development as you wait to see what they say?You can be doing s...

Have you been following the news about the government's curriculum and assessment review?Is it putting a hold on your primary curriculum development as you wait to see what they say?You can be doing s...

Since I last wrote about helping children to answer 3-mark questions, the way those questions are asked has changed. Whilst much of the advice given in the previous blog post still stands (indeed I wi...

Bringing an early years approach into KS1 isn’t unheard of – there are plenty of Year 1 classrooms where continuous provision has been effectively established. But, at my previous school the vision wa...

For more about this resource, and how it can be used, please see my blog post here: https://www.aidansevers.com/post/sats-2025-answering-3-mark-reading-sats-questions-an-update Try a free sample of th...

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