Other Primary School Observations


A Maidenhead Primary School

I spent only two days here and managed to see almost all 8 classes. This I thought was a good way to observe the same school but with many different teaching practices. I had been liaising with the Deputy Head, and she had arranged for me to start off in Year 3. They are a hearing specialist school and have their classrooms specially adapted to the children who are hearing impaired.

Monday 4th November
Year 3  32 children - 

Being only the second school I had visited, I noted down all of the things put up as displays and notices. These included a :



  • French Board
  • N/S/E/W at all points around the room
  • Ancient Egypt Display with a time line and work from the students
The school uses the Prometheus Smart Board which I hadn't seen before. Each student also has their own locker key and hangs it up by the door after they come in.

Behaviour Management Techniques: 
Finger of Fate - A boxing glove, stuck on the end of a pole that is used to point to a student in a fun way to ask them to answer a question. The classroom teacher does this by waving it round and pretending that it is somehow locked onto them.
Hocus Pocus, Everybody Focus -  A sentence said started by the teacher and finished by the class. It grabs their attention and can calm the group down before a task commences. 

Teaching Techniques: 
If you want a sentence to look better, you should always use a capital letter.
If you don't want Mr Harte to get in a strop, after the end of a sentence use a full stop.

Literacy: Once a month the school ask the children to write a snapshot of what they have learnt and this creates a record of how they have improved, not just whats been said, but the difference in handwriting, punctuation, spelling and grammar.

Numeracy: I can understand that subtraction is the inverse of addition.
Count back from high to low; 105, 95, 85...

7 - 2 = 5 or 5+ 2 = 7 or 7 - 5 = 2 This is the Inverse Operation.

History: I can use the Rosetta Stone symbols to solve and make my own codes.
This Egyptian stone was found in 1799 and surrendered to British Troops in 1801. It now rests firmly in the British Museum, London, and was one of the first written languages developed by any nation in Ancient History.
Every child had a relatively easy code to crack which was the name of the school, and then they had to make one up for their table partners. Some ranged from HI HOW ARE YOU, to MY NAME IS .....


After Lunch I went to a class in Year 5 and had a very interesting and engaging afternoon.

A classroom rap about healthy eating called 'You Are What You Eat' by Julie Voyzey was on the agenda and I was able to use my theatre background to develop some of the groups skills.


  • Keeping to a rhythm,
  • Making up some beat boxing
  • Share the verses between the group and try to learn lines
  • Add some dance moves


Finally and for about 20 minutes, I was privileged to read a few chapters from 'Friend or Foe' by Michael Murpurgo, who at 71 years of age, has written many books for a mixture of ages and not all fiction. I used a range of accents and was given a microphone to talk into, that linked to the wall speakers. It was set in the war and I will one day read it, once I have read a long list of other books.


Tuesday 5th November
Year 6  
Table Names:The first thing I noticed was each table had names - a perspex board contained a picture of the description and this is an idea different to using colours. 
Class displays: The Victorians, How to Improve Learning Board-AF1-AF8 (Assessment Focus), Sciences (Gravity, Buoyancy and Magnetic) and a Magic Math's Board.
The teacher spoke in French doing the register and this helps to reinforce the language studies and then read to the pupils.

Maths: I can assess my own work and see how to improve my results
The class had recently sat a Mock Level 3-5 paper and they went through a set of the questions with a focus on specific points. These included; estimating the answer first, show working out to gain some of the marks and underlining important information which will help answer the question.

Drama: Most of the Year 6's were to perform Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Norden Farm. I was asked to give some pointers to some of the main characters and assisted Mr Lloyd throughout the rest of the morning until lunch. Direction was needed for a dance scene with the forest fairies, a funny chase scene where a few of the characters follow each other across the stage and back, and also where to stand when delivering lines.

Year 6 
After break I visited the other side of Year 6, and was shown the wonderful world of Bug Club.
Bug Club is a whole-school reading service for Reception, KS1 and KS2 that transforms young readers into life-long readers. Children are instantly engaged in their own personalised reading world. Interactive activities, characters they know and love and rewards keep them motivated.  It's perfect for their independent reading journey. - Pearson Primary Website

I was impressed the the choice of books, plus the layout of the programme was easy to use and it really engaged the children in a way that only enhances their learning.

Year 4   

Classroom displays: Compass pointsFrench days and monthsplace value chartHistory time line, lots of French words for English objects dotted about the classroom and also saw that Horrible Histories is used a lot.

With Remembrance Day being just around the corner, some of the school were busy making new wreaths to lay outside by the flag pole. Firstly the class watched the Flanders Fields poem and discussed what the day is about and who is remembered. A couple of the children mentioned family members serving in the Armed Forces and it meant a lot to them getting involved in poppy making.
3 different colours were used for the poppy to represent the 3 Armed Forces; Army/Red, Navy/Dark Blue and Air Force/Light Blue. Scissors were handed out and the teacher demonstrated how to stick it together to create a perfect poppy look.

This is what a final finished product looks like.

After what was a busy, interactive and fun two days, I said goodbye to the Head and said to keep in touch with my career progress. To date both he and the Assistant have responded to any questions I had in my quest to become a teacher and were both keen on finding out how I am doing.

A Maidenhead Primary School

This Catholic Primary school was the second of my quick 2 day visits and I mainly stuck to one year 3 class. Although the following set of notes does not amount to much, I did learn quite a lot and have also taken on board one of the teaching practices.

Monday 11th November
Year 4  
The first thing I noticed was that it was extremely neat and tidy, plus was influenced by someone Scottish. As you might have guessed by the classroom teacher's name, he is indeed from Scotland and had proudly displayed their national flag and football shirt, as well as a few other items. I believe it is good to stick to your roots and instil a sense of proud in ones heritage. So often many children leave their 'mother' country and have no clue about another culture let alone the language, and we should all embrace each other's nationalities.

Behaviour Management Tip:Before the lesson had started he reminded me 'never to turn my back on the tiger (the class), and to keep eyes on all'. This means, regardless of where you are in the classroom and whoever you are focusing on, don't forget to keep one eye on everything else.

Literacy: The year group was split into sets and this class focused on a poem called 'A room with no view'  and with it a set of comprehension questions. It was based on a lady whose husband had died and she was all alone in her home with very few things to do. She does have visitors but they either a family member or a carer. The children were asked to read the extract in detail and infer quite a few tricky questions.
I used a behaviour management tip with the group I worked with - Hocus Pocus, Everybody Focus and it seemed to do the trick. (I have since seen one child from this group at an inter-sports competition and he reminded me of the phrase)

Numeracy: I can link numbers in addition
This maths set was a mixed year group, higher year 3's with lower year 4's. It was the  first time I had seen text books used and the teacher has differentiated the class into groups, with me being given a group to work with. This group were very capable and I mainly used a whiteboard and pen to go through one or two of the questions they were stumped on. Using text books is something I did when at school and I believe they work well as long as the initial teaching has been completed. The questions were relevant for the level this class were working towards.

Year 5  
Science: I can investigate the use of various soundproofing materials
In the afternoon I was able to sink my teeth into a Science project for the first time in any of my observations. As the 'I can' suggests, the classroom planned for an experiment, which materials will cancel out the sound of a marble dropping into a pot.
Vibrations can be absorbed into some materials so that little or no sound is heard. These materials are called sound insulators.
Teaching and knowledge: Firstly a group discussion was led by the teacher to think about what can block out sound. She sent a pupil out of the classroom and asked him to put his hand up when he could hear her voice. It wasn't a thick door plus there was a gap all around to allow air to ventilate the room. Starting quietly she slowly raised her voice and it wasn't long until he put his hand up.
Next she asked another pupil to go into a walk into a (fire-proof door) cupboard, which closes tightly and has a plastic lining to seal the door. The pupil had to knock on the door this time when they could hear her voice and it took a while longer to do so.
The theory behind this is that sound travels easily through glass and air on the first door, plus the rubber seal and thick door to the cupboard blocks sound-waves from travelling so easily.
Planning: The class were asked to plan the sound-proof experiment in their books, then join up in small groups to chose the best idea. Materials to chose from included; bubble wrap, cotton wool, tissue, shredded paper, foam rubber blocks, wooden blocks, plastic blocks, and polystyrene.
Observation: Beakers were handed out to each group and a marble. The group I worked with tried out bubble wrap, cotton wool and the foam rubber blocks. Using each piece of material, the same person was chosen to drop the marble and it was done so at different heights.
Having the same person drop the marble, made the test fair and the only variables were the height and material. Every time the marble was dropped, one of the students recorded the loudness of the sound - a decibel meter (which measures the loudness of sound)wasn't available so it was a rough estimate of how loud - silent, quiet, average, louder and loud.
Analysis and Evaluation: This was completed on another day, but from what I observed the higher the marble was dropped would cause it to be louder, plus the cotton wool would also cause it to be loud if the base wasn't covered enough.

Tuesday 12th November
The Year 3 teacher showed the class the Flanders Fields poem (see last weeks observation for details), and a Dr Who clip, which had elements of a world war battle.
Literacy: I can create an acrostic poem using the appropriate topic
Afterwards the class were handed out different levels of acrostic poems ranging from 'Poppy' to 'Remembrance Day'. I had a group with 'Remember' and lines included; Rest in peace, Everyone who gave their lives, Men and children who fought for their country, Eating rations on the battlefield, Making sure not to forget those who died, Buried with a white cross, Each with their own story to tell, Remembrance...
This went onto a cleverly designed sheet of A4, with poppies decorated as a border- this I will Remember (see what I did there) for 11.11.14

Numeracy: Minute Maths by Andrew Brodie was up first. He is one of the best selling authors of educational children's books. The teacher had chosen level specific questions and asked me to read out a separate set to 3 of the tables. Questions included; addition, subtraction, fractions and multiplication.
Afterwards I was given another group to go through a recent mock test paper. I used a whiteboard and asked the children to give me any questions they needed some extra guidance with.

Literacy Tip: The 5 W's and H Rap. Who, what, where, when, why and how.
Who, What
Who, What, Where
Who, What, Where, When, Why..... How
Also 5 bums (W's)  on a set Rugby posts (H)  












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