This is such a random question, but has anyone bought a portable bubble machine for their playground that they are really happy with?

That's my last day as Assistant Headteacher done, as I'm pleased and excited to say that after half term I'll be stepping up to Deputy Headteacher. But, for now, bring on a week off!

Having already finished Holes with Y6, we are now reading Front Desk by Kelly Yang. My first time reading it with a class, so planning WCR as I go, but my reading lessons for this, plus loads of lessons over last 3 years are in here, for free of course. t.co/MMLoHlkeO2

I put this on every year, but as Year 6 move into addition and subtraction this week, I can't wait to crack the old cryptarithms out. So much rich discussion and gives you loads of opportunities to model proper problem solving and recording and organisation of ideas.

From someone who's been kicking around teaching for a while now, it may be useful to know that pretty much every teacher going will be planning excellent, ambitious lessons for their new class and promptly completing about 40-60% of what they intended. It's so normal early on.

You don't need to do any sort of test in the first week(s) as a 'baseline' - of course they're gonna do better later in the year when you've actually taught them things.

Got myself set up for the new crew today. Forever grateful for this much natural light......even though for some reason the lights are on here....which they pretty much never are.

Love the holidays so much, but also excited to be back next week. The scaries have thankfully never been a thing for me. Excited to have my new class, who are lovely. Excited to be leading on implementing OPAL and a new maths scheme, which I wrote. Just looking forward to it!

You can't move an inch in most schools without banging into an Allan Ahlberg book - and for good reason. What a witty, imaginative, creative powerhouse of a writer. This is my personal favourite. He'll be missed.

As the year draws to a close, I'm sharing my Y6 reading folder (though there are random bits in like some Y2 lessons) for free, which is full of Y6 whole class reading lessons. drive.google.com/drive/folder... Plus my (very long) blog on how we teach it: mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

Couple of tweaks for various reasons, but got our class novels for next year locked down. Y3, then 4, then 5 and then 6.

My quick easy move up morning idea is to just spend the morning teaching tiny tasters of the curriculum - so I'll read the start of Holes, do some evolution & heart work, a touch of algebra, bit of art etc then do a quiz about it at the end and spend plenty of time chatting to them.

Does anyone know where I can find our historic GLD? I can’t see it on the DFE portal where everything else is.

This week we started a project in school to commit to making play and play time as important a part of the curriculum in our school as english, maths, science etc. It's a really exciting project to be leading on and something so different from what I've done in leadership so far.

One of the biggest Eurovision injustices of all time is that we didn't send Darius Danesh (RIP) with Colourblind. We'd have absolutely walked it.

SATs this week. Thinking fondly back to 2018, when the government sent us the KS2 spelling SATs for Year 6, with this form to confirm we had taken delivery of the correct amount.

I am still on the hunt for any great Year 6 appropriate books that do not feature any family death, especially parental. Please help a guy out - even if it's to plug your own book!

Hi - just a reminder I run a book shop, supplying books to schools, with a great discount, especially on class sets, and a specialism in providing diverse and inclusive books. Please do email me any time to talk about ordering! [email protected]

Today is the 20th anniversary of one of the best albums ever. I will be listening to it loudly.

If it's helpful, even though you're (probably) on holidays, I am resharing the very long blog I wrote about how we teach Whole Class Reading at our school. We have really fluent children who love reading and I've tried to break it down as much as possible. mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

@lynnekelly.bsky.social Hi - is there any parental or family death in Song For A Whale? I can't remember!

I know this is often asked, but I need two Year 6 class novels next year that do not allude to parental death whatsoever. Can anyone remember if the secret of haven point does? Was also thinking of can you feel the noise, which I’m fairly sure doesn’t.

Just found out there are no inverted commas in The Handmaid's Tale and therefore, sadly, Margaret must receive a grade of WTS.

If it's helpful, even though you're (probably) on holidays, I am resharing the very long blog I wrote about how we teach Whole Class Reading at our school. We have really fluent children who love reading and I've tried to break it down as much as possible. mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

I am often asked how to get boys into reading. I honestly don't think boys are different to anyone else. If you want them to love reading - JUST LET THEM READ THINGS THEY LOVE! Whatever those things might be, they are the things that make us all into readers. #literacy (Art: Bill Watterson)

Just cleared every inbox I own. Now no one please ever email me ever again. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Gave the Micro:Bits out this morning and told my class I'd programmed them to be maths assistants and if they whispered into it 'help me please tiny maths machine' and held both buttons down then it would scan their work and help them do it. Took them ages.

The main way to improve the reading sat would be to take the time element out of it. They can either read and understand it or they can’t. What’s an hour got to do with anything? Let them do it till they’re finished if you want to know if they can read.

A little bit in love with this incredible Y2 bundle from A New Chapter. My go-to place to order books. @mrboothy6.bsky.social never misses.👍

The girls are trampolining so I'm catching up on some reading, starting with this from @larryhayesauthor.bsky.social. WOW! This one doesn't let up at all. The scares come early and thick and fast from then on in. Absolutely loving it! Great choice by A New Chapter. @mrboothy6.bsky.social

Gotta love when this happens:

Me when i realised they'd changed CPOMS so that you can't just press 'next alert' if you've logged in without two factoring. I appreciate this is the most niche complaint ever.

First day back with the kids & my class were a dream. This morning we read about deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, so it only seemed right to head to forest school & use what we could find in nature to create musical compositions. Some great music & quite sunny! Lovely stuff.

Had some really interesting trauma and attachment training for INSET today. Favourite/most important mantra to take forward from it: Gentle on the child Firm on the boundary

Just a reminder as we go into a new term, that if you teach Y6 then you can access all of my reading lessons that I plan totally free, here - there are loads of them: drive.google.com/drive/folder... And you can read my blog on how we teach reading here: mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

Reading this writing based on The Selfish Giant today from one of my girls and it is just absolutely astonishing what some children can do. Ten years old. This is the best job in the world. Can't wait to read the rest of it.

World Book Day is approaching. Here are four books that I've had the whole school doing activities on from Reception to Year 6 before now. A lovely way to bring the whole school together.

Reading about ADHD with my class this morning at their request. It's something I have had a diagnosis of for nearly 30 years, and there are currently seven children diagnosed in my Year 6 class. Really looking forward to digging into some of these questions.

I have been doing one or two of these from MathsBot a day for a week or so now, as a prelude to starting percentages imminently. On the surface, great for percentages anyway, but the amount of chat around mental strategies and number relationships is unreal too.

If you’re ever looking for a picture book to get high quality writing out of, then The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is absolutely my top year 6 pick. A joy to read work like this.

Trying to make sense of the new OFSTED system.

Forgot to mention the other day that I finished this. It's superb. A lovely prequel to When The Sky Falls, but written so it also works well as a standalone. It's got a superb villain and brilliant main characters. Lent it to a boy who eats books and he's storming through it. @philearle.bsky.social

Went to see a school that have implemented OPAL playtimes today, and I am absolutely buzzing with ideas of how good our playtime can be. It's a project I'm really excited to lead on too, as it's quite different from anything I've led on/implemented before.

This weekend's job is to read this. Terrible fate, I'm sure you'll agree.

Finally got around to reading this from @mrboothy6.bsky.social worth a good read. Not a lot of information out there for upper primary reading lessons and this blog was really useful. mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

Good luck but I'm sure you won't need it. I've been to see you twice, fantastic every time. You have developed a clear, systematic and replicable approach - we love it!

I've got 26 teachers watching me teach whole class reading tomorrow, and I'm excited because we are knee deep in the incredible 'When The Sky Falls' and I get to dig into my favourite question of the whole book. Cannot recommend this book enough for Year 6.

Hello - I wrote a new blog about the teaching of whole class reading, which I haven't in a while. It's over 9000 words so quite a read, but I hope the comprehensive nature of it comes across as helpful, rather than patronising. Anyway - hope it's useful! mrboothy6.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/w...

I can think of some pupils which will love this book! When Skylar and best friend Dana accept a ride in Nana's new tuktuk they don't expect to travel through time nor to accidentally kidnap ancient Egyptian Pharaoh king Tut and turn him into a K-pop sensation! Suitable for ages 9-11. #booksky

If I could blanket ban a question from education it would be 'how can I adapt this lesson for my SEND children?' as though that is just a single sized bubble of children who can't access work. SEND is not synonymous with an inability to achieve. We need better shared language.