The best-laid plans

31st May 2002, 1:00am

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The best-laid plans

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/best-laid-plans-0
Need a scheme in a hurry? Save time by looking on the Net, says Jim Merrett

many schemes of work for infants and juniors can be found on the Internet. These can provide ready-made programmes that to be used right away or they can be adapted to suit the needs of individual classes. In either case, their presence on the Net can save hours of preparation work.

BAGA (infantjunior material):

www.baga.co.ukawards2aw-01.htm

The British Gymnastic Award schemes are an exciting way to meet National Curriculum requirements. The schemes match progress to individual or group abilities and the structured approach enables children to complete each level fully before continuing on to the next.

Achievement is rewarded with certificates, badges, medals, and wall charts and personal achievement cards can be ordered for some of the levels. Following the scheme can lead to schools entering gymnastic competitions. The website explains the schemes in detail. Teachers of pre-school and early years children should select the Funfit option. Teachers of children above the age of five should follow the Proficiency 1-5 scheme. This moves on to Proficiency 2, which covers five skill areas, including dance, and encourages the development of dance routines.

Click Teaching (infantjunior):

www.clickteaching.com

This site is packed full of really good, practical resources for teachers. Although particularly noted for its worksheets, Clickteaching does offer some schemes of work. These include literacy schemes for all year groups and terms in juniors and also a history scheme about the Victorians.

English Resources (junior):

www.englishresources.co.uk

The steadily improving stock of primary resources on this site includes schemes of work on compound words and creative writing linked to the Ancient Greeks.

The increasing popularity of versions of Shakespeare adapted for children is reflected in the schemes on Macbeth and the bard’s sonnets, all downloadable from this site.

Galaxy (junior):

www.galaxy-h.gov.uk

The large quantity of graphic material on this site means it may take a while to load, but the content is good, covering the main areas of PHSE and citizenship. The bulk of the site consists of interactive sections for children with pages on schools, transport, recreation and home. The teachers’ pages provide the relevant links to National Curriculum statements and further background information.

Learn (junior):

www.learn.co.uk

Unusually, this site makes use both of its own materials and links to other sites as part of an overall scheme. Topic cards cover a variety of areas, such as decimals, fractions, money and symmetry. Key questions are provided with details of where the unit fits into the curriculum. Expectations for different abilities are listed and resource requirements provided. Opportunities for interactive online sessions, worksheets, out-of-school work and testing are given where appropriate, and prior learning is also displayed.

Literacy Hour (infantjunior): www.literacyhour.co.uk

This scheme covers language skills, and shared and guided reading. Curriculum objectives are provided, as are are lesson plans and notes. Children will enjoy using the Kids Centre, where they will find interactive sections mainly related to shared reading.

QCA (infantjunior): www.qca.org.uk

The QCA scheme should be available in all schools in its printed form but there may be times when you need it elsewhere, such as if you’re working from home. Fortunately, the scheme is also available on the web.

From the QCA home page, select 5-14 Education and you’ll find the schemes of work listed by age and subject. They can be viewed in Word or PDF format and printed. The schemes can also be found at www.standards. gov.uk.

Standards Site (infantjunior): www.standards.dfee.gov.ukliteracy

Select the National Literacy Strategy Framework options to reach the online version. The complete scheme is here, and you can download just one term of one year or the entire text. It is also possible to find planning sheets, activities and worksheets. For the numeracy strategy framework, just type numeracy in the address instead of literacy.

The Northern Grid for Learning (infantjunior): www.northerngrid.org

The Northern Grid has provided plenty of useful resources, particularly in the fields of literacy, numeracy, early years, special needs and ICT. The latter scheme of work, which is closely allied to the QCA scheme, has the benefit of being linked to additional lesson plans, lesson ideas for shorter, focused tasks and teacher assessment sheets.

Welltown (infant): www.welltown.gov.uk

An online interactive scheme covering the infant aspects of health, citizenship and the National Healthy School Standard.

The scheme links closely to National Curriculum requirements and references are listed in subject order. The activities for children are based on scenes at home and school, in the park and at the health centre.

The children will probably need help when reading some of thepassages.

Jim Merrett is a part-time junior teacher and education writer

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