Holidays give you a chance to gain some distance from everyday working life - to put things into proportion - even to think about what could be done differently.
So it’s appropriate that the theme running through this issue of TES Primary is alternatives. First, there’s a piece on Birmingham’s Children’s University (page10), a ground-breaking extra-curricular scheme which finds new ways of developing children’s talents and boosting their enthusiasm for learning.
Meanwhile, the eight-page teaching project examines alternative technology (pages 19 to 26) - low-tech ways to meet the needsof people from around the world. It could help your pupils think about how to save scarce resources in the future.
Retired head Gerald Haigh muses on alternative structures for the school year (page 18), while teacher Sue Coley believes it is possible to think about teaching without worrying about paperwork and crossing the threshold (page 35). On a SAT-day afternoon, she writes, she and her class “went to a brook for our geography work. We identified a meander and saw some erosion and deposition, but more importantly we had a lovely walk.”
Diane Hofkins, Editor TES Primary
