I’ve always felt bored by taking the register. Even when I varied the language from French to Polish it still seemed a tedious waste of five or 10 minutes of the day. To brighten things up I began asking the children to choose a word of key vocabulary from one of the displays around the class and to answer with their word when I called out their name. Instead of the usual “Good morning, Mr Thomas”, I was greeted by scientific terms dealing with the digestive system (“Oesophagus, Mr Thomas”, “Rectum, Mr Thomas”); historical facts about Vikings (“Longship, Mr Thomas”, “Valhalla, Mr Thomas”); and the names of Hindu gods and goddesses from Shiva to Ganesh.

This twice-daily activity provided a great opportunity for revision, improving the children’s memory skills and helping them to rehearse pronunciation of unusual and tricky words. I extended this to include the week’s numeracy and literacy key vocabulary, from lists of connectives and adjectives or the key features of a piece of persuasive writing to the names of shapes or the different ways of measuring capacity, length or weight.

LUKE THOMAS

Luke Thomas, Wallisdean Junior School, Hampshire