Teaching primary science is difficult enough; teaching the teachers can be even harder Help is at hand with this video and accompanying booklet. Stuck on how to help a student write a good lesson plan? And what to say when it hasn’t gone quite as expected? These are the kind of dilemmas Mentoring in Primary Science sets out to answer. It is professionally filmed in real classrooms with a teacher and student who look like normal people, not superhumans.

It takes mentors through the topics they should be covering with students and what should be in their plans - it even captures the essence of a normal primary science lesson.

The supporting book gives examples of weak, average and good plans, useful for both the student and the mentor. They are supported by discussion sheets with invaluable questions that mentors should ask of all students’ plans and lessons. Each lesson plan is accompanied by a set of notes illustrating helpful comments, such as “How does the work relate to the main ideas?”. Finally, it provides a set of photocopiable discussion sheets that can be used to discuss students’ plans.

This is an essential resource for anyone who is engaged in mentoring.

Jonathan Osborne issenior science education lecturer, King’s College London