A series of L-shaped hexagons, drawn in Word, for children to work out the area and perimeter of the shapes. Two sheets, for easier / harder questions.

A set of 9 ultra-close-up, striking colour photographs of different parts of animals (for example, a spider's silk spinners; a mosquito's eyes), along with display signs and an answer sheet. I've used these on a classroom wall (where children stick up Post-it notes with their guesses) or website / blog (where they post answers online), and it always generates lots of interest, speculation and debate. Photos are in .jpg format for printing or use online, the choice is yours.

Every New National Curriculum statement for English for years 1 - 6 (includes Speaking & Listening, Reading, Writing Composition, Handwriting, GPS), sorted into 6 spreadsheet pages, set up to be printed onto A3 or A4 sheets. Each statement can be highlighted left to right to show progress along the line, along a sliding scale through: commencing // developing // secure // advanced // deep [See also my Assessment without levels grids, Maths]

Every New National Curriculum statement for Maths for years 1 - 6, sorted into 6 spreadsheet pages, set up to be printed onto A3 or A4 sheets. Each statement can be highlighted left to right to show progress along the line, along a sliding scale through: commencing // developing // secure // advanced // deep [See also my Assessment without levels grids, English]

A key for marking, to make the marking of writing more interactive. A set of symbols used my teachers, and the poster of symbols for the classroom wall, and small sheet version for we use on the back of the children's writing target cards) If you combine this with highlighting some of these in pink highlighter pen and the children responding in their own pink pen, you have a system where the children are eager to respond to comments written by their teacher that has transformed marking and response to marking in my school. [See also my 'Think Pink in Maths' resource for a way to make Maths marking more interactive.]

A week-long unit of Maths work, where children have to work with data, area, perimeter, & number, and use & apply all of those to being creative, designing a zoo with as many different animals as possible (housed in sufficient space to meet varying criteria), with pedestrian access to all enclosures but no wasted space. Based around the 'Zoo Tycoon' video game, but made much more mathematical. I've included a SmartBoard to introduce it, a customisable spreadsheet with the criteria, a linked homework with some word problems based on the zoo, and even a few WAGOLL photos of year 5/6 work (What A Good One Looks Like). This is perfect for the last week of term before Xmas, Easter, or a post-SATs year 6 week of fun maths. Little prizes for the best designs go down well. The unit is ready to use. All you need is some 1cm squared A4 paper.

How to get children responding to and acting on marking? Following an review that showed our Maths marking needed to be improved, I (as Maths subject leader) created a system called 'Think Pink' in which teachers highlight part of their marking in pink highlighter (something specific - a question, some corrections, an extension, an explanation) and the child responds when their book is returned in pink pen. We invested in a box of pink pens for each class, and the children love them and are eager to respond. It has been in use for 18 months now, has been extended to English books and other subjects, and taken and used by other schools in our trust (including middle schools and secondary, not just primary). It was praised by Ofsted in a recent inspection as an example of best practice in interactive marking. I've included final pdf files that you can print and use it exactly as they are, or Word versions that you can customise, add your school logo, and distribute exactly as you want it.

Colour pictures of trees, leaves and fruit found in the UK. Could be used as the source of a classification key from those found on a walk.

A sequence of 5 lesson prompts for delivering 5 weeks of Philosophy for Children (P4C) exploring issues of freedom, liberty & free will. Sequence starts with an animal forced to perform in the circus; then 2 very different types of 'working' animal (which will challenge children's perceptions of different animals being 'worth' different amounts); from that into human freedom via slavery & imprisonment. My year 6 group loved these, and came up with some fascinating ideas and views from these prompts, when delivered in this order over 5 weeks.

Resource using Numicon to identify perimeters, & look at relationship between area and perimeter. (Needs a tray of Numicon for best results).

Homework or worksheet on equivalent fractions, fractions of amounts, etc. Easier & harder versions available.

2 Excel spreadsheets containing grids with written instructions for drawing shapes. Can be printed A3 or A4, and the layout adapted to different requirements. Examples (easier): Draw a pentagon with one line of symmetry. Examples (harder): Draw a pentagon with just one acute angle.

Year 5/6 English NNC. Homework (or class writing task) using a humorous comic strip as a prompt for writing a short story where every sentence starts with a fronted adverbial. Can be customised, with more adverbial suggestions added or all suggestions removed for HA / LA groups.

A SmartBoard slide show and Word collection of difficult to find images and some research notes / dates about the Royal Menagerie zoo, a collection of animals kept (often in poor conditions) at the Tower of London from 1210 to 1832. Liven up some of the duller areas of the new History curriculum (Tudors?), or link to themed animals work / PHSE. Would your children be interested to know that ... ... a polar bear was taken to fish for its dinner in the Thames attached to a long rope. ... lions would roam loose inside the outer walls of the Tower. ... a room was set aside as 'monkey school' where visitors would pay to sit inside with monkeys loose all around them. Lots of info, hours of research, but I haven't written a plan for this as there is so much you can do with it all - use it however it works with your class.

A humorous re-write of the story / pantomime of Cinderella, designed to be performed in under 5 minutes. Adaptable / editable Word document, so you can make your own changes & add your own children to the attached cast list. Ideal for class assembly, this has gone down well at year 6 leavers’ assemblies. Great prompt for more able writers to write their own humorous ‘in 5 minutes’ versions of other well-known stories / pantomimes. To perform, it has 9 speaking parts, plus around a dozen non-speaking / crew / sound effect parts. If you liked this, search and download one of my other ‘in 5 minutes’ scripts. Cinderella in 5 minutes Goldilocks and the Three Bears in 5 minutes

Spreadsheet format for mid-year reporting to parents, for years 1 - 6. Simple to complete (teachers just complete yellow boxes; the rest can be locked and password protected to prevent errors), it reports how the child is progressing at a mid-year point against the expectations of the new National Curriculum in Maths, Reading & Writing, as well as boxes for effort / behaviour, a space to describe interventions, and an editable box for a short personal comment. Includes a box for parent feedback and an invite to an upcoming parents' evening (which can be edited or removed, as required).

For Maths subject leaders, a fully customisable grid for monitoring coverage of the new National Curriculum in Maths, from year R to year 6. All NNC statements listed in year group tabs, with 3 columns to show date of coverage. See the whole year's objectives on one A3 sheet to help to plan a rational sequence of teaching (for example, in year 6, division -> fractions -> ratio & proportion). Get evidence of where in the year the different aspects of maths were taught, or use for long-term planning. This 7-page spreadsheet can be fully customised (for example, change a 3-term to a 6-term year) to your needs, or even adapted into an assessment grid for gap analysis; all the leg-work of turning the NNC into year group pages has been done.

Test gap analysis grid for any GPS paper 1 short answer SAT test (/50 marks). It auto sums scores per child, and success rate for each question, leading straight from a practice test to gap analysis; identify which questions your class / groups are weakest at, and what each child's priorities are, to direct revision. Can be easily modified for any future GPS test, including the NNC 2016 GPS sample paper 1.

NEW for summer 2016. Grid for assessing the end of KS2 writing statements based on the 'Interim teacher assessment frameworks' document, and the grids within the '2016 teacher assessment exemplification: end of key stage 2, English writing' documents. Developed in conjunction with writing moderators. Perfect for year 6 teachers assessing writing to the new curriculum for the first time this year, this provides evidence across a range of genre. Based closely on the DfE interim assessment documents, these are blank versions of the ticked grids in the exemplification materials, saving you the trouble of extracting the PDF files into Excel grids and removing all the ticks. Print one sheet per child in A3, and date / title written work for simple cross-referencing. Be prepared for internal and external moderation by providing evidence of the standards in the way local authority moderators will be using.

Some questions (text and research based) on a newspaper story reporting on the death of Nelson Mandela.