Best KS2 books for trainee teacher?

[ColdTeaAgain]

DP is a trainee primary teacher (PGCE) and I think he's getting a bit overwhelmed atm. Hyper 10 month old who's not too fussed about sleep and and very long drive to placement are not helping! He says he thinks it would help if he had a good collection of books to help him with planning and especially his own revision so he can feel more confident that he knows all the subjects really well.

So I thought I'd ask mumsnet - what are your recommendations? Particularly Key Stage 2 as that's what he is doing this term. Much appreciated :)

If he hasn't seen any of the horrible histories TV series, he should get on it. It is genius watching anyway, and a short clip goes a long way in a lesson (their songs are really memorable).

Where does he feel his gaps are? What is he struggling with most? As my Amazon account knows, it's possibly to spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds on books which look like they should be useful, but end up living on the shelf. Then something picked up cheap as an after thought turns out to be worth its weight in gold. I have a Billy bookcase packed with the books I've bought for school but can count on my hands the ones I use regularly.

I think we need some more information before making recommendations!!

Great suggestion OldRuin, I'll tell him :)

Yes toomuch wasting money on books is one of his worries, the uni gave him a HUGE reading list, you couldn't possibly look at them all yet alone buy them! A few suggestions of the best one would of been far better!

I think he is feeling least confident with English atm. He is pretty comfortable with maths and science but revision is always good!

He needs to find out from his mentor (if he doesn't already know) what he will be teaching next term (this changes from school to school). If he is going to be doing myths and legends, for example, there is no point brushing up his poetry.

Does he school teach with a topic/theme undercutting most lessons? This will impact how much interaction he has with the topic (if that makes sense?). You need to know lots more about Romans, for example, if you have to have Roman inspired maths and English lessons, than if you are just doing history once a week.

Yes they do themed lessons, next term is apparently going to be space and anglo-saxons so I'm guessing they try and tie it in with English, art etc?

He seems worried about his baseline knowledge mainly in English and some aspects of maths and science but he's so limited on spare time so some sort of go to guides for when he needs to look up something?

It feels like he is really loosing confidence in himself, I want to try and help him out somehow so any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Pie Corbett - talk in the classroom ( or something like that it's A4 with blue cover, comes with DVD)
Jackie Beere - The Perfect Ofsted Lesson

For free- look on YouTube/ TES for old videos made by Teachers TV.

Forget books, he needs to use the internet.

Primary resources is a good place to start. There are loads of teacher's blogs out there with fantastic ideas for lessons too.

The internet will be his biggest friend (and biggest time waster too!).

Also, although twinkl is mainly great for Early years resources, they do have some good powerpoints for KS2 topics that you can use. You'd have to become a paying member, but it's cheaper than a few books!

Also, his placement school will have books and resources and teaching schemes that he can use. He just needs to ask.

Oh yes, I agree videos made by teacher's tv, but tihngs have changed with what is regarded as an outstanding lesson now compared to when those teacher's tv clips were made.

If his baseline English is uncertain, this is a good reference book:
www.amazon.co.uk/Grammar-Teachers-John-Seely/dp/095534512X

Lazy Teacher's Handbook - loads of ideas for any key stage. Does he use twitter? There's a lot of resources etc available there as well as people who are willing to share ideas and so on.

Twitter is the best thing out follow teacher toolkit - just amazing and look to see who else follows them. Learnt more from twitter than anywhere and it's free!

Thanks for all the ideas everyone! If anyone has more feel free to post!

No not on Twitter, would never have thought of that but sounds like it might be worth him joining for the resources!