The Fifty-first republic - twice weekly tests and wear masks at all time till Easter

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

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Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation. Do not sit on the chairs and wear a mask.

www.thereaderteacher.com/year6

Does this help MrsAD. There’s also a book match on the same site that gives you lists based on authors or books you’ve already read.

Wonder by Palacio - the book everyone should read.

That and others here Altho some are fantasy:

www.theschoolrun.com/best-books-for-eleven-year-olds

(There are dozens of lists like this if you google. Of course I understand you'd rather have personal recommendations though!) will think of some more. How gritty does she like her contemporary fiction? Is she "girly" or not? Can she cope with stories set in, rather than written in, the past?

I really enjoyed reading There’s A Boy In The Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar and my class at the time found it very funny.

Kids don't see why Goodnight Mr Tom is so dreadfully sad. This is possibly a good thing. I think it's horrible actually, really horrible. Possibly similar to the way I could NOT read A Thousand Splendid Suns even though I absolutely loved Kite Runner.

Just had to read a chapter of War Horse to my 9 year old (because the Teams video of his class teacher reading it wouldn’t work today) and could barely get to the end of it - had to keep pausing to regain my composure - then I came on here and am much relieved to discover it is not just me! Feeling much relieved that work me doesn’t have to read anything too moving!!

Gaargh! Dd (5) has spiked 39.9 degree temp. We're obviously now stuck self-isolating

Re Nick Gibbs - have said to oh for a while now that whilst Gove and Williamson make the headlines and draw all the fire, I think Gibbs is actually quietly orchestrating a lot of it behind the scenes.

We've actually read Wonder, which we did enjoy. It inspired some lovely, thoughtful conversations which was good. She can cope with books set in the past. She loved the Hetty Feather series by Jacqueline Wilson for example. It's old fashioned phrasing that seems to turn her off. She's never got on with any Enid Bottom or similar things. Not girly in her reading choices, she likes gritty, real life problems.
I'll have a look at the lists and see what we think she might enjoy. Thank you all for your recommendations.

Some books for MsAwesomeDragon dd:

How To Look For a Lost Dog - Ann M Martin
Cloud Boy - Marcia Williams
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNichol is amazing!
The Boy at the Back of the Class - Onjali Q Rauf

Anything by Katya Balen
Anything by Katherine Rundell - I love Wolf Wilder
If she likes animals - Sam Angus
If she likes murder mystery - Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike series

Chris Riddell is brilliant , in my opinion. The Edge Chronicles are great - but maybe too fantasy.

The Boy at the Back of the Class might be right up her street.

Oranges in No Man's Land and anything else by Elizabeth Laird
All of Lara Williamson
Warrior Boy by Virginia Clay
Emma Carroll if she likes history

Mahler 5
Shostakovich 5
Brahms 2

I'll get me coat 😂

Ah this is making me want to teach English! I offered to read my Y8 tutor group a class book during tutor time, and they were not keen on the idea at all, which made me a bit sad

@CarrieBlue

Physics teacher with physics degree here (and physics, not astrophysics or applied physics or physics with computing....). One other physics qualified physics teacher and a maths teacher with physics degree at our school (v.small, only 3 fte science teachers). I’ve never taught with non-physics physics teachers either. Sadly, I seem to teach bucket loads of biology which is awful

We had a wonderfully 'dry' Physics teacher who called Biology, 'the colouring in one' I hated teaching Biology because it was like a whole other language - so much vocab for them to remember and so much describing of processes and very little in the way of practicals and everyone seemed to find it hard and boring.

I used to frequently be very surprised by some kids who were usually rubbish at Science just 'getting' physics - like it clicked with them. The other kids around them would be surprised too.

We have being read to as part of literacy in form and most kids love it.
I actually read the whole of The Secret Scripture to my y13 lit class because they wouldn't take turns.... they like being read to!

I've read the Edge chronicles MrsH and I really enjoyed them, but she turns her nose up. I'm making a list and will probably then have to edit quite heavily as it'll end up costing loads. I'll see what we can get hold of from the library.

@9pmcouchnaps

Ah this is making me want to teach English! I offered to read my Y8 tutor group a class book during tutor time, and they were not keen on the idea at all, which made me a bit sad

Don't suggest it - just do it!

A. F. Harrold is MARVELOUS and all the books are utterly wonderful. Knock Palacio out of the park. The Imaginary, The Afterwards, and A Song From Somewhere else are beautiful,lyrical, wonderfully illustrated by Emily Gravett but still great year5/ 6 plus books. They address huge issues with a light touch.
My 13 year old DD read them in year 5 and 6 and although she has abandoned other writers (bye J Wilson!) and moved onto terribly scandous crime, death, suffering and sci-fi (she is truly my child), she keeps these and every now and then I see one by her bed.

For a tear-jerker there's, "A Day No Pigs Would Die". I'm 45 years old and still love a good coming of age novel. That was the genre I wanted to write when I was younger.

And there is death, abandonment and bullying in them. But beautifully written without being schmaltzy.

My form this year are really interested in books. I did a quiz in form time today for world book Day (I know that's tomorrow but we aren't doing form time every day), and between them they managed to answer every question, even the ones I thought were relatively obscure. They got a free book each just before Christmas from BookBuzz (I know nothing about them, other than they gave all our years 7&8 a free book) and I've never seen a whole class get so excited about a book. I usually have one or two bookworms, but this was all 27 of them. I'm going to suggest that we have a form book when we go back, it would be nice to just enjoy a story together. I love books, which always seems to surprise the kids. They think maths teachers don't read for some reason.

We're reading to our tutor groups as part of the literacy drive, but I can say year 8 seem to be enjoying War of the Worlds so far, they're supposed to learn the vocabulary first but it seems like it's a bit much.

I will never forget reading " The Pigman" in school. Paul Zindel was the first teen writer I loved. Z for Zachariah and Brother in the Land got me into sci-fi.

@SoFranCisco, a few years ago I introduced "Kensuke's Kingdom" by Morpurgo to my year 6 and one kid yelled out "Don't miss, because the animal will die!" They all die in his books.

As a child Black Beauty and Charlotte's Web always made me cry. Still do!!

@MsAwesomeDragon my 11yo enjoyed the Andy Sheppard "the boy who grew dragons" series. He also howled laughing at the Terry Pratchett books for kids: carpet people, dragons and crumbling castle etc.

They think maths teachers don't read for some reason
Don't they just do sums for fun??
Most of the tutors have really taken to reading to their forms. One was really nervous because she's dyslexic (it's not compulsory reading aloud!) but the kids have responded well to it. It's made reading seem doable.
And sharing story is lovely. I'd love someone to read to me.