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Welcome to the Schofield & Sims blog, featuring news, information and advice about primary education in the UK.

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Fidelity vs. Flexibility: striking the right balance in your phonics programme

17 July 2024

Fidelity vs. Flexibility: striking the right balance in your phonics programme

As many schools move towards adopting a systematic synthetic phonics programme, we unpick the challenges of balancing fidelity to a phonics programme with the needs of a diverse classroom.

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A four-step guide to reusing your existing phonics books

20 June 2024

A four-step guide to reusing your existing phonics books

Choosing a new systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme doesn’t mean clearing out all of your existing phonics books. More often than not, your decodable books, flashcards and other materials can be reused after an audit against your new phonics teaching progression. In this guide, we explain how you can save these resources and your budget.

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Newly-matched readers for Red Rose Letters and Sounds schools

28 March 2024

Newly-matched readers for Red Rose Letters and Sounds schools

Over 100 decodable phonics readers from the My Letters and Sounds phonics readers have been aligned to the Red Rose Letters and Sounds teaching progression, providing schools with a wide choice of fiction and non-fiction stories to use at home and in the classroom.

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How the four P checks can help your pupils master handwriting

22 January 2024

How the four P checks can help your pupils master handwriting

Handwriting is a complex skill for children to learn. The physical nature of it can lead to some children taking longer to develop fine motor skills than others, making the teaching of handwriting a challenge. Problems with handwriting often stem from the physical side of writing, but these can be limited by laying secure foundations and instilling good habits early on.

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How to set impactful primary school homework

01 December 2023

How to set impactful primary school homework

In this blog post, we explore how manageable homework tasks can nurture positive mindsets, develop good habits and reinforce the practice of basic skills learnt at school.

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SATs: making the most of the home advantage

30 November 2023

SATs: making the most of the home advantage

In this blog post, we delve into the connection between passionate football fans and effective parental engagement. We’ll uncover how schools can leverage a ‘home advantage’ and outline what parents need to support their children.

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Enhance your phonics library with 10 brand-new readers

15 September 2023

Enhance your phonics library with 10 brand-new readers

Arriving this autumn, 10 new Phase Two decodable books will provide some much-needed additional coverage of GPCs in the first nine weeks of phonics teaching.

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My Letters and Sounds receives DfE approval

23 June 2022

My Letters and Sounds receives DfE approval

Our brand-new phonics programme, My Letters and Sounds, joins the shortlist of SSP teaching programmes that are approved by the Department for Education.

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Survey reveals impact of pandemic on young children’s handwriting

28 June 2021

Survey reveals impact of pandemic on young children’s handwriting

We reveal the areas of handwriting that most concern teachers, and Michelle van Rooyen, an occupational therapist with a special interest in handwriting, shares her thoughts on the survey findings.

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Unlocking handwriting with the WriteWell programme

25 June 2021

Unlocking handwriting with the WriteWell programme

Help every child to achieve clear, confident and speedy joined handwriting with WriteWell, a complete course designed to guide children from their first steps in mark-making towards the development of secure, fluent and comfortable joined handwriting.

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2020 Catalogue

07 January 2020

2020 Catalogue

Discover the Schofield & Sims 2020 Catalogue, brimming with inspiring new resources to build children’s core maths and English skills and prepare them for the challenges of secondary school.

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One to One Maths and the value of peer mentoring

08 February 2016

One to One Maths and the value of peer mentoring

One to One Maths is an innovative peer-mentoring programme which works jointly with prisons and educational staff to encourage and empower prisoners with good numeracy skills to mentor prisoners who lack basic numerical ability.

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Schofield & Sims partners with Forward Arts Foundation for National Poetry Day

23 July 2015

Schofield & Sims partners with Forward Arts Foundation for National Poetry Day

To celebrate National Poetry Day, Schofield & Sims author and poet Celia Warren has created a free assembly plan for schools to adapt and enjoy, on behalf of Forward Arts Foundation.

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Updated reading records for the new National Curriculum

10 July 2015

Updated reading records for the new National Curriculum

Key features of the revised reading records include more space for adults’ comments, book review templates and phonics, spelling and vocabulary checklists linked to the new programmes of study for English.

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Schofield & Sims partners with Springboard for Children

25 March 2015

Schofield & Sims partners with Springboard for Children

Schofield & Sims is pleased to announce a new partnership with Springboard for Children, a charity providing one-to-one, multi-sensory literacy teaching for children and young people who are struggling to learn to read, write, speak and listen.

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National Poetry Day collaborative resource

02 October 2014

National Poetry Day collaborative resource

To celebrate National Poetry Day Schofield & Sims has contributed to a free collaborative resource on behalf of Forward Arts Foundation on this year's National Poetry Day theme of 'Remember'.

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Teach Primary Sound Phonics review

25 March 2014

Teach Primary Sound Phonics review

High praise for Schofield & Sims Sound Phonics in review by John Dabell for Teach Primary magazine.

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Free poetry resource for Shakespeare Week

18 March 2014

Free poetry resource for Shakespeare Week

To mark the first ever Shakespeare Week, we’ve uploaded a FREE poetry resource on one of Shakespeare’s most notable works, his Eighteenth Sonnet.

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National Curriculum 2014

13 January 2014

National Curriculum 2014

With curriculum change just around the corner, Schofield & Sims has a number of new resources available that fully meet the requirements of the 2014 primary curriculum. Our editorial teams are also hard at work revising popular existing titles to reflect changes in content and the removal of levels.

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New lower school price for dictionaries

08 January 2014

New lower school price for dictionaries

With the importance of using dictionaries for checking both the meaning and spelling of words emphasised in the new National Curriculum, the Schofield & Sims dictionaries are now available at a new lower price for school orders.

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Schofield & Sims to publish revised Maths Progress Papers

17 June 2013

Schofield & Sims to publish revised Maths Progress Papers

Due to an unprecedented level of demand for Schofield & Sims Maths Progress Papers, which were taken out of print in 2000, we are pleased to announce that a revised edition of this series will be available from February 2014.

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Teach Primary review of A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen

02 May 2013

Teach Primary review of A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen

A new review of the A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen poetry anthology and Teacher’s Guide has been featured on the Teach Primary website.

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50% match funding available - on Schofield & Sims Sound Phonics

12 January 2012

50% match funding available - on Schofield & Sims Sound Phonics

Sound Phonics is the Schofield & Sims phonics resource for the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, fully compatible with Letters and Sounds and with any incremental phonics programme. We are now offering all UK schools 50 per cent match funding on the retail price of every Sound Phonics book purchased.

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Super-jumbo size British History Timeline poster now available!

05 May 2011

This huge wall chart is a highly visible and easily legible 84 x 119cm - so the key timeline dates and the sequence of historical events are easy to see, even from the other side of the classroom.

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