Pango Blogs

Our understanding of the world and our place in it is largely shaped by history. We can look back and be inspired by past people’s innovation and tenacity and learn from their mistakes. As primary school teachers, it’s our responsibility to encourage a love of history in young minds and ensure it comes to life for them in the classroom. Teachers are already very short of time, so the best way to ensure your history lessons cover that national curriculum and inspire your pupils can be to use a primary history scheme of work.

According to the national curriculum, “A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.”

As the school year draws to a close and the weather becomes sunnier, teachers across the UK are getting ready for transition time - a special period where they bid farewell to their old class and welcome the new one. It’s a delicate time filled with emotion, excitement, and sometimes a little nervousness as we all step into unfamiliar territory.

What is the Ofsted Science Subject Report 2023? 

The Ofsted Science Subject Report was published by Ofsted in February 2023 and is based on evidence collected during routine Ofsted inspections. It ‘evaluates the common strengths and weaknesses of science in the schools inspected and considers the challenges that science faces’. The report also ‘identifies some significant strengths in school science education and recommends ways that school and subject leaders can ensure that all pupils leave school with an authentic understanding of science, as both a tradition of enquiry and a set of connected but distinct ideas that explain the world we live in’. 

The Easter break is behind us and we’re racing toward the end of the school year and the summer holidays. We’ve got one big hurdle to overcome before we can sit out in the sun and reflect on a year well-taught: SATs.

1.    Teach the History of International Women’s Day

Teaching the history of International Women’s Day is critical; without the background of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come, pupils are less likely to understand the importance of gender equality. Women's rights fact files and info sheets are great for giving pupils a background to gender equality, without overwhelming younger years with a complete history of events.

Science is an essential subject and one we all spend a lot of time teaching at the primary school level, but that doesn’t often mean that coming up with meaningful lesson plans that align with the KS2 Science Curriculum is easy. To teach lessons to your pupils that resonate and cover the curriculum in its entirety throughout the school year can require significant planning.

In recent years, the number of people immigrating to the UK has increased, and as a result, there are a growing number of children in UK schools who speak English as an Additional Language (EAL). In fact, latest figures show that 1 in 10 primary school pupils and 1 in 7 secondary school pupils are EAL learners (NAHT, 2018). This has created a new set of challenges for schools and educators as they try to meet the unique educational needs of EAL pupils.

Climate change and the environmental crisis we face are crucial topics to broach in our classrooms, but it has to be done carefully. While kids need to understand their need to play a part in bettering the world, it’s important not to scare them or make the situation appear hopeless; they must feel excited and empowered about the actions they can take to better the world.

Computers play an intrinsic role in all our lives; they’re necessary for almost all types of work, we use them during our downtime, and their role in our lives is only getting bigger. We use apps to organise our lives, to do our jobs, for reference, communication, and entertainment. In fact, it is hard to remember how society functioned before the computer revolution.