General

It is time for us to climb to the highest point of Badger Towers and get ready to shout out about two very new and very exciting series due out in January 2016.

We teach children and young adults to never judge a book by its cover. Well for one blog only you can throw that rule away and treat your eyes to these visual delights…

Every October in the UK we take time to observe, respect and promote knowledge of black history, heritage and culture. We pay tribute to those historic figures from the world of politics and human rights as well as celebrating more contemporary figures from the world of popular culture who have embraced those values and set themselves out as role models for the next generation.

Young adult literature (YAL) is an ever-growing, hugely popular genre that plays an immensely important part in teenage lives and thus, in school libraries. The imaginative storylines combined with the exploration of emotions that feature in our everyday lives has meant that YAL is a fantastic tool to discover the complex, and occasionally daunting, world that we live in.

“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”
― Mr Gradgrind, Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The theory behind problem solving in Maths lessons is twofold. First, so that pupils understand why Maths is fun and useful in the real world i.e. to solve problems. Secondly, to encourage pupils to apply the skills they’ve learnt to resolve various maths problems without necessarily telling them which skill to use.

The teenage years are such a vibrant and vivid time in your life. Adventure, friendships, self-discovery are all there in spades, but there’s frustration too, impatience and a strong desire to be understood… (Teenage fiction allows readers to) be inspired by tales of self-discovery, run the rocky road of first romance, battle big issues in mysterious worlds, beat the bleak future of dystopian regimes, or laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it all.

Laughing is good for you. Everybody knows that. But comic writing does more than make us laugh. It possesses the ability to lower our barriers – to ‘break the ice’, so to speak. For reluctant readers, this is key. Their apathy and trepidation towards reading can be dispelled by the ease and informality of comic fiction, making them feel comfortable and reinforcing the idea that reading can be a pain-free experience – even a fun one!

Now that levels have essentially gone, teachers are looking for alternative approaches to assessing their students. The Level Ladder was a popular way to engage with national curriculum levels in the context of stimulating classroom tasks. Without a replacement to the national curriculum levels, schools and teachers have been left to develop their own assessment model. This is where the ACE Learning Ladders, developed for Key Stage 3 science lessons, can be used effectively to support assessment, feedback and improvement in the new curriculum.

We are already in February! Where did January go? Where did 2014 go for that matter? It seems that the New Year is already running away with us and I quite honestly don’t feel as though I’ve put the previous busy year behind me yet. A constant reminder quite literally is the tower of books at home that I still wish to read. Then there is the new pile in the office that is already a health and safety accident in the making and the laptop that is creaking and groaning under the weight of new digital manuscripts filling up the network space here at HQ.

The practice of gender branding has been widespread for a long time. Indeed, most of us will have been familiar with it for most of our lives. Is it a useful and focused method of reaching a specific audience, or does it restrict the varied interests of the individual?