Pedagogy 3/3

Along with being a primary school teacher and leader, blogging is where this all started for Aidan. If it wasn't for his passion for writing and sharing his learning and experiences, he wouldn't be working as an education consultant with schools across the country today. Shared best practice should be available to all and here on the Aidan Severs Consulting blog you can get ideas for making a difference in your own school. The blog is also a great place to learn exactly the kind of work that Aidan can partner with your school on.

Beware The Reverse-Engineered Curriculum (or The Potential Pitfalls Of Retrieval Practice)

Aren't Knowledge Organisers brilliant? Isn't Retrieval Practice just the bees knees? As for Powerful Knowledge... sigh - the stuff dreams...

Learning

Aidan Severs

Dec 14, 20214 min read

Article Archive - Aidan Severs Consulting

Here you can find a collected list of most of the articles I (Aidan Severs) have written for other outlets, including TES, Teach Primary...

SATs

Aidan Severs

Dec 14, 20214 min read

What Should Adults Be Doing When Children Are Working?

Years ago I was told that I should stop buzzing around the room so much and that I should settle down and spend more time with groups –...

Learning

Aidan Severs

Dec 13, 202111 min read

Ditch The Lesson Plans; Try Learning Sequences

This article was first published in edited form in Issue 8 of HWRK Magazine . It's worth a look at that version too as it is presented...

Learning

Aidan Severs

Nov 30, 20216 min read

Flexible Lesson Design: A Model for Responsiveness and the Release of Responsibility

Flexible lesson design can often be difficult to grasp - let's face it, 30 children all with their own needs with only one or two members...

Planning

Aidan Severs

Nov 30, 20214 min read

Greater Depth: General Principles Of Challenge For Higher Prior Attaining Pupils

6 general principles to consider when thinking about how to challenge higher prior attaining pupils...

Learning

Aidan Severs

Nov 29, 202110 min read

What Impressions Do You Get... Answering 3-Mark Reading SATs Questions

Read my updated post about answering 3-mark questions which features questions types from the latest SATs: https://www.aidansevers.com/post/sats-2025-answering-3-mark-reading-sats-questions-an-update Check out my blog post '5 Ways To Help Children To Access The KS2 Reading SATs' here: https://www.aidansevers.com/post/5-ways-to-help-children-to-access-the-ks2-reading-sats For the resources, visit the links below: To find out more, read on: At the academy trust where I was a de

SATs

Aidan Severs

Nov 26, 20215 min read

PPA: It's Complicated

We are all quite glad when it rolls around again: that morning or afternoon where we really get the chance to take a break from the...

Pedagogy

Aidan Severs

Nov 24, 20214 min read

No-Quiz Retrieval Practice Techniques

Retrieval practice is not about regurgitating facts without any understanding of meaning or context.

Learning

Aidan Severs

Nov 16, 20216 min read

Using Mnemonics For Retrieval Practice

What are mnemonics? Well, according to Wikipedia it is 'is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval...

Pedagogy

Aidan Severs

Nov 16, 20215 min read

Whole Class Reading: Providing Challenge For Children Working At Greater Depth

With whole class reading increasing in popularity, one of the most asked questions is around the issue of catering to the needs of all learners. Recently, I tackled how to help lower prior attainers within the whole class reading session and promised at the end of that blog post to write this one. So here it is. To preface my suggestions I'd like to point out that this list is not at all exhaustive and what you do with the children in your class who are working at greater de

Greater Depth

Aidan Severs

Nov 12, 20218 min read

Whole Class Reading: Meeting The Needs of Lower Attainers

Perhaps the biggest worry for teachers when considering the switch from the guided reading carousel to whole class reading is how children of different 'abilities' will manage in the lessons. There are, however, various strategies a teacher can employ to support learners with different needs. You'll have noticed that above I enclosed the word abilities with inverted commas. The first strategy is for a teacher to alter their way of thinking about ability. One possible problem

Reading

Aidan Severs

Nov 12, 20216 min read

Getting Ready For The KS2 Reading Test

If you're here for the resources, then here are the links: However, if you have a little more time, have a read about the thought process that has gone into the resource creation. But, before you start reading my bit, I can't stress how important it is that you read Penny Slater's blog series of reflections on analysis of the 2019 reading test (which is the last SATs reading test that we have). It is in 4 parts and it has been the reading of these that has brought me to write

SATs

Aidan Severs

Nov 2, 20215 min read