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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.
Case Study: Revolutionising Curriculum Delivery in KS2
Explore how a UK primary school transformed its KS2 curriculum delivery, emphasizing open-ended challenges, same-day interventions, and more
Aidan Severs
Nov 12, 20246 min read
SATs 2026: Answering 3-Mark Reading SATs Questions - An Update
Since I last wrote about helping children to answer 3-mark questions, the way those questions are asked has changed. Whilst much of the advice given in the previous blog post still stands (indeed I will be referring to it a lot in this one), it needs a little update. As part of this update, I have expanded the matching resource which can be downloaded here: Let's have a look at the 6 (2 per test) 3-mark questions from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 papers: 2024: 3-Mark Reading Quest
Aidan Severs
Nov 5, 20245 min read
Assessment: Why Should I Identify Children Working At Greater Depth In Foundation Subjects?
I recently wrote about how we might assess and identify children who are working at greater depth. Upon sharing the blog post , someone questioned: " Why would I want to identify greater depth children in foundation subjects?" Which is most definitely a fair question. We should query anything we do in schools, afterall time and all other resources are precious. I would never recommend that anyone do anything in a school without really understanding why they were doing it. Th
Aidan Severs
Oct 29, 20244 min read
Assessment: How Can I Identify Greater Depth Children In Foundation Subjects?
Uncover the complexities of identifying greater depth children with an insightful assessment that goes beyond traditional methods.
Aidan Severs
Oct 15, 20245 min read
Case Study: Continuous Provision and EYFS-Inspired Practice in KS2
Bringing an early years approach into KS1 isn’t unheard of – there are plenty of Year 1 classrooms where continuous provision has been effectively established. But, at my previous school the vision was grander: we wanted to know if EYFS-inspired teaching and learning could have an impact, not only in KS1, but also in KS2. The rationale for taking an EYFS approach into year 1 is perhaps to provide children moving from Reception with some familiarity, however many proponents o
Aidan Severs
Oct 8, 20246 min read
Developing A Greater Depth Toolkit To Aid Task Design
Having written a few blog posts over the years about working with pupils of greater depth , I occasionally get requests to work with schools on their greater depth provision. One such request recently caused me to revisit this toolkit that I had worked on previously with a couple of other schools. The focus of this toolkit came from one of the general principles of challenge for greater depth that I wrote about in this blog post : Provide Opportunities For Children To Demonst
Aidan Severs
Oct 1, 20246 min read
Featured Article: 8 Classroom Routines for Teachers to Nail Before Half-Term
I wrote this quite a while ago (back when I tweeted as @thatboycanteach and when I was beginning my deputy headship at an 'RI' school) but I still stand by these 8 classroom routines. If I went back into the classroom now I'd still do these exact things. These were developed during my years teaching in a school which Ofsted had deemed as 'inadequate' where routines were non-existent and as a result, much time was wasted to begin with. We got that school to 'good' within 3 yea
Aidan Severs
Sep 2, 20241 min read
The Best RE Lesson I Ever Taught (Spoiler: It Was A Reading Lesson)
It was the last day of half term: business as usual. I always started the day off with a reading 'session' (somehow can't bring myself to call it a lesson) and that Friday was no exception. Continuing with our reading of Sandi Toksvig's 'Hitler's Canary' and with a focus on linking non-fiction with fiction, I had prepared a text about Judaism. The strategy focus that lesson was scanning the text for answers. The children underlined what they thought would be key words in the
Aidan Severs
Jul 23, 20244 min read
Why Should Teachers Complete Tasks Before Pupils Do?
One of the things I advocate for when training teachers on planning is that teachers should have a go at the work they are going to be asking the pupils to complete. There are several reasons for this: So that they understand the potential difficulties that children might encounter The 'curse of knowledge' strikes when you know a lot about something but find it difficult to imagine how hard it might be for someone less knowledgable to understand it. Usually we don't eveb real
Aidan Severs
Jul 16, 20243 min read
How To Teach Spelling In Primary Schools
A couple of years ago I worked with a primary school to help them develop their teaching of spelling. The process of preparing and developing the training course (1 CPD session per half term) resulted in this series of blog posts which I've gathered here for ease of reference. The first blog post focuses on how spelling should be taught explicitly, particularly by examining spelling patterns: https://www.aidansevers.com/post/the-right-est-way-to-teach-spelling-part-1 The seco
Aidan Severs
Jun 13, 20241 min read
Primary D&T: Is It OK To Design Without Making And Vice Versa?
Does a D&T unit always need to feature both designing and making? Find out in this blog post...
Aidan Severs
Jun 10, 20243 min read
Can Codifying Teaching Really Improve Teachers?
Can we really codify teaching, simplifying it into a set of easy-to-follow steps? Is it possible to see a video, a diagram or read about a routine, and then enact that in the classroom in a such a way that a particular outcome is guaranteed? Even if we practise it outside of the classroom first in some kind of simulation, can we be sure that those actions are going to have the desired results? Is it a case of becoming an expert, aiming for the hallowed 10,000 hours of practic
Aidan Severs
Jun 4, 20244 min read
The 4 Ps Of The Design & Technology Curriculum
Discover how to revolutionize your design technology curriculum with the 4 Ps approach and learn to teach DT effectively.
Aidan Severs
May 28, 20243 min read
Curriculum: What Is The Best Kind Of 'Big Question'?
Unlock the secret to crafting the perfect 'Big Question Curriculum' with the ultimate guide. Learn the best question types and their impact.
Aidan Severs
May 21, 20246 min read
How To Write Good Curriculum Statements (And Why I'm Not Calling Them Objectives)
Learn how to craft effective curriculum statements and why they are more than just objectives.
Aidan Severs
May 13, 20244 min read
Misguided Reading (6 Questions To Ask When Planning A Reading 'Lesson')
How should we teach reading? What do we even mean by 'reading'? Decoding? Comprehension? Both? Is it more than that? Scarborough's Reading Rope, as shared by the EEF on X (https://x.com/EducEndowFoundn/status/1235657088430493697?s=20) Scarborough's Reading Rope breaks things down a little more and, if nothing else, serves to show that there is quite a lot going on when one picks up a book to read. If the above 8 headings (background knowledge; vocabulary; language structures
Aidan Severs
Mar 19, 20246 min read
Backwards Planning: What I Got Wrong
Here's the resource that this blog post refers to - you can download it for free below: In the old iteration of the above planning framework, I had the following prompts in the very last step (step 5): Who are the children who will need extra learning steps prior to the ones outlined above? Who are the children who will need extra learning steps following the ones outlined above (NSFD)? In all my recent work around providing for pupils with SEND I have realised how mistaken I
Aidan Severs
Feb 20, 20242 min read
Featured Article: Interleaving: What Is It And How Can It Improve Memory And Learning In The Maths Classroom?
Here's an article I wrote for Third Space Learning about interleaving. It was fascinating to read the research on this strategy and to think through its implications for the classroom. You can read the whole thing here: https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/interleaving/ If you would like Aidan to work with your school or organisation, you can get in touch here , or by using the links below:
Aidan Severs
Feb 19, 20241 min read
A SEND-First Approach... To Everything
Imagine a world where children with SEND really were the priority. What would that look like and what would the impact be on all children? That which we've explored in a couple of previous blog posts, Margaret Mullholland puts succinctly in a TES article: "...there’s now a feeling that schools should be structured for these pupils in the first place, rather than trying to adapt to their needs retrospectively." I read the above article whilst working on a SEND project for Oak
Aidan Severs
Feb 6, 20243 min read
SEND Provision Across The Curriculum: Start and End Points
“All pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment... In many cases, such planning will mean that pupils with SEN and disabilities will be able to study the full national curriculum.” - 6.12, The SEND Code of Practice "Schools should know precisely where children and young people with SEN are in their learning and deve
Aidan Severs
Jan 30, 20246 min read
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