Here is something you have all been waiting for ...

... there is a new Berthe the Witch French story book out now!

And guess what? The Berthe stories now come with access to an audio recording of the story. So now your pupils can listen and follow the story with you or for themselves.

You can order a copy of Berthe Va à Paris on our website - our stock of the new books is on its way to us. Your book will be despatched as soon as possible.

In the new story - Berthe Va à Paris - Berthe decides to visit Paris with her cat, of course.

Her broomstick is broken so she has to take public transport. She visits famous places, and we learn something of the history. Her cat, however, has other plans.

Berthe Va à Paris is written in simple French as it is meant for beginners. It contains a QR link to an audio recording of the story and at the

Why stories?

... because stories are a good starting point for learning a foreign language.

We are delighted to say we have managed to interview Barbara Scanes, the author of Learn French with Luc et Sophie a story-based approach to learning French. In the interview Barbara explains why including stories is so important to her.

The interview supplies an interesting insight into how Barbara used her knowledge and expertise from teaching languages to a large age range to produce the Luc et Sophie resources.

"Make learning fun and the children will want to learn and they will learn effortlessly." Barbara Scanes, author.

Along with the stories the Learn French with Luc et Sophie resource includes a comprehensive teacher book with flashcards, activities, games, role play and songs as well as interactive whiteboard files.

T

Learning Languages from Home Q&A: Tips and Advice from the Experts

In this article, experts in language learning give you the best insights to encourage yourself and others to learn languages from home.

https://porch.com/advice/learning-languages-home-tips-advice-experts

Whether you are considering the benefits of learning at home, if music can help, how to practise pronunciation and even whether you will need a teacher for support, these tips and advice will help you.

Stimulate, challenge, repeat!

What is the single most effective way of teaching times tables?

Efficiency in relation to learning the times tables is not a topic that is often discussed. And yet as with all education, some ways of learning times tables are a lot more efficient than others.

Of course, with learning, efficiency means not only learning quickly but also means ensuring that the learning remains in the children’s brains for future reference. And for this to happen three factors need to be in place.

Most particularly, the lessons themselves have to be something that is exciting and stimulating for the children, so that they will want to go home and tell their parents about it – and thus engage their parent’s interest and involvement.

Second, the approach needs to be something that can be used all the way through the series of activities, so that the children see a pattern in what they are learning.

Third, the result has to be meaningful learning –

The bright are different.

What are the most effective ways of meeting the multiple challenges very intelligent children can face?

Of one thing there is no doubt: the journey from being a very bright child to becoming a well-rounded, well-adjusted and sociable very bright adult, is not without its challenges.

Because although many children see the very intelligent pupil in their school as having a great advantage, those very bright children do not always become the well-rounded and happy adults that we might imagine, given their intellectual advantage.

Indeed, it is not uncommon for the intelligent child at times to wish that she or he was not different, but instead could simply fit in and be like all the rest.

As a result, to understand how best to aid and support very intelligent children, it is necessary to see what it is that can cause them difficulty at school, and from that point, how they can best be helped.

Part of the problem is that our societ

2021 May Newsletter

Recently the CEO of a major UK publishing house said in a radio interview that his company published a broad selection of views and it wasn’t their role to espouse a particular view.

The same can’t be said for Brilliant Publications, at least when it comes to education. We have very firm ideas about how children learn. Our mission statement says that we create easy to use resources, with engaging approaches to learning, so as to inspire and motivate pupils across a wide range of curriculum areas. These values underpin everything that we do.

Our recent title

Our most recent title, How to Achieve Outstanding Writers in EYFS and Key Stage 1 is an excellent example of how we put our mission statement into practice. The National Curriculum puts grea

Exciting grammar

Is it really possible to make English grammar exciting, fun, enjoyable, and varied?

By and large, English grammar tends to get a bad press.

For a lot of everyday speech, and indeed a fair amount of contemporary literature, tends to play fast and loose with correct grammar which can make children wonder why they have to learn any grammar at all.

After all, most of us can speak and be understood…

However, as many people do come to realise, if we want to be listened to and have our written communications read and understood, we need to express ourselves both clearly and in an interesting way.

Thus, perhaps more than with any other subject in the curriculum, the image of grammar really needs to be changed.  The only question is, how to do it?

This is the task the author of “Getting to Grips with English Grammar” has put at the forefront of her course; a course which covers English grammar from year one to year six in

One man, two people, accessible to all

What is the most effective way of allowing lower ability students the chance to fully appreciate Jekyll and Hyde?

Jekyll and Hyde is a story that appeals to vast numbers of teenagers, not least because so many of them find the notion of becoming someone else an incredibly exciting idea.

For such a vision allows them to imagine that they are not trapped by their current circumstances but could change themselves into something and someone totally different…

However, many lower ability students never get to appreciate the story because of the difficulties they have with reading.  Which is why we have produced a Graphic Revision Guide to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Indeed, this Graphic Revision Guide not only gives the students immediate access to the book, it also prepares them for their forthcoming assessments. 

The graphic sheets enable the students both to grasp the story and its themes, and to underst

Be calm. Hold the vision. Breathe.

Many primary school children are suffering from anxiety and stress.

Not only does this condition have a negative effect on the child’s wellbeing, but it also impacts on their ability to learn.

For, as anyone who has ever experienced anxiety and other stress-related issues will attest, in such a situation the mind tends to focus completely on the anxiety-giving issue and is not open to any input from elsewhere.

But there is a technique that many schools are now using to help children to relax and reduce their stress levels.  What’s more, it is a technique that can benefit all children – both those suffering from anxiety and those who are not.

The approach involves introducing them to visualisation. The calming effect this brings can help to ease their anxiety and also help them to develop their creative thinking skills.

It can also ensure that others who do not have anxiety will be able to cope with it more readily should

Activities that will appeal to boys

How to encourage boys to engage in their learning.

There’s no doubt that some class activities appeal more to boys than to girls. Not exclusively so, of course, but in general terms.

And it is with this in mind that we have produced a book of 170 practical teaching ideas and strategies that will appeal to boys.

The book includes information on how to integrate visual and kinaesthetic activities into your lessons and harness the learning approach that boys tend to use more than girls.

Take, for example, this lesson:

The teacher reads out a passage which contains deliberate mistakes. As they listen the pupils note the errors and write down the correct facts instead. Pupils could then indicate the correct answers either by voting with a show of hands for the correct answer or by using their personal whiteboards to all display the correct answers together.

It is an activity which any pupil can engage in, but is one that de