Positive praise encourages growth mindset in the classroom
Here at Oxford Learning Solutions, you know we are ALL about the positive praise. "Excellent", "great job" and "keep up the great work, secret agent". 5 positives to 1 negative phrase may seem like an unnaturally high ratio of praise for a child, but it sure is...
read moreThe Iceberg Illusion of Success
The Iceberg Illusion of Success, by teacher, Sylvia Duckworth
read moreBreakthrough Readers of March
Following an incredible month of breakthroughs for our secret agents in February, we had EVEN MORE reading breakthroughs around lesson 90 for our star readers of March. Without further ado, here are the names of our Breakthrough Readers of March, and the story of...
read moreA word atlas of the brain
"Scientists have created an "atlas of the brain" that reveals how the meanings of words are arranged across different regions of the organ", The Guardian reports. The colourful atlas shows how words and the concepts they create can be grouped together in clumps of...
read moreWise words on the trouble with reading from John Steinbeck
New Dyslexia-Friendly Extension for Google Chrome
A dyslexic programmer at Google, Charles Douglas-Osborn, has created a dyslexia-friendly extension for Google Chrome that will help facilitate internet usage for those struggling with reading. The extension currently allows users to: Read text out by underlining each...
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Case Study: From stressed-out struggling decoder to Roald Dahl book lover
Sapphi was struggling at school because she just didn't get on with the traditional method of teaching phonics at all. From a struggling 5 year-old who took great pains to sound out every word on a page, only to forget the word on the next page, to reading (and...
read moreHomeschooling is on the rise in the UK
The number of parents deciding to take their children out of mainstream schools and homeschool them is on the rise in the UK, according to the Guardian this week. The article features one homeschool mum, Martha Drew, and her two teenage children, who she decided to...
read morePOW. The Superhero Short Story Competition Results Are In
POW and WOW indeed! We had a phenomenal number of entries for the superhero short story competition. Each and every story was so imaginative, unique and gripping, and you could see every child's personality shining through the words they wrote - particularly those...
read moreBreakthrough Readers of February
After a very successful beginning of 2016 for our secret agents, February proved to have just as many breakthrough reading moments, if not more! We couldn’t let the month pass by without celebrating those long-awaited reading breakthroughs. 90 lessons on top of years...
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