Christopher Such @Suchmo83 Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Christopher Such

5 years

I've made a blog-post where all the resources I've shared - from science curriculum documents to tier two vocabulary lists - can be downloaded. Help yourself!

75

313

1K

Last Seen Profiles

@3xwq58u03d17131

@JDugnol

@Zorzi_R6

@Canemir0410

@Odinnamma

@kemenflora

@enak_gakkk

@CydoniaGoth

@theia_studies

@EGPRCHAMP

@Richard52892203

@x8ltHvqU6QS91Sp

@couples_mot7arr

@Yebo_2

@soyuncirco

@Dondecabendos

@VIPS

@SIRTRUST16

@JulianAdrat

@ProprUseOfIrony

@FE0511ER

@JorgeGT

@alyamaniy_s

@Sadin2013

@IsaakEthan

@sallar_io

@Saudi_AIS

@Twiterinuyesi

@RedSeaGlobal

@Sherlyadinda__

@bokeplokalmalam

@andiipoops

@stw46

@SIRTRUST16

@stream_0123

@mizukichi_420

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

I see your bullet journaling and raise you...

298

515

9K

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

To all parents who are requesting live video lessons so your children can keep learning new content: Please stop. You might as well ask a mechanic to fix your car over the phone. If children could learn effectively from watching videos, we'd all be unemployed already.

65

254

2K

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (3): Once the class are working quietly, resist the temptation to start narrating. (E.g. "It's great to see that everyone is... Don't forget to...") It sounds obvious, but many teachers don't realise they are even doing it. Let them work in peace.

55

97

1K

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

A long(ish) thread on the teaching of reading comprehension in key stage 2. Just some thoughts and opinions: 1/n

104

372

1K

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (19): You know that teaching stuff that you've accumulated in your garage/loft/shed/cupboard on the off chance you might use it again at some point? You won't. Bin it.

57

38

846

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

🚨 It's the summer holidays again, which means that I am giving away two copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a copy, simply *retweet this tweet*. Good luck! 🚨

67

2K

760

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

Here goes nothing: If I made a freely available video (let's say 45-60 mins) that attempted to explain to secondary teachers the key elements of phonics, would that be of interest to anyone?

Jon Hutchinson

@jon_hutchinson_

3 years

Secondary English teachers: out of curiosity, were you given any training/instruction on phonics during your teacher training? Interested in yes/no, type of phonics training, year you trained. Thanks!

300

27

113

89

37

819

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

A thread on common misconceptions about phonics & reading fluency, how they are spreading and the issues being caused for schools and, ultimately, the children within them: 🧵

40

261

790

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (9): Pretend that everything you teach is inherently fascinating, regardless of your real opinion or the opinions you suspect the class might have. Part of planning well is working out what makes something - anything - potentially interesting.

30

74

756

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

11 months

A thread on reading aloud while pupils follow along in their own copy of the text... 🪡

28

158

625

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

It's the summer holidays, which means I have two books to give away. If you'd like to win a copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading, all you have to do is **retweet** this tweet. Best of luck!

60

1K

582

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

If you want to get a basic idea of how people learn to read, and you have very little time to spare, in this video I try to describe reading development to @mrbartonmaths in under *8 minutes*. (He then asks some great questions afterwards.)

Learn about reading development - Tips for Teachers

In this Tips for Teachers video, Chris Such explains how children learn to readFor more free tips, videos and podcasts to support and inspire teachers please...

www.youtube.com

16

198

605

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

A while back I shared a science curriculum document. It seemed to be well received, so I have gone several steps further. I have put together a much more user-friendly version containing the same knowledge and skills, but with lots of improvements, including...

79

188

595

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

I spent the first 35 years of my life refusing to write sentences beginning with 'And' or 'But' because those were the rules I'd been taught. So much regret.

56

16

588

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

It's that time of year again... I have *two* copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Simply *retweet this tweet* for your chance to win a copy. Good luck!

38

1K

527

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (20): Marking assessments? Stack them up and mark one page at a time for all the papers rather than working your way through each paper as a whole thing. It is *much* easier and faster.

78

18

566

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

As promised here is an introduction to phonics video for secondary teachers (and anyone else interested):

24

155

558

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

As a teenager, I went to a rough comprehensive. Social status - the thing we all craved - was determined by a few things: wealth, toughness, looks and, by far the most important, the willingness to challenge authority. Being seen to work hard had a massive social penalty. 1/5

30

123

538

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

It's the Easter holidays (for many), so I have two copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Simply **retweet this tweet** for your chance to win a copy.

33

1K

512

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

This year's royalties have arrived. This means that ~£13,000 is going to Malaria Consortium, a GiveWell-recommended charity. That brings the running total after two years to ~£31,000. Thank you to everyone who who has bought The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading.

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

About 18 months ago, I promised to donate all royalties from my book to Malaria Consortium, a charity rated highly by GiveWell. I expected this donation to equate to a few hundred pounds at most, but...

38

27

272

40

65

533

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

I have a free copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. If you want to have a chance of winning it, all you have to do is retweet this tweet. I will choose a winner at random next week.

50

1K

499

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

I have *another* free copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Retweet this tweet for a chance to win it. I will select a winner at random on Monday 18th April.

57

1K

476

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

*****Xmas book giveaway!***** I have a copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Retweet this post to be in with a chance of winning it. (If this post gets past 50 retweets, I'll give away two books.)

56

995

466

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

As promised, here is the HISTORY curriculum package. As with the science and geography packages, it includes... + Digestible overviews for each year group and topic + Key concepts + Relevant links to/retrieval of prior topics + Vocabulary to be taught / retrieved >>>

43

129

470

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

It's all linked here in this blog. It is totally free and yours to download, share and use however you see fit:

Curriculum Giveaway 2.0 – Science

A while back I shared a science curriculum document that attempted to spell out the knowledge and skills of a primary science curriculum in a way that I hoped would save schools lots of time and, a…

primarycolour.home.blog

38

181

469

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

10 months

In the most basic terms, reading lessons involve a mixture of reading text and responding to it (i.e. discussing text or producing written responses). And I think that in many (if not most) primary schools the balance between these two things is *way* off. A thread... 🪡

30

135

466

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

This is your regular reminder that it is perfectly possible - and probably desirable - for most of your reading lessons in primary school not to lead to some form of observable written outcome in books. 🧵 1/10

11

64

456

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 months

A few years back I created curriculum packages for science, history and geography for a school I worked in. The school were happy for me to share them online for *free*, and you can find them in tweets below. Let me describe what the curriculum packages contain... 🧵🪡

20

136

447

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

8 months

Ofsted have released their English subject report. Some brief thoughts on my first impressions...

Telling the story: the English education subject report

www.gov.uk

26

142

444

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Fluency assessments seem to be increasing in popularity, so I think there are a few things that people should consider. Here are five tips and a blog:

12

120

442

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

It's May half-term, which means that I have two copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Just **retweet** this tweet for your chance to win a copy.

39

869

405

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 month

Following a few requests from teachers and school leaders, I've made short video on the key ideas that I think teachers (and parents/carers) need to know about reading development, based on my reading concept map. The Reading Map - A Primer via @YouTube

The Reading Map - A Primer

A short video introducing the key things that every teacher needs to know about reading. For more on this subject, check out my first book, The Art and Scien...

www.youtube.com

8

192

431

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Lots of teachers will be thinking about the teaching of reading comprehension soon. This blog from a little while ago might be useful:

What’s Stopping Us From Teaching Reading Comprehension Really Well?

On a scale of 1-10, how good are you at comprehending what people say to you? It’s a bit of a silly question, isn’t it? Whether or not we comprehend what we are told is dependent on our…

primarycolour.home.blog

12

130

425

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

A silly thread about teaching reading comprehension: 🧵

18

91

415

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

I made a fairly massive powerpoint resource (197 pages) that I will be using to support my teaching of subitising, number bonds and calculation strategies. It's yours if you think it might be useful:

Subitising and number bonds resource.pptx

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

39

109

398

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

Most schools invest significant resources into hearing kids read on a one-to-one basis, but some schools do it better than others. Here are 12 ways that I think we can make the most of this precious time: #edublogshare

12

129

394

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

A blog on my intentions for teaching reading this year based on stuff I've read and discussions I've had. I hope it might be useful to some (including me). As ever, retweets massively appreciated if you think it might be useful to others, but no pressure.

How I will teach reading this year

I’m pretty confident that for most of my teaching career I taught reading badly. I assiduously followed whatever structure was handed down from on high – and then ditched it as soon as a new struct…

primarycolour.home.blog

49

179

396

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

A central aim of primary curriculum development should be minimising the amount of time teachers have to spend online looking for random resources for their lessons:

29

48

390

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

It's the holidays again, which means it's book giveaway time. If you'd like the chance to win a copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading, simply *retweet* this tweet. I'll pick a winner at random this coming Sunday.

35

828

343

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (14): For richer classroom discussions, consider the power of 'might' to enhance some of your questions: "What does this phrase mean?" feels like a test. "What might this phrase mean?" feels like an invitation.

9

55

365

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (4): After reading a story aloud to children over several weeks, make sure there are a few copies available and point them out to your class. Reading something familiar is the jumpstart many reluctant readers need to enjoy making meaning from text.

6

54

360

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 months

I've spent the last few years working with hundreds of schools, enough to spot some patterns and (I hope) to write some useful threads over the coming months. Here's the first one... In my opinion, what do primary schools commonly get wrong with their reading lessons? 🪡

9

146

363

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

Often all the planning that is needed is an annotated version of the text that you will share with your class. I know it's a trite thing to say, but planning is the thinking you do, not the resources you create or find somewhere. 8/n

4

36

357

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

A thread on phonics and how the discussion of it sometimes lacks a bit of nuance, leading to misconceptions... 🧵

21

109

351

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

10 months

***Xmas 2023 book giveaway*** I have two copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Simply *retweet* this tweet for your chance to win one of them. I'll select the two winners at random on New Year's Eve. Good luck!

32

702

335

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

A year ago today, my book - The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading - was released. To celebrate, here is my attempt to condense the entire book into exactly 500 words:

The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading… in 500 words

Reading is one of the most valuable capabilities that a person can acquire. Every other capability of equal or greater value, such as walking or talking, comes relatively instinctively. In contrast…

primarycolour.home.blog

13

109

347

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

I lived through enforced task differentiation and ability tables, so I know the counterproductive bits of differentiation pretty well. But sometimes you really do have pupils in your class who need to be learning something different to others.

21

30

345

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

...as it turns out, the book seems to have sold better than I expected. The royalties from *the first year* (July 2021 - July 2022) were £18,000. With Gift Aid, this will work out to be £22,500 for this first year's donation. Here is the receipt I just received:

42

10

345

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

The basic theory behind reading development: a visual representation (on a scale totally unsuited to viewing on Twitter 😅).

14

87

337

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

For those who aren't already sick of me saying it, the heart of teaching reading comprehension is shared exploration of worthwhile texts, modelling thinking and engaging in rich discussion. No selection of ready-made worksheets comes close to this. 3/n

11

37

330

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

At the start of the holidays, I tweeted this 50 page science curriculum document that spells out in detail the knowledge to be taught for every primary science topic. Share the link with your science coordinator. You might save them *a lot* of work:

Science – a curriculum giveaway

For those of you who don’t want to read the blather (though I think it might well be useful) and just want the curriculum document, scroll down to the arrow to find a Dropbox link. The docume…

primarycolour.home.blog

27

144

333

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

I don't usually tag people in any more, but I'll make an exception for this. Here is my science curriculum document. It took a bloody age, and it's all yours to download for free. Share it, and please re-tweet if you think others might find it useful.

Science – a curriculum giveaway

For those of you who don’t want to read the blather (though I think it might well be useful) and just want the curriculum document, scroll down to the arrow to find a Dropbox link. The docume…

primarycolour.home.blog

51

151

329

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

If you're interested in timetables for the combined teaching of spelling and vocabulary (including tier-two vocabulary, morphology and Latin/Greek root words) across Key Stage 2, you can find my attempt at creating these in this *new* blog:

A Combined Spelling and Vocabulary Timetable for KS2

A little while ago I read an excellent blog by @_MissieBee and @ReBuckEdu on the teaching of spelling. The central idea of their blog was to organise the teaching of spelling across Key Stage 2 by …

primarycolour.home.blog

32

90

320

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

Teachers in their 30s suddenly getting all wistful about childhood book fairs. Teachers in their 20s: "WTF is that?"

10

1

325

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Today's tiny teaching tip (10): If you've got a class that's regularly just a bit too loud, resist the temptation to keep speaking louder to make yourself heard. Try the opposite: consciously lower your volume to just above a whisper for a week or two.

32

19

319

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

Sentence Models for Creative Writing by @ChrisYoules is arguably the most immediately useful book I've ever read on any aspect of primary education. It is beautifully written and is essential reading for anyone looking to teach writing better or construct a writing curriculum.

19

55

315

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

14 days

It amazes me just how common it is for primary schools to have countless reading for pleasure initiatives while at the same time teaching reading lessons that are little more than years and years of tedious SATs preparation. 🪡🧵

6

50

323

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

Many primary schools have made the transition from teaching reading primarily in small groups to whole-class teaching without considering one key component of what makes this such a potentially powerful change: class sets of books. 🧵 1/13

38

69

307

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

A *new* blog on the subject of reading fluency.

Five Things I Wish I’d Said About Reading Fluency

A few months ago, my book about the teaching of reading was published. It was my attempt to distill into an accessible format what I had learned from the research into reading, informed by well ove…

primarycolour.home.blog

11

109

309

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

I have been fortunate enough to speak about reading on a few podcast episodes in over the last year and a bit. Here they are in one place for anyone interested...

14

86

298

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

I'm not going to name names, but there are independent assessors out there diagnosing dyslexia and then making recommendations of things like coloured overlays and learning words by sight as whole units. It's hugely frustrating and damaging.

33

43

294

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

It's school holiday time (for many), which means it's book giveaway time again. If you'd like to win a copy of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading, simply **retweet this tweet**. The winner will be randomly selected this Sunday (30th October).

20

725

271

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Learning the relationships between sounds and letters is *necessary* for reading development. And this is the only bit of necessary learning in the entirety of education about which educators sometimes say, "If they haven't learned it by this point, give up trying to teach it."

1

73

284

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 months

I have two copies of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading to give away. Simply **retweet this tweet** for your chance to win one of them. I'll pick two winners this Sunday (01/09/24).

20

556

291

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 months

But if you want a practical, detailed look at exactly how I would plan and teach these lesson structures - and support teachers to use them across a school in a way that maintains their sense of agency - then you'll need to wait a few months. 😉

27

35

284

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

By far the worst curriculum decisions I have ever seen have not come from school leaders with zero understanding of cognitive science. They have come from school leaders who have grasped just enough to get themselves into trouble. 🧵 1/7

9

34

285

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

I'm going to not tag anyone in for this one and see what happens. As ever, re-tweets appreciated if you think others might get something from it, but no pressure.

Mental mathematics fluency and the importance of perspective

Imagine this: you are one of two people entered into a race with a large amount of money as a prize. You both arrive at the starting line fancying your chances in a foot race over any distance. (In…

primarycolour.home.blog

32

189

278

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

About 18 months ago, I promised to donate all royalties from my book to Malaria Consortium, a charity rated highly by GiveWell. I expected this donation to equate to a few hundred pounds at most, but...

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

I'm also certain that the price will come down before it actually sells (which is good given Amazon's pre-order guarantee.) I will be giving what little royalties I receive to the Malaria Consortium, a GiveWell recommended charity.

1

0

30

38

27

272

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

12 days

Nearly 5,000 views in two weeks for this ~9 minute video introducing teachers to the most important things to know about reading. Thanks to everyone who has watched and/or shared it.

The Reading Map - A Primer

A short video introducing the key things that every teacher needs to know about reading. For more on this subject, check out my first book, The Art and Scien...

www.youtube.com

8

77

282

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Something that tends to be a little overlooked in the discussion of reading pedagogy is this: regardless of what teachers know about reading development and regardless of how they teach, some kids will inevitably still find it really difficult to learn to read.

7

22

262

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 years

For many, sanctions are the only thing that allow them to operate free from the much more burdensome constraints of the social hierarchy. Removing sanctions wouldn't have given me and my classmates more autonomy. Quite the opposite, in fact. 5/5

4

10

259

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

There's been a lot of discussion about the differences between primary and secondary teaching recently. But there is one that I've not seen come up, and I think it might be the biggest of the lot.

13

33

248

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

This was a surprisingly popular tweet. *Prepares tweets about Pogs and Micro Machines.

8

1

247

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

Ask yourself... (a) What's interesting about this word, sentence, paragraph, etc? (b) What might the class not understand here? (c) How can I encourage students to have and share thoughts on this? (d) What connections can my class make within this text and to others? 7/n

4

31

246

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

In short, read lots, model your thinking, ask thought-provoking questions, nurture an atmosphere of exploration and focus on helping children to understand the text in front of them. That's it. Thanks for reading. 19/19

15

241

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

5 months

This half term, I have two copies of my first book to **give away**. I will pick two winners this Sunday 2nd June. All you have to do is **retweet this tweet** to be in the draw.

28

502

242

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 months

If you agree that teaching reading comprehension is primarily about building pupils' understanding of written language through meaningful experiences with a variety of texts chosen for this purpose, please consider retweeting. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

What’s Stopping Us From Teaching Reading Comprehension Really Well?

On a scale of 1-10, how good are you at comprehending what people say to you? It’s a bit of a silly question, isn’t it? Whether or not we comprehend what we are told is dependent on our…

primarycolour.home.blog

7

136

246

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

A new blog with an old metaphor. It's time for a *content-focused* view of teaching reading comprehension:

What’s Stopping Us From Teaching Reading Comprehension Really Well?

On a scale of 1-10, how good are you at comprehending what people say to you? It’s a bit of a silly question, isn’t it? Whether or not we comprehend what we are told is dependent on our…

primarycolour.home.blog

13

84

242

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 months

If a company tells you that they can diagnose pupils' individual barriers to reading development via question-level analysis of a standardised comprehension assessment (computer-based or otherwise), they are almost certainly selling you snake oil. 🧵🪡

1

69

246

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

8 months

***New blog***

Why Reading Progression Documents Are Probably a Waste of Time

I spend roughly five hours per week responding to questions about reading instruction via emails and direct messages on Twitter. And I receive one question more than any other: “What should o…

primarycolour.home.blog

15

86

241

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

If anyone is interested in a free PD session on the subject of reading comprehension, sign up here. ⬇️

Evidence-Informed Reading Comprehension with Chris Such

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, and it relies upon a complex array of interacting knowledge and capabilities.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

24

92

244

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

My potentially controversial answer is that, in my experience at least, many teachers themselves arrive to the profession without a strong grasp of how to punctuate and without a clear view about the importance of sentence construction. (I was no exception to this.)

Pie Corbett

@PieCorbett

2 years

In many schools, children get to year six and still cannot punctuate with reasonable accuracy. Why do you think this is so? Are children learning that you don’t have to do it because no one really does anything about it? Has anyone effectively addressed this?

124

34

350

17

31

242

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

Fluency requires *lots* of reading practice. Continuing to teach more and more phonics until pupils are fluent would likely be a poor use of instructional time compared to actual decoding practice via reading.

7

26

239

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

New blog: How do we reconcile ambitious foundation curricula with the reality of children frequently leaving primary school without a grasp of key knowledge and skills. How about an A4 curriculum?

The A4 Curriculum

Imagine a primary geography curriculum that included loads of interesting stuff, but sought principally to ensure the following: children know that geography is the study of how people and places i…

primarycolour.home.blog

35

68

237

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

The word "might" is gold dust in classroom discussions. It can make questions much more welcoming. There is a world of difference between "What does the author mean here?" and "What *might* the author mean here?" 13/n

4

19

232

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

A couple of weeks back I released a science curriculum package that I hoped would support anyone developing their primary science curriculum. It was well received, and I appreciated the positive feedback. Anyway, now it's the turn of the GEOGRAPHY CURRICULUM! >>

9

59

229

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

And to all the primary teachers who currently have the latter class: You're playing a whole different ball game to the rest of us, and you have nothing but my respect. Ask for help where you need it. This year might just represent the most valuable work that you will ever do.

7

0

223

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

If you had five minutes to talk to a primary teacher about the teaching of reading (and the potential pitfalls), what would you say?

7

46

214

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

Apologies if I am repeating myself, but there is an elephant in the room when it comes to Ofsted's curriculum focus in primary schools: subject knowledge. 1/n

21

46

212

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

Thanks, DfE! Just to clarify: these "pupils" you mention... Are these the small, noisy people that I keep seeing around the school? And this "timetable"... Is this like an ordinary table, but with a clock on it? I await further advice. Every day is a school day.

28

37

209

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

@brassoteach Afternoons without some playtime/down-time. Asking *anyone* to expend intellectual effort for two hours solid in the afternoon without a break is pretty optimistic. To ask young children to do it is absurd.

3

0

208

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

If pupils need to use context to identify words and build their orthographic expertise - and "three-cueing" teaches pupils to use context to identify words from the very beginning of reading instruction - isn't three-cueing a sensible idea? No. It is not. Here's why... 🧵

12

66

201

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

Interested in spelling teaching in KS2 that aligns with phonics teaching and that includes key morphemes, tier two vocabulary and Latin & Greek root words while also teaching the words of the NC spelling lists? Then you might be interested in the resource in this blog...

11

47

201

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

2 years

Imagine your own child is pretty good at recognising words. They seem to be on a trajectory towards becoming a fluent reader, and you want to help them become really good at understanding texts and appreciating the value of reading. What would you do?

9

57

198

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

The goal of phonics is to teach pupils *enough* of the most common grapheme-phoneme correspondences - and how to use them - so that they can begin decoding words for themselves.

5

13

201

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

16 days

I can't think of anyone who has done more to advance the cause of evidence-informed reading than @ReadingShanahan . And the fact that he so openly changes his mind when new evidence comes to light is the reason why he is deservedly one of the most trusted academics in this field.

8

22

201

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

1 year

It is reading practice that helps pupils reach fluency, and the entire purpose of phonics is to lay the foundations that allow this reading practice to happen.

13

30

197

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

4 years

Last year, I wrote a book on reading. I had intended to self-publish, but was convinced to try a publisher as I was told that this way it would be seen and read by more people:

36

60

196

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

3 years

There are curriculum overviews for each year group containing the knowledge and skills to be taught alongside key concepts and vocabulary and a set of age-appropriate basic information texts. It's absolutely free and it can be found here:

Curriculum Giveaway 2.0 – Geography

A few weeks back, I released a package of curriculum materials relating to the primary science curriculum (see this blog for further details about the science stuff: As promised, here are the geogr…

primarycolour.home.blog

14

47

190