Taunton
All teachers had set up weekly changing random talk partners, except one teacher who makes sure they sit with every child in the year, but it’s not random. Learning trios were unsuccessful when a lower achiever is one of them.
This has helped with friendship groups, created wider and more interactions and helped playground relationships in a positive way.
Two teachers had used the class Dojo to generate the random partners, two shuffled photos in a basket, one uses lollysticks, one changes the partners midweek to avoid weekend anxiety. Children love the randomness as they see it is completely fair and are excited to see who they get.
All teachers had tried learning trios for children with individual needs which meant nobody is left without a partner.
One teacher had modelled being a talk partner with her TA over drawings of self-portraits which was really powerful. The TA modelled effective feedback.