Taunton
All teachers had changed to weekly random pairs or already had it embedded. Two teachers find there are some behavioural/maturity issues and a few children refuse to sit with a partner.
When asked a question, children are supported by having a partner to share thought with. One teacher is doing only trios.
Because named lollysticks are used for who responds, children know they have to talk as they could be chosen. It works really well for editing to be in pairs. Best friends work really well together to prove themselves. One teacher jumbles up the pairs sometimes during a lesson.
Two teachers modelled how to be a good talk partner, showed bad examples. The children embraced this. One teacher wondered whether higher achievers can affect the reliability of results.
SC: as statutory tests are done in silence so not sure this matters for everyday work – it’s an advantage for a child to learn from another
One child in my class said ‘I’ve learnt something about him that I didn’t know before and I wouldn’t have known unless I was sitting next to him.’Abbie Shaw – West Monkton Primary