After a number of years teaching, it’s now come to the time when many of my first students have left school and started their own careers and some of my newest students are just starting out on the road to confidence and independent learning. Today I’ve received 2 emails from parents, completely unexpected and sharing their wonderful news and such kind words.
Confident Learners
Over the years I have learned so much from all my students, it may have been a new way to teach, a different way in which I realised they understood the Codebreakers® programme or that they had additional learning difficulties that I had not yet experience and required me to go off and learn more about it with CPD training and events. I have a wonderful network of colleagues who I have met over the years and we share a wonderful trust and support in our community, sharing best practice and knowledge in their own fields. Each time I’ve learned something new I have been able to bring it back to my classroom and share it with new and existing students, providing a holistic approach to their learning.
One particular student I recall well from my early days of teaching. I get to meet siblings, parents and even grandparents and we develop a wonderful knowledge of their family and learning experiences. Quite often we stay in touch for many years to come. Today I received a lovely message from them telling me about their son;
A more recent student has made the transition from Primary to Middle School and we had a great summer helping him to develop his creative writing skills and writing for different purposes with different styles. He learned how to plan his writing and use this for the structure. He developed his linking words, used adverbs and adjectives to give his work more description. He thoroughly enjoyed this time and it’s set him off writing his own stories. He’s now become an avid reader of books and is very driven by the points he is scoring in school. At the moment he’s extremely proud of himself as he’s breaking the school’s spelling test record, gaining 10/10 for over 10 successive weeks. His confidence is blooming. His parents sent me a message today;
“His reading age was re-appraised and he’s now a year above his chronological age. In a maths SAT type test for numeracy, he’s scored the highest in his year, 31 out of 32 with the nearest pupil 5 points behind him. He is very chuffed with himself. He really values seeing you, as he recognises how its helped him, as he loves knowing he’s doing really well. Confidence is everything”.
Positive Learning Experiences
It made me reflect how many parents have commented how following CodeBreakers® has developed their child’s confidence in so many ways, not just reading and spelling but communicating with friends and adults, alongside learning to understand their own learning styles, speaking up in class and asking for help and adjustments.
