INDEPENDENT THINKING ON PRIMARY

Written by Mark Creasy, Independent Thinking on Primary Teaching: Practical strategies for working smarter, not harder paints a vivid picture of life in a primary school and shares top tips on how to enrich children’s learning at no extra cost to teachers’ time or the school budget.

Foreword by Ian Gilbert.

Primary school teachers are working harder than ever, and have more and more to do in the finite time they have with their pupils, but Mark Creasy believes it doesn’t need to be like this.

With rare experience in both primary and secondary phases and at leadership as well as classroom levels, Mark is ideally placed to comment on what works and what doesn’t – and in this book he urges teachers to recognise that there is another way.

In Independent Thinking on Primary Teaching, Mark encourages teachers to stop and consider the things they do daily in the classroom and presents a series of prompts, nudges and suggestions to help them achieve the same (or even better) results by working smarter, not harder. In so doing he shares a wealth of practical and easily transferable tips for immediate use in the classroom, all designed to streamline teachers’ schedules and lighten their workload while enlivening children’s learning.

These are in no way doctrines, or silver bullets for success, and nothing that Mark advocates requires further investment of either time or money; rather, these ‘working smarter’ tips are geared to win teachers their evenings and weekends back, something that many more teachers need than is healthy for the profession.

Essential reading for primary school teachers.

Independent Thinking on Primary Teaching is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On … series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press.

Chapters include:

• Chapter 1: Daily Routines
• Chapter 2: In the Classroom
• Chapter 3: Learning Outside the Classroom
• Chapter 4: Testing
• Chapter 5: Transition
• Chapter 6: Working with Adults
• Chapter 7: A miscellany of Smart Ways of Working

Mark Creasy is an Independent Thinking Associate and experienced primary school teacher, currently teaching a Year 5 class, and is the author of Unhomework, which challenges the orthodoxies about work outside the classroom. His contemporary and down-to-earth style of teaching has allowed him to view learning as a tool, not a rule, to ensure that his pupils are given the right to an education that suits their needs and maximises their potential for future success. Mark’s simple philosophy is, ‘If this isn’t good enough for my daughter, it’s not good enough for anyone else’ – which is at the heart of how he engages his learners on a daily basis.