James Clements shares his advice on how we can work together with teachers to help our children be happy and confident at school, and gives his tips on getting the most out of parents’ evening.
Blog posts for: Year 6
Using the Bond 10 Minute Tests
11+ tutor and writer Michellejoy Hughes explains how using the short Bond 10 Minute Tests can really help with structuring summer revision for the 11+
Get number confident on National Numeracy Day
Get involved with National Numeracy Day 2021 and help your child’s confidence grow, with our top tips and free maths activities.
Looking forward to the summer term: tips to help boost your child’s learning
What can we do to help our children to make progress over the term ahead? James Clements shares his tips to help boost skills and knowledge.
Oxford Levels: How to support your 7–11-year-old’s reading development
Find out how Oxford Levels and levelled readers can support and develop your child’s reading skills even after they’ve learned how to read.
How reading programmes can help junior readers
Once your child has mastered decoding, it can be liberating to choose whatever books they like – but there are still benefits to structured reading schemes.
Developing reading skills as your child gets older
Once your child has mastered phonics and word-reading, where do they go next? Here are our ideas to keep your 7–11-year-old’s reading skills developing.
Learning at home: Reading to learn
Education expert James Clements talks about how children who are already confident readers can get the most out of their reading.
Learning at home: The tricky business of screen time
Keeping your child’s screen time manageable can be tricky, especially at the moment. Education expert James Clements gives us his top tips.
Writing a thank you letter
Practise handwriting by writing a thank you letter to someone who has helped you during lockdown – like a teacher, a family member, or a healthcare worker.
Five ways to improve maths home-learning
Maths expert Andrew Jeffrey shares five easy-to-implement strategies that can make a positive difference to our children’s maths learning at home.
Teaching maths at home
Mathemagician Andrew Jeffrey suggests ways you can support your child’s maths development at home without needing to be an expert.
Money, money, money
Money isn’t everything, but being ‘good with money’ is undoubtedly a useful life skill. Read Fiona Lazenby’s top tips for practising using money with your child.
Maths is everywhere!
Maths expert Louise Pennington shares her advice for developing your child’s maths skills during school closures by exploring maths in the real world.
Learning at home: What can we learn from teachers?
Education expert James Clements talks about the lessons we can learn from teachers about helping your child to learn at home.
Learning at home: Learning to read
Education expert James Clements runs through everything you need to keep your child’s reading skills developing during the school lockdown.
Learning at home: Buying yourself some time
Education expert James Clements shares his ideas for keeping the children busy – in a constructive way – when you need to be getting on with something.
Learning at home: How to prioritise sharing a book
Education expert and writer James Clements talks about the importance of reading to your child to boost their educational success in all sorts of ways.
Learning at home: What would they be learning at school?
Education expert and writer James Clements explains what your child would be learning at school, and how we can use (or not use) the curriculum at home.
Learning at home: Things to get ready for next week
Education expert and writer James Clements suggests 6 practical things you get get ready over the weekend for next week’s learning at home.
Learning at home: Making a start
Educational expert and writer James Clements gives his 3 top tips of how to get started with teaching your child at home.
How to help your child with mental arithmetic
Building confidence in maths early on will pay back many times over. Get tips for developing your child’s mental arithmetic skills.
Fractions, decimals and percentages
Flummoxed by fractions? Dismayed by decimals? Perplexed by percentages? Get tips for exploring these tricky concepts at home.
11+ and entrance exams explained
11+ tutor and writer Michellejoy Hughes explains what the exam involves, how marking works, and what you can do to help your child prepare.
What do the KS2 SATs scores mean?
Education expert James Clements explains what the KS2 SATs are, how scaled scores work, and what you can expect to hear from your child’s school.
Countdown to the KS2 SATs: week one
Advice from James Clements about how you can help your child to do their very best in the KS2 national tests, and how the assessments can be approached so that they’re a positive experience for everyone involved.

Copyright Oxford University Press 2022
