Collins Learning

Welcome to Gatsby’s kaleidoscopic carnival!

In the 1920s, when ‘morals were looser and liqueur was cheaper’, society parties were the be-all and end-all of life. A good party made you a good person. Like Gatsby, Hemmingway loved a cocktail party but they are not all about frivolity and fun, there is etiquette and conversation to… Read More

Top 10 ideas for teaching Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Stevenson himself is an interesting character, admitting that what began as nightmares in childhood eventually became full and extensive images and scenes of horror that could last up to a day. Medical professionals in today’s society would probably would call these episodes paranoid delusions or the results of lack of… Read More

Closing the Word Gap

On the 27th of April Collins hosted the first Closing the Word Gap early reading conference. The conference was led by early reading experts Charlotte Raby and Emily Guille-Marrett who discussed comprehension, fluency, phonics and reading for pleasure. We’ve rounded up some of the key findings from the day below. The… Read More

Teaching for mastery: The pros and cons

Written by Jo Lees Jo has taught and led mathematics in primary and secondary settings. She is a former member of ACME and is on the MA committee for CPD. In her current post, apart from co-authoring The Shanghai Maths Project for Collins, Jo leads a large local authority… Read More

Hertingfordbury Primary review Snap Science

We recently visited Hertingfordbury Cowper Primary school and had a fantastic day talking to the teachers and the children about Snap Science. Alison Richards (Head Teacher) and Helen Sizer (Deputy Head) told us how Snap Science has improved the teaching of the science curriculum… Read More

Kloodle: Students and Employability

I recently blogged about a “teachmeet’ event that I attended in Manchester and one of the things I was introduced to here was Kloodle; I felt that this needed a blog of its own. One of the biggest challenges for today’s graduates is making themselves… Read More

GCSE Science Festival 2016: Round-Up

From the 11th – 14th April, Collins hosted the first virtual GCSE Science Festival. A week packed with expert insight, invaluable advice, resources – even a Twitter chat about the new GCSE Science curriculum. #Scifest16 was launched with a new blog post on Freedom to Teach,… Read More

How to…prepare for the new times tables test

In January, the UK Government announced plans to test every pupil in England on their times tables before leaving primary school. An effective way to prepare pupils for the new times tables tests is by using the new Collins' Times Tables Simulator Read More

Getting the Most from Group Work

On a recent TeachMeet training course at Manchester College, I was lucky enough to watch some great speakers looking at things such as Going Google, using Kloodle (more on this in a later blog) and raising attainment strategies. One of the other topics covered was a recap ways of how… Read More

Chemical Anniversaries: 1766 – John Dalton and the Atom

John Dalton was born two hundred and fifty years ago. During his lifetime he saw many changes to chemistry, many the result of his own work. His contributions are an important part of school science today. John was born in the village of Eaglesfield, Cumbria in north-west England,… Read More