Stepping Stones to Success

One of my favourite picture books is Carol Anne Duffy's 'Lost Happy Endings'. It’s a beautiful story with fantastic language and a slightly edgier feel to a traditional fairy tale. This year, I used this story as the hook to explore: rich vocabulary, atmosphere and storytelling ✍️

Before writing their own independent narrative pieces, we built up the skills needed step by step:
👉using powerful adjectives to describe settings and characters
👉exploring the difference between positive and negative descriptions
👉securing sentence demarcation and punctuation
👉using time openers to mark new sections of a story and help writing flow smoothly

Everything is taught in context, lesson by lesson, so the children can gradually apply new skills with confidence rather than feeling overwhelmed.

By the end of the unit, they had produced cohesive pieces of writing full of atmosphere, detail and imagination - they even got to write this up in gold pen on black paper!

We have played the memory game with this set of cards so many times this weekend...at my daughter's request!

Why not combine FUN + vocab + spellings + attention & focus ... all in one 😅 My little teacher heart sings with joy! 😂

Zero lists, rote learning, screens! Games that can be played with the family. 🥰🥰🥰

If you want your own printable set, link’s in the comments 👇

I love finding ways to make learning feel fun and active.

When it clicks like this, it doesn’t feel like work. But, they’re picking up vocabulary and spelling patterns without even noticing.

This is my latest addition to my Build-a-Word game (still working like magic!). I was inspired by a Japanese card game I used to love as a child - Karuta. This is the beginning of my 'SILENT BUT DEADLY' pack which I will be creating over the next few weeks!

I’ve designed the images in an anime style (because who doesn’t love this style?) and it’s been a great hook🥰🥰🥰

There are multiple ways to play with these cards! Each becoming more challenging:
• match the image to the word (with definition and example sentence)
• memory matching game to build recall
• karuta-style: listen to a sentence, spot the correct image, say and spell the word
• build-a-word (using letter cubes from my Y3/4 edition)

No worksheets!!! Just repetition, recall, and a lot of fun!!!! 🤩🤩

Last term, we were working on my 'Creatures of Shadow Forest' non-fiction unit, based on the characters from Matt Haig’s fabulous novel 'Shadow Forest', with my Year 3 groups ✍️

Before finishing with their own independent non-fiction piece, we built up the skills needed step by step:
👉exploring complex sentences
👉learning and applying suffixes
👉securing rich Tier 2 vocabulary
👉understanding non-fiction tone and layout

Each lesson builds on the last, everything is taught in context, and the children finish with a meaningful, cohesive final piece of writing.

This is exactly the kind of structured approach I use in my sessions to help children grow in confidence and become more independent writers - this unit had them hooked from the start🥰

I adapted a simple spelling game idea into a KS2 version focused on Y3/4 statutory tricky words.

I trialled it with my daughter (Y3), using the first 39 statutory words. She got 19 wrong at baseline. After just 2 weeks of playing for a few minutes every other day:

👉 42% of those previously incorrect words are now correct.

What I’ve loved most about this is that it’s been:

✔ zero worksheets
✔ zero writing words out multiple times (yawn)
✔ engaging
✔ hands-on

Interestingly, the words that appeared most often were the ones that stuck fastest - a lovely reminder of how much repeated exposure matters.

Really pleased with how well this has supported repetition, recall and confidence.

Why Writing Matters ✍️

Writing is more than just putting words on a page—it's a powerful tool for expressing thoughts, boosting creativity, and developing critical thinking skills. At KS2, nurturing a love for writing is crucial as it helps children articulate their ideas clearly, enhances their imagination, and strengthens their ability to communicate effectively. Whether crafting stories, penning essays, or exploring poetry, writing empowers children to explore their world and build confidence in their abilities.

If you want to help your child unlock their full potential and discover the joy of writing, I’m here to support their journey every step of the way. Get in touch to learn more about how tailored tutoring can make a difference! 🌟

It's such a great pleasure to see progress! Well done to all the pupils I teach. I'd love to share all of their work, but here are 2 pieces of independent writing from one pupil!

Just like the name of my tutoring business suggests, the key to success is through a range of activities that scaffold its way, creating small achievable stepping stones to the point of independent application! What is scaffolded learning? See below :)

At Stepping Stones to Success, children are grouped into similar abilities which still makes areas of learning targeted and bespoke. Sessions will still often incorporate differentiated learning depending on how quickly a child picks up particular concepts. These are factored into each session and are met based on lesson-by-lesson, on-the-spot assessments.

Small group tutoring offers several advantages over 1:1 tuition, including:

Enhanced Interaction: Small group settings foster peer interactions, allowing pupils to learn from each other’s questions and contributions, which can deepen understanding and encourage diverse perspectives.

Collaborative Learning: Working in groups can enhance problem-solving skills as pupils collaborate to tackle problems; this promotes higher-level thinking and teamwork skills.

Increased Engagement: Small group can make learning more engaging and less intimidating than one-on-one sessions, as pupils often feel more comfortable and less on the spot.

Motivation and Competition: Being part of a group can motivate pupils to keep up and excel, encouraging a healthy competitive spirit that can drive them to perform better.

Cost-Effective: Small group tutoring is more affordable per pupil than individual tutoring

A dedicated learning space! Looking forward to the start of next term so I can get going with all the fabulous learning that happens in this mini-classroom 📚