Communication Champion in ‘Shine-a-Light’ awards

In 2018 Pip St John was awarded ‘Communication Champion’ in the UK-wide ‘Shine-a-Light’ awards. Pip was an apt winner as she truly was a champion of children’s communication.

Pip St John’s Journal Articles

A collection of journal articles from Pip St John

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Pre Teaching Vocabulary (PTV) group delivery

By Pip St John

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary (PTV)

A teaching resource conceived and developed by Pip St John, and published in October 2016 under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 Licence.

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Pre-Teaching Vocabulary (PTV) Whole Class Demonstration – Year 4

By Pip St John

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary (PTV) Whole Class Demonstration – Year 6

By Pip St John

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary Prompt Cards and Resources

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary (PTV) is a vocabulary teaching methodology that uses symbols and pictures from Communicate in Print (or CIP, see http://www.widgit.com) on visual prompt cards to support teaching children how to learn new words.

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Research Skills LfL Question Cards

By Pip St John

These cards contain questions which may be used by the adult and/or placed in the challenge area for children to work independently to extend their thinking about a story or an account whilst interacting with a text (fiction or non-fiction). Many teachers recognise that when children work with non-fiction texts they often do no more than simply copy passages from their reference source albeit a book/web page, with little evidence of learning. They will need to be altered according to the main text / story or account given to the children but could still provide a starting point for use in class.

Sentence Builders

Developed by Pip St John

Sentence builders are made for both fiction and non-fiction texts and can be a springboard for teachers to create their own. The sentence builders specifically aim to reduce the pressure on children to be able to create and construct their ideas into a written form without the worry of whether they can spell and/or recall any of the key words. There are further blank sentence builders on which children can input the information from text themselves.

Sentence builders can support language development across the curriculum and provide and model a sentence frame on the whiteboard or a wall. Encourage learners to use the frame for speaking and in writing: e.g. to make predictions, offer cause effect statements, describe a process etc.

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Sentence Builders Blank Frames

Developed by Pip St John

These are blank frames Pip St John used within schools to support story and account writing using BSP key visuals. Adapt, amend and change according to your need.

• story planner Reception
• story planner KS1
• story planner KS2
• A5 Narrative squares for class
• MASTER writing grid