An Introduction to VCOP
What does VCOP mean?
Ros Wilson has spent 45 years working in Education
in the UK. She realised that good writing consisted
of 4 key components alongside accurate grammar,
spelling and sense.
V- Vocabulary
C- Connectives
O- Openers
P- Punctuation
VCOP sessions should take place daily for 5 minutes
or so at the start of an English lesson. The sessions
should be quite lively and focus on oral work as
much as written.
Soooo…what might a VCOP session
look like?
First, there would be a focus e.g.
Connectives
Connectives are words used to link
together sentences. They can also act as
‘signposts’ between sentences and
paragraphs to help the reader make
sense of a piece of writing.
Which connectives could you use
between these pairs of sentences?
It was raining. I went home.
I felt overcome with relief. School had finished for the
holidays.
I have one brother. I have one sister.
Kung Fu Punctuation
Kung Fu Punctuation is a kinaesthetic way of
teaching punctuation. It is a lively and fun
activity that helps to reinforce different types
of punctuation using funky moves.
Good writing uses many different ways of opening
sentences, for example:
* Emergent Writers: I, Mum, Dad, The, He, She etc
* Time connectives: First, After a while, Later etc
* Subordinating connectives: Because, Although,
However, Despite etc
* Connectives to add information: As well as,
Additionally, Furthermore etc
* Adverbs: Quickly, I ran. Suddenly, a dog barked.
* Verbs: Tired, Joe stumbled on wearily. Terrified, I
leapt out of the window.
Amongst the many other ways….!
Providing sentence scaffolds to help children
structure sentences using a variety of openers.
As well as ______________,
I also like ______________.
Model an example for children to use as a scaffold then
ask them to come up with their own ideas.
Uplevelling sentences to include exciting
vocabulary!
This can be effective when pupils are able to work in pairs/groups
and an element of competition is added e.g. Personal Points/smiley
face/just being called ‘the winning group’!
The boy went home
.
This is a terribly dull sentence. Can you work in pairs/groups
to uplevel and improve it?
(Thesauruses are always fab to have out as children will experiment with much more language.
Even though it is often incorrectly used at first, this is part of the learning curve and they should
be encouraged to experiment.)
How could you support pupils
during a VCOP session in class?
• Working with individuals/groups
• Scribing ideas as the teacher gathers them
• Also, use the ideas during intervention sessions/
group work.
Maths Interventions
Sometimes pupils are not working at the level expected
for their age group.
Since the Learning Mentors have arrived, we have been
able to begin implementing more intervention groups to
try to close the gaps and accelerate the progress for
those pupils.
This year, we want to continue with this to target those
pupils who have gaps in their leaning.
What are the ‘levels’ pupils should
be working at in each year group?
By the end of Year 1, the age related expectation is a 1b/1a.
By the end of Year 2, the age related expectation is a 2b.
By the end of Year 3, the age related expectation is a 2a/3c.
By the end of Year 4, the age related expectation is a 3b.
By the end of Year 5, the age related expectation is a 3a/4c.
By the end of Year 6, the age related expectation is a 4b.
What does each level look like?
On you table you will find some copies of documents called
‘Securing Level…’
These are saved on the system so can be printed at any time.
Have a look through them to see what children would be
expected to be able to do at each of the levels. These will be used
to inform your planning for intervention groups.
We have a range of interventions available for you to use to
support pupils in your year group.
All of them focus on Number skills and Problem Solving rather
than Shape or Data Handling as without a secure understanding
of numbers, they will not be able to do an awful lot with shape
or data anyway!
It also carries the most weighting in terms of the amount of
teaching time and types of questions on assessments.
What can we use to plan our intervention groups?
Year 1:
• Max’s Magic Maths
• Securing Level 1
Year 2
• Securing Level 1 or 2 (or 3 for the G & T groups)
• Wave 3 (for pupils working far below age related
expectations who are expected to achieve Level 1 at the end
of Year 2)
Year 3
• Securing Level 1 or 2 or 3
• Springboard 3 (for pupils who are working slightly below age
related expectations)
• Wave 3 (as above)
Year 4
• Securing Level 2 or 3 (or 4 for G & T groups)
• Springboard 4
• Wave 3
• Overcoming Barriers Level 2-3
Year 5
• Securing Level 2 or 3 or 4
• Springboard 5
• Wave 3
• Overcoming Barriers Level 2-3
Year 6
• Securing Levels 3 or 4 (or 5 for G & T groups)
• Springboard 6
• Wave 3
• Year 6 Booster Lessons
But where are all these amazing
resources?
I hear you cry….
As all the UK Government resources were archived, the best place
to find resources is:
http://www.ness.uk.com/maths/intervention-materials.htm
http://www.wirralmbc.gov.uk/VLE_Live_Resources/resources/level_2_3/index.html
And on the system at…
British Curriculum- Subject Leaders- Maths 2011-2012- What Can I
do and Securing Levels
Calculations in SRS
Here at SRS, we have a clear calculations policy
that is taught throughout the school.
When you are working with groups or individuals,
please ensure you are teaching the methods
that the children are being taught, regardless
of how bonkers it might seem compared to when
you were at school!!
Current practise has a much greater focus on
both mental strategies and understanding
calculations rather than rote learning a method.