By Karen Crichton Vocabulary – digraph (a sound made of two letters ex: ay), trigraph (a sound made of three letters ex: igh), phoneme (a sound ex: oo – that can be made in different ways), grapheme (unique letters that together make a sound ex: sh, oo, ie). Clarification there is one phoneme ‘er’, but […]
This week is an important one in our family. My wonderful grandson will find out if his first choice of primary school will be available. This is all done online after various school visits and lots of parental discussions. It’s a far cry from what I did as a parent, and also nothing like what
School Ready or not?! Read More »
Written by Karen Crichton Phonics is the study of the sounds that letters make both individually and together. It has been shown, through practical application, that children will learn to read and spell more quickly if taught how to use their phonic knowledge. This blog is intended to give parents an idea of the phonics
Phonics: A brief overview Read More »
As I am typing this blog entry I am sitting in my kitchen in the early dusk of a December day. There is a tumble of dogs in front of the woodburner and the occasional click of the metal expanding with the heat. It is starting to feel like the end of the year and
By Karen Crichton one of our Blackhen tutors What do you do when your child isn’t learning anything at school? Oh my… Where to begin?I suppose at the start – which now is twenty years ago!We moved to France when Jake was 9. In England, he was above average in his class, a little lazy
What do you do when your child isn’t learning anything at school? Read More »
September is around the corner. My Summer has been very full. Full of the joys of family, full of picking baby tomatoes and full of Blackhen planning for this year. September has always been my equivalent of New Year. I think I am wired as a teacher for this period to be one of resolutions
Blackhen has been busy recently. Not only have our students sat their exams in various centres across the world, but we are all working behind the scenes on boosting our social media and updating our Units. Time moves fast and we want our tasks to be fresh, relevant and super engaging for all our pupils.
Whilst the Gothic genre is familiar to many, a more niche area of this, Southern Gothic, is less so. The term is derived from gothic and from its usual setting, the Deep South of the USA. Southern Gothic can be found in film, music and literature. Possibly the most famous and widely read example of
Southern Gothic Literature Read More »
Do you ever say or think these words ‘There just isn’t enough time to study/ read/ write (delete as appropriate)? Many of our students study with BH along with demanding school schedules. It may be for their Brevet or another exam course. Many students do have very demanding schedules and with BH units, time does
The World Is your classroom Read More »
So here we are on the last day of November also St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Scotland. If you don’t know who St. Andrew was, then click on the link for some interesting facts about him. I always feel excited at the end of November, knowing that we are going into December and
Preparing for Christmas….. Read More »