Are you a primary school teacher who uses sparklebox? Help pls?

[Deleted User]

Thanks for all replies.

The reference to using it as a dictionary is a great idea, thanks. Will do.

Just checked with my husband who works in West (county) and he says non of the west county use sparklebox. But we live in East (county) and some of the schools still do. Hence this resource.

I realise the words will be hard and the aim is to learn them but he is only 5.5yrs, so I am wondering what level they are aimed at. At the phonics lesson last week, this sheet would have been lost of the whole class. My son's reading books are in the middle of the class ability, so hence my question.

SamN, i guess my question was how best to use this sheet and what age its aimed at.

kingfisherblue

If you don't want your child to use this resource, you could ask the teacher for another list that has been taken from a different website. Personally, I don't feel comfortable supporting a website whose creator is a !!!!!phile. There may be a few teachers, especially those who have qualified recently, who are unaware of this fact. I can't imagine that there are many who would willingly support the site, and there are plenty of other resources on the web.

laurel7172

annie_d wrote: »

My husband is a primary school teacher who refuses to use sparklebox due to its creator being a peodophile.

Our local authority has blocked it from all school computers in the city for the same reason.

On one level, I can see that could be a bit hysterical, but frankly, the name Sparklebox made everyone's skin crawl once we knew.

daveyjp

Never heard of it.

Our daughter is in year one and has learnt words at home purely by reading the books she brings home. Any words she doesn't know we write on a large piece of paper stuck to a door and she reads the list a couple of times a day.

Before Christmas she was at level 3, her latest book is level 8.

In June this year all year one children will be tested on phonics. It appears the 200 list is a teacher under pressure to get children to learn a lot quickly.

[Deleted User]

I wonder why our county hasn't done that then, its not as if they wouldn't know. All the teachers at the school are established and not new.

I have to say the resources that sparklebox provide are excellent, maybe that is why the county continue to allow them. I don't know. I suspect this is a county led thing rather than an individual school one.

I'll have to find out.

Just so I dont have egg on my face, the creator of sparklebox was definitely proven to be a p............... I have only heard about it from hearsay, I must have missed the news etc. I don't get to watch it anymore. I'm more likely to hear things on the radio in the car at the mo.

[Deleted User]

Daveyjp, that isn't the case at all, we only have the list as i asked for it.

I should have said, but when DS started school each child was given some key words on a tag. As each set was mastered, a new one was added. After 5 sets, a set of 100 words was given, a lot of the high frequency words from the tags were present, but a lot were new.

Now our son has mastered 90% of this list, upon my asking, he has now been given the next sheet. That is how we come to have it. Just a teacher saying, when you done with that, there is this. They arent rushing the kids at all. Many are still struggling with the words on a tag. Its reception level.

I'm hoping come Year 1, some of the reception play will be left behind. I'm told by Yr1 parents, they do start to knuckle down, reception is the middle ground from nursery to school. DS is capable of more at school now and I feel he is ready for the next challenge.

sneezyboots

Sparklebox is not really meant as a high-frequency word resource but more of a display type resource. I wouldn't trust stuff like word lists on there. Better off going down the official routes for things like that.

Sparklebox is filtered in our school due to the creator but staff are not banned from using it at home and bringing stuff in. I downloaded some stuff off there a few years back and actually photoshopped out the logos because I don't like logos on displays. When I found out about the creator I went around my classroom tearing down loads of display stuff but have since decided if there is something I have already downloaded on my laptop (with the logo removed) and I can't find an alternative anywhere I will use it as I don't actually need to go back on the site.

thegirlintheattic

Deleted_User wrote: »

I have to say the resources that sparklebox provide are excellent, maybe that is why the county continue to allow them. I don't know. I suspect this is a county led thing rather than an individual school one.

Some counties have banned it but most rely on the common sense and morals of the teachers.

As for the 'quality' of the resources. Any half decent teacher could make the stuff on Sparklebox in a spare 10 mins.

sneezyboots

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

As for the 'quality' of the resources. Any half decent teacher could make the stuff on Sparklebox in a spare 10 mins.

Whether you agree with the morals of using the site or not that is a ridiculous thing to say. There are no other sites out there even similar in quality and quantity that are free and I would like to see you make the things on there in 10 mins.
Plus I have never met a teacher with a spare 10 mins!

kingfisherblue

Deleted_User wrote: »

Just so I dont have egg on my face, the creator of sparklebox was definitely proven to be a p............... I have only heard about it from hearsay, I must have missed the news etc. I don't get to watch it anymore. I'm more likely to hear things on the radio in the car at the mo.

Read the links in my first post for proof. If you google. you'll find plenty more links as further proof.