Author: Lindsay Robinson
Lindsay has been a primary school teacher for 23 years and is passionate about achieving the very best outcomes for children through quality first teaching and experiences.
In this digital age that we are living in, we are seeing constant technological developments and many of these are so beneficial for the children in our classrooms. Digital practices can engage children; they can help to remove barriers to learning; and they can prepare our children for the future. So does this mean that the humble exercise book is no longer relevant in our classrooms? On the contrary, studies prove that traditional teaching and learning methods improve cognitive development, reading comprehension, and fine motor skills (Wollscheid, 2013*). Additionally, it has been found that children who write freehand exhibit increased brain activity that is linked with memory and learning compared with children who type (Audrey L. H. Van der Meer, 2023**). In my experience, this is merely one advantage to the use of exercise books in primary schools; there are so many benefits for both the teachers and the children.
Retention of Learning
Children are much more likely to retain learning if they revisit it. Encouraging regular review and repetition of learning from previous lessons
and previous units is a great way to get that learning to stick! In my school, we use short retrieval tasks at the start of each lesson, which the child sticks into their exercise book. They are encouraged to recall the learning from the previous lesson. In this way, the exercise book becomes the perfect aid-memoire, as the children are able to look back at the previous lesson’s work.
Pride and Ownership
Even after teaching for 23 years, it still makes me smile when I see the joy a child gets from starting a brand new, perfectly pristine, brightly coloured exercise book! They open that first page with intention; determined to show off their very neatest writing in their brand new book. I think it’s so important to encourage children to produce their highest quality work presented to the best of their ability; let’s encourage them to produce something that they can be proud of, ‘That was all me – I did that!’ There is always a real flurry of excitement in my classroom when a teacher from another class has sent a child in to show off their work. We look at the child’s exercise book under the visualiser and it’s always a real moment of celebration. If we are expecting this high quality work from the children, then it’s so important to provide them with a high quality product. The quality of the Classmates Exercise books is hard to beat at such an affordable price. The children really love the wide range of colours. The covers have a mottled finish; they are 100% woodfree, mottled solid board made from natural fibres from renewed and sustainable resources so this stops children doodling on the front; meaning that that ‘new book day’ feeling lasts and the children continue to take pride in their book from the very first page to the very last.
Classmates Exercise Books Range of Colours
Evidence of Progress and Attainment
The Ofsted Inspection Handbook*** states that ‘at any inspection, inspectors first priority is to collect first hand evidence’. This is far more preferable for most teachers than the previous, extremely unreliable way that teachers were observed in snapshot moments to judge standards. Our exercise books can showcase the children’s progress over time. Additionally, when curriculum leaders perform book looks in their subjects at my school, it is always wonderful to see the progression of standards as the children move through the year groups.
Writing is an area that is completely teacher assessed. The children’s extended writing exercise book holds evidence that the teacher needs to make a judgement on attainment. The children in my Year 6 class hold a special sense of pride for their extended writing book; it’s certainly the neatest book in their collection!
The Versatility of Exercise Books
In today’s classroom the humble exercise book of the past is no more. There is now an extensive range of books in various sizes and eye-catching colours that are suited to all the different areas of the classroom. I really like the A4+ books: no more trimming sheets before they are stuck in! The bigger books are also great for collaboration. The wide range of colours and sizes means that there’s a book to suit each subject. There are even choices with the ruling inside the books to suit the subject or to meet the age or ability of the child with different size squares or graph paper for maths and choices in the spacing of the ruled lines or even mixed-ruling types or plain pages: there really is a book to meet each
need and to meet each subject requirement.
SEND and neurodivergence are also catered for as the child’s exercise book can be personalised to meet their individual or group needs, with word banks, key spellings or key mathematical facts stuck in the front. There are also exercise books with coloured tinted paper, which are helpful for learners with dyslexia. There’s the option of using exercise book covers, which not only protects the book cover but also provides a handy way to store word banks for the most recent topic or even reading overlays for those children that need them.
A4 Book Covering – Clear – Pack of 50 Rhino A4 Tinted Paper Exercise Books
LDA Reading Overlays – Coloured
It’s clear to see that whilst we embrace the advances of teaching in a digital modern world, exercise books will always have a place at the heart of children’s education. They are an essential tool in supporting learning and development and help our pupils develop important skills: fine motor skills, understanding and memory, and a pride in their achievements.
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Sources: *sciencedirect.com: The impact of digital devices vs. Pen(cil) and paper on primary school students’ writing skills **frontiersin.org: Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity
Lindsay Robinson has been a primary school teacher for 23 years and is passionate about achieving the very best outcomes for children through quality first teaching and experiences. She strives to make her classroom a nurturing and caring environment. As an author for Hope Education, Lindsay enjoys drawing upon her own experiences in the classroom to support and encourage other teachers in their own classrooms.
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