One great way of starting is to remind the class of the really good things they did in the last lesson. You could pick out the names of the children who did well – although try to not pick the same people. Then you can encourage them to do even better in the current lesson. For example:

• “James, well done on completing the story you wrote last lesson. I’m sure you will do just as well at today’s task.”
• “Linda, you managed really well to understand ‘x’ concept in our last maths lesson. Let’s see how well we can build on that this lesson.”

The beauty of using this strategy is that it anticipates a good lesson. How often do teachers start a lesson moaning and nagging children? Sometimes you even see teachers writing names on a board for detention at the beginning of the lesson. This is totally the wrong approach.

This method enables you to quickly set up a strong sense of success and because it’s based on the last lesson, it makes all the children feel reasonably confident that they can achieve something at least as well as last time.

However, in order for this to be totally effective, you must ensure that you have good notes of what happened in each lesson and highlight which children did particularly well.

Once you have delivered this upbeat message, you can then launch straight into your starter.

Another great way to involve the children right from the start of the lesson is to have a set of flash cards ready with answers to simple questions with one-word answers. For example, “Which country is Mount Everest in?” You could use A4 cards with large lettering, and even better if you use card in a variety of different colours.

Hand the cards to your children as they come in and then start asking them questions. To reply they must hold up the correct card. For example, the child who has Nepal would hold up their card in response to the question. You can of course adapt the questions for any subject. It has the advantage of:

• involving the children straight away in the lesson and focussing their attention on you;
• giving them something physical to do;
• being easy for them as no writing is required;
• allowing them to respond without talking.

I would love to hear your ideas about how you start lessons effectively, and if you try either of these strategies, please let me know how it goes.