What ShREC looks like on a busy Tuesday

ShREC looks beautiful on a training slide. Share attention, Respond, Expand, Conversation. Then you walk into a Reception classroom at 10.15 on a Tuesday with 30 children, two adults and a fire drill pending, and it feels a lot less tidy.

So here's what it actually looks like in my room, mess and all.

The single biggest change I made was physical. I sit on the floor, or on one of the tiny chairs, and I wait. I don't open with a question.

Children notice when you've arrived to be with them rather than to check on them.

When a child says "It's a car," I don't ask "What colour is it?" I respond to what they're thinking about:

• "A car! Where's it going?"
• "It's going really fast down that ramp."
• "I wonder what would happen if the ramp was higher."

That last one is the expand. One idea, one new word, and then I stop talking.

The aim is five back-and-forth turns. Not a quiz, a conversation. If you want to read more, the Education Endowment Foundation has a brilliant summary of the research.