Firstly we will consider Collaboration. Although there are lots of opportunities given in school for collaboration in groups and teams, from quick conversations through to group projects, it’s online where collaboration can mimic, and therefore prepare students for, the world of work. There are an increasing number of jobs where remote working and flexible working is in option. Collaboration via technology, and cloud-based systems, is key to ensuring teams can work together, whether they are all working on one document or collating documents and work together in one online folder for dissemination across the company. There are plenty of tools which schools are using for this already in an educational setting – Google Drive and Microsoft O365 are examples of this. The Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams tools have been developed following feedback from schools who wanted to take online working further for their students.

This also leads nicely into the second C – Communication. Again there are options in Microsoft and Google suites which encourage communication. Many other more educational technology products also facilitate this. Learning Platforms in many forms, including home-school communications and homework tools, all form part of a wider communication structure in any organisation. In business a popular tool is Slack, which many schools also use for staff communications even if not for students. Whatsapp is also increasingly common as a communication tool for education and work, not just for social chats and organising nights out!

Creativity is the third C and probably the trickiest to pin down. Is using a “creative” tool such as iPad drawing apps or online movie making tools classed as genuine creativity? Maybe so. But also creativity can be defined as simply finding new, better or more efficient, ways of doing things we have always done. In schools this may manifest as using video tools such as Flip Grid for Pupil Voice, or using VR to teach someone about a situation they have not experienced before. In work places technology may allow for more creative ways of running a team across multiple continents, or finding a way to cut costs by using new technology to calculate packaging needs.

Finally we come to the 4th C – Critical Thinking. Here things get really exciting in education and in the workplace. Critical Thinking has the capacity to change the world, even if often only for a specific need. The ability to evaluate what we do, think of entirely new inventions, and the capacity to see that through to fruition, are very tricky skills to build authentically into the curriculum. Yet programmes such as Apps for Good, who got to schools and also run national competitions, have resulted in students creating amazing new apps with a view to making genuine change in the world.

More generally, anything we do to use technology in a positive way, being the role models in front of students and giving them opportunities to try multiple ways of working and applying their skills across the curriculum, the more likely it is that we give them the skills that will follow them through life – making them more likely to go past what can be a very superficial application of technology and social media.

The power of story has been long recognised and researched – and Goldsmiths University of London have found one particular storytelling resource to be making a big difference to schools.

Tales Toolkit puts quality interactions at the heart of everything they do. Created by an ex deputy head teacher while working in some of the most deprived areas of London, Tales Toolkit uses story, a powerful learning gizmo, to engage children. All resources are labelled with easily recognised symbols for Character, setting, problem and solution giving the children skills to independently weave magical tales. Stories are created using anything to hand from a picture of Mum or favourite toy to a conker. Once children are confident storytellers there are lots of resources to get them writing their tales.

Being symbol based all children can easily understand and remember the story structure, even those not yet reading or speaking English. And – you’re going to like this bit – because Tales Toolkit is led by the children there’s little or no planning involved.

Schools that sign up are provided with a package of physical resources along with a year’s subscription to online training for all staff. With the budget crisis, schools are commenting that training provided in this way, where all staff are trained with no need for supply costs, helps them provide the CPD that’s much needed.

{youtube}0aMF9rLyhRU{/youtube}

One headteacher commented ‘All staff, new and experienced, have embraced Tales Toolkit with real enthusiasm and we are reaping the benefits from our equally enthusiastic children. Our children are talking more, confidently telling creative stories as well as engaging in mark making earlier than we usually see it. A real strength is the quality of the training materials which bring together a wealth of sound practice in an accessible and supportive format which you can watch again and again, and we have!’

Stockport, Rochdale and Oxfordshire boroughs have invested local authority money to provide Tales Toolkit for schools in their area. Some of their schools were involved in the research from Goldsmiths which found Tales Toolkit made a significant impact made to children’s language and communication, social skills, literacy and creativity. Schools using Tales Toolkit closed the gender gap in literacy by 62% while control schools saw the gap widen by 22%.

Tales Toolkit while mainly UK based, is now being used in over 200 schools in 12 countries. Winning a number of awards from Teach First, UnLtd, Teach Early Years and Nursery World.

To find out more, read case studies from schools and join their free to attend webinars with top education experts visit their website www.talestoolkit.com or drop an email to info@talestoolkit.com

This is why, now more than ever before, it is essential to look ahead and to teach and train young people to be independent, to learn how to learn, and to love this process and this journey because this is what will enable and empower them to face whatever life throws at them in the future. Educating the youth of today requires placing emphasis not only on learning and acquiring a solid core of knowledge, but also, and possibly more importantly, on developing skills that will allow them to thrive in the world. These so-called 21st century skills are Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical thinking: the Four Cs.
But how do we take these concepts and bring them to life in the classroom? There is no secret recipe, but using tech certainly facilitates our efforts. Here are some strategies and activities I have used and have been successful. Feel free to adopt, adapt, and add to them.

Collaboration
In my school, we have started using Microsoft Teams. This has enabled us to maintain a constant and open dialogue amongst staff, but also between teachers and students, and amongst students themselves. I encourage my classes to ask questions in the team space and to attempt to answer them. Often a single student cannot answer the question raised, but by putting in his or her two cents, this triggers someone else to add to the discussion, and very soon, everyone has benefited from everyone else’s input. This yields a far richer experience than if the first student had simply emailed me a question and I had provided guidance or an answer. Teams is not the only software out there that allows these types of group discussion. Showbie, Socrative, Class Dojo or Canvas all offer similar capabilities for collaboration.

Communication
In addition to the collaborative benefits of some of the software options mentioned above, there are clear communication benefits, in the ease with which messages can be passed on and shared in real time. But I want to talk about a different aspect of communication.

I am a teacher of languages (mostly), so you can imagine how important communication has always been to me. I believe language learners should take risks and attempt to use the language they are learning, even if they make mistakes. But I don’t need to tell you how daunting that prospect can be, especially for a teenager in front of a whole class of teenagers. So here is where tech comes in. I have used voice recognition software to help students practise their pronunciation. They need to read out a short extract, focusing on pronouncing all words correctly in Spanish. If their pronunciation is clear, Siri, Cortana, or Google Assistant will transcribe accurately. But if they muddle the sounds, the output will be wrong. And I don’t need to tell them. They realize it themselves and work independently on improving their productions. So when they do speak out in class and try to communicate with me, other students, or even Spanish people, they are much more effective and feel more secure.

Creativity
We all have our strengths, but creativity is not one of mine. Fortunately for my students, my limitations in this area do not need to be their limitations too. Using the students’ devices has allowed me to let my students unleash their creativity. I will often set up a task that has two possible formats: one, a given task that enables my students to use the language we have been studying (for example); and another in which the use of the language is necessary, but the actual outcome is completely up to the individuals or groups undertaking the task. For instance, with my Year 7 Spanish class we were studying physical descriptions. I asked them to find a photograph online of someone they admired and gave them a choice between writing a description of the person in the photograph or creating a “Wanted” poster. Those who chose the second option produced brilliant posters and really went to town on the descriptions, taking risks they may not have done if they had simply written a description. We voted on the best posters and put them on display in the classroom. So in addition to meeting our academic aims, I was able to update my display boards with little effort from myself. And the kids were very proud of their work. The next time I gave them a choice, even more students chose the creative task. Win-win!

Critical thinking
In my classroom I have a big sign showing the five Bs: Brain, Board, Book, Buddy, Boss. The use of technology in the classroom has expanded the meaning of Board and Book, and therefore allowed me to push my students to higher order thinking from the very first lesson. I aim to give them the tools so that they can make their own connections and tackle increasingly challenging tasks. And if they ask or say that they don’t know how to do the task set, I always guide them back to the resources I have made available to them that provide enough scaffolding for them to stretch themselves and learn new concepts. For example, I will give my GCSE Spanish students an “open book” grammar test. “Open book” means that they can use their textbooks (online), plus Quizlet (online vocabulary learning tool), plus grammar reference pages… anything, except for automatic translators. But the tasks in the test are about putting concepts in practice, so even with all those tools, they have to think in order to figure out what rule to apply, how it should be used, and finally provide an answer. The first time we do it, everyone thinks it will be super easy… they soon learn that thinking is much more difficult than memorizing, but the benefits are spectacular. After one of these tests, if I give them an exam-style writing task, they always improve their scores.

Focusing on developing these skills is crucial. We don’t know what the future has in store for our students. But if they know how to think critically, collaborate with each other by using good communication strategies, and have some creativity to draw from, we will have equipped them with strong, useful tools to tackle the challenges they will face, even those we cannot yet foresee.

Early in my teaching career, I did a lot of work around assessment for learning (AFL). I found that embedding the principles of AFL into my teaching of writing to be particularly effective. Here I’ve laid out some of my key learnings, and also explained how they led to the development of Pobble, an award winning approach to teaching writing.

My approach to the teaching of writing

Provide exemplar texts
I consider every writing unit to be a journey. The first step is always to look at example texts with the children. We would discuss the texts together, considering their strengths and weaknesses. We would then agree how we might reach our final destination and what a piece of writing at this final point would look like.

At the beginning of my teaching career I used to create these exemplars myself. However, in time, I began to photo-copy children’s writing and use these as my example texts. I found that the more exemplars I could share with the children for them to review and discuss, the more ideas they would introduce into their own work. By observing the children reviewing the texts I could also make quick assessments as to the key features of the text that I needed to focus my teaching on. As a class we could then discuss these features and generate success criteria together.

We initially launched the Pobble website as a simple means of sharing our exemplar texts with other teachers within our network. Rather than photocopy, we photographed our examples and posted them to the Pobble website, which we opened up to teachers anywhere.

What started out as a small initiative in a classroom in North Yorkshire has now grown into perhaps the largest online bank of children’s handwritten work in the world. We have hundreds of thousands of searchable handwritten texts sorted by age group, genre and topic and we even pick out the best examples for teachers to use as model texts. I’m proud to be regularly told that Pobble is now a “must have” for all primary teachers.

You can sign up for free access to Pobble’s bank of handwritten exemplars here.

Find a great stimulus
As well as sharing exemplars with the children I always thought carefully at the beginning of the writing journey about the stimulus needed for our writing activities. I used high quality texts, video clips, experiences (like music or sport), extracts from books and over time, lots of imagery. Finding good images was often a real challenge, particularly for creative writing. This prompted us to create Pobble 365, which introduces an inspiring image with a number of writing activities for each day of the year. Pobble 365 is now used by over 10,000 classrooms around the world every single day!

As more websites and resource providers entered the market, finding high quality resources became even more challenging and time consuming. My colleagues and I would spend hours on search engines looking for content, or we would default to our favourite websites, even though we knew they were repetitive for the children.

At Pobble we realised that we could save teachers so much time by bringing together resources from multiple providers. We surveyed our teacher community and identified the resource providers most respected by our peers. We created partnerships with those providers so teachers could search across multiple providers in one place on Pobble. This enabled teachers to build high quality lessons quicker and as a result, have more time to focus on how they might deliver their key teaching points.

Pobble’s lesson delivery tool now also includes slides designed to help teachers build a sequence of lessons, including opportunities to reflect on success criteria, learning objectives, activities and key questions. Teachers can also easily adapt their lessons based on the informal judgements they are making throughout the teaching cycle.

You can access Pobble 365 for free here.

Promote independent learning

In my experience, both as a teacher of 16 years and of working in hundreds of schools with Pobble over the last four years, the biggest challenge still facing many teachers is providing engaging writing tasks. In my classroom I used exemplar texts to drive independent analysis and learning from my pupils, and we have carefully built this into Pobble too.

Our pupil logins allow children access to the exemplars on Pobble. They can read work, not just from the child sat next to them or the WAGOLL* selected by their teacher, but from their peers from around the world. This immediately improves engagement as the children are excited to read work from beyond their school community. This also allows the children to magpie ideas and use them to improve their own work, independently, or in groups.

The children are also supported in leaving high quality, structured feedback on the work of other pupils in their class, school or from around the world. By giving children access to work from their peers which they can relate to, they are far better equipped to move forward confidently with their own piece of independent work.

*WAGOLL – what a good one looks like.

You can sign up for a webinar providing a detailed demonstration of Pobble here.

Create a purpose to write
Children need to feel like there is a real purpose for their writing. Children I have worked with have always been more inspired to write when they know their writing will be seen. This behaviour is consistent across every age group and ability that I have taught. This could be achieved through sharing work on a class display, providing opportunities to visit other classrooms, or event visiting the headteacher.

As schools began to embrace technology, opportunities emerged to share writing through school websites and pupil blogs. My last class of 39 Year 5 pupils loved blogging and were proud to have their work published each week. However, as a school leader it was a challenge to get other teachers blogging with the same enthusiasm as me.

Whilst creating Pobble I wanted to support teachers to use this type of technology whilst reducing the workload burden that it might create. For example, Pobble schools choose up to 5 children a week to be published. By limiting the amount of work published each week, not only did we reduce the additional workload from these types of activities, there was an even greater incentive for children to produce their best work. Pobble also moderates all comments on writing centrally, again reducing the burden on teachers in keeping online activities safe.

In my classroom, and later supported by Pobble, children learnt to review, edit and redraft work always producing their best piece to potentially showcase to an audience. This began to have a noticeable impact on attainment. Technology and Pobble enhanced these activities, enabling easy sharing with parents, and the creation of online portfolios of writing to support moderation.

School leaders, to find out how to use Pobble in your school, you can book a discussion with Simon here.

Facilitate teacher collaboration through assessment and moderation

When teaching in year 2 and year 6 I regularly attended local authority moderation events. These were always well attended and the LEA advisers tried hard to make them effective. However, as a relatively shy teacher, I often came away frustrated. We’d only looked at a few pieces of writing, a couple of teachers had dominated the discussion, and I wasn’t able to gather the key feedback I needed for my borderline cases. I would often drive back to school thinking about the questions I wished I had asked.

I wanted to solve this challenge by creating a more effective way of seeking feedback on assessment judgements. Through using Pobble you build up an online evidence bank of pieces of writing for your children. These can be sorted into assessment files and shared online with colleagues at any point of the year for formal or informal feedback, in or outside of the school community. This ongoing feedback increases the reliability of teachers’ assessment judgements, enabling them to make more informed judgements about a child’s end of year level. It also allows them to identify gaps in knowledge or progress for individual children on an going basis, enabling them to plan their lessons throughout the year more effectively.

If you’d like to find out about using Pobble Moderation in your school, book a discussion with Simon here.

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

We do it all the time. As teachers, we make split-second judgements in every lesson… about our pitch, our pace, the level of engagement and, most crucially, whether or not our pupils are ‘getting’ it! We know how to read a room: when to increase challenge, change tack, ditch resources or shout “Stations!” – the cue, in my class, for a lightning game that is best described as a live-action hybrid of ‘Battleship’ and ‘Granny’s Footsteps’.

We have learnt how to be accurate, instinctive assessors – it is one of our many skills – so why does the mere mention of the word ‘assessment’ fill us with about as much enthusiasm as taking the bins out… or unclogging a drain?

I asked my friend, a fellow teacher, to describe how she might feel on scanning over a staff meeting agenda and seeing ‘assessment’ amid the bullet points. “Well, that will need plenty of imagination,” she answers sarcastically. “It’s a regular occurrence and one that fills me with an instant sense of overwhelm… Yet more unnecessary form-filling, on top of everything else!” I wasn’t surprised by her sentiment, rather her strength of feeling.

Most teachers know what it is to be overloaded – burdened with so many tasks that there is barely time to finish them, let alone question their purpose – but this was an uncommon reaction from someone I had often, affectionately, described as a goodie-two-shoes. You know the type: trip forms completed on time, no mistakes in the dinner register, multiple after-school clubs, paperwork always up-to-date…

It struck me that her response seemed to sum up the disillusionment that has silently and virulently radiated through our industry in recent years. Her expression, “unnecessary form-filling” captures the helplessness so many educators experience as they try, simultaneously, to summon the energy to inspire the young minds entrusted to their care, while ignoring the gradual decline of respect for the profession they once aspired to join.

No aspect of this vocation better highlights the disconnect between where teachers would wish to be focussing energy and where they are required to expend it than assessment. As soon as tracking information is requested in a written form – however frequent or formative – it morphs from the multi-dimensional, fluid rubric of knowledge about every pupil’s learning style, aptitude, preferences, prior knowledge, resilience and creativity into its plain, dry summative interpretation: class lists with outcomes listed alongside, comparative data, collated evidence, and so on.

Nobody would dispute that sharing pupil attainment data is essential to running a successful school – we need to know the gaps, spot the trends, deploy support staff and plan effective interventions. But perhaps there is a way to do this that addresses the imbalance of disproportionate admin for teachers in order to generate “a single snapshot, only relevant for a day or two,” as my friend describes it.

Here, I’d like to take a moment to eulogise about my own lost hours, sacrificed needlessly in the line of duty… some falling valiantly at the photocopier, as I collated multiple examples of ‘independent’ work; some succumbing to boredom while wading through the fog of user guides for various online quizzes / test papers / reading schemes, trying to decipher what the scores meant, before transposing them into levels. Those hours deserved better; they deserved dinners out and fine wine, not stale staff-room biscuits and toner cartridges.

In the last couple of years, I have been privileged to work in a new capacity, supporting schools of all shapes and sizes to overcome the challenges they face around assessment, as well as championing the need for teachers to reclaim trust in their own skills and knowledge. This role enables me to engage with teachers that have lost plenty of their own hours to futile form-filling.

On each initial visit – usually during a staff meeting – I am a stranger. I don’t know the individuals in the room yet, but I know that they probably share characteristics synonymous with wonderful teachers: hard working, creative, adaptive, inspiring, vivacious, meticulous. Sadly, we can probably add to that list: over-stretched, under-funded, selfless, compromising, stressed, overwhelmed and perhaps disillusioned. At this point, I might test the water, casually dropping the ‘A-bomb’. All too often the palpable anxiety in the room increases, as if I’ve announced a spot test.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to redress the tension. Within minutes of demonstrating how truly formative assessments made little-and-often can be observed, recorded and shared live, a cloud is lifted. Stripping back the size of the task for the teaching staff, also strips away the fear. In one session, I recall that the puzzled silence was finally broken by an astounded teacher asking, “That’s it? That’s all we have to do?” Well, yes!

The hang over of years of producing onerous mid-term data drops will linger on; for some schools, it is still a reality. But there is an alternative: adopting a truly formative approach that values teachers’ judgements as much as their time.

Digital technology, shaped by a clear understanding of the needs of teachers, already exists, and is the first step beyond all that unnecessary form-filling. Now that we can click, tap and upload as quickly as we might mark a book and, at the touch of a button, interrogate this information to generate predictions, visuals and whole-school insights, the need for the paper-chase has become obsolete. Perhaps we’re on the cusp of correcting the work-life balance? Perhaps, finally, the experience of recording judgements will be as easy as those we make in our heads: instant, secure and relevant.

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

It is the time of year when conkers enjoy their moment in the sun: those shiny, brightly polished little fruits of the noble horse chestnut tree that one day themselves will grow into mighty trees, which in their turn will produce those wonderful Ascension Day candles in May. May, the season when the fruits of our academic labours are weighed and measured in the annual ritual of SATs, GCSEs and A Levels.

Just as the conkers at this time of year are gleaming and new, so our latest cohort of kids have joined our schools with pristine uniforms proudly worn, new shiny shoes and pencil cases full of freshly sharpened pencils. Like the conkers they too, over time, will develop into mighty, mature adults taking their place in life.

Ringing in my ears is the endorsement that an inspirational Head gave us every year on Training Days to the effect that if we didn’t feel excited on the 1st September, we were in the wrong job. It was said every year bur was no less heartfelt for that. Teaching is a wonderful job, when it is going well. That feeling of having a class eating out of your hand as you peel away the layers of lesson after lesson of exciting new learning is like no other. Being able to open the windows of the mind for young learners is an inestimable privilege.

These are the positives to hold onto as the school year unfolds like the petals on a flower. Not every lesson is like this, not every day turns out as planned. Alongside the golden moments are times of discouragement, disappointment and despair. Teaching is a hugely demanding and exacting job too.
With that in mind, let us set ourselves one simple target this academic year: to look after all teachers and all those who work with kids in the classroom. Let every Head make it a priority to ensure that every colleague knows how much they are valued, acknowledged and appreciated. Let us all establish a culture in our schools which makes sure that every colleague is supported to be the best possible version of themselves that they can be. After all, the kids deserve nothing but the best, and that means every person who works in their school feeling as though they want to go above and beyond.

Sometimes it takes nothing more than for all leaders to listen, to listen properly to those who are in the front line. Empathy costs nothing but its value is huge. Let us make every colleague know how much they are rated by looking deep into their soul and reminding them how good they are, regularly and systematically. The most precious resource in a school is the staff, all of them.

The buck does not stop in the Head’s office: we can all play our part and here are six ideas to make it happen:
1. Every colleague is expected to find an opportunity to make at least one colleague feel good about themselves every week
2. Every colleague should have a “buddy”: not a Line Manager or a Mentor but a buddy, with whom they can share success and frustrations in a totally non-judgemental way
3. Have a Kerrrching Day when every single person who works in the school puts a positive message of congratulation onto the IT system, and next day, when everyone switches on their computer, they see a collage of positive messages about how brilliant their school is.
4. Have a Buck’s Fizz week; like Secret Santa, you are paired secretly with someone else on the staff and in one week it is up to you to find three ways of making them feel good without them realising you are paired with them.
5. Find as many ways as possible of contacting parents with positive messages, especially where kids are more reluctant learners.
6. Dealing with coughs and colds: supporting colleagues when they under the weather. No act of kindness every goes unanswered.

Teaching is the best job in the world: we make people, and we make a difference to young lives. Once you are that adult who has made a difference, maybe with just a look or a word or a smile, you will never unmake that difference. There is nothing more important than looking after those who teach our children.

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

Drugs have long been considered the most effective intervention for attention disorders like ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorders. But Jessica is pretty young, and doctors are reluctant to prescribe drugs like Ritalin at such a young age.

Jessica’s mum doesn’t want her to be left behind – this is such an important time in a child’s life and how she copes and develops now could impact the rest of her life. Attention isn’t just about paying attention in class, it’s actually one of the earliest developing cognitive skills that dictates our ability to perceive and process information derived from our environment, crucial to determining our capacity to learn and communicate with one another.

Jessica is just one of about 400,000 children in Australia and 136 Million worldwide diagnosed with disorders of inattention – these children start at a distinct disadvantage in being ready to start school.

For a child, the stress that’s associated with increased difficulty to attend canl affect their emotional wellbeing, as it becomes harder to communicate with teachers, family and friends, as well as keeping up with the rest of their classmates.

Our team at Tali is dedicated to helping all kids improve their core cognitive attention skills. Building on 25 years of academic research, the Tali platform fills the gap for teachers and families to easily and accurately identify kids that need help and then safely improve their attention.

Our first application, Tali Train, was released about a year ago and is now being used by thousands of children across Australia. Taking full advantage of tablet technology, Tali Train takes a digital video-game approach to exercise four aspects of attention; focus, attentional control, selective attention and impulsivity – each observed to be impaired in an array of neurodevelopmental disorders.

The program has been designed with ease of use in the classroom and at home, with each of the 25 sessions lasting 20-25 minutes with convenience and mobility in mind by using an iPad or Android tablet.

Most importantly, Tali Train works. Clinical evidence shows that cognitive attention improves in both neurodiverse and neurotypical children after completing the 25-session program, that improvements in cognitive attention are sustained 3 months after completing the program AND is associated with a significant improvement in numeracy.

{youtube}gUkhVV_g2RA{/youtube}

What does that mean in the real world?

Jessica was one of the first kids to use Tali Train and her family noticed improvements very early on.

“From the first week of playing, we started to see changes. Life is just easier, so for Jessica there’s not as many things that make life difficult for her,” says Jessica’s mum.

“I feel much more confident taking her out, as the meltdowns are much less regular. We’ve gone from almost daily meltdowns to more like fortnightly meltdowns.”

“The game is aimed at hyperactivity and inability to focus and certainly we have seen some improvements in those areas. But we’ve also seen things like; Jessica is much more empathetic to other people and she actually pays attention to how other people are feeling.”
“[Jessica] has been much more caring of her younger sister, so she will we actually go out of her way to make sure her younger sister is okay.”

Tali Train has been recognised internationally as a breakthrough technology, and soon we will be able to announce the launch of Tali Detect, the digital assessment app that will help teachers and families to identify children, like Jessica, with attention difficulties.

That’s one happy kiddo using Tali Train! Credit and full article: Herald Sun