publishing

Publishing

Collins IGCSE Malay for Cambridge International Assessment 

Oriel Square worked with local teams in Malaysia to produce content for the IGCSE Malay syllabus endorsed by Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE). 

From manuscript to delivery we produced a student’s book and teacher’s guide for Collins, taking both through first-time endorsement for the Cambridge International IGCSE Malay syllabus. The course books provide teachers and learners with materials which fully prepare students for the IGCSE exam, exposing them to a wide range of reading materials in Standard Malay as well as developing their writing skills. 

For this project, we set up a Malaysia-based team. The team included teacher-reviewers to critique the materials, consultants to give advice on cultural sensitivity and review language proficiency, and authors currently teaching Malay as a first language in an IGCSE classroom context to write lesson plans and student textbook pages. Before bringing potential contributors on board, samples of work were assessed to ensure the highest quality throughout. 

Hodder Education Group eduu.school online resources

As learning pivoted online at the start of the pandemic, we worked with Hodder Education Group to produce a set of online resources for schools. eduu.school provides fully mapped curriculum resources integrated with mental health and wellbeing support for key stages 1–4, providing learners with access to engaging, innovative and quality lessons.

Oriel Square joined the project to carry out all editorial stages, working with a team of experienced editors to prepare the resources, which covered a variety of school subject areas, for publication online. We worked strategically to make sure that teachers had an ongoing supply of new materials to suit their teaching schedules, meaning some resources were prioritised and published within a short timeframe. 

The result was a sequenced series of fun and visually appealing front-of-class digital presentations for use online, as well as a range of accompanying online materials such as lesson plans and worksheets.

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Ark Maths Mastery programmes

We worked with ARK Curriculum Plus to support in reviewing and making updates to one of their research-informed curriculum programmes. Oriel Square helped produce detailed PowerPoint slides and lesson plans to support the teaching of primary maths from year 1–5.

For each unit, we produced comprehensive student- and teacher-facing resources to cover up to three weeks of teaching including: slide decks, accompanying task sheets, a unit narrative document which runs through the general themes and topics in the slides and what the unit covers and what teachers will be covering, and a planning guide for teachers.

Our in-house Project Lead put together a team with expertise in primary maths to work on the templating, development and proofreading of the student and teacher materials. Everyone on the team was familiar with the content and the publishing processes, allowing us to deliver high-quality content to schedule. 

The success has been in the planning, and the regular communication. The Oriel Square Project Lead did a fantastic job setting everything up, getting all the freelancers in place, and it’s been a breeze to manage. We have weekly meetings (currently lasting around 8 minutes) and because everyone knows exactly what they’re doing, even when an issue does come up, it’s easily navigated and sorted out.

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Pearson The Life of Dr Harold Moody eBook

We worked with Pearson P.R.I.M.E, the voice of Black, Asian and Multiple Ethnic colleagues at Pearson, to reproduce a booklet about the life of Dr Harold Moody as a free online resource for schools, suitable for key stages 2 and 3. The booklet is part of P.R.I.M.E’s initiative to champion the hidden stories of historical Black individuals.

We worked with a multi-stakeholder team to complete all editorial stages of this project, including the author Stephen Bourne, illustrators, Pearson P.R.I.M.E representatives and a Pearson publisher and designer. The final PDF booklet gives an illustrated biography of Dr Harold Moody and finishes with a set of age-appropriate and curriculum-linked discussion questions for both KS2 and KS3 readers.

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Collins international kindergarten materials

We worked with Collins to create a new kindergarten course for the international market, covering the core subjects for Kindergarten 1 and 2. Each stage and subject includes an Anthology, Activity Books and a Teacher’s Guide, as well as accompanying digital and audio tools.

We joined the project at the market research phase, in which we gathered feedback from international schools in several countries to gain understanding of how the course could be effective in the classroom. With this insight, we worked with specialist authors to develop the course content and then took the materials through all editorial stages. 

We also commissioned songs and developed digital tools to be used alongside the print components. Illustrators for the project were sourced from the course’s target market countries, ensuring that course materials were relatable and engaging.

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Collins Happy Handwriting resources

We worked with Collins to produce a handwriting course which guides progression from Reception to Year 6, teaching children to write with speed and fluency in the most efficient way possible. The course includes teacher guides, student practice books and front-of-class presentations for all year groups. 

As well as carrying out all editorial stages of the project and briefing the artwork, we created a unique set of fonts, specifically designed to develop handwriting skills. Our in-house Design Lead managed this process, working with a specialist typographer and Collins’ handwriting expert to create fonts which facilitated the aims of the course. We designed the fonts to emulate the most natural and efficient form of handwriting and accommodated for dyslexic learners by differing the shapes of commonly confused letters.

“Oriel Square’s expertise in font and design, regular communication, and a friendly atmosphere helped the process of completing the font for our project run very smoothly. I trusted that the Design Manager was in control of the schedule and technical requirements throughout.”
Commissioning Editor, Collins

“The team has great focus and dedication to delivering products, while maintaining excellent relationships with all parties involved. Despite its complexities and numerous potential pitfalls, this project was run in exemplary fashion.”
Jamie Clarke, Jamie Clarke Type

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Online CPD modules with Carina Consulting for IBMS

We worked with Carina Consulting to produce CPD eLearning modules for The Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). Each module included interactive elements such as quizzes and animations to create an engaging user experience, suitable for all types of learners. 

As well as briefing the module content and carrying out all editorial stages, we briefed media content and developed interactive quizzes and assessments to adapt the modules for an online format. Since the content required very technical diagrams and images, we worked with a science animation specialist to ensure high quality and accuracy across the modules. Alongside this, we briefed storyboards and scripted videos which were then produced to assist learning and enhance the user experience further. 

Here’s what the client had to say:
“Competent team, good planning, great communication and high-quality outputs.”
Andrew Pember, Managing Director, Carina Consulting

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Primary literacy publishing for FFT

Phonically decodable readers

Working with FFT’s author, our Publishing Delivery Team managed the creation and quality assurance of 68 phonically decodable readers for Reception and Year 1 students alongside supporting classroom resources for teachers. The resources created are part of the DfE-validated FFT Success for All Phonics programme. For this, we:

– created a design template for the readers and supporting materials and finalised samples;
– worked with the FFT team to define the author brief;
– provided an experienced commissioning editor to support authors to deliver engaging, high-quality stories in line with the programme’s progression;
– edited, proofread and typeset 68 readers, supping print-ready and ebook versions of final files.

Reciprocal Reading anthology

Following the increasing popularity of the FFT’s Reciprocal Reading training programme and the EEF’s evaluation of the efficacy of Reciprocal Reading, FFT wanted to extend into more schools. As part of the training programme for Teachers and TAs, Oriel Square produced an anthology of the best story texts to use with Year 5 and 6 students as Reciprocal Reading passages. For this, we:

– managed the review and permissions clearance for the chosen texts;
– created an internal page and cover design;
– took the final texts through typesetting and proofreading to deliver print-ready files.

“FFT has worked with Oriel Square on several projects to support the foundation’s work. We’ve been impressed by the range of services they offer and the consistently high-quality output. To support our content development, Oriel Square’s expert team managed the creation and quality assurance of various components of the Success for All and Reciprocal Reading programmes.” – Paul Charman, Managing Director, FFT