Education News

Let me say, before you get into this, it is a spoof.   It’s the first silly story we’ve ever run here, and I put it up after a bit of thought, because the whole point of this site is that it brings you all the real news every day of the week – and I wouldn’t like you to think it was just a place to put up emails that circulate around the world of education.

So having reassured you that this is something of a one off… here it is.  It made me smile

Tony Attwood (editor, UK Education News)

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A public school teacher was arrested today at John F.Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement.  He did not identify the man, who has been  charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. ‘Al-Gebra is a problem for us’, the Attorney General said. ‘They derive solutions by means and  extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values.’

They use secret code names like ‘X’ and ‘Y’ and refer to themselves as ‘unknowns’, but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, ‘There are 3 sides to every triangle’.

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, ‘If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes.’  White House  aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President.

It is believed that the Nobel Prize for Physics will follow.

There are a number of free news services for teachers directed at individual subjects and areas of interest, ranging from teaching literacy to organising school visits, from primary school management to teaching history.

These services bring subscribers one or two emails a week, and come with the absolute guarantee that your email address is never given to anyone else.  You don’t even have a detailed form to fill in when you take up a subscription.

Indeed each email has its own “unsubscribe” button so you can leave at any time.

To see the list of subject areas and to subscribe to any of them that are of interest, free of charge and with no obligation, please visit www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html

If you have any specific enquiries please email Tony@schools.co.uk

Effective Leadership, Raising Morale

The Effective Leadership and Pupil Outcomes Project from the DSCF has reported that managers in improving schools are particularly good at motivating colleagues and maintaining their enthusiasm over a long period of time.  However many managers have had little training in motivational techniques.

This report fits in with a report that came out a couple of years back in which it was argued that teacher motivation was one of the simplest ways of obtaining a high level of departmental  improvement without it costing anything.

The argument is simple: in most organisations, motivating the staff is a central part of the work of the senior management.  No matter how professional ones colleagues are thought or expected to be, it is realised that they are also human – and all humans can have ups and downs.  We all like to be told we are doing well, we like hear about how our work is contributing to the overall well-being of the organisation, and when we are asked to take on new work, we like to be thanked.

In many ways the application of this to schooling is obvious.  When the choice is between the highly motivated individual with the personal drive to make a difference, or the teacher who lacks that drive and for whom teaching is what happens between holidays, there is only one answer.  We want the motivated teacher.

And yet we all of us observe the teacher whose level of motivation declines.

Teacher Motivation: the low-cost high gain approach to school improvement is a report which has been used in hundreds of schools across the UK as the model for improving motivation among teachers. 

It is provided both as a CD (which can be loaded onto the virtual learning environment) and as a photocopiable book, so that individual sections can be copied and handed to colleagues, who then return for a short in-school seminar on the particular topic being reviewed.

A sample of the book is available on line at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/education/T1573.pdf

Prices

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £49.95 plus £3.95 delivery

CD with school-wide rights: £49.95 plus £3.95 delivery

Both the Ring Binder and the CD £56.94 plus £3.95 delivery

Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH

By fax to 01536 399 012

On line with a credit card at http://tinyurl.com/lxcq8b

By phone with a school order number or a credit card to 01536 399 011

When ordering the book please quote the reference T1573EMN

If your school has undertaken an unusual event, achieved something remarkable, or done anything that you deem to be newsworthy, you can submit the story for inclusion in UK Education News.

UK Education News was launched last term and is now being read by a growing number of parents and those looking for a school for their children.  Last term we got about 5000 stories read on the site each day, and we are expecting this to rise.

What’s more, the story will remain on our web site, so this is not just a short term piece of publicity.  Every time someone searches on the internet for a school in your area and uses any of the words contained in your article, that story will come up and you have a further chance of being read.

To submit a story – and I reiterate everything about this service is free – just follow this route…

1.  Please do take a look at www.UkEducationNews.co.uk and click on one or two stories so that you can see how the system works.  At the moment you won’t find many stories submitted by schools because this is the first announcement of the free offer, but we are hoping to run two or three a day from now on.

2.  Write out your story as a press release in Word.  You can have a link to your school web site in the piece, but you must write this link out in full in the text (don’t embed it within the text).   There is no limit to the length, but you cannot include pictures – only text.

3.  Don’t forget to give us a headline as this is what will appear on www.UkEducationNews.co.uk  

4.  Send the announcement to tony@hamilton-house.com as an attached Word file.  On the subject line please write School News.  The article will appear within a couple of days.  We can’t send you a notification of when it appears, but stories stay on the site for two or three days normally.   The story will also appear on www.schoolsare.us where it will stay permanently.

5. All we ask in return is that you arrange to have a link on your web site or learning platform to www.UKEducationNews.co.uk   Many schools have done this already and they are finding it highly valued by teachers, parents, governors, administrators and managers as a continually evolving source of news.  Indeed many parents who have previously never visited the school web site now do so each day, in order to link into UK Education News.

If you have any questions about the service, please email Tony@hamilton-house.com and write UEN Question in the subject line.  Alternatively you can phone 01536 399 013 or write to Hamilton House Mailings Ltd., Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH.  You can submit stories to the same address.

Tony Attwood

In January 2009 children, staff and parents dug out a large pond next to our wildflower meadow and then fenced the area.  We planted native hedging plants around the outside of the fence. Within the fenced area we now have a large pond with a beach, a bog garden and a viewing platform. 

Planting in the pond and surrounding areas attracts insects and wildlife.  Log piles provide homes for insects. Gravel paths take the visitors around the pond, through the planting and under a willow tunnel.  Local varieties of trees and shrubs such as the Nottinghamshire Medlar tree form our fruit and nut collection of plants.

Carpets were donated by parents to line the pond and various pond plants.  About 50 parents and children turned out on a couple of Sunday mornings to lay the pond liner, plant the hedging and other trees and shrubs and they have helped to maintain the area since. 

A parent has fabricated a metal archway with ‘The Oasis’ stencilled into it and replicated the children’s wildlife designs over it.

We now have a multitude of wildlife:  birds, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, water boatmen, frogs, beetles and much, much more, creating a wealth of biodiversity.  Our children love exploring the area and are learning so much about its inhabitants. Through projects such as our ‘Oasis’ the children, and their families, have participated in a very ‘hands-on’ way in making their learning a reality. 

They can see, through the seasons, developments and life cycles and learn how to care for the environment in which we all live.  Teaching children in a way which captures their enthusiasm, and shows them the importance of taking care of the environment, helps to ensure that they will take the knowledge and experience they gain with them through their lives and pass it on to their own children.

They have been able to take ownership of this particular corner of their environment and feel proud of the difference they have made.

We submitted details of our project to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and, as a result, won first prize in their ‘Green Guardians’ competition.  David Bellamy, the well-known botanist, judged the competition and said our project was an oasis in the true sense of the word.  A bronze trophy and prize money of £1000 was awarded.

Our ‘Oasis’ forms part of our wider programme of enhancing our local environment to encourage and protect wildlife.

Our next project is to create an allotment.  We have already marked out and fenced the area and we needed funding for a shed,  fencing, water butts, watering cans, composters, garden tools, seeds and trays, canes, compost etc. 

So we can put £1000 to very good use.  Our children and their parents are keen to get started preparing the area ready for planting to begin around February 2010.

Interactive, online and FREE – Introducing The Mini Maestro.

Imagine a situation in which your pupils demand to do more music theory lessons.  This may seem unlikely, but it is very possible.

For many students, the theory is one of the least attractive areas of the music curriculum.  It often has to be taught in an ad-hoc fashion, enabling students to scramble through a project without necessarily understanding the meaning of all those notes and symbols.

The Mighty Maestro opens up these abstract concepts for all.  Using a variety of interactive techniques, the activities break down the basics of music theory into bite-size pieces, keeping your pupils motivated and excited about progressing.

The Mini Maestro offers a taste of the full program completely free of charge.  Simply visit the webpage below and have a go.  No downloads.  No payment.  No fuss.

Click on http://www.orbeducation.co.uk/Maestro/Mini.asp?e=hh1 to try the Free Mini Maestro now

If you like the activities, then you may also download and evaluate The Mighty Maestro.

Please email me if you have any questions or need more information.

Yours Sincerely

Dan Collingbourne
dc@orbeducation.co.uk

Throughout recent speeches the government has repeatedly mentioned that efficiency has to be the new watchword in education.

And while the budget for 2010/11 remains at the level that was set three years ago, there is a clear suggestion from the schools’ minister that schools must work to make themselves more efficient.

For many school managers the question asked is, how does one do this.  How does one make a school more efficient?

The government has come up with one idea (echoing the report by the Audit Commission last summer): we should all try to cut our power bills.   Which is fine, but after that – what next?

I believe there is a solution to this issue, but it involves asking another question first, and that question is…

Who should head the efficiency team?

Evidence thus far suggests that schools in which a group of teachers are pulled together to chip in with ideas on efficiency tend not to be very productive when it comes to an end result. 

They might have ideas, but generally speaking they don’t lead to the sort of efficiencies that the secretary of state is looking for.

This is not to suggest teachers don’t have the ability to make efficiency savings, but rather to suggest that they don’t have the background and daily experience that allows them to see efficiency possibilities.

Instead once can look at the school office as a source of inspiration in this matter.  The school office has to liaise with all parts of the school.  The school office has a wide range of options as to how it organises itself.   It also deals with school finances.

To help members of the school office team begin to think themselves into this approach the School of Education Administration offers the Certificate in Educational Administration which is recognised by QCA. 

The course is taught through distance-learning so no time need be taken off work.  It lasts a year – but there is also a shorter course on Work Management and Administration, which lasts two months.

The next date for applications for the next intake on to the QCA validated, one year distance learning course is 1 February, closing date for applications 22 January.

The next intake for this two-month distance learning course (which is one module of the full National Certificate course) starts on 22 February 2010 – closing date for applications is 12 February.

An online prospectus is available at http://www.admin.org.uk/Prospectus.pdf

To request a printed prospectus please send an email to samanthabates@hamilton-house.com or phone 01536 399 007.

For more information on the one year certificate course please visit http://www.admin.org.uk/certificate%20course.html

For more information on the two month Work Management course please visit http://www.admin.org.uk/shortcourse.html

This fund raising project has been running for over ten years and thousands of schools have made very substantial profits for their funds.

It is based on the world wide best selling TABLES DISCO in which children learn tables to a disco beat.

First created in 1984 this brilliant project has been re-recorded and brought up to date no less than six times, leading to the superb latest version

See the Tables Disco at www.tablesdisco.com 

Parents, grandparents, teachers are all keen to buy at specially discounted prices, leaving a very useful profit for the school.

We have many endorsements….this from the Daily Telegraph  “Succeeds beyond all expectation”

For more information please visit www.sound-ideas.co.uk/fundraiser.pdf

One of the many ways that teachers and administrators can use to improve efficiency is by having access to a directory of school resources.

This is what has been produced on the School Procurement Site at www.top5.org.uk

The site is divided into  nearly 100 sections, from Administration, Art, Assemblies, Asset Management and Audiovisual through to Travel, Trips, Welfare, Windows, Work Experience and Yearbooks.

Access is of course open to everyone, and many of the entries have been nominated by teachers and administrators.

If you know of any site that supplies free information or materials to teachers, and we don’t have the site listed, please get in touch via the “contact us” box on the site.