Directing, rehearsing, unprepared performance, group playing, group singing, form, harmony, composition, arrangement – when one starts listing all the elements in music performance it is difficult to imagine how any of us manage to get through all aspects of Performance when teaching GCSE.

It is also hard to imagine how all of these topics could be put together into one photocopiable book – and yet this is what Judith Bailey has done – plus practical illustrations and numerous musical examples, graded tests, tests for singing and playing, and compositional projects.

A key element is the way in which the book forces the pupils to focus on the central issues of performance, so that all actions are made as a result of clear decisions rather than whims. The graded tests allow you to see exactly where the pupils have progressed to and which areas need to be revised before proceeding with the course.

The book is arranged in five sections

• Performing, directing and rehearsing
• Unprepared performing, with graded test examples
• Playing/singing in a group
• Form, harmony and composition
• Composition ideas and styles
• Musical arrangement

It is the complete approach to performance for GCSE, and the fact that it available both as a book and on CD means that it can be accessed by all students, either via the copied sheets or via the CD when placed on the school network.

You can view sample pages at  http://bit.ly/7atQkN

ISBN 978 1 86083 600 8;  Order code T1557

Prices

• Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95. plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.34 plus £3.95 delivery
• Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book…

• By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
• By fax to 01536 399 012
• By phone with a school order number on 01536 399 011
• On line with a credit card at  http://bit.ly/6V7pta

The benefits of learning how to learn for students can be overwhelming, for the natural way in which most students come to learn their work is stunningly inefficient.

Those of us who are both parents and teachers will have watched our offspring supposedly revise for GCSEs and A levels when in fact all they are doing is “reading through” the notes – surely the most ineffective way of “revising” ever invented.

The fact is that where students can be given an awareness and experience of a range of effective methods of learning that are available to them it can make all the difference – whatever the age of the child.  Suddenly those pupils and students who have struggled to learn by “reading through” or attempting to learn by heart, find that a different approach can make all the difference.

Learning becomes enjoyable, and topics and facts can be learned in half the time previously taken.

The problem is that many students don’t get much of a chance to learn about learning - at least until near the end of their studies.   But when they do, the motivation and self esteem that can be gained from the resultant rapid success itself becomes a factor in motivating them to ever higher goals.

It was as a result of watching my three daughters revise for their exams that I decided to gather together all I knew about various methods of learning, collecting all the various approaches to teaching study skills that were used in many different schools.   The resultant work can either be used as separate lessons on how to learn or introduced as an additional part of mainstream lessons.

Raising Grades through Study Skills is therefore based around the students experiencing different learning techniques and thus realising that there is not just one way of learning and that different people can benefit from different approaches.

The book comes in a loose leaf ring binder or can be bought on CD Rom, allowing you to develop and modify parts of the text that you wish to personalise for the school.  The text includes all the activities that the pupils will need to develop their study techniques, and includes an unlimited photocopy licence for use of the materials by pupils within the school.

The book comes with an unlimited photocopiable licence for the school, and costs £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery for either the book or CD. If you wish to buy both together the price is £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery.

You can order in four different ways. In each case please quote our reference T1329emn. Sample pages can be viewed prior to ordering on http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/education/T1329.pdf

• By post to First and Best, Hamilton House Mailings plc, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH
• By fax on 01536 399 012
• By phone with a credit card or with an official school order number on 01536 399 011
• On line with a credit card at http://bit.ly/41jsi

One way to look at this is to consider the past SATs results gained by schools in disadvantaged areas where the pupils might be expected to have difficulty with their basic skills.

This is not to say that SATs are good or bad – but rather to use them as a comparative measure.

In this way we could look at the materials those schools have been using. Then we can get quite an insight into which teaching materials work, and which don’t.

Here are the results from one group of schools, all of whom have used a particular set of materials, and all of whom are in disadvantaged areas

• St Andrew’s C of E Primary School, London: 92% of pupils achieved level 4; 29% of pupils achieved level 5.
• St Mary’s C of E Junior & Infant School, Manchester: 80% of pupils achieved level 4; 17% of pupils achieved level 5.
• Taylor Road Primary School, Leicester :95% of pupils achieved level 4; 38% of pupils achieved level 5
• Cayley Primary School, London: 84% of pupils achieved level 4; 25% of pupils achieved level 5
• Biggin Hill Primary School, Hull: 94% of pupils achieved level 4; 35% of pupils achieved level 5

All these schools used the same package of materials which develop each child’s ability to articulate his/her thinking about text and which focus on key literacy, presentational and functional devices.

This package of materials – the SfA Year Six Teaching Package – consists of eleven units that work in this area through five important text genres:

• Recount
• Non-chronological report
• Persuasion
• Balanced report
• Story.

The Writing Support materials in the package include text for deconstruction, photocopiable posters to support writing and planning materials.

The background to the schools including their Ofsted reports can be found on the Success for All website at www.successforall.org.uk/ofsted.shtml

The three manuals that make up this package are available for £59.99. A half day training is required to achieve the most from these materials.

There are more details at www.successforall.org.uk/satscosts.shtml

You can order the materials

• By post: Success for All, Jarodale House, 7 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6LB
• On the phone: (with a school order number) 0115 956 0363
• By fax: 0115 956 0366

When children learn how to learn their enthusiasm for learning is a joy to behold, their achievement levels rise, and behaviour is simply not an issue.

So, as learning-how-to-learn retakes its rightful place within the primary curriculum, schools are relishing the opportunity to rebalance traditional content acquisition with the development of pupils’ learning habits.

Such educational transformation is not without its problems.

• How do we actually do this re-balancing?
• How does teaching need to be different?
• How do we bring staff on board with the ideas?
• How do we know if pupils are benefitting?

With all this in mind we have produced Building Better Learners – a blended package of learning resources and consultancy support to help the school understand, introduce and implement the early stages of a dynamic approach to learning and teaching known as “learning power”.

We all learn in different ways so the pack contains books, posters, film clips, animations and practical resources to help you get to grips with the learning power philosophy and practice.

Finding out where you are now is made easy through the use of an electronic audit tool based on learning power benchmarks.  And – you can come back to this later to find out how you are getting on.

Winning the hearts and minds of staff and offering them practical ways forward is captured in a twelve session CPD programme.  There is enough material here for a year and you can deliver this in-house for yourself.

To make it practical and time efficient there is a vast selection of resources for use in the classroom.  These include animations to help you introduce the concepts to children and banks of ideas to try out for yourselves.

Finally – there are benchmarks of progression to look out for in your children as they grow into confident better learners.

So!  this is a scaffolded Do-it-Yourself kit along with half a day consultancy support – you choose when – to help you on your journey.

Oh! And of course it all fits with Ofsted criteria, AfL philosophy, APP best practice and SEAL – we’d look silly if it didn’t!

For details information on the Building Better Learners pack please go to http://www.tloltd.co.uk/productpage.php?productid=66

The problem with boys who are reluctant readers comes down to finding the right books that they will willingly read.

Which is why we have published Goal! It’s a series of football-themed reading books aimed at boys aged 8-14 but with a reading age of 5-6.

The books include superb full colour photography throughout and include exclusive behind-the-scenes pictures that will fascinate the readers.

Goal’s five levels broadly follow the first five levels of the Letters and Sounds
programme for teaching synthetic phonics. At the lowest level, for example, the books have no words at all. The reading books split equally between fiction and non-fiction.

The texts are carefully structured and ‘highly decodable’ with any exceptions (i.e. football-related vocabulary) following a consistent pattern.

High profile authors include England goalkeeper, David James, Portsmouth’s
Nigerian winger, John Utaka, and top women’s footballer, Rachel Yankey.

Throughout the series the reading books are accompanied by workbooks at every level and a Teacher’s Guide.

Cup Final Day is a special addition to Goal! and was written by England and Portsmouth F.C. Goalkeeper, David James. This is his unique account of the 2008 FA Cup Final at Wembley – again with colour photographs throughout, behind the scenes action and fascinating insights into a footballer’s world.

There’s more information at http://www.ransom.co.uk/Goal.html

You can order…
By fax: 05601 148 881
By phone: 01962 862307
By post: Ransom Publishing, 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hants SO23 9EH
By Email: orders@ransom.co.uk
On line at http://www.ransom.co.uk/Goal.html

This book takes a critical look at both Christian beliefs and humanist alternatives and will give your students a different perspective on religion as prescribed in the National Framework for Religious Education. The questions posed at the end of each section will require them to examine their own beliefs both about religion and about how they wish to live their lives. It is suitable for students of AS/A2 Religious Studies.

Christianity and Humanism examines the arguments in favour of Christian belief, together with the problems that these beliefs can raise, e.g. comparing the biblical account of the beginning of the world with the way scientists hypothesise that the universe, our solar system and life on this planet came into existence. The book also considers:

• The problems that suffering raises for belief
• The human need for love
• The Christian emphasis on the need for forgiveness and the doctrines of salvation and of original sin
• The meaning of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and alternative ways of looking at these events
• Christian ritual/ceremonies and humanist alternatives
• Religious experience
• Social responsibility

Christianity and Humanism by Alan Naylor-Smith is available as a copiable book or on CD with an unlimited photocopy license for use within the school. So you only need to buy one copy per school and are free to share it with your colleagues. A contents list and sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/re/T1721.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1721EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 742 5

Prices

• Photocopiable report: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery

Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1721emn

• 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://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=547

Constructing schemes of work and curriculum documents in drama to meet the needs of the department and OFSTED is one thing. Providing the rationale behind the work of the drama department is another. As is providing teaching material for colleagues who are not drama trained, and yet find themselves teaching drama lessons.

I am sure that for those who were drama trained it is all a straightforward process – but for those who were not, there is a need for support.

One possible way forward is through the use of the copiable book “Alive and Kicking” (also available on CD so that it can be loaded onto the school’s learning network – which means everyone can read the scheme of work at any time).

It provides a series of templates for all three years of Key Stage 3. There are schemes of work taken term by term, with three distinct modules per year. There is a detailed scheme of assessment criteria tied in to an expectation of many students going on to GCSE courses but also tied in to National Curriculum Level equivalents. There is also a package of resource materials for use with the modules, most notably a series of mini-scripts for children to work on in combinations of twos, threes, fours or fives.

The list of contents is huge – for example within the section on classroom practice there are articles on:

• Rules of the studio
• Key concepts and key words, year by year
• Solo work (from simultaneous solo activities to audition speeches)
• Improvisation
• Scripts
• Workshops
• Use of Games
• Alternative strategies
• Feedback.

Other chapters cover key skills, assessment, reporting – and of course the complete year by year schemes of work. There is a sample chapter available on-line at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/drama/T1650.pdf

Cat No: 978 1 86083 569 8; Publisher reference no: T1650emn

Prices

• Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £29.95. plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery

Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book…

• By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
• By fax to 01536 399 012
• By phone with a school order number on 01536 399 011
• On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=474

Every building uses electricity, and there’s no getting away from the cost of the electricity. Even if you change suppliers, the savings over time are likely to be small.

But a much bigger question is, how much electricity are you using at any particular time? Once you know that there is a second question: can you reduce that amount of power you are consuming in the nursery.

Take the issue of IT equipment. Leaving a couple of computers running might seem a minor issue. Yes, it is good to turn them off, but it is not worth making a fuss about – and besides they take so long to boot up again.

That might seem a perfectly reasonable response – but it leaves one issue unresolved. Exactly how much money is being wasted by leaving a couple of computers on when they are not needed?

To find out, and to be absolutely clear about where money can be saved, you need to use a wireless electricity monitor which shows you how much electricity you are using at any one moment.

Such a device saves money by providing up-to-the-second information on the amount of electricity you are using in pounds and pence so that you can see the financial gain of turning off electrical devices simply by experimenting. Turn off the lights and see how much you save – its simple.

And that’s before we look at issues such as turning off at the plug rather than just using standby – something that can make a huge difference.

The OWL Wireless Electricity monitor shows you the how changing your behaviour can save you money within the nursery. It is easy to install, easy to read and easy to use.

There are more details on www.theowleducation.com plus a ‘contact us’ section for any queries.

The cost is £34.95 and it can be ordered via www.theowleducation.com or by fax on 01256 321254 – FAO Karen Oakes

When I saw that question on a recent advert for a course I had to pause and think. I could list a number of strategies, but the best? It is difficult to say.

In fact, the people running the course I was looking at make the very strong point that most drug education programmes are targeted at young people and make a direct approach to stop them taking drugs.

Apparently, this approach simply does not work.

Effective Drug Education – Theory and Good Practice is a one day course which reveals why this is the case, the alternatives in terms of educational and harm reduction outcomes and practical strategies for developing effective drug education.

The course is aimed at teachers of PSHE education and drug education plus other professionals who work with young people. The promoters of the course state that those who attend will get a full awareness of the history of and theory behind drug education and what works and does not work. This gives you (they say) a complete foundation on which to develop effective drug education work with young people.

You will also see research evaluations of drug education and from this be able to identify realistic aims for drug education.

Finally out of this comes the ability to identify good practice in developing effective drug education.

There is information about the course on the HIT website – http://tinyurl.com/2u9kqpx
- and the first one will take place in Liverpool on Wednesday 2nd June. More will probably follow after the summer.

You can book a place on this course…

• By post to: HIT, 3 Paramount Business Park, Wilson Road, Liverpool, L36 6AW
• By fax to: 0844 412 0973
• By phone with a school order number on 0844 412 0972
• By email with a school order number to stuff@hit.org.uk
• On line with a credit card at http://tinyurl.com/2u9kqpx

Many schools are wrestling with how to develop students’ Personal Learning and Thinking Skills. Introductory programmes in year seven are becoming more commonplace, but strategies for strengthening these skills through subject lessons and creating the habits of Independence, Creativity etc are proving more difficult to develop.

Even more elusive is finding user-friendly ways of assessing and evidencing progression. Teachers, quite rightly, shy away from ‘tick-box’ solutions and summative packages that attempt to ‘level’ learning skill development. What is needed is a pain-free way of evidencing progression in the PLTS that also supports students in setting targets for further development.

Such a package has just been released on the market, and looks set to change the face of PLTS assessment and target setting. What is more, it is based upon the Building Learning Power foundations developed by Professor Guy Claxton and can help as part of a whole-school approach to foster deeper and more profound learning.

The package, called Blaze PLTS, is a web-based self assessment package that is designed to capture students’ perceptions of how they use their Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills and how to use this information to support the development of these learning habits over time.

Through a student friendly quiz and detailed feedback Blaze PLTS aims to:

• acquaint students and teachers with how they currently approach learning
• afford teachers a deeper understanding of their students’ perceptions about learning
• give students an insight into the skills and attitudes they currently use when learning
• offer teachers a range of information they can use to scaffold  dialogues with students about their learning habits
• offer students a way of thinking about their own learning and encourage them to work on getting better at learning
• allow students, and their teachers, to track their developing perceptions of their learning habits over time
• broaden the learning to learn vocabulary and scaffold a way of talking about learning

Blaze PLTS helps students to reflect on their current learning habits. The results offer teachers further insights into how their students perceive their learning habits. This information becomes especially valuable when it is used to enrich, motivate and extend students’ learning.

The package is offered on a yearly basis and price is dependent on the size of your school. Schools that buy a two-year licence will get year 3 for free. As an introductory offer, schools that register now will get Blaze PLTS free for the rest of this summer term and their first yearly subscription will cover the academic year September 2010 to August 2011.

To find out more about this unique package and its many benefits, please visit http://www.tloltd.co.uk/productheader.php?categoryid=5&productid=141