One of the key elements in successful sex and relationships education is the delivery of a consistent approach.

This does not mean that the students have a single person’s view of sexual behaviour pushed upon them, but rather that the development of the lessons over a period of time shows a consistent development of themes.

One way of achieving this is by breaking the subject not into individual issues but rather into broader topics – topics such as what it means to be human, the social influences that affect all of us, the issue of “being yourself” while facing these social influences, and the question of what it means to have good relationships and the rights and responsiblities everyone has.

These of course are just a few of the major topics (there’s also peer pressure, biology, sexual orientation, the media, and so on.

But the key point is that each of these broad topics, if handled individually, allows you to develop a broader approach which will appear to the students to be self-consistent and organized, rather than jumping from one theme to another.

Within each of these topics there are of course many sub-topics.  “Being human”, for example, deals with such issues as the obvious “how are we different from animals” through to the issues of beauty and attraction, the issue of “the eye of the beholder”, how we can make ourselves more attractive, questions of social norms and cultural differences and so on.

The argument is that by bringing each of these topics together under one broad headline topic (in this example, “Being Human”) the topic becomes more understandable and easier for the students to relate to their own feelings, emotions, factual knowledge and prejudices.

This is the basis of Sex and Sensibility – a book which covers all the broad topics listed, and more, and then breaks them down into the individual issues for discussion.

The book comes as a photocopiable master, as well as on a CD which can be put on the school’s learning platform so that it may be readily accessed by those whom you wish to see it.

In all there are well over 50 topics covered by the books – topics that are dealt with in numerous different ways.   It is in fact a complete book on sex education for secondary schools.

You can see a full list of the topics at …….

www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/pshe/T1760.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1760EMN      ISBN: 978 1 86083 754 8

Prices

• Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
• Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1760EMN

• 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/yjxe8su

Dyscalculic pupils have a significant problem understanding mathematical concepts. These pupils can learn their way around maths if they are taught in a specific multi-sensory manner.

Our book Dyscalculia Activities 1: Addition to Division (formerly Practical Activities) uses this technique to teach such pupils the concepts of number and the four basic functions of mathematics. It is now used with thousands of children across the UK.

Shapes, Fractions, Percentages follows on from Addition to Division and uses the same multi-sensory techniques that have proved successful in the earlier book. As before the book comes as a photocopiable volume and requires no additional equipment or materials save for a collection of counters (also available from First and Best).

One of the huge benefits of this approach is that it not only works with children who have the genetic disorder which gives rise to dyscalculia, it also benefits those children who are failing to grasp mathematical concepts because of interrupted schooling, home problems or even a maths aversion which has developed because of early failure. Experience suggests that a short period of using multi-sensory techniques can be enough to overcome such problems and bring the pupil back to the class average.

Shapes, Fractions, Percentages can be used with secondary school pupils either within special needs lessons or at home with co-operative parents. Each activity within the book can be completed within a maximum of ten minutes, thus allowing the teacher or parent to stop the work the moment the child shows signs of maths-aversion, frustration or tiredness.

You can see a full list of the topics at …….

http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/dyscalculia/T1719.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1719EMN      ISBN: 978 1 86083 703 6

Prices

• Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £25.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £25.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £32.94 plus £3.95 delivery
• Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1719EMN

• 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=44&products_id=551

Art and Design at Key Stage 3 provides  students with support, advice and information about their course and the subject and the skills, methods and materials that they will use. The book contains details of the requirements of the course, followed by a large number of projects which will build knowledge, understanding and skills.

The projects require students to look critically at other artists’ and designers’ work and then show evidence of a clear line of visual enquiry in art work. All projects cover the areas of exploring and developing ideas, investigating and making, reviewing, adapting and researching into the work of others, and making critical analyses of the work they review. Hand drawn illustrations are included.

The projects in Art and Design at Key Stage Three are divided into section by year group which are intended to be given as handouts to students. For example Year 7 covers Texture and Mark-making, Colour theory, Portraits, Mixed Media, and Ancient Egypt.  There is also a comprehensive selection of extra lessons.

It is available as a copiable book (also available on CD Rom so that it can be loaded onto the school’s learning platform).

You can see a full list of the topics at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/art/T1711.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1711EMN      ISBN: 978 1 86083 791 3

Prices

• Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Both the Ring Binder and the CD £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
• Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1711EMN

• 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=23&products_id=539

I’ve been sent details of a new on-line literacy program aimed at students of any age who are dropping behind the norm with their literacy. Readers of this news service are offered the opportunity to use it for free of charge for one year.   Before describing the program in detail I should stress that there are no costs involved and no requirement to use the program continuously –  you are only asked for a commitment to email the publisher with your comments every 3 weeks.

The program is based on the widely-recognised fact that the faster and more fluently we read, the more we understand and the better we’re able to concentrate. Which therefore suggests that one of the best ways of helping poor readers is to stop them reading one word at a time.

The reason for this is fairly obvious. Given the way the short term memory works, if you are reading one word at a time, then by the time that you have reached, say, the fifth word, you’ve forgotten what the previous words were.  Which means that, apart from being boring, this approach makes it impossible to extract any meaning from what you’ve just read.

As a result, an increase in speed actually improves our comprehension. But a prerequisite for this is to have good, instant word recognition.

The program that works from this premise and uses it to improve literacy quickly is GetFluent.  It is a web-service which is essentially a flashcard program that adapts to the students’ needs.  Students see a word or phrase for a controlled time and then have to identify it from a multiple choice list.

If they succeed, the flash time reduces – if they struggle it slows down. They start with a short assessment to make sure that they are working with suitable words or phrases. They can then progress through a large bank of reading material until they are speed-reading lengthy sentences.

Ideally, students should spend about 10 minutes a day on GetFluent. They can do this anywhere and anytime that they have access to a browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Experience with a Windows-based prototype of GetFluent has shown that students like trying to ‘beat the computer’. They (and their teachers) are also pleased by the improvement in their reading ability.

If you would like to use this program for up to a year without any payment then all you have to do is commit to let the developers, Maia Learning Systems, know what you think of it.

You will need to enter the names of your students who will be using the program.  After that your students will be able to use GetFluent without any further intervention, and you will be able to get reports on their progress as and when you see fit.

You can see more on GetFluent, including references to the research that underpins it, on their website at http://www.getfluent.com.

If you would like to take part in a free trial of GetFluent next term or if you need any further information, send an email to steve@maia.co.uk, preferably by the end of July.

This is the second in the Actors Lab set of drama workshops.

Actors Lab was set up as a drama workshop which concentrated solely on building acting skills. It was highly experimental and challenged many of the received opinions and conventions surrounding theatrical production. This book, written by a key player in Actors Lab and running to 104 pages, represents the distillation of many years of intense examination of acting methods and skills.

The Actors Lab Workshop Intermediate Level contains over 40 workshop units and is ideally suited to secondary school pupils with some acting experience and the confidence to experiment. It examines elements of style and concentrates to some degree on developing an awareness of sub-text. Each workshop is designed to fit into a two hour period and there are also suggestions for warm up exercises and follow up material. The book provides an excellent detailed framework within which participants are free to experiment and adapt to suit their own skills and personalities.

The Actor’s Lab Workshop Intermediate Level – basic and advanced workshops are also available.

Publisher’s reference: T1562emn; ISBN: 978 1 86083 650 3

Sample pages can be viewed on:  http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/drama/T1562.pdf

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 £26.94 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 phone with a credit card or school order number to 01536 399 011
• By fax to 01536 399 012
• On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=414

It is a fascinating question, and one on which there has not been universal agreement.

So we’ve set up a website called (logically enough) Outstanding Teaching which seeks to answer the question through a series of detailed articles and short tips.

Among the key points that the site raises is the fact that the best teachers are often labelled ‘Outstanding’ because they are superb at establishing rapport with different personality types.

It is argued that teachers can have well over one hundred interactions with children/young people in any given day, and these young people have a range of personality types.

As a result, some of the personalities that we interact with are so completely different from our own that we need to adjust our whole approach in order to communicate with these young people.  It is in interactions with these pupils that we see outstanding people skills being demonstrated by the best teachers.

The very best teachers, it is therefore argued, are able to use their skills to hold attention and enlighten across all personality types.  They know (almost automatically, it seems) when some personalities need a firm hand and when others require extra encouragement.

But although such skills can seem automatic they are not – for they can be learned – especially where the teacher is able to demonstrate a flexible attitude to those in the class.

A further argument that can be put is that the best teachers work beyond teaching their subject and impart skills and attitudes that help learners to be active and independent.

It has also been said that some of the current generation of students and pupils want everything delivered on a plate.  However when a teacher imparts a skill or attitude beyond the subject or the topic the teacher can become a more memorable teacher.  The teacher helps the learner to face future challenges ahead, and again this is a sign of an outstanding teacher.

These are just some of the introductory points that are to be found on the new Outstanding Teaching website.

The question that then arises is, how do we move from being good teachers to outstanding teachers? – and this is what the site then reveals.

I do hope you find it useful – the site is at… http://osiriseducational.co.uk/outstandingteaching/

We share a duty of care to the environment

PRM Green Technologies Ltd removes surplus, redundant, excess and end of line IT equipment and associated peripherals, free of charge nationwide*!

PRM Green Technologies Ltd offers the following FREE services

* Professional solutions for the removal and recycling of redundant, surplus and excess IT equipment
* Fast collection service
* Our services are available to everyone: schools, universities, libraries, businesses, local government, end users, trade and charitable organisations
* Environmentally friendly licensed disposal.

Recycling Details

Items that can be recycled include: * Desktop personal computers * Portable and notebook computers * Keyboards, Mice, Modems * Monitors * Servers and networking equipment (hubs, fire walls, routers etc) * Printers including lasers, inkjet & photocopiers * EPOS and Impact Printers * Scanners and most other IT related equipment.

Data Destruction

PRM Green Technologies Ltd operates to a very strict code of conduct concerning the destruction of personal, private and sensitive data.

Data destruction process:

Simply deleting data or reformatting a hard disk drive does not remove the data – it can be retrieved!!!!

PRM Green Technologies Ltd will destroy all residual data on redundant media to DOD 5220.22-M standards, thus ensuring full compliance with the Data Protection Act. The process involves multiple overwriting a specific and complicated pattern of controlled data to the media up to fifteen times.

This process is slow but it works; data is eradicated FOREVER!

Non-working hard disk drives along with hard disk drives that cannot be successfully overwritten are physically destroyed before being recycled.

Collection

Please call 0800 840 9195 to arrange your free collection now.

Once we have received details of the equipment to be removed, we will arrange a mutually convenient date and time for collection or confirm a previously arranged date.

All items for removal must be disconnected from all other ancillary equipment which is not being removed, including your local area network.

All equipment for removal must be together, in an easily accessible, ground floor location.

We will require a signature upon completion of removal.

Email: recycle@prmgreentech.com
Phone: 0800 840 9195
Online: www.prmgreentech.com/contact.html

Please note – A collection charge may apply if basic criteria are not met. Minimum number of items to qualify for free collection = 30 (not including mice, keyboards or peripherals). Please call 0800 840 9195 for further details.

Service not currently available in Northern Ireland.

What is the simplest way to get someone to do what you want them to do?

The answer, fairly obviously, is to ask them to do it.

But, as we all know, people don’t always respond as we want them to. We can ask, and they might do what we want, or they might just refuse, or do it badly, or say they will do it later, and so on.

If a teenager approaches a parent with a demand for something now, immediately, quickly, with additional comments about not having time to hang about waiting all day, the parent might well do the opposite of what is requested. In effect, through choosing the wrong language, the teenager gets the opposite of what he/she wants.

The key to getting what we want, therefore, is to focus on the way we talk to people. Get the request right, and we’re more likely to get the response we want.

This is the essence of the Spoken Language Study component in the 2010 English Language GCSE: critical reflection, observation and analysis of spoken language rather than accepting speech at face value.

While working on our new KS4 English upgrade, we realised we’d identified some great resources that can be used as examples, which are freely available.

The recent leaders’ debate in the run-up to the general election and the first press conference following the formation of the government are excellent sources of material for covering a whole range of points in relation to Spoken Language. What we like about these videos is that such a wide range of different points can be illustrated all from the same sources.

We’ve put together the links to the video clips and a few teaching ideas which can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.

Regards

Georgina Robinson
Marketing Manager, on behalf of the Boardworks English team

P.S. If you’d like to hear more about our KS4 English upgrade, details can be found at http://www.boardworks.co.uk/english_63 or you can call us on 08703 50 55 60 to ask!

They might not admit it, but students love to communicate. If they’re not talking with friends then many are engaging with a world of social networking, from emails and blogs to Facebook, Twitter and Bebo.

The challenge, of course, is to channel all this expression into their language learning.

With Boardworks brand-new AS French resources you can inspire students with a suite of interactive and multimedia features that bring French to life on your interactive whiteboard in a way no textbook ever could.

To try Boardworks AS French for yourself, just click here.

From activities allowing students to create their own social networking profile in French to listening exercises with integrated native-speaker audio, reading tests, bite-sized grammar presentations and useful vocabulary banks, Boardworks AS French is the ideal resource for inspiring confidence in your A-Level students and honing their skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Developed fully in line with the 2008 AQA, Edexcel and OCR specifications, and mapped to the Languages Ladder at Intermediate and Advanced levels, Boardworks AS French covers your curriculum with a wealth of ready-to-teach lessons on a range of contemporary topics.

But don’t just take our word for it. Why not visit the MFL pages on the Boardworks website to see how Boardworks enhanced the language teaching at a school’s MFL department.