Education News

SEALSONGS is a collection of assembly songs which aims to get children engaged through the experience of making and creating music. The lyrics were written with considerable input from Year 4 and 5 pupils, so speak from children to children, and the musical backing tracks were professionally recorded.

But the resource goes further and offers teachers detailed advice on writing new lyrics, leading singing and other ways that SEALSONGS may be used in the classroom. Thus it enables teachers to give young children the positive experience of working with others in creating new songs within the SEAL framework. There is also guidance for non-specialists in how to teach songs.

The SEAL themes are:

Song 1: New beginnings
Song 2: Getting on and falling out
Song 3: Say no to bullying
Song 4: Going for goals!
Song 5: Good to be me
Song 6: Relationships
Song 7: Changes

Two further general songs – one about writing songs and one providing a Rhyme Game – are also included in the pack.

JENNY MOSLEY (Founder of Quality Circle Time) said “SEALSONGS is a wonderful gift to any adult who wants to truly help their class or school embed SEAL as a way of ‘being’ with ourselves and others. We all know that song can lift you to a different spiritual dimension – David Stoll has given us the perfect package to help even the most music-shy amongst us to engage young people in the process of creating heart-warming songs as part of a creative team….. This is an excellent resource.”

HOWARD GOODALL (National Ambassador for Singing) said “These SEALSONGS have the authentic ring of children’s ideas and feelings in every line. This, for me, makes it a valuable and empowering set of musical tools….. with excellent supporting materials and explanations.”

The SEALSONGS book and CD are now available as a download for £10 plus VAT. This price includes a licence for full use of all the material within the school, including recording new versions of the songs. The complete package is split into different files so that schools may choose which elements they wish to record or print.

Sample music can be downloaded from www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/music/SEALSONGSSamples.zip and you can purchase the book and CD on-line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=739

The thesis behind this report is simple: just as there are a hundred ways of teaching a lesson in the classroom, so there are a hundred ways of organising a school office. The problem is that traditionally the focus of the school has been on what happens in the classroom, while the school office has been treated as something that is as it is. Because of this, school administration has tended to evolve quite slowly, while teaching and learning have undergone radical transformations.

However, observation suggests that different schools do organise their administrations in different ways, and that some approaches can make a significant difference to the effectiveness and efficiency of the school’s work.

At the heart of the book is the notion that there is a way of organising school administration that is much more effective than any other approach. This approach does not require a higher budget; it simply puts in place processes that inevitably lead to a smoother throughput of information and activity, which means there are fewer disruptions, fewer errors, and ultimately more time for everything to be done. The report covers issues such as the structure of the administration of the school, work management within the administrative department, change management, facilities management, budgeting, organisational behaviour and legal issues within the school office.

One of the fundamental issues within the report is that changes only work to the benefit of the organisation when everyone understands what is going on and why the changes are being implemented. For this reason Increasing the Efficiency of School Administration is available as a photocopiable report, which allows you to give sections of the report to your colleagues. There is no restriction on the number of copies that can be made. An edition of the book is also available on CD Rom for printing out via Word.

The report was written by Tony Attwood, the director of the School of Educational Administration. Since 2005 the School has been running the Certificate in Educational Administration course and recently launched a new Diploma in School Efficiency.

There are sample pages from the photocopiable book at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/T1744.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1744EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 798 2

Prices

Photocopiable book: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the book and the CD: £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1744EMN

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=26&products_id=568