Education News

School Discounts from SOFTPLANET on music software for your school and home!

Britain’s LOWEST Sibelius music software packages for both PC and Mac.

Ignore our current website prices – this offer is for your school. Phone if you see a better deal.

Email us for an official quote now!

Ask us for a free quote on Pro Tools 10, Photoscore, Auralia, Musition and m-audio keyboards

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Upgrade to Sibelius 7 £34.00 per seat (saving £5.00 on every seat)

Add more seats to your Sibelius License £64.00 (RRP £79.00 each)
http://www.softplanetgroup.com/computer-music/notation-academic-software/sibelius-7-multi-user-licence-upgrade

Teacher and Student Home copies £150.00!! (yes – this is the FULL version)

Sibelius 7 Media Kit needs purchased for all Sibelius 7 orders (£22.00)

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Note – If you use Windows XP then please note that Sibelius 7 is not supported. You should upgrade to Sibelius 6 instead as a download. (Same price)

Call John Montgomery on 01334 461244 for expert advice.

Our offer also includes free email support on all Sibelius products.

SOFTPLANET are official UK agents for Sibelius-Pro Tools- and many more!

Call 01334 461244 email hq@softplanetgroup.com or write to

SOFTPLANET, Greenbank House, Prior Muir, St Andrews, KY16 8LP

www.softplanetgroup.com

The answer to that question must be: a fundraising scheme in which you don’t actually have to do much at all.

The trouble with most such schemes is that they tend to bring in small amounts of money or fizzle out very easily.

So what we are really looking for is a fundraising concept which is very easy to run, doesn’t require much effort to initiate, and which continues to bring in money, without doing much more each year.

And that is what we have worked on. All the school has to do is change its telecom provider to ourselves and then send a letter to parents inviting the parents to change their telecom supplier as well. Both the school and the parents get the guarantee that their service will be at the same level as before and will cost either the same or less than before.

Everyone also gets the guarantee that their number stays the same and that there will be no break in service.

That is all you have to do: change and invite parents to change. After that 10% of the money spent on calls by the parents that sign up to the scheme is then paid back to the school.

This means that on average for every pupil in the school you will receive about £2.50 per month payment. Put another way, for every 100 pupils in the school whose parents move across, you will receive about £3,000 per year – without the school having to do anything.

Because not everyone will sign up at once we’ll supply you with a variety of letters which you can hand over to parents or transmit as emails, encouraging parents to move over to your system. We can also supply a page for you to drop into your website if you wish, again reminding parents of the service and the benefit to the school.

One of the great things about this approach is that once it has been set up by parents it just continues, year after year. Even if the parents move from the area or their children leave school, you will still benefit from their telephone call spend unless they change to another supplier.

All you have to do each year is announce the scheme to parents joining the school for the first time as well as reminding those who have not changed of the benefits of joining in.

The money is paid to you month by month, and there is nothing else to do. I do hope you will take up this opportunity.

Major Rathore

For more information please take a look at our website – http://ultimate-telecom.co.uk/schools.html.

Alternatively you can call us on 03000 200010.

This is the GCSE Geography Revision Guide for the Edexcel B syllabus Unit 2, People and the Planet.

For each topic it covers the key terms, and asks and answers fundamental questions such as “how and why is population changing?”

It also covers specific issues of interest, such as the particular situation affecting Russia’s declining population, while Yemen’s population is growing quickly.

There are detailed graphs, analyses of the factors driving change, the advantages and disadvantages of having an aging population, and numerous examples of differing government policies.

The full contents list is…

Topic 1: Population Dynamics
Topic 2: Consuming resources
Topic 3: Living spacesTopic 4: Making a living
Topic 5: Changing cities
Topic 6: Changing countryside
Topic 7: Development dilemmas
Topic 8: World of Work

At the end there are practical exam questions for each topic.

The volume is only available as a download – not as a printed book.

There are sample pages at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/authordownloadsamples/T1774samples.pdf

GCSE Geography Revision Guide: People and the Planet is published as a download so that you can receive immediately a copy onto your computer which you can print out for colleagues as often as you want. You can also put it on your school learning platform so all staff can access the document – and indeed you can make it part of the induction documentation for new members of staff.

You can obtain GCSE Geography Revision Guide: People and the Planet by going to http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=749

The price is £10 plus VAT (the VAT can be reclaimed in most cases by the school).

GCSE Geography Revision Guide: People and the Planet is published by First and Best in Education, part of the Hamilton House group. If you have any enquiries you can call 01536 399 011, or email sales@firstandbest.co.uk or write to us at First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH.

The full range of First and Best books can be seen at www.shop.firstandbest.co.uk

First and Best in Education
Earlstrees Road
Corby
NN17 4HH

Website: www.shop.firstandbest.co.uk
Email: sales@firstandbest.co.uk

An average of 18.6 per cent of 15-year olds in the UK fail to read at the level at which they can “understand, use and reflect on written texts”, according to the last Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests.

The recent Eurydice report (which analyses education systems and policies across 33 European countries) suggests that the best way to improve present reading standards is for primary literacy lessons to have a greater emphasis in reading comprehension.

In terms of comprehension, take this classic short poem:

“Algy met a bear,
A bear met Algy,
The bear was bulgy,
The bulge was Algy.

Most people who read this will understand Algy’s grisly fate, but there is nothing in the text that says Algy has been eaten. It is inferred – and that ability to infer has to be learned.

Comprehension is crucial to get pupils to the next step: reading for fun. When children enjoy reading, read diverse material and adopt reading comprehension strategies, they can attain a higher level of performance in reading.

Similarly, disadvantaged students who read a diverse range of texts and employ effective reading strategies tend to perform well in reading.

This is why we have developed ‘Comprehension in Themes’ for Year 3 to Year 6. Each photocopiable book contains a diverse collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts grouped in themes suitable for the age groups covered.

The exercises can be used to prepare children for SAT style tests and can be matched to themes the class may be studying at the time or used on a weekly basis.

The question pages are split into three sections. Section A gives an overview of the text with missing words or phrases to find. Section B contains open-ended questions requiring inference and deduction. Section C is a relevant written challenge for more able pupils or those who work quickly.

Paper and electronic versions of the books are available.

If you’d like to see exactly how we have tackled this issue there are free sample pages available from our website. Click here for Year 3, here for Year 4, here for year 5 and here for year 6.

If you would like to know more please call 01772 863158
Or email enquiries@topical-resources.co.uk
You can order in any of these ways:

Online at the above web links
By phone on: 01772 863158
By fax: 01772 866153
By email: Sales@topical-resources.co.uk
By post: Topical Resources, P.O. Box329, Broughton, Preston, Lancashire PR3 5LT

Microsoft – and just one of those FREE Software Assurance Benefits
Policies for Schools – Let us help you keep all your school policies up to date
Are you making the most of your outdoor classroom?
Celebrate 2012 in style with Grumpy Sheep Music!
Efficiencies that save £1000s a year

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Microsoft – and just one of those FREE Software Assurance Benefits

http://www.computerbox.net/?p=913
Computer Box Ltd, Eaton Place, 114 Washway Road, Sale, Cheshire M33 7RF

Phone: 0845 658 2552
Email: peter@computerbox.net

Data Encryption – on Drives & USB sticks with Windows 7 Enterprise BitLocker secure encryption.

It seems everyone is looking for a data encryption solution.

But did you know that potentially there is one already built in to your operating system! Check this out here …..

For more information on data encryption can be used in your school please contact Peter on 0845 658 2552, or email him at peter@computerbox.net.

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Policies for Schools – Let us help you keep all your school policies up to date

www.policiesforschools.co.uk
Teachers Resource Centre Ltd, Singleton Court Business Park, Wonastow Road, Monmouth, NP25 5JA

Email: sales@policiesforschools.co.uk
Phone: 01600 716911
Fax: 01600 716744

Policies for Schools is a subscription based service providing over 240 thoroughly researched, up to date, fully customisable school policies that cover a wide range of essential areas.

For just £195 for a year’s subscription you will have over 240 model school policies that:

are professionally written
cover 18 different statutory areas
are thoroughly researched and written in line with the NAHT’s guidance on policy writing
can be easily customised to suit the needs of your school
are continually being updated to reflect any changes in government legislation
are available 24/7 for you to download at any time

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Are you making the most of your outdoor classroom?

www.fawns.co.uk
Fawns Recreational Services Ltd, Woodcot Court, Woodcot Gardens, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 9RD

Email: sales@fawns.co.uk
Phone: 01252 515199
Fax: 01252 515858

Fawns Playtime create natural play areas and flexible landscapes for Schools and Early Years settings – free no obligation site survey and design service offered as part of our consultative approach to making the most of your outdoor space.

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Celebrate 2012 in style with Grumpy Sheep Music!

http://www.grumpysheep.co.uk
Grumpy Sheep Music, PO Box 152, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7WB

Email: music@grumpysheep.co.uk
Phone: 0191 2399229

We create fun musicals for primary and pre-school children. Our musicals are simple to stage, with catchy songs and CD’s with backing tracks. A magical way to celebrate the year!

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Efficiencies that save £1000s a year

www.admin.org.uk

School of Educational Administration, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd, Corby, Northants, NN17 4HH

Email: prospectus@admin.org.uk
Phone: 01536 399 007
Fax: 01536 399 012

When the School of Educational Administration launched its Diploma in School Efficiency programme no one quite knew which efficiencies schools would report.

But now we’ve seen it in action, and the savings schools are making are really extraordinary.

The next one-year Diploma in School Efficiency course (taught by distance learning) will close its intake of students on 30 January with the course commencing on 6 February 2012. There are still a few places available.

The next 10 week Certificate in School Efficiency course starts on the same date.

For more information and prices please call or go to the website www.admin.org.uk

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is rightly one of the most used texts for English Literature students.

Its portrayal of race problems, youth crime, guns and murder gives us materials just as applicable to the street problems of latter day England as the inter-war southern United States.

It prompts discussion on how young men are enticed by the easy glamour of ‘shooters’. It shows the painful cost for a woman acting as a role model for a minority group. But at the same time it does give hope of change.

In studying this text by Mildred Taylor it is vital that issues and character development are set out in a format which students of every ability can follow.

And that is what we have sought to achieve in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry workbook, a resource that will also raise the work of very bright students to a level where a top pass becomes a realistic goal.

Throughout the book has a number of extremely helpful features including:

• All vocabulary explained page by page, particularly the British equivalents of American words.
• A running commentary tracing the plot, character and theme on every page.
• Each chapter ending with a multi-choice question sheet, with answers provided separately for the teacher.
• Full background notes on the condition of Negroes in the United States from the Founding Fathers to President Obama.
• Opportunities to discuss issues arising, which may be turned into essay work.

This resource contains 77 copiable masters and is available as a PDF download or as a PDF or editable Word files on a CD. The price of £34.99 + VAT is the same for all formats.

Once purchased the CD can be freely copied and networked throughout the school.

To see sample pages please email sales@classroom-resources.co.uk quoting the order code 5323.

You can order the Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Workbook in any of these ways:

• On our website
• By phone on 0117 940 6409
• By fax on 0117 940 6408
• By email (quoting a school order number) to sales@classroom-resources.co.uk
• By post to: Classroom Resources, PO Box 1489, Bristol, BS99 3QJ

Some things, happily, don’t change.

One is that the need to dispose of unwanted IT equipment is a recurrent one in schools. The second is that PRM continue to offer a free disposal service for your unwanted computer equipment.

And to make it clear:

First of all, PRM really does offer a free service. We will come into your school and remove unwanted IT equipment at no cost to you.

Second, we believe in doing the job properly so we ensure that all the data on the equipment is wiped to the highest standards possible. All the equipment is then recycled within the UK – in keeping with school sustainable education programmes.

We can take PC base units, CRT monitors, TFT monitors, servers, laptops, server racks, switches, telecom switches and printers. Indeed as long as you have 30 of these items we will take away other IT equipment at the same time, such as keyboards, cabling and telecoms.

The only requirement we have is that you have at least 30 items for collection and that they are all gathered together in one easily accessible place for our driver to pick up.

At the end of the process we issue you with free certification evidence so you can see that the correct procedures were complied with.

For more information please call our freephone number: 0800 840 9195 or fill in the form by clicking here www.prmgreentech.com/contact.htm

When we did an informal survey asking this question, the answer was clear – the lack of ease with which the laptop storage trolley could be moved around. There was talk of clunky, chunky, and basically heavy storage units that simply did not want to be where the user wanted them to be.

Which is why went out looking for something different. And what we found was the ultra-lightweight EcoCart.

Then, since we were working with manufacturers in developing a new type of storage trolley, we threw in a few demands, such as the fact that these trolleys must not rust and they must not dent when attacked by a group of students turning a corner at above the school’s in-building speed limit.

We also asked for them to be constructed in a non-conductive, anti-static material ensuring they are ultra-safe for use in schools.

That was just the trolley bit. Inside we wanted some goodies too.

In our case we ensured that all laptops can be charged from a single mains socket, and the built-in power management system includes an energy-saving programmable timer so you can charge the laptops during the evening or weekends to make the most of off-peak energy supply hours.

The system also protects your laptops and prevents a building’s circuits from being tripped.

An added bonus is that that the trolleys are made of 100% recyclable plastic, so are more ecologically friendly to produce and come with a reduced carbon footprint.

These then are the EcoCarts. They will be on display at the BETT Show at Olympia in January (11th – 14th) on stand E89.

Or take a peek at http://eco-carts.co.uk/. Alternatively you can call us on 01753 53 99 55.

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