Education News

When any organisation creates new resources, one of the key questions that one has to ask is, who is going to pay?

Quite often it is not a question of profit, but rather a question of recovering the costs that surround the creating of any useful teaching resource.

For website-based resources the only realistic ways forward are to make a charge for the use of each resource or to have a fair amount of advertising on the website or within the resources.

It is interesting that virtually no research has ever been done into the view of people such as yourself, who might use these resources. Would you be willing to pay a modest sum, as a contribution towards the costs?

We would really like to know your views, in relation to one particular website that offers student and teacher resources for those parts of the KS3, KS4 and KS5 Citizenship curriculum that cover the European Union, human rights and migration.

We would like your advice on how the site can be made most useful to you, the user. We would be grateful if you would spare a few moments to complete our online survey. (The link to the website and its resources – which are currently available free of charge – is given below).

There is a £50 book token to be won by one completed survey, to be chosen at random.

If you have any questions or comments beyond the survey, please do email me at squidcom1@googlemail.com.

Stephen Quigley
Citizens of Europe
www.citizensofeurope.org

When students enjoy a course, two things happen. First, they work harder, as indeed we all work harder at what we enjoy. Second, they tend to tell their friends about the course and encourage them to do it too.

There are naturally many ways of giving the students enjoyment on the course, but perhaps the biggest boost often comes from participating in the “Marketing the Dream” event at Disneyland Paris in November this year.

“Marketing the Dream” involves top speakers from Disney Management including Gill Corley (Head of Marketing Disney Destinations International – Thomas Cook), Mark Pilkington (Head of Commercial Disneyland Paris) and Kate Hemmingway (Business Development Manager, Disney Destinations International).

These speakers drive a set of curriculum-led activities covering sales, marketing, customer service and resort and product development.

The activities form part of a two night or three night tour during which your students will become further enthralled by their subject and engaged with the curriculum. Upon their return they will also become significant ambassadors for your course.

And as a result of that, the number of applicants for places on your course will almost inevitably go up each year, the students’ motivation will rise, and the grades subsequently gained will improve.

One particular bonus of travelling to the “Marketing the Dream” event with Travel Adventure is that there is no minimum group size and no supplement for small groups or regional pickups. You can also combine the visit with a trip to Paris, if you wish. More details on the 17th Schools and College Convention 2012 can be seen at http://www.thetraveladventure.co.uk/resource/?pid=2240

Our website at www.thetraveladventure.co.uk shows key stage choices, course choices and destination choices, or you can call 01825 740676 to discuss your specific requirements

With both the Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee taking place this summer, the social event calendars of many schools are likely to be exceptionally busy.

To assist busy senior management teams, PTAs and others, the safeguarding specialists at SAFEcic have developed a handy safeguarding leaflet to help with organising any one-off events.

Click here for the leaflet: http://www.safechilduk.info/eventsleaflet.html

Best regards

The SAFE Team

For details of the winner of last month’s iPad competition, see www.facebook.com/SAFEchildUK
Contributor to the Volunteer Safeguarding Training for the 2012 Olympic Games

For further details or to find out about our Child Protection Training packages for schools and colleges (not available on our website), please contact us:

marc.t@safecic.co.uk
Tel: 01379 871091
www.safecic.co.uk

Safer Activities for Everyone CIC (SAFE). A company registered in England 7855719. Registered Office: Chestnuts Farm, Langton Green, Eye, Suffolk IP23 7HL

Indeed they sometimes struggle so much that it is possible to believe that these young people might be suffering from dyscalculia.

And yet at the same time it is obvious that they are not totally lacking in the field of mathematical concepts.

A typical case might involve someone who understands the concept of number, addition and subtraction, but is utterly lost when it comes to multiplication. Another student may have grasped most of the fundamentals but needs to go back over some points of detail.

It is to help such pupils and students that we have produced Dyscalculia Practice Activities– a copiable volume that brings together elements of our earlier three Dyscalculia Activities volumes.

While some pupils and students clearly need the in-depth help of a volume in the Dyscalculia Activities series, Dyscalculia Practice Activities is intended for those pupils and students who show dyscalculic tendencies but who are able to grasp some of the fundamental elements of basic maths.

Dyscalculia Practice Activities includes a huge range of projects for pupils and students who can benefit by working through the fundamentals for maths (the four functions, shapes, fractions, percentages and time) step-by-step in a multi-sensory manner.

The aim of the book is to encourage activity that puts the whole of the basic maths curriculum into a context that can then be used as the student progresses to more advanced work.

The volume consists of sessions in which a teacher or assistant teacher works with an individual or small group of individuals on the projects in a multi-sensory manner using coloured counters, cut-out shapes, memory cards and the like.

Please note that the coloured counters and memory cards are not provided with the copiable book, but can be ordered separately. Details are at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/index.php?cPath=29

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/dyscalculia/T1782.pdf

ISBN: 978 1 86083 820 0; Order code: T1782emn

The volume is available as…

Photocopiable book, £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Book and the CD: £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book or CD…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=757

Looking for Quality Diverse Children’s Stories? We have Many!
Special Software for Special Needs
Pupil reports made easy

——————————————————————————–

Looking for Quality Diverse Children’s Stories? We have Many!

www.kubepublishing.com
Kube Publishing Ltd. MCC, Ratby Lane, Markfield, LE67 9SY

Email address: info@kubepublishing.com
Phone Number: (01530) 249 230
Fax Number: (01530) 249 656

Kube Publishing Ltd produces the finest stories involving Muslim characters in the English language. They are perfect for nurseries and KS1 and until the 27 April you can get 50% off everything using the promo code: SCHOOLS12.

Out best-sellers include We’re Off to Make Umrah, a book about the pilgrimage to Makkah; The Spider and the Doves, a retelling of a milestone in Islamic history, the hijra, and A Picnic of Poems, a collection of 30 poems that captures many Muslim practices in a whimsical and pleasing way.

To receive our complete publication catalogue contact us via email.

——————————————————————————–

Special Software for Special Needs

http://www.xes.org.uk
Xavier Educational Software Ltd, 34 Tan y Bwlch Road, Llanllechid,
Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 3HU

Email: xavier@xes.org.uk
Phone: 07895076062

Xavier Software offer a range of programs designed to assist teachers
working with dyslexic pupils, ranging from early vowel/rhyming skills up
to complex punctuation. Designed in collaboration with the Dyslexia
Unit of the University of Wales (Bangor), these multi-sensory programs
may be used for one-one teaching or reinforcement and may be ordered on
a ‘try before you buy’ basis. Used in conjunction with an interactive
whiteboard, ‘Punctuate Plus’ has achieved the impossible, and turned the
teaching of punctuation into an entertaining les son – test your own.

——————————————————————————–

Pupil reports made easy

www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/?r=hamilton
Teach ICT Ltd, 1 Ffordd y Felin, Trefin, Haverfordwest, SA62 5AX

Email: info@reportcommentbank.co.uk
Phone: 0845 094 6427
Fax: 0700 349 7137

Our point and click report writer is FREE to join and will save you hours when it comes to writing pupil reports. You can use our comments, comments from other teachers or write your own.

With the introduction of the ‘Phonics Screening Check’ to Year 1 pupils in June, children will be expected to gain a specific level of proficiency.

Pupils who do not reach the pass level will be expected to embark on a programme of additional support and be retested in June 2013.

Furthermore, individual results will be reported to parents and whole school results will be made available to OFSTED and the local authority through ‘RAISEonline’.

In order to help prepare Year 1 children for this new test, we have devised a photocopiable book of practice materials which contains sets of words to help children become familiar with the way in which the Government test will be presented.

The phonics screening check is constructed from 20 real words and 20 ‘pseudo-words’. The pseudo-words provide the purest assessment of phonic decoding because they will be new to all children.

The pseudo-words are identified by a picture prompt of an imaginary creature and the children should be asked to name the type of creature. This approach makes it clear to children that they are reading unfamiliar words.

There are four different phonic screening tests in this book (A, B, C and D).

Each Phonic Screening Test contains the following items:

Individual pupil answer sheet
Warm up words (4 real and 4 pseudo)
40 words to use in the screening
A class record/analysis sheet
Free sample pages are available on our website.

If you would like to know more please call 01772 863158 or email us at enquiries@topical-resources.co.uk

You can order in any of these ways:

On our website
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

Recent research among over 200,000 UK children suggests that in some parts of the country and in some subject areas boys no longer read at a lower level of difficulty than girls.

The “What Kids are Reading” study from Dundee University’s Prof Keith Topping analyses at what level of difficulty children are reading when they read for pleasure and it found that quite often boys are reading tougher books than girls.

The Dundee research doesn’t explain why some boys are moving towards ever harder books, but other research has found that, by using visual, kinaesthetic and competitive activities in the classroom with primary aged boys, their motivation and engagement increases significantly.

As a result of these two sets of findings we have produced a book of ideas for teaching primary school boys which contains over 170 practical ideas and strategies to maximize the potential of boys.

The book includes information on how to integrate visual and kinaesthetic activities into your lessons and harness boys’ natural competitiveness to good effect.

It also shows how to provide opportunities to enable boys to re-focus, process and re-energize, use teamwork to engage their learning and promote higher-order thinking skills.

As a result of these activities, we believe that you will find that boys will more readily engage in their learning and will be keener to participate. This will result in a reduction in behaviour problems allowing more time to be spent teaching and learning.

Free sample pages are available on our website at https://www.brilliantpublications.co.uk/book/100-fun-ideas-for-teaching-boys-in-primary-school-358

You can order 100+ Fun Ideas for Teaching Boys in Primary School for £14 each in any of these ways:

On our website
By phone on 01449 766629
By fax on 01449 767122
By email to orders@tradecounter.co.uk
By post to Brilliant Publications, c/o Trade Counter Distribution
Mendlesham Industrial Estate, Norwich Road, Mendlesham, Suffolk,
IP14 5ND

A digital learning service, from the newsroom to the classroom
A Series on Diverse Role-Models in the Modern World
Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans & teaching tips
Pupil reports made easy

——————————————————————————–

A digital learning service, from the newsroom to the classroom

www.theday.co.uk
The Day News Limited, 33 Notting Hill Gate, 2nd Floor Astley House, London W11 3JQ

Email: tom@theday.co.uk
Phone: 0207 727 6959

The Day is a new daily online news service designed for use in the classroom. Our editorial team, formerly of The Financial Times, writes three news stories each day, explaining current events and linking the issues behind the articles to the relevant parts of the school curriculum. Ideal as an engaging classroom resource in form time, PSHE, assemblies and across the curriculum. Try our no-obligation three week free trial today.

——————————————————————————–

A Series on Diverse Role-Models in the Modern World

www.kubepublishing.com
Kube Publishing Ltd. MCC, Ratby Lane, Markfield, LE67 9SY

Email address: info@kubepublishing.com
Phone Number: (01530) 249 230
Fax Number: (01530) 249 656

Muslims in the Modern World is a new series that presents a range of inspiring figures to young readers. The first book captures the tireless work of Dr Hany El Banna OBE, the founder of the largest Western Muslim aid organisation: Islamic Relief.

With links to the curriculum and supported by free resources, this is ‘a positive and modern example of Islamic faith in action and as such fills a much felt void.’ – R. Weaver, RE Teacher

Get 50% off everything until the 27 April using the promo code: SCHOOLS12.

To receive our complete publication catalogue contact us via email.

——————————————————————————–

Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans & teaching tips

Citizenship: http://www.boardworks.co.uk/citizenship_695

PSHEE: http://www.boardworks.co.uk/pshee_734

Boardworks, Units 5–7 The Gallery, 54 Marston Street, Oxford, OX4 1LF

Email: enquiries@boardworks.co.uk
Phone: 0845 0 300 400
Fax: 0845 0 300 200

Boardworks Citizenship and PSHEE blogs contain free resources, lesson plans and teaching tips for KS3 and KS4 teachers. Follow the weblinks to download the resources free of charge or follow us on Twitter @BoardworksLtd.

——————————————————————————–

Pupil reports made easy

www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/?r=hamilton
Teach ICT Ltd, 1 Ffordd y Felin, Trefin, Haverfordwest, SA62 5AX

Email: info@reportcommentbank.co.uk
Phone: 0845 094 6427
Fax: 0700 349 7137

Our point and click report writer is FREE to join and will save you hours when it comes to writing pupil reports. You can use our comments, comments from other teachers or write your own.

Who knows if life in the 21st century is more stressful than a life in which one might be eaten by a sabre tooth tiger or find that half of the village contracted the Black Death overnight.

But what we do know is that there are stresses in our era, and some teenagers seem to feel these issues quite strongly: exams, relationships with friends and with the opposite S, domestic problems, and peer pressure to smoke, drink, take drugs and have S. (I have to use the abbreviation S as otherwise this email will be blocked by many schools for using “inappropriate language”)

To compound matters, the teenage years themselves are difficult, a time when teenagers are neither children nor grown-ups and when many have a tendency to feel and express rebellion. Sadly, there have been a number of recent cases where teenage stress has led to suicide.

Teenage stress is clearly a highly relevant and serious issue and it is vital that we find ways to help teenagers, firstly to identify the causes of it and then to both understand and cope with it.

But the question is how. When someone is stressed, then their own perceptions become warped, and it is impossible for them to see their position in the world and how they might change it.

So the answer is to work with students before they become over-stressed (on the basis that clearly some stress is good – as one psychologist put it to me while I was looking into this subject, if you are not stressed you are probably asleep).

The manual “Coping with Teenage Stress” approaches the subject by giving teenagers insights into what stress is all about, and then asking them to participate in explorations of the concept. Through this is opens the way to class discussion of the many sources of teenage stress and includes practical work in the form of quizzes, games and questions for class work. It also offers practical help for stressed teenagers with numerous suggestions as to how they can relieve stress and also where they can go for help if the underlying problem is too much for them alone.

It is detailed, practical, there are many more topics that you’ll need to cover (so there is plenty of chance to choose the topics you particularly want to cover) and it comes in a copiable format, which makes it usable in chunks, with as many students as you wish. You can also obtain the volume on CD so that it can be put on the school’s learning platform for all colleagues to access it and use it, no matter which department they are in.

Cat No: 978 1 86083 702 9; Publishers Ref No: T1713emn; Sample pages can be viewed on http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/pshe/T1713.pdf

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 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=40&products_id=542

Answer: Don’t
It’s a very old joke. So old in fact it will barely raise a smile. But the fact is that something like 90% of schools still run school trips each year, and tens of thousands of us put ourselves through the hard work of organising and developing the trips, because of the good that we know it does for the pupils and students we teach.

Which is why, as a result of setting and running the School Visits news forum last year, I wanted to publish a book on school trips, covering everything that we had discussed.

And that’s what we have done. It is called Organising Successful Trips and Visits: a practical guide for secondary school teachers, and we’ve made it available as a download. In that way you can simply click on the link, and the file drops into the computer, ready for you to run off as many copies as you want for colleagues across the school.

The book covers all the basic points, from “loco parentis” to turning the idea into a trip, from transport issues to the letter to the parents, from staffing issues to kit lists.

In just over 50 pages it gives you all the basics – not least so that if a colleague in the school is looking to organise a trip for the first time, he/she will be able to read up on all the key issues presented in a straightforward way.

There are sample pages at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/authordownloadsamples/T1772samples.pdf

Organising Successful Trips and Visits: a practical guide for secondary school teachers” 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 Organising Successful Trips and Visits: a practical guide for secondary school teachers” by going to http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=747

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

Organising Successful Trips and Visits: a practical guide for secondary school teachers” 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