Primary Teacher UK

Everyclick.com

Everyclick.com works just like any other search engine, but allows the users to choose the charity they would like to benefit from their searching. The revenue generated for charities comes from companies that advertise on the site. There is no sign up fee or hidden charge to the user or the charity, it’s free giving.

Charities of all sizes are benefiting from this new fundraising service, they range from Cancer Research to your own school. If 10% of the UK online population used Everyclick.com for their searches, an additional £172,000 would be raised for charity every day.

“Most of us wish we could give more, now we can. Everyclick is a really simple way to raise money for free, just by doing something you already do” said Polly Gowers CEO, co- founder and winner of the WEBA Ethical Entrepreneur of the year 2007. “As we see it, every search that is not raising money for charity is a search wasted.”

Everyclick.com has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity, please see the website for an up-to-date total.

Link: www.Everyclick.com

Online safety programme launched

Children as young as five years old are the focus of a new online safety programme launched yesterday by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

OFCOM research indicates that 59% of 5-7 year olds access the internet at home and that 21% do so unsupervised. Now building on the success of the organisation’s Thinkuknow education initiative, which has already reached over 1.7 million children and young people between the ages of 8-16 years, the UK’s Centre for tackling the sexual abuse of children is now reaching out to parents of much younger children with vital ’safety first' advice.

Hector’s World comprises five state-of-the-art, animated episodes. It takes children on a journey with Hector and his friends as they explore issues such as personal information, trustworthiness, making positive choices online and how to be open with a trusted adult when they use the internet.

The animation has been adapted for a young UK audience following successful running of the programme in New Zealand and is backed up by a series of free resources available to parents and teachers via the dedicated CEOP education website - thinkuknow.co.uk. All materials have been developed in consultation with Becta and with teachers.

Link: http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/

Films matched up to the new literacy strategy?

Lara has emailed me today wondering if anyone might be able to help her:

"After going on an ICT course today Get IT Write, about using film, we decided that it would be great if someone had been able to look at films and match it up to the literacy curriculum, and maybe other curriculum areas. The two course leaders said that they hadn't ever seen such a list, so I was wondering if either anyone who reads your site has such a list, or whether you could start asking people for their ideas about this so a list could be compiled? Hope you can help as this seems to be the way things are going with literacy and the new framework."

It's a good question - I know of resources produced as advertising for new films, but not specifically linked to the new strategy. I'm happy to pass on any ideas to Lara, or post them as comments below.

Housepoints.net

Here is an email I received from Ahmed regarding his website housepoints.net:

I created housepoints.net to allow my school to track house points online. It's been a big hit with the teachers, students and parents so I've now made it available for other schools to use. You can find more information on the following page:

http://www.housepoints.net/for_teachers

The site is free to use and I intend to keep it that way for the forseeable future. It's been designed with simplicity in mind and there's a special "student mode" to allow students to enter their own points - less work for the teachers!

Parents can be given access to their child's profile and at my school this has reinvigorated the house points system - parents are taking more of an interest in school and for the children, earning house points is a big deal again. (I've had plenty of reports of parents praising/rewarding children at home when they've had a particularly good day and that has helped to reinforce the behaviour policy outside school).

There's a short guided tour and online demo you can try. The demo is reset periodically so feel free to make make changes.

It's a fresh look on the team / house points system and certainly worth considering - even if you just use the points with your class. I'd like to see the system being made more child friendly - maybe awarding stars for x number of points etc.

Link: http://www.housepoints.net/

Markers to be marked

At last - this is something that has been needed for a long time, especially after the poor Literacy marking last year. Taken from the Guardian:

"People marking the national tests pupils sit at age 11 and 14 will be required to pass exams themselves to do so, under new plans to improve the quality of marking announced by the government's exams watchdog today.

The moves are intended to allay growing fears over marking standards. Last month, the Guardian revealed that schools had requested re-marks for more than 100,000 key stage 3 English test papers for 14-year-old pupils over the past three years.

In 2007, schools asked for a second opinion on the marks for 25,549 English test papers.

This year, markers will have to take an online "standardisation exercise" to make sure that they put into practice what they have been taught during their training. Only those markers who pass the exam will be allocated test scripts to mark.

The process of marking will also be monitored more carefully. Previously, the standard of a marker's work was checked twice during the marking period, in 2008 this will be increased to up to five marking checks."

package of measures designed to help headteachers

A package of measures designed to help headteachers get support for struggling pupils, and ease some of the workload burden, was outlined Beverley Hughes on Friday.

The Government wants to support headteachers by reducing the pressure on schools, enable heads to share responsibility with other professionals such as health and youth workers, and achieve the Children’s Plan vision of making this the best place in the world to grow up.

The measures include:

• £13 million for intensive support for vulnerable families, whose children may be struggling at school and a further £3m for young carers

• £10m 0-7 partnership coalitions between primary schools, early years providers, health and other family services, to make sure young children are ready to start school

• Revised guidance on how to manage pupils with behavioural, educational and social difficulties (BESD) in the classroom and mobilise support of other services

Full details are available on the DCSF website: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0079

Brightfilter

The government’s recently published Byron Review is an exhaustive report on the current state of child safety specific to video games and the Internet. The review highlights that many online “virtual” activities can have a detrimental effect on real life, such as bullying and racism; the data further identifies that exposure to inappropriate material online can promote harmful behaviour, and contribute to negative beliefs and attitudes.

The report advocates the creation of a UK Council on Child Internet Safety to look into ways of improving regulation, education and information, along with a focussed social marketing campaign to highlight the dangers. It also includes many recommendations for schools that will soon become mandatory, such as integrating e-safety into the school curriculum, an accredited filtering service, and calls for OFSTED inspections to hold schools to account for their policies on e-safety.

One way of preparing your school for these changes is to sign up to the Schools in Britain Internet Programme being launched by Brightfilter, an Internet Filtering company. The Schools in Britain Internet Programme helps schools ensure that they are both morally and legally compliant.

Those schools signing up to this free programme will receive the following key benefits:

• Schools will receive initial guidance and quarterly e-updates pertaining to government regulations and compliance, plus regular correspondence including programme updates and additional components.
• All families of school pupils will get a free subscription to the home user version of the filtering software (Brightfilter Parental Control), so that the same level of protection will be afforded to children at home as employed in their school.
• Discounted optional access to accredited, award-winning Internet filtering software.
• Schools following the guidance offered by the programme will ensure that they meet the OFSTED criteria.

I guess this end's up as a sales pitch to the parents, but with the free information available it may be worth considering.

86% of school leaders think OFSTED pressures deter would-be head teachers

Research published by the NAHT suggests 86% of school leaders think Ofsted pressures deter would-be head teachers. The current OFSTED regime encouraged schools to deny problems for fear of being publicly shamed said Mick Brookes. He said:

"We do need to dare to be creative; we do need to shake off the oppressive burdens of targets, tests and tables. We have to free ourselves from the clutches of curriculum accountants and assessment auditors. And yes… it is high time to trust schools."

The NAHT survey of 500 members, released at the conference, found 86% thought the impact of Ofsted inspections meant potential head teachers were put off applying. More than two-thirds thought the impact on their school was at best neutral, and at worst very unhelpful. The research found 86% of members thought inspections increased vulnerability and insecurity.

The survey of heads, deputies and assistant head teachers also suggested nine out of 10 worked longer than 48 hours per week with a fifth saying they were seriously considering changing jobs in the face of an "uncontrolled and expanding workload".

You can read the full findings of the survey on the NAHT website if you log in.

Link: http://www.naht.org.uk/

No Primary School Places for Hundreds

Hundreds of young children have been left without a school place this year after a surge in applications for the best primary schools. In some local authorities, more than 200 four and five-year-olds have yet to secure a place for September. Many more have been forced to accept second, third or fourth choices, it is claimed. The crisis – concentrated in London and the South East – has been blamed by experts on the credit crisis, which is reducing demand for fee-paying schools, and an increase in immigrants moving into some areas.

Plans to Recycle 24,000 Failing Teachers

Up to 24,000 incompetent teachers should be removed from their classrooms and put to work in neighbouring schools, according to the GTC. Keith Bartley, the chief executive, said that urgent action was needed to retrain teachers who had “more bad days than good”. He said that it was unacceptable that only 46 teachers, from a workforce of half a million, had been judged incompetent since 2001.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Bartley said that he had drawn up draft proposals to tackle the problem in response to a call by Ed Balls, to root out teachers whose “competence falls to unacceptably low levels”.

Mr Bartley’s comments provoked immediate criticism from teachers’ leaders and parents, who said that it was unfair to expect pupils and schools to take on teachers judged to have failed elsewhere.

On the BBC Website

Breathing Places has launched its second Do One Thing activity for schools. We're encouraging all primary and middle schools in the UK to sign up for free, whether they're urban, suburban or rural. Schools that register will receive a pack containing teacher's notes, cross-curricular links and resources to complete a simple nature-based activity. Each term (until winter term 09), a new activity and resources will be made available to download. If you're interested in finding out how your school can Do One Thing for biodiversity while learning about the wildlife around you, visit the Breathing Places website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/schools/

Gut Instinct: Hosted by Viral Vinnie, Gut Instinct is a multiplayer, stomach-turning quizathon covering English, Maths and Science. Compete against your classmates and players from across the UK. How far up the leader board will you climb? http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/gut_instinct/

Sesame Tree Online: The Sesame Tree website has been produced to accompany and complement the new television series. Reflecting the colourful world of Potto and Hilda, the site offers clips from the television series, as well as interactive discovery games designed for 3-6 year olds which will help them develop thinking and decision-making skills. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ni/schools/sesametree/

Skara Brae: A new feature from BBC Scotland: explore the world of Skara Brae past and present, and find out how archaeology is used to see what life could have been like five thousand years ago. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/primary/skarabrae/

The 20 most useful websites for children and families

The Telegraph has put together a list of the 20 most useful websites for children and families. "From CBeebies to a search engine designed for children, from brilliant cartoons to fascinating facts, we compile the finest websites for children and families and a few that their parents might enjoy as well

With ever more websites for children appearing, we have chosen the best ones for entertainment, including cartoons and games as well as the most informative. There are also social networking sites for teenagers, a search engine that children can use safely and a homework reference site."

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2008/04/29/sv_familywebsites.xml

Help for children who stammer

Ed Balls, announced earlier this week that The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children will receive £340,000 to provide schools across the country with information, advice and training materials on how best to support children and young people who stammer.

The Michael Palin Centre, a world leader in this field, will develop a stammering information programme that will be rolled out to all schools by 2010. The Centre will work with young people, their families, local speech and language therapy services and school staff to develop the materials and training packages.

It is estimated that around 5% of children experience some difficulty with their fluency at some time during the development of their speech and language. Stammering has a major impact on children’s academic and social lives – children with a stammer are more likely to become withdrawn or anxious and can become the focus of bullying. This funding will enable schools to better meet the needs of this vulnerable group of children and young people.

School staff rise but so has vacancies

Provisional statistics published today showed that the overall school workforce has grown by 20,100 over the last 12 months to 767,600 – the biggest year-on-year growth since 2005, giving schools the highest number of teachers for a generation.

The figures show 1,900 more full-time equivalent teachers, 13,100 teaching assistants and 5,100 other support staff in authority maintained schools, Academies and City Technology Colleges since last year.

It means there are now 441,200 teachers, a rise of 40,900 over the last decade. There are now 176,900 teaching assistants, a rise of 116,300 - almost triple the number 10 years ago.

The overall pupil-adult and pupil-teacher ratios have dropped year-on-year in primary and secondary schools. Pupil statistics, also published today, show that average secondary school class sizes have fallen again and remained constant overall in primary schools. Average Key Stage 2 classes have made the biggest drop for six years but Key Stage 1 class sizes have risen slightly.

The BBC however have reported that the number of vacant teaching posts in England's schools went up by almost a quarter in the past year. The number of unfilled jobs was 2,510 in January or 0.7% of the total workforce, up 470 or 23% from 2007.

Breakfast Clubs in every school by 2013

An educational charity and major food company are joining forces to give every school in the country the opportunity of having its own breakfast club by 2013.

Kellogg’s and ContinYou – who have been working together to promote and support breakfast clubs since 1998 – have teamed up to launch the first ever National Breakfast Club register which will be used to facilitate the rolling out of breakfast clubs across the United Kingdom.

The aim is that the register be used to help support the sustainable development of breakfast clubs in line with targets on extended school hours by 2010. There are currently no official central records or guidelines for breakfast clubs in the UK.

ContinYou are one of the Department for Children, Schools and Families key extended schools delivery partners and with the support of Kellogg’s have an ambition to take the programme forward in partnership with DCSF as a part of the programme.

Kellogg’s and ContinYou have been working together since 1998 since which time Kellogg’s has invested over £1M in promoting Breakfast Clubs in the UK.

Breakfast clubs have been shown to be a very effective environment to promote a balanced diet, encourage informal learning, tackle school attendance and support a range of planned interventions that support the extended schools core offer.

For more information on breakfast clubs visit www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk, which offers extensive advice, tools and resources on setting up, developing and sustaining breakfast clubs

Elementary Reports Competition Winners

Congratulations to all those that entered the Elementary Reports Competition. Out of 197 entries, 197 there where 197 correct answers! I'm sure the questions are too easy!

Anyway, I have picked 5 people from random that entered the competition who will each win a single user lifetime licence (worth £99.99). So without any more time wasting the winners are, in order out of the hat:

1) Vicky Richardson from Snettisham School
2) Martyn Fearn from Ripley Junior School
3) Mrs J Lucraft from Essex
4) Angela Silcocks from St Paul's CE School
5) Kathryn Reid from Ferryhill School

Congratulations to all who entered. Remember for only £99.99 you can purchase your own copy of Elementary Reports which works with any report style. For those lucky winners your details have been passed onto Anthony from Elementary Reports who will be contacting you within the next few days.

Look out for a new competition soon.

Top 100 Tools for Learning

Between January and March 2008 155 learning professionals shared their Top 10 favourite tools for learning (either for their own personal learning or for creating learning for others). The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies then used these lists to compile the Top 100 Tools for Learning Spring 2008.

This list, which contains a lot of already well known pieces of software, contains a few hidden gems that are free. Useful for ICT co-ordinators.

Link: http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/pdf.html

Teachers TV’s Commissioning team want to hear your programme suggestions.

Teachers' TV are looking to make one Primary programme for Teachers TV and want to hear from you.

"What would you like to see us make? All suggestions will be considered and the winning idea will be made into a 15 min programme. You may also get the chance to have the idea filmed at your school. We are particularly interested in hearing your ideas and suggestions about classroom focused topic based programmes.

You can also submit any other subject or role suggestions, if it's really good, it could be made too!

The winners will be rewarded for their efforts!

The deadline for all submissions is the 7th may 2008

The competition is open to all Associates of Teachers TV, which is Teachers TV’s online free community. To register as an Associate for free and submit your programme ideas, please go to www.teachers.tv/associates"

Animoto now free for schools and educators

Like Animoto? Now it's even better - it's totally free for schools and educators. All you need to do is contact them to get a free classroom pass for all the children. For more details have a look at their blog.

Link: http://biz.animoto.com/education/overview.html