Primary Teacher UK

Keep the grey matter active...

Games for the Brain - one of the links to come out of this week's CLICK programme. Good for keeping the grey matter ticking over during the holidays and a site that I will definitely use with the children

Teaching - the least boring job

The Training and Development Agency for Schools recently questioned over 2000 graduates aged between 21 and 24 on how boring they believed their job was; over half of everyone questioned commented that their job was regularly boring.

The good news is, teachers appear to be some of the least bored professionals around. Those questioned were asked to give their job a boredom rating out of 10 (with 10 being the highest), teachers averaged just 4, whilst science researchers averaged 7.3 and admin/secetarial workers averaged 10.

When asked why they found their job interesting, 81% of teachers questioned said it was the challenge of the role and the same proportion said it was because "no two days were the same".

Full report and boredom league table: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5217736.stm

WMnet resources...

I have a RSS feed from the West Midlands portal - WMnet. It is a really convenient way of letting me know when new resources have been added to the site without having to visit the site to check. Here are three good resources that have been added recently.

Kids Corner Energy Education Database

This website has been created by ManagEnergy, an initiative of the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy and Transport. It features an online database of energy education resources from across Europe. Search for resources by topic, age group, type and language.

Seasons in the Garden

The focus of this set of resources, supported by a lesson plan and prompt sheets, is helping Foundation Stage and KS1 pupils to understand seasonal changes. This activity will encourage them to look very closely at a set of photographs taken of a suburban garden over the period of a year.

Music for Teachers

A web site to support music in the national curriculum

Dial Up!

Well the move went very smoothly considering the hassles we had before hand!  We're now in our new house but for the moment I'm stuck with dial-up Internet access which is so sloooowwww. Thanks to the new writers on the site for their posts.  Keep up the great work.

Andrew

EducationGuardian hails primary that gives pupils a say

Wroxham Primary School's weekly children's forum - where pupils get the chance to have their say - won praise in the Guardian's education pages this month.

The school, which encourages pupils to have a voice and even write their own end-of-term reports before the teacher adds comments, was hailed for its innovative approach to pupil participation.

Wroxham, which was in special measures in 2003, impressed Ofsted recently, too, with the lead inspector saying he wished he could bottle the ethos and judging the school 'outstanding'.

When the wind blows...

At Astley Cooper School in Hemel Hempsted they'll soon be able to put the wind to good use as they have received planning approval to install their own wind turbine to generate green electricity.

The electricity generated by the wind turbine will benefit the school in financial terms, but far more importantly it will provide key opportunities for educating students about environmental issues and the importance of renewable energy sources.

For details about the wind turbine contact Tim Rogers of Energy Services Direct on 0870-7513322 or email tim@es-direct.co.uk.

I would love to hear from anyone, especially in the primary sector, who is considering having a wind turbine installed.

Private school pupils learn vital social skills...

Hoorah! Just what we need - another initiative. This time, 'state primary education', is going to be 'reformed', so that children who do not go to independent schools will develop good communication and team-working skills.

Education Secretary Alan Johnson said today that private schools give children the vital skills they need to find good jobs and that employers increasingly rate these qualities more highly than other characteristics.

Is it just me? When will this government understand that it is their endless interference, accountability measures, and bureaucratic initiatives that mean that us in 'state primary education' have to fight to find the time to spend with children doing sport, music and drama, building social skills, confidence and team-working - because we see them as vital skills too!

ACT Primary Self-Evaluation Tool

The Primary PSHE and Citizenship tool is now published and the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) will be sending these out to PSHE and Citizenship Inspectors/Advisors in September. This publication will provide a framework for discussion in schools in terms of planning PSHE and Citizenship and help Primary schools prepare for OfSTED inspection and evaluate their policies and practice. The SET will be available to download from late August from the ACT site by going to Resources and Downloads

Extended schools...

As a school, we are looking at the government's extended schools agenda. I came across this podcast today: John Flockton outlines the journey towards the provision of high quality extended school activities at Newhall Park Primary School, located in Bradford, West Yorkshire in England. As headteacher his vision was to establish an effective and coherent approach for school improvement that was shared and developed in partnership with the local communty.

It would be good to hear about your experiences too, good and bad.

First Post Nerves

I have been teaching for 8 years, having made a mature entrance into the profession. Prior to that, I was a self-employed Architectural Technician. I teach in a primary school in Hertfordshire, which sounds lovely and leafy, and is, but we still have our fair share of challenges. The biggest one, at the moment, being falling numbers.

From September we will be part of the 'Intensifying Support Programme (ISP)' http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/wholeschool/isp/ and, like Andrew, will be the new Deputy Head. There are lots of other exciting things on the horizon too - we are going to be one of Hertfordshire's Early Adopter schools for the new Learning Platform (LP). I think it is RM's one. I am also going to be doing a lot of work using the 'Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)' materials http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/banda/seal/. So there will be lots to report on throughout the year.

On a personal note, I have been married for 20 years and have two wonderful children - one just starting GCSE's and one just waiting for her 'A' Level results so that she can 'fly the nest' and head off for Leeds or Loughborough (boo! hoo!).