Primary Teacher UK

Cool Seas Roadshow

This week the Marine Conservation Society visited our school with the Cool Seas Roadshow!

The presentation featured life-sized marine creatures (whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and seals). Demonstrations were delivered to each year group, and the children found out about lots of different marine wildlife. Each child was given an action pack booklet and each class received a poster. Resources are available online at the Cool Seas website.

The children found it really interesting and some were enthralled by their booklets. The life-sized models were actually quite spectacular.

The New Curriculum Blueprints

Children should be taught "life skills" instead of facts and figures because they can look up all they need to know on the Internet it was claimed today.  According to the ATL members should be able to decide what pupils learn in lessons instead of the Government as long as "essential skills" are passed on.  Martin Johnson, the acting General Secretary of ATL, said that physical and manual skills should have greater prominence in the school curriculum which should no longer prescribe facts and figures and specific subjects.  Under the proposals, national tests at seven, 11 and 14 would be unnecessary as pupils would be observed as they demonstrate skills.  The ATL proposes:

• the national curriculum should be retained for all pupils aged 5-16.  But it should be rewritten as a simple framework, which does not specify required knowledge but instead lists the skills needed by all pupils entering adult life.  The list must include the full range of physical, personal and interpersonal, creative, ethical, social and political, learning and thinking, as well as and academic skills.  Most of these skills are widely taught now, but are not central in what is taught. We think this new national curriculum would be much more balanced than the current one.
  

• the knowledge component of learning would be determined locally.  Teachers would be allowed to take the lead in deciding what knowledge is appropriate in local circumstances, but would be accountable to parents and the local community.  This localism would enable faster responses to change, and more innovation and vibrancy in the system.
  

• the new curriculum would not have standardised national tests – this lack of national testing already exists in other countries.  ATL argues that a national curriculum which only specifies skills cannot be assessed by written tests – it needs observation of skills being performed.  There is growing evidence that in the right circumstances teacher assessment is as valid and reliable as our current tests, some of which leave much to be desired.

Sounds like a good idea to me. 

YouTube for Teachers

Ever wanted a YouTube just for teachers?  Well it's happened. www.teachertube.com is the same as YouTube but features lessons and information relevant to teachers.  Take for example the 'improper fractions rap' by  Mrs Burk!   This site has real potential if teachers use it...

Link: www.teachertube.com

I really like this one (although very American)  which is based on Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat.

Direct Gov Kids

Children will be able to find out about Government, public services and the world around them in a fresh, fun and informative way using a new website Directgovkids.  DirectgovKids aims to get children from five to 11 engaged with some of the areas of Government that have an impact on their lives, and to help them learn about and understand the society they are growing up in.

The site is designed to look like a revolving globe, with interactive buildings that children can investigate including: a Town Hall, a Police Station and a School. There are online activities and exciting games, as well as animations and slideshows. New areas are being added all the time and include a Health Centre, a school council voting activity and a special area, where children can have a ‘virtual vote’ on issues that affect them.

Link: http://kids.direct.gov.uk/

Art safety warning

The school science advisory service, Cleapss, has sent out a warning to all schools and local authorities about the dangers of mixing plaster of Paris with water by hand.  This was sent out after it was confirmed that a teenage girl had to have most of her fingers and thumbs amputated because of severe burns caused by mixing plaster of Paris by hand during a (secondary) art class.

Be warned! :)

SEN children more likely to be bullied

MPs have demanded more government action to combat bullying in schools after evidence highlighting attacks on special needs children and minority groups was published by the National Autistic Society. MPs on the Commons Select Committee on Education have highlighted a dearth of reliable statistics on bullying, and warned that teachers are not sufficiently trained to tackle the problem.

The committee heard during its investigation that some schools were reluctant to record details, in case it gave them a bad reputation in the eyes of the parents of potential pupils.  There are also claims of an increase in cyber-bullying, with pupils (including an increasing number of girls) text-messaging threats and abuse. A survey by psychologists has revealed 28 per cent of girls and 10 per cent of boys had been victims of cyber-bullying.

The MPs have also been told by Jim Knight, the Schools minister, of an increasing number of gang-related incidents of bullying - particularly in inner-city schools. Mr Knight warned of a growing trend of gangs delivering threats through younger siblings, even of primary school age.

The Candlestick Walk - Prologue

The Prologue. Ann Filer, a former primary school teacher, emailed me a couple of weeks ago with a suggestion.  She has finished writing a novel and wanted to share it with other teachers.  As she hasn't yet got a publisher we decided to publish it here.

Here is the Prologue to our serialised novel by Ann Filer, A Candlestick Walk.  You can download the novel as a PDF file and read over the week.  The Introduction to the story was published last week. Chapter One will be published next Sunday.

• Download Prologue.
• Download Introduction to story.

What do people think of the story?  Would you like more or less each week?  Let us know your comments below.

Made IT happen

E-skills are looking for pupil-led innovative ICT projects that have made a positive impact on a school. You can enter register your interest in the competition here. Prizes include £1000 for the winner in each region. Judges will be looking for innovative projects that demonstrate best use of the school’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources to the benefit of the school, local community, in the UK or across the world.

For example, the entry could:

1. Describe a community project involving the school that works well because of good use of ICT.
2. Be about special provision the school has made for students with special needs.
3. Show how the school links with partner schools here and elsewhere in the world.
4. Show how the school runs a club or other community group by good use of ICT.
5. Describe the use of ICT in recycling projects that the school has been involved in.
6. Describe any good use of ICT that the school thinks the judges will not find elsewhere in normal use.
7. Anything that your pupils have been doing that has had a positive impact.

KS1 Resources update

Marilyn, from KS1 Resources, has email me to say that she's finally managed to update the site again with new resources.  These include Materials (clothes and fastenings) (KS1), Light and Dark (Y1 & Y2), Electricity (QCA based - Y2), The Seaside (Geography QCA based - Y2), Various Seaside and Fantasy Poems and Going Back In Time (based on the very detailed memories of my 80 year old dad who lived most of his boyhood much as the Victorians did!) KS1 & KS2.

Remember that although there is a small cost for the resources all profits go to Climb (Children Living with Inherited MetaBolic diseases).  So far KS1 Resources has raised £1744 from the donations sent by everyone who has ordered a CD of resources from the site.

Well done!

Key Stage tests should be scrapped

The Daily Mail (Thurs 22nd March) reports that national key stage tests should be scrapped. The Government's exam watchdog, Dr Ken Boston, said that only a sample group of pupils need take the exams - perhaps as few as 3 per cent - to give a picture of national standards. He also suggests that pupils' progress should be measured by less rigid assessments in English, maths and science which would be marked internally by teachers. These tests, which could be taken online, would be taken when the children are ready, rather than at fixed points during their school careers.

Dr Boston also proposes that school league tables should be abolished.

We live in hope...