Primary Teacher UK

Pupils and teachers offered bird-flu vaccine

According to the National Public Health Service for Wales some teachers and pupils at Ysgol Henllan in Denbighshire school have been offered tamiflu  to counter the threat of bird flu.  Four people Conwy have contracted the disease following an outbreak among chickens on a smallholding in the area.

This precautionary action has been taken because a child in Year 5, linked to the smallholding near Corwen, is believed to have avian flu. The child is responding to treatment at home.  Twelve children and two teachers were also identified as being in prolonged close contact with the child in the classroom on the days when there was a very small risk of the child being infectious. The parents of each child are being contacted by staff at the National Public Health Service for Wales.  Dr Brendan Mason, a consultant epidemiologist with the National Public Health Service for Wales, said,

“This is an unusual step for us to take because the risk of the infection being passed from the child to other pupils is so small. However, this particular virus usually only affects birds and is relatively unknown in humans. Its clinical characteristics have not been fully defined.  It is very rare to see this particular flu virus so we are taking every reasonable precaution to eliminate it from the community.

There are 58 pupils in the school, but none of the others have been in close contact and do not need any treatment. However, we realise that this incident may cause anxieties for parents of all children in the school. We are contacting all the parents by letter to invite them to meet with Public Health and Education Officials.

From a public health perspective, the school will be safe to reopen as normal after the half term break. The risk of avian flu to the public is low.”

Learning about Gay lifestyles at four

The Mail reported last week on the schools where children as young as four are being taught about same-sex relationships using puppets, plays and fairy tales in a Government-funded scheme called No Outsiders. Pupils are being invited to act the parts of gay characters during after-school arts clubs as well as in some literacy and drama lessons. In one primary school, youngsters put on puppet shows of the Cinderella story featuring male Cinderellas. Other primaries are inviting in touring theatre companies which stage plays featuring same-sex parents. Books being introduced to lessons include King & King, a fairy tale featuring a prince who turns down three princesses before falling in love with one of their brothers.

Fourteen primary schools are already taking part in the £600,000 project aimed at familiarising children with gay and lesbian relationships. The research team behind the project intends to post the findings on national websites to help all schools adopt the same techniques. It claims that introducing such books and activities will help schools fulfil their duties under new gay rights laws which came into force last month. But parents' leaders warned that primary school children were too young to learn about such issues.

The No Outsiders website has links to a number of resources if this is an issue you need to cover in school. 

Rise in complaints about primary school admissions

There has been a sharp rise in the number of complaints by parents over primary school admissions. Government figures published show a 10 per cent increase in the number of parents dissatisfied with the school allocated to their children, from 13,600 in 2004-05 to 14,930 last year.

The number of successful appeals rose from 4,700 to 5,390 in the same period. The figures appear to indicate that the Government's drive to promote parental choice is making those seeking primary school places more choosy. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers, argued the figures showed ministers had misled parents by pretending to offer them choice over schools. "Although one in 20 parents appeals against a secondary school place, this represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to parents' annual anguish over the admissions process," she said.

Margaret Morrissey, spokeswoman for theNational Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "Parents have just lost the will to live when it gets to secondary school. They think 'if we go to appeal it is going to take for ever'." She added: "I think probably at primary school stage parents have still got this optimism that, when they appeal, something will be done about it. "It's either that or more competition for primary school places than there has been historically."

Measure your children's fingers!

According to researchers the length of children's fingers could point the way to their future school tests and exam results.   Those with a relatively long fourth, or ring, finger are likely to be better at maths than English, a difference particularly striking in boys. But girls whose ring fingers are smaller in relation to their index finger are likely to be stronger in literacy.

The findings, from a study of 75 six and seven-year-olds sitting primary school SATS, add to growing evidence that differences in finger length might help predict traits or abilities such as sporting prowess, vulnerability to disease, aggression, fertility and sexual orientation.

Scientists believe finger length reflects levels of hormones to which babies are exposed in the womb, although recent research has suggested genetics plays a strong part. Women's index fingers are typically longer than their ring fingers or are the same length, while in men the index finger is usually shorter. Mark Brosnan, head of the psychology department at Bath University, said:

"Testosterone has been argued to promote development of the area of the brain which are often associated with spatial and mathematical skills. Oestrogen is thought to do the same in the areas of the brain which are often associated with verbal ability. These hormones are also thought to have a say in the relative lengths of our index and ring fingers."

Well I've got a relatively long fourth finger and I did my degree in maths - so it must be true!

Candlestick Walk - Chapter Nine

Chapter 9 of the Candlestick walk is now up for all to download, read and comment on.  To make things easier all the Candlestick walk chapters and information is now on one page.  Please feel free to comment on these posts.

As Ann says in her email, "Does anyone out there want it to carry on?'  Just to know people are still reading half way through the book would be good enough feedback for me.  And if nobody's bothered - well that's good feedback too!"

You can download the full story so far, as well as the latest chapter, from: http://www.primary-teacher-uk.co.uk/CandlestickWalk/

ICTeachers

If you haven't already visited ICTeachers then now's the time to do it.  The site has a mixture of resources and information on using ICT within school.   Each month an excellent newsletter is produced and sent to all those subscribe. Here's the contents of May's newsletter:

• Bridging the gap: using ICT to support mobile Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children - Ken Marks, Sheffield University
• Free online CDs from Childnet for parents, young people, children and volunteers - Stephen Carrick, Childnet InternationalOrder bulk copes of this free resource for free! DfES approved. A must have.
• Dave Kitching, headteacher, cycles up Everest and Needs your Cash!
• Dave sets his own personally challenge to raise money for Blind Dogs.
• Review of RightLevel - Delia Levine.  A software system for assessing KS1/2 ICT
• RM's Community Connect 3 and Free Primary Seminars.
• Preaching the benefits of RMs networking software

Neuroscience and Education: Issues and Opportunities

James has emailed me from the Teaching and Learning Research Programme to let me know about a new commentary called ‘Neuroscience and Education: Issues and Opportunities’ arising from the Thematic Seminar Series on this topic.

In this short booklet there is information on brain development, brain care and some very interesting reading on Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and ADHD.

For those interested in how the brain works can I also recommend 'How the Brain Learns' by David Sousa who is an excellent speaker if you ever get the chance to see him.  I saw him at the first Learning Brain Europe Conference and he's inspired me since to read more and more about the brain!

Busy week and an exciting announcement (for us anyway!)

I apologise for the lack of posts this week but every night I've been out busy doing things and also had a stressful start of the week that has resulted in some very good news.  Those that I know you're free to email to ask otherwise you'll have to wait a month or so!

Aside from all of that my wife are I are trying to decorate for our first addition to the Ross family - due on October 6th!  How exciting!

No matter how tired and stressed I am at the moment everyone assures me it will be worse from September onwards! Oh - how I'm looking forward to it!

Teacher / Counsellor Articles

This site contains a number of articles that are offered as resources for teachers and counsellors. They contain the author's ideas and summaries of information to assist teachers - some of which you may not necessarily agree with.  There is a warning with all of these articles - since most are not referenced, may sure that you seek further opinions and recommendations on each of the topics. Remember that the author is American so the articles do not necessarily relate to the National Curriculum or our style of teaching.

There are further materials (to pay for) and children's activities if you find the articles helpful.

Teaching Tips : http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherTips.html

Sports to improve SATS

Mark Lupton has written an interesting article for the Guardian on how sports have helped improve the SATs results in St Leonard's primary school, Lancashire.  It's an interesting article, and certainly one that you may want to read if you're thinking about how your playground could be used to it's full potential.  The headteacher finishes that article saying:

"The impact this has had here is remarkable - it's a completely different place now, it's colourful and bright, it's a vibrant and dynamic place to learn. It has improved behaviour, our results are better, the children are more confident and they have higher aspirations, and we have far fewer cases of absenteeism in both staff and pupils. Bullying is not an issue here.  

The children are still coming in to the school at the same low baseline, well below national expectations. The difference is they are leaving well above those same national expectations."