Primary Teacher UK

Shift Happens

Here's an interesting video to help focus our minds on the need for education to embrace a fast changing world. The video is release under the Creative Commons lisence which allows you to download it for use as long as you credit its source. You may also modify the video as long as your new creation is released on the web.

If you haven't already seen this video then have a look. There are various versions of it - here's the version that I liked at Microsoft. For more details on how the video could be used in courses have a look at the Shift Happens wiki.

Google Education

Google is launching a website with resources and news for teachers. The free online materials show how to adapt Google Maps and Google Earth for classroom use. Google says it will support lessons in history, geography and citizenship.

History topics include the slave trade, castles and the British Empire and geography topics include climate change and natural disasters - based around information integrated with Google's online maps. While these are based mainly for secondary pupils there is certainly potential for some of the materials and ideas to be used with KS2.

Link: http://www.google.co.uk/schools/index.html

What Money Means

Late last week, teachers and MPs came together at the House of Commons to celebrate the launch of What Money Means, a unique five-year programme developed by educational charity pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) and HSBC to improve financial teaching in primary schools

Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North & Leith and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt and Personal Finance, sponsored the event and delivered a speech praising the programme. HSBC Bank chief executive Dyfrig John and pfeg chief executive Wendy van den Hende also spoke, praising the work teachers and local authorities have done to ensure primary school children are given the knowledge they need to become financially capable.

Teachers and representatives from local authorities were present at the event to celebrate the success of their projects, which took place in Bolton, Medway, Hartlepool and Tower Hamlets.

What Money Means has been developed by pfeg and is supported by HSBC with an investment of £3.4 million and the involvement of up to ten thousand volunteers from across the organisation. It is the only national initiative of its kind specifically designed to improve financial capability education in primary schools. Over the next five years, What Money Means will provide 17,500 primary schools with resources, materials and support in the classroom that will help teachers equip children with a solid understanding of how to use money responsibly. It is expected that through the programme around 10,000 HSBC employees will support the initiative in their local communities by working with teachers and parents to share their expertise.

What Money Means will bring pfeg, local authorities and educationalists together to develop resources and approaches that will help primary school teachers feel more confident teaching money skills to younger children. Primary age pupils have considerable awareness of money and a strong savings instinct but by the time they reach their late teens many have already experienced debt. What Money Means is designed to help meet the needs of individual schools, while making lessons relevant to children’s everyday lives.

You can get more information on the What Money Means project from the pfeg website: http://www.pfeg.org/Primary/WMM/AboutWMM.asp including details on how to get hold of a copy.

For those schools focusing on Economic Well Being this will be an essential resource.

We Are What We Do!

We Are What We Do are asking every child across the country 'What simple action would you ask one million people to do to change the world?'  The idea is to show how small actions carried out by lots of people can make a big difference.  We Are What We Do will pick the best action and try to get one million people to do it.

Actions will be brought to like with a picture and the most powerful of these will be showcased in the next 'Change the World' series which will be made available free to all schools in the UK.  The closing date for entries is 15th December.

Enter the competition with your children at www.smallactionsbigchange.org.uk

What Money Means

What Money Means has been created by pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) as an ambitious five year programme to increase the quality and quantity of financial capability education in primary schools.

The programme is supported by HSBC with an investment of £3.4 million and involvement from up to ten thousand volunteers from across the organisation. HSBC staff will share their expertise and assist schools in their local communities to help children improve their understanding of personal finance, working alongside teachers in the classroom where appropriate.

What Money Means will bring pfeg, local authorities and educationalists together to develop resources and approaches that will help primary school teachers feel more confident teaching money skills to younger children. It will build on pfeg’s successful secondary school programme, Learning Money Matters.

Primary age pupils have considerable awareness of money and a strong savings instinct but by the time they reach their late teens many have already experienced debt. What Money Means is designed to help meet the needs of individual schools, while making lessons relevant to children’s everyday lives.

It includes action research projects in local authorities that will provide the basis for developing educational tools and techniques that are tailored to the specific needs of both teachers and children, embodying creative, evidence based and integrated approaches that complement existing lessons and will not overburden already busy teachers.

What Money Means has been successfully tested in schools with the assistance of local authorities from Bolton, Cambridgeshire, Coventry, Essex, Hartlepool, Hertfordshire, Medway and Tower Hamlets. This work included:

• exploring social and moral dilemmas around money through literacy and oracy by using a poet-in-residence
• working with extended school clusters to develop children’s and family learning in financial education
• developing classroom activities for years 1 to 6 using examples of children’s work to illustrate financial education in practice.

By 2011, 36 local authorities will be part of What Money Means, embedding a new way of teaching money issues at primary level and creating a bank of personal finance teaching resources and techniques that can be used by all 17,500 primary schools. 

Let's Get Cooking

With 99% of all respondents in a recent survey stating there was a need for a cooking skills programme, with nearly 90% of respondents were interested in getting involved the Let's Get Cooking programme is now in it's final stages. Developed by the School Foods Trust in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation, Prince's Trust, Improvement Foundation, Business in the Community, Magic Outcomes and the Royal Society of Health, Let's Get Cooking aims to have 4,000 cooking clubs in operation by the end of 2008.

Let's Get Cooking is a national programme developing cooking clubs to teach and inspire children and young people - and through them their parents and others in their local community - to prepare and cook good, healthy food. The aim is to create a new generation with a passion for good food. Schoolchildren will take the lead in establishing and running the clubs, with the support of parents, teachers and other interested community members. The programme for each club will be flexible enough to meet the needs of each individual, school and local community.

With £20million behind it this looks like it's going to be big in schools (and so it should be).  You can sign up to show you interest, or find out more information, at the Let's Get Cooking website.

Link: http://www.letsgetcooking.org.uk/Home

National Road Safety Week

Child pedestrian and cyclist safety is this year's National Road Safety weeks (this year on the 5th - 11th November) theme.  Brake, the national road safety chariety and funded by the Department for Transport, have produced a free pack which includes glossy posters.  These packs can be ordered from the 'educators' section of the www.roadsafetyweek.org website.  You can also get ideas on setting up your own events by clicking on the 'What happened in previous years?'

Link: www.roadsafetyweek.org

My Abodo

Here's an environmental game called MyAbodo you may be interested in.  The site is sponsored by Defra, Schools Council, Tomorrows Climate, Todays Challenge, Delib and NAEE all of which have more useful links to greener schools.   It allows you to change living factors in a house and see the environmental impacts, as well as showing  'greener' initiatives to be more eco-friendly.   It's a good example to show children how little changes can have a big impact on their environmental footprint.

Link: http://www.myabodo.com/

Wij's Polar Peril

I mentioned Webbliworld.com  a few weeks ago and have been emailed today about a new game made by Rubber Republic for Webbliworld called Wij's Polar Peril. The games aim is for children to learn about being environmentally-friendly by zapping all the pollutants and morphing them into greener alternatives. There is even a writing competition where you can win a video iPod.

Have a play at it here: http://www.webbliworld.com/content/game/?content_id=57

Leavers Assembly

I thought that I would share my very successful leavers assembly with you for next year. 

Setting: 2032 - a class reunion.
Stage: Set up for party, in background a large Class Reunion 2032 poster.
Costumes: All children to dress in the clothing for the career of their choice.

Performance:

• One / Two children come onto stage talking about the party that they have organised and how they are looking forward to meeting everyone.
• A few children at a time appear on stage and meet the hosts.  Each time they have a short chat about what has happened to them since they left school before sitting down.
• When all children are on stage they remember a 'great' song they used to sing at Primary School, in our case it was 'One More Step'
• After song music starts playing and in small groups they dance their way to the front of the stage.  The music then quietens and you hear the children discussing their memories from school. 
• Music then gets louder again and they dance back with another group coming to the front.  Repeat.
• You can now add anything else you want on the pretext that they are remembering it.
• At the end of the reunion they had a surprise guest (Me) who came a shook hands with each children, saying a little comment before giving out prizes etc.

The best thing about this performance was that the children completed improvised the whole thing.  Make sure that you have your two best actors as the hosts as they will then be able to prompt the other children if they get stuck with what to say. We had no lines and no real plan.  Although that could have a bit risky (and some comments where a little close to the bone!) it was very well received by the parents and staff.

If you need any other information about it let me know.