Primary Teacher UK

Fun to save at home, school and play

A fun, online teaching resource for use both in the classroom and at home, which aims to encourage KS1 children to develop healthy attitudes towards money and saving has been launched.
 
The first free national resource of its kind, www.funtosave.org combines online games for pupils, downloadable teacher resources and suggested activities for children and parents/carers to enjoy at home.  Designed by educational experts on behalf of the Association of Mutual Insurers (AMI), the website provides a free, downloadable PSHE resource which complements the healthy schools initiative.  Its topic-based lesson plans support the national curriculum providing classroom tips, ideas, cross curricular links and activity sheets.
 
A fully rounded resource, funtosave.org allows for individual learning via a PC, or interactive group work using the classroom white board.  By completing age and aptitude-relevant exercises, children can collect points (at home and school) which can be used to ‘buy’ stickers for an online sticker album, colouring in sheets, and accessories for their ‘play’ character.
 
Innovative in its dual classroom and home application, the website has been developed with the knowledge and involvement of the Department of Children, Families and Schools; the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Financial Capability Team; HM Treasury; and the Personal, Financial & Social Education Group (PFEG).   Website designer, D2, has previously developed educational websites for the RNLI, BBC and Channel 4.
 
“Providing personal finance education early in life and at school is the best opportunity to begin to embed an understanding of financial matters and develop positive attitudes towards money.  When people are young, they are most receptive to learning, and school provides a unique opportunity to reach all sections of society, including many individuals who may later become far harder to reach,” states Chris Pond, director of financial capability at the FSA.
 
“We welcome the launch of an additional resource - www.funtosave.org - that will help parents and carers of young children, as well as teachers and the children themselves, support and improve the financial capability of the UK's next generation.”
 
AMI hopes that the website resource will become a UK benchmark for financial capability in schools.  To use this free resource, go to www.funtosave.org

VSO Calls on Primary School Teachers

Leading international development charity VSO is urgently looking for 50 experienced primary school teachers to make a break from the UK.  Primary school teachers are being urged to apply before the 31st May resignation date so they kick start the next academic year with their biggest challenge yet in Africa and Asia.

To ensure thousands of children across many of the developing countries VSO work in have access to quality education, VSO needs qualified primary school teachers with at least two years’ experience, to volunteer their time and expertise in countries such as Malawi, Nepal and Nigeria. By sharing skills with local teachers, VSO volunteers will ensure the continued provision of quality child-centred education.

Primary school teachers who apply in time for the May deadline could be on placement by September, providing invaluable in-service teacher training.  Good quality teacher training ensures a sustainable legacy left by volunteers for these hard hit communities. Volunteers will work with a cluster of schools and serving teachers, most of whom will have had minimal teacher training. Volunteers are expected to observe teachers, run workshops, help teachers develop educational materials using local resources and in general focus on helping teachers use participatory, child-centred teaching methods to meet basic educational needs.

VSO also relies on a diverse wealth of knowledge and experience from senior educationalists and school leaders, with many rewarding roles for senior management now available. This very experience led volunteers Deb Jordan and David Spinney to develop the Higher Diploma Programme to improve the skills of all teacher trainers in Ethiopia; a country where 47% of children don’t go to school. Six years on, around 3,500 teacher trainers have undertaken the programme to the ultimate benefit of over one million children, all because of two VSO volunteers.

This key experience in both primary and educational management can lead to rewarding and lasting relationships with local colleagues and allow volunteers to see first hand the impact of their placement and time overseas.

VSO’s education volunteers are committed to supporting 2000’s Millennium Development Goal that all children of primary school age should have access to quality education by 2015.

VSO provides volunteers with flights, accommodation, and an allowance to cover basic costs.  UK public sector professionals volunteering for between six months and two years are entitled to claim pension contributions providing they return to the public sector for a minimum of six months on their return to the UK.

Teacher Appreciation Week

From Learning A-Z - "In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week from May 4-8, we're thrilled to announce our annual Open House.  As a way of saying thank you to the world's teachers and all they do on behalf of our kids, we're inviting them to explore and use our websites free of charge all week long!  They can sample and download learning resources, ranging from reading and writing to vocabulary and science.

Registration is now open!  Teachers just need to go to http://www.learninga-z.com/TeacherAppreciation to sign up and receive a full schedule of our Open House events."

BBC Snippets

A few interesting snippets from the BBC Schools mailing:

Magic Key : Learn to make a sentence with the help of the characters from Magic Key, perfect for the reception year and year 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/

Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips: Lots of brand new clips are now available from Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips. These include new resources for primary German and Spanish and others for secondary science.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/

Looking for KS1 maths resources? They’ve aligned all of our KS1 maths resources to meet the learning objectives of the Primary Maths Framework Each activity is clearly labelled and accessible within 3 easy clicks! http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/keystage_1/topics/maths_ks1.shtml

A brand new resource for teaching Key Stage 2 music suitable for use on a white board and oppprtunities for pupils to sing along with the words to the music. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/troy/index.shtml to see the new site.

Phil Vickery’s Cooking Academy

Aldi is supporting the launch of Phil Vickery’s Cooking Academy across the country. The academy, supported by Schools Secretary Ed Balls, has been created to get kids and young adults aged 7 – 14 interested in cooking and cater for a gap in food preparation knowledge through ‘fooducation’.
 
The new interactive website at www.philscookingacademy.co.uk features a series of downloadable recipes and podcasts that kids can cook-along with either in class or at home. These are also available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/philscookingacademy
 
Students are also being invited to get creative with their cookery skills and send their very own recipes  to Phil by uploading them onto the website. Phil himself is set to make a personal appearance at the school of the student that creates the best dish.

www.etools4schools.co.uk

www.etools4schools.co.uk contains various keystage 2 and keystage 3 displays and other resources such as stickers for assessment or rewards. It also has a section of free games and starter activities for use with the whole class or by individual students.

Link: http://www.etools4schools.co.uk/

Shine

Becky has contacted me on behalf of Shine, the National Schools Festival.  Shine is an annual, week-long celebration of the individual talents of all young people. Now in its second year, it will run from 6th-10th July, but registration is now open and we’re encouraging teachers and students to sign up to get their school involved and celebrate with us.

Some highlights from last year include the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, being interviewed by students from the  Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich, London; 3,000 students in Gateshead coming together to sing songs about freedom and ‘Dragon’ Peter Jones hosting a Dragon’s Den style competition with students at Manchester Academy -  amongst many other events happening in the 2,500 schools which took part across the country.

What Shine can offer participating schools:

• Free resources, ideas and suggestions
• Free downloads to help with your plans
• Free web space to show off your school’s best work

You can find out more information from the Shine webpage: www.shineweek.co.uk

Mrs Pancake - Free EY and KS1 resources

Mrs Pancake is a KS1 educational resources site, which by the looks of it is trying to compete with the likes of Sparklebox, which is my opinion is no bad thing.  Sparklebox is a fantastic site but nearly every nursery / reception class you go into now has Sparklebox materials on the wall.

Mrs Pancake has its resources split into Literacy, Numeracy, Classroom Helpers and Topics.  Have a look at the Seasonal section for some great Christmas ideas and Doodads.

Link: http://mrspancake.com/

Free-teaching-resources.co.uk

Free-teaching-resources.co.uk is a new website set up by to offer teachers a guide and listing to free educational resources. The resources are are sorted by topic and keystage making drilling down relatively easy.  Each referenced website also has a review which you can view by clicking on the 'find out more' link under each title.  What is a little different about this site is that it also has KS3 and KS4 links - making it easier to locate and resource work for your gifted and talented children.

Free-teaching-resources.co.uk is another website that is trying to organise the many millions of websites out there for teachers.  The success depends upon what you are looking for.

Link: www.Free-teaching-resources.co.uk

 

Work Sheet Genius

Simon Currigan, a teacher in the midlands has been creating a website that allows you to create free, randomizable maths and literacy worksheets.  The site also has some clipart, suitable for Early Years and Keystage 1. The site is called Worksheet Genius is completely free and is available from: www.worksheetgenius.com.