Visual Lessons.com

Visual Lessons.com site has PowerPoint presentations for various subjects for sale. they are reasonably priced and of good quality. They are always useful for a starting point in lessons. Maths, English, History, Geography, RE and Science are the subjects available. A selection of free resources have recently been added with more to follow later in the year.

Ictopus

Ictopus (ICT online primary user support) is a free support service for ICT in primary education which was launched on 1st September 2007.

Each week registered members of the service have access to a six page printable magazine (Sharing Good Practice) and a set of activity suggestions (lessons2go).

There are also frequent news postings and a variety of other resources and projects.

Is it a woman's world?

A report in the TES magazine writes that one in 10 primary schools in England has no male teachers. A third of primary heads are men, fewer than one in eight classroom primary teachers are male.

I found it interesting that there is such a shortage of male primary teachers compared to other countries. In Greece, 37% of primary teachers are men and 35% in Japan. In France the figure is 18% and USA 11%.

The Daily Mail adds that the decline in the number of men joining the teaching profession has occurred at the same time as the salaries for graduates in private sector firms have risen.

Heads' leaders also warn that fears over false allegations of abuse and 'hysteria' over paedophiles are driving men away.

The trend has reignited concerns that a generation of boys is growing up with few role models of male authority.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) says campaigns to attract more men into teaching are beginning to show results. Chief Executive Graham Holley said, "Both male and female authority figures play an important role in the development of young people, and we want the teaching workforce to reflect the strengths of our diverse society."

Primary Ideas

Primary Ideas is a very useful site with free resources and planning. The main aim of this site remains the same which is to provide resources that the Internet doesn’t currently provide or prove difficult to find. The site has again been updated with brand new resources which have been kindly submitted by visitors to the site.

Smile!

The Daily Mail reports that a primary school has been accused of being alarmist for covering up the faces of pupils on its website – apparently to protect them from paedophiles. Bizarrely, the images have been altered with the type of smiley faces popular during the Acid House dance craze of the 1980s. The decision was taken at Cann Hall Primary School in Clacton, Essex.

Headmistress Clare Reece said yesterday: "The public nature of the internet is an issue we feel strongly about. "Not all parents want their children's picture on there. You can't say what is going to happen with any of those pictures." She said that the photographs were printed unaltered in the school newsletter which was sent to parents. But on the primary's website, the children's faces are obscured. The school guarantees the content of the site is "child friendly", adding: "In order to protect our children, we have made the decision not to include any photos of our pupils on this website."

Previously, faces were simply blurred, but newer pictures, including action shots of the athletics tournament, use the smiley faces. However, one child in a line-up of medal winners has been singled out – he alone has been given a sad face.

Children's charity NCH yesterday said that schools were right to be cautious about putting children's pictures on the internet if they were vulnerable or in care. However, spokesman Shaun Kelly added: "The images shocked me, actually. What message is it giving? It looks very, very odd. If you want to obscure children's faces you can obscure them with pixels. We need to be cautious about taking images of children out of the media."

Frank Furedi, a sociology professor at the University of Kent, said the school was being alarmist.
"Every time a school takes silly measures, it says we see the world through the eyes of a paedophile. They think that any innocent picture of school children will somehow be subverted and manipulated. These pictures serve a very important purpose of giving children clear images of their experiences, something they can remember later in life. Depriving ourselves of these experiences is not only irrational but serves no purpose whatsoever."

How silly. I really worry that paedophiles and all the undesirables in our society will win if we deprive children the pleasure of seeing their successes reported on in the local newspaper or on the internet. Let children have their moment without being told that they could be put at risk for simply enjoying their success.

Learning Curves

Learning Curves has lots of brilliant History resources for KS2. The resources are categorised into exhibitions, snapshots, focus on and hands on.

Trinity Educational

Trinity Educational is a fab site with lots of reasonably priced resources available to purchase and some free resources are included.

Disney Clips

You can download free Disney clipart from Disneyclips.com. This really is a great site, with loads of choice for every Disney cartoon or film you can think of, and a few others as well!

They Think It's All Over... By 11

The Daily Mail reports that research suggests that childhood is over by the tender age of 11. Parents admit giving in to "pester pressure" and allowing their children an array of grown-up privileges. Increasingly, youngsters can stay out late, drink alcohol, have sex and watch inappropriate films. Little girls in particular are growing up faster than ever. They abandon playing with dolls past the age of six and go on to pierce their ears, dye their hair and wear make-up.

Researchers for Random House publishers who surveyed 1,170 parents with children under 18 found that 55 per cent believed children were "young adults" by 11.

Almost three quarters allowed their youngsters to drink alcohol at home before they turned 18, even though their own parents had reserved it for adults only.
Just under half of parents let their 16-year-olds stay the night at a boyfriend or girlfriend's house, although they themselves had been banned from doing so until 18.

Other findings show that 35 per cent of parents allow their under-12s to pierce their ears, 54 per cent let their daughters dye their hair and wear make-up by the age of 14, and 57 per cent let children watch 18-certificate films before the legal age.

Almost three-quarters admitted their children had "scant" regard for their authority and regularly acted against their will.

The survey was commissioned to coincide with the launch of popular children's author Jacqueline Wilson's book My Sister Jodie. She said that youngsters act like adults at an "alarmingly early age". "I know girls are desperate to look cool, but I wish they didn't all want to wear very high heels and inappropriately tight trendy clothes," she said. "I'm not saying all under-12s should wear puff-sleeved dresses and little white socks and tee-strap sandals as I had to, but at least you could run about and play properly in them. I wish children did still play with dolls past the age of six. I played all sorts of elaborate games with my dolls until I was at secondary school."

Miss Wilson said her Fifties childhood had been very different. "For the most part, children did as they were told," she said. "We might have privately disagreed with our parents or teachers, but we didn't dare argue too much. It's good that we listen and want the best for our children nowadays - but perhaps we should remember that they are only children and need a little loving guidance."

Schools Links

Schools Links is a site that I have recently discovered. It was founded in April 2005 with the aim of providing links to relevant educational websites for primary school teachers in the UK. Since then it has expanded and now also provides educational resources and classroom display material. Most of the content on schoolslinks.co.uk is free.

Online Maths Dictionary

A Maths Dictionary For Kids is a superb website by Jenny Eather. It is an online Maths Dictionary. It covers everything from the very simple to the more complicated. Perfect for introducing new concepts to Year Six.

Classtools.net

On this website you can make up your own games for use in introductions or plenaries - or just to have fun! Very useful!

Political correctness is spoiling childhoods

The Daily Mail reports that parents believe political correctness and bureaucratic red tape are ruining childhood. A Government survey has found that children's education is being fundamentally damaged and communities undermined by ludicrous rules and the "everyone must have prizes" mentality. This has led to school sports days being cancelled because the grass is wet, and pupils being sent home for wearing the cross of St George in case it offends other children. Talented pupils are not praised or encouraged and are paired with "klutzes" in school plays and dance classes as part of policies to include every child.

Parents blame schools, local education authorities and the Government for the "political correctness gone mad". But they say childhood is also being damaged by growing materialism and the celebrity culture.

The findings come in a report, Childhood Wellbeing, which was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families after a recent Unicef study found British children were among the unhappiest in Europe.

Teachers Toolbox

Teachers' Toolbox has a range of motivational resources for primary schools. There are some really original display borders and some good reward pencils. I really like this site.

Testing times for education

The Daily Mail reports that education standards in primary schools have slumped because of Government meddling and an obsession with testing, warn leading academics. They add that New Labour's influence in the classroom has introduced a centralised "state theory of learning".

The largest inquiry of its kind into primary education found that today's children spend too much time preparing for "batteries of tests" in English and maths. This has come at the expense of a broader education in other subjects. While test scores have risen, educational standards "may actually have declined".

The findings, which form part of the Cambridge University-based Primary Review, are a huge blow to the Government after it invested billions in primary education. A report by Dr Dominic Wyse, lecturer in primary and early years education at Cambridge University, says: "Government control of the curriculum and its assessment strongly increased during the period from 1988 to 2007, especially after 1997. The evidence on the impact of the various initiatives on standards of pupil attainment is at best equivocal and at worst negative. While test scores have risen since the mid-1990s, this has been achieved at the expense of children's entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum and by the diversion of considerable teaching time to test preparation."

Drilling pupils to pass tests does not help their longer-term learning and is resulting in a narrower curriculum, poorer standards of teaching and lower quality of education. The quality of interaction between teachers and pupils in the classroom has not improved and could have become worse as schools try to boost their test results. The focus on national English, maths and science tests for seven- and 11-year-olds is "driving teaching in exactly the opposite direction to that which research indicates will improve learning".

Instead of using a variety of classroom methods, including teaching children in small groups, schools often do little more than hold whole-class lessons to prepare pupils for tests. Dr Wyse says that National Curriculum test results "seem to bear out this analysis". The proportion of children reaching the required standard in Key Stage Two English tests sat by 11-year-olds have risen from 58 per cent in 1996 to 80 per cent last year. The figures in maths rose from 54 per cent to 77 per cent over the same period. However, results in both subjects have plateaued in recent years. This is likely to be because teachers "learnt very quickly how to coach for the tests, hence results improved, but any benefit to be squeezed from the system by such coaching has long since been exhausted".

Teachers-Take-Away

Teachers-Take-Away has a range of colourful well-produced resources in many curriculum areas, some of which are available to buy on CD, some as PDFs. If you register to become a member there are some free resources.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for Kids

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for Kids is a very child friendly website where you can find out about Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Romans, the Victorians and learn how Birmingham was affected during World War Two. I will find this site really useful for our World War Two project.

Classroom Displays

Classroom Displays is interesting blog with lots of displays, some of which are appropriate to Year Six. But any website that is passionate about displays is good in my book!!

Memorabilia Pack Company

The Memorabilia Pack Company produces history packs full of paper replicas which are ideal for use as primary sources for history projects. Ideally suited to Britain since 1948 and the 1st and 2nd World War projects, the packs are quite reasonable. Packs include Victorian housefolds, 1960s childhood, World War 1, the Blitz, Home Front, Home Guard, the RAF at War, 1950s household, British seaside holidays, golden age of steam trains, golden age of cruise liners and suggragettes.

Hot topic?

After a discussion on our residential this week, and after reading a report in the TES, topic work is something on my mind.

The TES writes that their survey last year revealed that four out of five primaries are abandoning traditional teaching and reintroducing 'themed' lessons, which were popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

Researchers from Manchester University found that junior children in 2006 spent almost half their week in English and Maths lessons, and two hours on science. This leaves only an hour for each other subject.

They also found that the focus was shifting away from teaching traditional subjects separately towards a more combined approach in order to cover all aspects of the curriculum. English, they discovered, was being combined with other subjects, such as history, for four-fifths of the time.

Our school will be looking into revamping our curriculum by introducing more topic work. How do other people do this? Is every single lesson part of the topic, or are some subjects still taught discretely, like Maths for example? Any thoughts?

Animal Adaptations display

As part of our science unit on Animal Adaptations the children made paper mache animals and researched to find out how they are adapted to their environment. The practical aspect brought this unit alive and the research they completed was excellent as a result.

Over the next year I will be buying lots of stuffed animals to avoid the long process of making them. The display will be just as effective!

Le Chateau du Broutel

I have just returned from a brilliant residential visit at Le Chateau du Broutel in Rue, France. What a brilliant week! This is the second time we have held this residential and on both occasions it has been truly worth it.

We toured the local village, tasted chocolate at a Chocolatier, held baby goats at a goat farm, explored Amiens cathedral, visited the underground caves, used our French at Abbeville market, tested our nerves in the blind trail and looked at sea life at Nausicaa.

If anyone is looking for a safe location for a trip abroad then I would wholeheartedly recommend this.

Ice Cream Display

This is a display that I should have put up some time ago when we visited an ice cream factory in Crewe.

We held an ice cream day and this display was the cumlination of the day's work. It includes ice cream haikus, ideas for our own ice cream designs, data handling results of our ice cream favourites and some history of the factory.

Stressed out

After visiting wedding fayres for the day I was too late to buy a paper today. As a result I ended up slumming it with the NOTW. Not ideal, but there was one interesting report.

Stressed teachers took more than half a million days off work last year - costing the taxpayers £84million. More than 200 teachers, in fact, were off sick for the whole of last year.

The Freedom of Information Act suggests that teachers took a total of 546000 'sickies' for stress across the country. Seven of the 90 LEAs which supplied statistics admitted to losing more than 10000 teaching days, Lancashire being the biggest with 16098.

Pass marks in new tests lowered

The Daily Mail reports that pass marks in the revamped Sats tests are to be lowered to prevent a surge in the number failing. Officials announced the changes after pupils performed worse than expected in trials of new-look English and maths tests for 11 and 14-year-olds. Whitehall said the move would align standards in the new tests more closely with the existing system. The decision to reduce pass marks had already been taken by the time the trials started late last year, they insisted.

But the Tories accused the Government of "fiddling" the figures. Ministers have signalled that the new tests could replace existing Sats within two years.

The revamped regime gives pupils two chances a year - in December and June - to move up a level in the National Curriculum system. Currently, children must wait until they take Sats at the end of a Key Stage to discover which level they are working at. In trials of the new system in 411 schools in December, "unexpected patterns" emerged in the results. Officials said these trials awarded pupils a "level four" - the standard expected of 11-year-olds - only if their answers were judged to be "securely within" the grade level. But for the next tests in June, children will be given a level four if they just scrape over the grade boundary. This will bring the new tests into line with the existing Sats.

"We have not lowered standards," The Department for Children, Schools and Families said.
"As before, pupils will need to reach level four in order to attain a national curriculum level four.
"We made a technical change to the pilot, which is that for the next round of tests in June pupils will need to have reached or be working within a level, rather than having completed or be working securely within a level. This is the same standard as is used in the current national curriculum tests. We are simply running a pilot, part of which is testing out different assessment models.

Spin...

Just say when...

The Daily Mail reports that parents will be able to choose when their children take Sats tests under proposals outlined yesterday. Exam watchdogs want to reform the system so pupils can take a test when they are ready to do so - on any day of the school year. They are currently required to take exams in English, maths and science on fixed dates when they are 11 and 14.

The move by chiefs at the National Assessment Agency would give parents a greater say in the speed their children progress through school. But head teachers warned that parents intent on "hot-housing" youngsters could try to rush them through. Under the radical plans, teachers would be able to draw test questions from a stock when they believe individual children are capable of moving up a level in their national curriculum rating.

An alternative reform would be for teachers to mark the tests themselves instead of external examiners. A sample of papers would still be marked outside schools to check national progress. This is unlikely to find favour with ministers, who have indicated that external marking must stay.

The NAA is an arm of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which oversees national curriculum tests and advises ministers on future developments. David Gee, NAA managing director, told a London conference yesterday: "My view is that testing should be when-ready, on a daily basis." Ministers have already moved to make testing for 11 and 14-year-olds more flexible by introducing two chances a year in December and June - instead of just one - for pupils to move up a level. The system is currently being piloted in 484 schools. But Mr Gee called on the Government to go further. He said: "There's no reason why, in the longer term, we should not move towards some form of assessment when ready. But in the pilots we are having to work to a specification which is twice a year." He added: "The teachers choose when to test the pupils. It has to be when the pupils are ready, not the whole cohort being entered at one time to see how many we can get through."

Time Management tips

I plan for this post to re-surface occasionally as I will add to it if I acquire any more time management tips. Please feel free to add comments with ideas.

1. Give yourself an evening cut-off point. The best-planned lesson will be terrible if you are too tired to deliver it - better to be alert enough to improvise.
2. Balance your day so you have a mixture of lessons that demand a lot of teacher input and lessons that are more student-led.
3. Check your pigeonhole twice a day, respond to emails quickly, don't ever miss a meeting and always be early for lessons.
4. Use your day effectively - don't waste PPA time and lunchtimes.
5. Set up your classroom for your next lesson before you go for a break.
6. When marking work, put it in a rough order first, and work backwards. If you start with the A* pupils it will only get depressing.

Sue Cowley

Sue Cowley writes a regular column in the TES magazine sharing ideas for good behaviour management and discipline. She has lots of good ideas. Her website has links to her Teachers TV videos and lists of possible rewards and sanctions. Very interesting.

Children start school too soon

A report in today's Daily Mail says that English children start school too young and are tested longer and harder than anywhere else in the world. Primary schools in England are more obsessed with tests than in 20 other countries and pupils still perform no better than their European counterparts.

Researchers from the Cambridge University-led Primary Review also found that English children find school "stressful" as they are subjected to academic lessons in maths and English at the age of four. But in countries such as Sweden and Finland, where children do not start education until seven, they outperform English pupils by the age of 11.

Research spanning 21 nations including Germany, Italy, Spain, the US and South Korea found that England was 'uniquely' obsessed with high pressure exams. Children here also attend larger schools than counterparts in many other nations following a reduction in the number of primaries by 3,000 over the past 40 years. The report added that other distinct features of the English system included a national obsession with exam standards. Primary pupils were given baseline assessments at age five, followed by national tests at seven and 11 and optional tests at eight, nine and 10.

"What distinguishes assessment policy in England is the degree to which it is used as a tool to control what is taught, to police how well it is taught, and to encourage parents to use assessment information to select schools for their children," the report said. "England is unusual in its high incidence of assessment and is exceptional in its emphasis on statutory external standard assessment for children at ages seven and 11." Testing in England "begins at a younger age" than in other countries, the report added. "In summary, formal assessment in England, compared to our review countries, is pervasive, highly consequential, and taken by officialdom to portray objectively the actual quality of primary education in schools."

Results shouldn't be everything

Bill Ball was head at new Manton Primary in Nottinghamshire. His work was praised by the NCSL and has wonderful support from parents and the community. When he took over the school was the worst-ranked primary in England.

Unfortunately he has now resigned because, although they have doubled since 2004, the school's SATs results still place the school sixth from bottom in the league tables.

The chief executive of the NCSL, Steve Munby, praised Mr Ball for his work in rebuilding the community. But John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, said, "Maybe it needs a new headteacher, maybe new governors, maybe new funding, maybe all three - but it is not acceptable for a school to consistently underperform."

Whilst I appreciate that SATs results are important as a measure of progress, surely a primary school head has to develop the whole child and it plays a role in structuring the community. It's just like a football manager - results can't improve overnight. Allow the headteacher a few years to build firm foundations for lasting success.

Primary pupils who fear transition

One in six pupils feels unprepared for the transition from primary to secondary school, with many of them worried about being bullied. And their fears are justified: a quarter are likely to be bullied at their new school. Secondaries share their apprehension, rarely trusting information from feeder primaries. But pupils' anxiety largely disappears by the end of their first term, helped by several initiatives.

Researchers from the Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education project found many pupils worried whether they would make friends or keep up with work at secondary.

Bullying was the key obstacle to transition. A quarter of Year 7 pupils had some experience of bullying at school, and a third of pupils with special educational needs said they had been bullied. Pupils from disdvantaged backgrounds found it hard to settle, with three-quarters struggling to get used to new routines.

Measures such as information booklets and open days helped to ease anxiety. Many schools used the same work books in both Years 6 and 7 to create a sense of continuity. Some schools ensured that the new Year 7 began a day before the rest of the pupils.

However, researchers said, "Secondary schools do not appear to trust the data on children provided by primary schools at Year 6 level, and this leads to a system of baseline re-testing of all children at Year 7."

Stress Busting

Tips for reducing stress:

1. Exercise: It will get your heart pumping and can be a more effective anti-depressant than prescribed drugs.
2. Diet: Replace sweets and chocolates with carbohydrates, fresh vegetables and oily fish to combat lethargy.
3. Plan something to look forward to: Book a holiday, pursue an interest or plan a treat - anything that you will look forward to.
4. Sleep: try to get eight hours a night and avoid caffeine or alcohol before bed.
5. Natural daylight: Walk to work or eat your lunch outside to boost serotonin levels.
6. Spring clea: De-cluttering your life will give you a sense of well-being.
7. Resolutions: Teaming up with others who share your goals will help keep you motivated.

Banana Louts

According to the Daily Mail, sugar-laden fizzy drinks and additive-filled cakes and biscuits have long been blamed for bad behaviour. But now there is a new enemy in the school canteen - the banana.
Children who eat lunches rich in fruit and vegetables much more likely to misbehave than those who fill up on junk food, government-funded research shows.
The so-called "banana louts" were almost four times as likely to be boisterous when studying with their classmates during the afternoon, the study by the School Food Trust found. The finding challenges the widely-held assumption that chemical-laden fast foods cause misbehaviour, while healthy foods feed the mind.

The researchers studied the behaviour of youngsters at six primary schools in Sheffield, observing them over 12 weeks in the lesson after lunch. They found that youngsters who had lunched on healthy meals were more than five times as likely to be well-behaved when being taught as those who had eaten fast food. However, the situation was very different when the children were studying by themselves in small groups. In such cases, the fruit and veg-fed children were 3.6 times as likely to be "off task" or naughty.

It is thought that fast-food fuels hyperactivity, affecting concentration and making pupils difficult for teachers to control. Healthier meals, in contrast boost alertness - raising the risk of youngsters becoming boisterous when the calming influence of the teacher is removed. Or as the School Food Trust, which is chaired by restaurateur Prue Leith, put it: "Generally increased alertness in pupils who have eaten a healthier lunch may help to explain the increased off-task behaviours when pupils were being asked to work together."

Year Six ICT Planning: Windows Movie Maker

Subject:		Focus:		End product:		Notes:
ICT		Editing video with Windows Movie Maker		The whole class will produce a DVD all about the school		The recording of the video will need to be carried out carefully with some supervision as the children will need to go around the school to video the elements they require.
Date	Learning Intention & Success Criteria		Targeted support for the lesson	Activity and Differentiation				Resources
				New teaching	Main Activity		Plenary
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To plan a video Success Criteria: I can identify relevant information			Explain that the school is hoping to produce a DVD all about the school. It must show lots of different elements of the school.	In groups the children should prepare a list of features of the school that they think should be included in the DVD.		Discuss the organisation of the video – which elements could be grouped together. Discuss timings and how long each part of the DVD must be.
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To plan a video Success Criteria: I can storyboard my video			Based on their work from last lesson, as a class, compile a complete list of every feature of the school that should be included in the DVD.   Split the class into groups of 4 and give each group 2 parts of the DVD to prepare.	For each part of the DVD the children need to decide where will be filmed, what will the video show and what must be said. The children should then produce a 'storyboard' of their element of the video.		Share excellent, imaginative, original examples and the ways that different groups are showing their feature of the school.	Storyboarding sheets
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To use a digital camera to capture film Success Criteria: I can film using a digital camera			This part of the challenge will take place over a number of weeks. Discuss what a badly produced video would look like. Then decide what a good video will look like – well prepared lines, confidently produced scenes, interesting backgrounds. Demonstrate how to use the digital camera to record videos.	Accompanied by an adult the children should go, at an appropriate time, to record their video.		The children should carry out a quality control of their video. If they need to they need to record it again.	Digital cameras Storyboards Adult supervision
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To import video and add effects and transitions Success Criteria: I can import video and add effects and transitions			This part of the challenge will take place over a number of weeks. In order to learn how to use Windows Movie Maker the children will have to work with alternative video, i.e. not about school. Explain how to load up Movie Maker.	The children should import their video and photos. Demonstrate how to add their videos to the timeline. Show the children how to add effects, but discuss whether all of these would be appropriate for a promotional video. Also show the children how to remove effects. Demonstrate how to add transitions between the video clips, and again, also show to remove them.		Ensure that the children have saved their test video. The children should look at their video critically – does it look 'professional' enough?	Windows Movie Maker Video clips
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To add titles and record narration Success Criteria: I can add titles and narration to my video			This part of the challenge will take place over a number of weeks. Load up the work from last time. Explain that there are two ways to add further information to the video – text or audio.	Show the children how to add titles – before a clip and on a clip. Save the opening titles and credits for later. Explore the effects. Show the children how to add narration to the clips. Demonstrate what happens if the input level is wrong.		Share the children's work from the test project.	Copyright free mp3/ wma files Microphones
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To add photos and titles and credits to my video Success Criteria: I can add photos, titles and add credits			This part of the challenge will take place over a number of weeks. Load up the work from last time. What else could be included as well as video?	Show the children how to add photos to the video. Can they use narration or music to make their photos more interesting? Add opening titles and closing credits to the video.		Share the children's work from the test project.	Photos
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To produce a video using Windows Movie Maker Success Criteria: I can use Windows Movie Maker			This part of the challenge can only be completed when all the videos have been recorded, and it might take a few lessons to complete. Remind the children of the importance of producing a 'professional' looking video without over-elaborate effects.	The children should prepare their video about the school.		Share what has been produced.	Video files (these must have been converted and indexed to be able to use them in Movie Maker)
	Learning Intention: We Are Learning To produce a DVD Success Criteria: I can combine clips to make a working DVD using Windows DVD Maker			This can only be completed when each part of the video has been made. Put a DVD into the computer. What else is on the DVD apart from just the video? Discuss the purpose of a DVD menu. Using Windows DVD Maker, show the children how to add clips to the DVD. Demonstrate how to change the menu buttons Show the children how to add an animated background. Show how to add music to the DVD menu.	The children should produce their DVD menu for their DVD of the school.		Burn the DVDs to disc.	Windows DVD Maker Music files

What's in your lunchbox?

Under a new Government strategy, all schools will be expected to design a 'healthy lunchbox policy' on what makes a nutritional packed lunch over the next year. Some parents may even be asked to sign a form agreeing to ban unhealthy foods from their children's lunches.

If a packed lunch is deemed to contain too much fat and sugar, parents could be sent warning letters or their children's meals confiscated.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Schools Secretary Ed Balls praised a Herfordshire school which has designed lunchbox meny ideas for parents, including falafel and houmous pitta bread with a tomato and avocado salad, followed by fruit yoghurt.

Whilst this is a great idea in theory, could it work in practice?

Lost in translation

A lack of communication between primaries and secondaries is threatening to undermine young children's learning of languages. Figures obtained by the TES suggest most primary schools are giving secondaries too little information about pupils' progress in learning a foreign language. As a result, secondary teachers do not know what level, if any, the pupils have reached, or even what language they have been learning.

The National Foundation for Educational Research is monitoring the introduction of languages in primaries. Their recently released report suggests that 70% of primaries are offering languages. However, just 17% send information on the children's progress to secondaries. It also said that there was no difference between children who had learnt French from 8 and those who started at 11, partly because many secondaries had treated all pupils as if they knew nothing.

I think there's a lot of work to do if languges are going to be taught properly in schools. For a start, primaries should teach the same languages as they do in their feeder high schools.

School Reports?

A website is offering parents the chance to review their child's school. Schoolsnet.com allows its users to add a review of the school - positive or negative - anonymously.

According to the TES, headteachers have expressed concern about the potential for the site to be used abusively - though analysis shows most of the 3000 reviews are positive.

The founder of the site, Greg Hatfield said that he was inspired to set up the site when he moved to Brighton and reliased he was entirely reliant on word of mouth to decide which school his children should attend. He said, "It is important for any school to know what the gossip is at the school gate, whether good or bad. If they don't know about it, they can't rebut it."

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT said heads would be concerned about any such sites being used by parents with personal vendettas. But, he suggested, parents could turn it around by using it as a positive forum for good news about individual children's progress.

Beer goggles

Children as young as 10 are being targeted in a growing number of anti-drinking campaigns. In one scheme the children try on specially designed glasses which allow wearers to experience the dizzy effects of drunkenness.

Year 5 and 6 pupils at Hook Primary School at Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, are taught about the health implications of binge drinking. Last year, pupils of the school produced a play portraying the embarrassing effects of drunkenness at a school disco which was performed at primaries throughout the county.

Research in 2007 revealed that a tenth of pupils aged 10 and 11 had drunk alcohol in the previous week.

The scheme was funded by Mentor UK, a charity working to educate pupils about implications of drug and alcohol misuse.

Keep boys and girls apart!

A report in the Daily Mail says that boys need to be taught separately from girls from the age of five to prevent them being damaged by the education system. Dr Leonard Sax argues that boys are "turned off" by starting formal education too soon when they are expected to sit down and keep quiet in class. And, because they develop at different rates to girls, they can be discouraged from learning while very young when sat alongside female classmates.

Dr Sax, a research psychologist in the U.S., claims this has led to an epidemic of unmotivated boys and under-achieving young men. He said: "With boys you have to start right away. If you wait until secondary school, you have waited too long. From the age of five, there are clear advantages in all-boys' education when teachers know how to take advantage of it."

At present, single sex education is concentrated in the independent sector. Dr Sax wants more state primary and secondary schools to offer single sex classes. He added: "Boys and girls' brains develop along profoundly different timetables. It might be appropriate to ask five-year-old girls to sit still and be quiet in class, but for many five-year-old boys it's not developmentally appropriate. The message they get at five is that doing well in school is something that girls do."
Young boys become afraid of being seen as "swots". However, in single sex classes they are more likely to see getting good grades as "cool"."

Boys are from Mars, Girls are from Venus???

There is an interesting report in this week's TES. Teachers are five times more likely to tell boys off than girls, although girls are just as badly behaved. They are also much more likely to call on boys to answer questions in class.

Jeremy Swinson, of Liverpool John Moores University, observed behaviour in classes at two primary schools. He also recorded different teachers' response to this behaviour and the extent to which they upbraided and punished their pupils.

He found that boys and girls were equally likely to misbehave in class. "There was no difference at all in the work ethic or the attention span of the two groups. That goes against the common belief that boys are more easily distracted," he said.

Teachers tended to praise boys and girls equally. But Dr Swinson found that criticism was not so evenly distributed. Instead, teachers chastised boys for their behaviour five times more often than girls, despite their identical levels of misbehaviour.

Dr Swinson attributes this to girls' more subtle rule-breaking. "Boys tend to shout across the classroom, but girls are more likely to read a magazine under their desk or pass notes. They may not learn a lot, but they're not stopping the lesson. So teachers are more likely to see boys as potential troublemakers because boys are more likely to disrupt the whole class," he explained.

He belives this default assumption that boys' behaviour is worse is the reason teachers call on boys to answer questions more often. Some asked questions directly to specific boys. Others would direct a question to the entire class and then select a boy to answer. He said, "Teachers are trying to engage boys more. They are so relieved that little Johnny has has hand up and isn't shouting that they want to choose him."

There is more information about this report here.

Anyone got any thoughts about this interesting research?

100 books every child should read

The Daily Telegraph has published a list of children's books that they say that 'every child should read.' Here are the books suitable for Year Six readers:

Stig of the Dump, by Clive King
When Barney falls down a dump the last thing he expects is to meet a cave boy. Stig was an eco-warrior before the term was invented. Sprightly, comic, classic.

Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling
Learn how the leopard got his spots and the camel his hump. And remember "The Elephant's Child" - whose "satiable suriosity" turns his "bulgy nose" into a trunk?

The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
First published in 1953, this remains a deserved favourite. The Clock family live beneath a floorboard, making do with what "human beans" drop, until one day one of them allows herself to be seen…

Struwwelpeter, by Heinrich Hoffman
These pungent 1840 morality tales are not to be taken literally: in one, a boy gets his thumbs chopped off.

Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
Danny and his hard-up father bond over poaching pheasants from nasty Mr Hazell's land - before moral dues are paid.

Underwater Adventure, by Willard Price
Willard Price invented zoologist brothers Hal and Roger Hunt to get children interested in nature. Underwater Adventure takes them into shark-infested seas. Some sharks are human.

The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
Sourced from medieval German folktales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century, these sanguinary stories deal with abduction, cannibalism and worse.

When the Wind Blows, by Raymond Briggs
Jim and Hilda Bloggs's preparation for a nuclear attack remains enthralling. First comic, then moving.

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." But reading about Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger runs it a close second.

The Water Babies, by Charles Kinglsey
Tom the sweep drowns after being chased from a rich household and falls into a sub-aquatic purgatory. But once he proves his worth he is allowed wonderful adventures.

I'm The King of the Castle, by Susan Hill
A powerful and claustrophobic study of bullying, this has a real narrative grip and a frightening message. No reader remains untouched.

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce
As Tom lies in bed preparing for the most boring holiday of his life, the clock strikes 13. Racing downstairs he sees daylight and a beautiful garden where there should be darkness. Incredibly exciting.

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
A bored young boy pushes his toy car through a toy tollbooth, and finds himself in the kingdom of Wisdom. Genius wordplay, slapstick and a real sense of fun.

The Silver Sword, by Ian Serrallier
Just after the Second World War, a group of children navigate war-torn Europe armed with little more than a letter opener. Tense, demanding and adult.

Cue for Treason, by Geoffrey Trease
After Peter Brownrigg chucks a stone at his landlord, he has to flee to London. Here he meets Shakespeare and uncovers a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth. Tudor derring-do.

The Sword in the Stone, by TH White
The trials of Arthur have never been more amusingly described. Merlin is the archetype for all dotty wizards.

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K LeGuin
LeGuin's fantasy lands are scrupulously realised, but it is emotional complexity that makes her books so engrossing. Here a young wizard has to come to terms with the destructive power of his magic.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
The third book may be the best in JK Rowling's series. All the usual Potter tricks are here, but the highlight is the Dementors, the terrifying guards of Azkaban prison.

The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set, by CS Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe isn't the only Narnia story worth reading. The Silver Chair is a powerful allegory of mental slavery; and Voyage of the Dawn Treader sees a talking mouse paddle over the edge of the world.

His Dark Materials Box Set, by Philip Pullman
Pullman's riposte to CS Lewis is a trumpet-blast against dogma - but, above all else, a gripping adventure.

Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
Childcare used to be a bit less hands on ("Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers won't drown") and one cannot read the adventures of these four children in a lost Eden without a lump in the throat.

The Railway Children, by E Nesbit
When their father is accused of treason, Bobbie, Peter, Phyllis and their mother move to the country. They pass the time watching trains go by and proving their father innocent, which is nice.

Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
One of the greatest books ever narrated by a horse, with a fine message: be kind to animals, and they'll be kind to you.

Just William, by Richmal Crompton
The classic naughty schoolboy, William wages a gentle war of attrition against parental and teacherly authority.

The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket
This magnificently black-hearted book introduced us to the Baudelaire children, orphaned in a fire and trying to keep one step ahead of the predatory Count Olaf, who is after their inherited fortune.

Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Jack London introduced some dark themes into this story of Buck, a sled dog in the Yukon who rediscovers his wild nature when put to the test.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
1832, and wolves have over-run a fictional kingdom of England. Orphans Sylvia and Bonnie fall into the hands of an evil Miss Slycarp and must use all their wits to escape. A mercilessly shadowy thriller.

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
On June 12, 1942, Annelies Marie Frank started writing a diary. It was her 13th birthday. She died three years later in Belsen. An ordinary teenage life, made poignant by the knowledge of how it ended.

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, by Mildred D Taylor
A tale of oppression in the American South, this tells the story of the Logans, a black family living in rural Mississippi during the 1930s.

The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
A wonderful curtain-raiser for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit finds Tolkein in a playful mood. The adventures of Bilbo Baggins, while never less than exciting, are spiked with gentle humour.

War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo's moving story plunges into the horror of the First World War by following the story of Joey, a cavalry officer's horse on the Western Front.

Beowulf, by Michael Morpurgo
Beowulf is a great story: scary monsters, fearsome matriarchs, boasting, singing, feasting, fighting and booty. Michael Morpurgo's rendition brings it to a new generation.

Treasure Island, by RL Stevenson
The riddles of Stevenson's tale endure. Why does X mark the spot? What is it with parrots? And why did Pugh go blind?

Watership Down, by Richard Adams
Fiver and his brother Hazel know that something terrible will happen to the warren, and set off for safety. Their story has implications beyond the usual concerns of rabbits.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Less ambitious than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but just as exciting. The language is hard to begin with but the hero is one of the most endearing in literature.

Holes, by Louis Sachar
Sentenced to dig holes in the desert for stealing trainers, the wrongly convicted Stanley discovers that the holes are not so pointless as at first thought. Wit dry as a salt flat.

Carrie's War, by Nina Bawden
Carrie and her brother are wartime evacuees billeted on a bullying Welsh grocer. A wonderfully crafted novel full of memorable characters.

The Story of Tracy Beaker, by Jacqueline Wilson
A slice of life in a children's home narrated by 10-year-old Tracy, through whose eyes we confront tough dilemmas. Required reading.

The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliffe
As the Roman army prepares to leave for home, Aquila is forced to desert to protect his family.

Memory techniques being taught

The Times reports that a man with one of the best memories in the world is planning to teach schoolchildren across Britain his technique for remembering everything from French grammar to lists of dates. And he also hopes to find a junior memory champion in a national competition.

Jonathan Hancock, a primary school teacher from Brighton, has twice entered the Guinness World Records book for correctly reciting the order of packs of playing cards and also won the World Memory Championship in 1994. He said: “I have got As in everything I’ve ever done and I put it down to this memory technique.”

Hancock, who is backed by the Learning Skills Foundation, hopes that the winner of the competition for 10 and 11-year-olds will be able to rival his own feats. He says that children’s memories are becoming ever more loaded with information. “There is a huge potential for memory if you start learning the techniques early,” he said. “I don’t want children to grow up to become the kind of adults who say they have a bad memory. Those people just have a lack of confidence.”

Hancock’s project entails introducing his memory methods into school teaching over the next 12 months before beginning the first rounds of the memory challenge. Schools signing up to the idea will be given details of Hancock’s technique. He says that children can learn to recall anything - even lists of unrelated names. “One example is that in my class the children do a quick mental warm-up and call out 20 random words which they then have five minutes to memorise in order,” he said. “They each do this by creating a surreal story in their minds, linking the items together in the most memorable ways. They use colour, movement, humour and adventure, activating their imaginative skills and preparing their brains to absorb all the information of the coming lesson. As well as their memory skills, this is having a great impact on their ability to write memorable stories, poems and plays, and in their overall confidence to express their ideas.”

Daniel Tammet, who is the British champion at remembering the number pi, having successfully recalled 22,514 digits in the correct order, praised Hancock’s concept. “Memory is a vital skill that can be stimulated and enhanced by imagination and creativity,” he said.

Hockey and netball out of favour?

The Daily Mail reports that traditional sports such as hockey and netball are under threat as rising numbers of girls turn to football. They are taking up the sport at primary and secondary school and, for the first time, pursuing it at club level along with boys.

Experts point to the success of Bend It Like Beckham, the 2002 film starring Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, for the sport's increasing popularity among girls. It tells the story of an Asian girl's attempts to become a professional footballer despite her family's objections. The Football Association - which estimates around one million girls and 250,000 women play football regularly - claims the sport is becoming more accessible to girls and is also seen as more acceptable.

The study by ChildWise, a market research company, interviewed 1,200 pupils - boys and girls - aged between five and 16 to track trends in their behaviour. In a 2001-2 survey, girls were asked what sports they played at primary school. Twenty-five per cent said football, 23 per cent netball, 22 per cent hockey and 18 per cent swimming. By 2007-8, 32 per cent of girls at primary level said they played football at school, easily beating all other sports. Netball participation had slumped to 14 per cent and hockey had fallen to only 4 per cent.

Across all 591 primary and secondary schools, 30 per cent of girls play football, with participation peaking among nine and ten-year-olds. FA spokesman Alex Stone said: "There are more opportunities for girls to play than some of the England players experienced when they were growing up. It's grown from being seen as a niche sport played by a few to something that's much more popularist."

Rosemary Duff, of ChildWise, added: "Children know the names of footballers as it's very high profile. But can you name a famous netball player? Even hockey isn't the same. These sports don't have the same kind of glamour that football has."

2.45% pay rise

The BBC reports that teachers in England and Wales will get pay rises above the 2% inflation target set by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The three-year pay deal will mean increases of 2.45% in September 2008 and 2.3% in each of the following two years, says Schools Secretary Ed Balls. The award was higher than the 2% anticipated for public sector pay.

Teachers' unions were divided in their reactions - with both warnings of ballots for industrial action and support for the pay deal. Head teachers' leader, John Dunford, welcomed the higher than expected rise. "There had been a good deal of anxiety among school leaders at the prospect of a lower award," said Dr Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

Chris Keates, leader of the Nasuwt teachers' union, said: "Compared with other public sector workers, clearly we have fared well." But she said the union would hold an opinion poll "to gauge whether teachers feel that the level of this award is going to be sufficient".

The National Union of Teachers remained unimpressed by the increase - warning that its executive would meet next week to plan a "robust response. Teachers have to pay increases in the cost of housing, fuel and food. This settlement is in effect a pay cut," said general secretary Steve Sinnott.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers acknowledged that the award was higher than for other public-sector staff, but cautioned that it still failed to match inflation.

The salary increases, recommended by the independent pay body, the School Teachers' Review Body, have been accepted by Mr Balls. Describing teachers as the "backbone of our education system", Mr Balls said that the pay award was "fair and affordable for schools. Today's pay award will enable teachers and schools to plan ahead with a greater degree of security and certainty and at the same time will help deliver stability for the taxpayer and the wider economy," said Mr Balls.

Climate Cops

Although I currently despise NPower because they have raised their prices for gas and electricity massively, I am impressed with the educational resources they have published, called, "Climate Cops".

The Climate Cops try to teach the children about saving energy and climate change. A fun website with an important theme.

There is also a site for adults with energy saving tips.

Converting video

Just thought I'd give a quick tutorial in how to convert files from digital cameras into WMV format so that they can be used in Windows Movie Maker. My digital camera is a Samsung.
You will need a video converter. There are free versions on the internet, but I used one by Xilisoft. There is a free version, but if you want to convert files that are longer than 5 minutes, you'll need to buy the full version ($35 or about £25 including VAT). Open the program and select the files you wish to convert. Change the file destination and also the type of file you wish to create and then click on Encode.

The file will then be altered into a WMV file. This still can't be used, however, as it needs to be indexed. You'll then need some free software called Windows Media File Editor which is part of the Windows Media Encoder Package. If you open up the video in this program and then save it, the program will automatically index it.

You are then able to use the video in Windows Movie Maker.

Our Year Sixes are going to make a DVD of the school to form part of our new school prospectus.

Ideas for WW2 Day

Here is a link to a TES forum discussion on activities for a World War Two day.

Online school reports

The Daily Mail reports that our traditional school reports might soon become a thing of the past.

Labour is today calling for schools to introduce "real-time" assessment of pupils. Continuous online updates would allow parents to monitor their children's behaviour and academic progress throughout the term. They would be given passwords to access secure websites containing details of achievement, progress, attendance, behaviour and any special needs.

Schools will be required to update the information frequently - thought to be once a week or fortnight - while also maintaining personal contact with parents. They will still need to issue an annual summary report but a single document can no longer be the sole means of reporting progress.

The scheme is likely to be introduced into secondary schools within two years, and primaries within four.

However, there are fears that the scheme could open up a "digital divide" between families.
The computer-savvy and well-off may log on frequently while poorer and less technologically minded parents will have to do without the service. So-called "helicopter" parents - who hover over their child's every move - could also use the system to heap more pressure on their offspring.