A potential Doctor in your school?

Deciding to study medicine is obviously a big commitment both for students and their families, and making this decision is even more difficult if the family has no background in medicine.

At Gap Medics we offer students (aged 16 and over) the opportunity to see what the world of medicine is really like. Through our facilities they travel to Africa, India, The Caribbean or Thailand to shadow experienced doctors and healthcare professionals.

Not only does this experience help students to make the right decision about their future career, it is also a useful addition for their UCAS forms.

Recognised by the majority of British medical schools, our hospital work experience is ideal for those students who are interested in medicine, nursing, dentistry or midwifery.

In terms of the practicalities, students are met at the airport by one of our specialist staff team members and are looked after by an extensive staff team throughout their stay.

If you have any students who are interested in a career in medicine, there are several ways of giving them the relevant information.

First, you can of course pass on this email.
Second you can direct the student to our website at www.gapmedics.co.uk to find out a lot of detailed information regarding the placements
Third you can click here to print out some information to pass to your prospective healthcare students.
Finally they can call us on 0191 269 6818 or email us at info@gapmedics.com and we’ll send a brochure in the post.
Regards
Mark Hinksman
Business Development Director

Gap Medics – Launching medical careers
Collingwood Buildings
38 Collingwood Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1JF

T. +44 (0)191 269 6818
F. +44 (0)191 229 9501
E. mark@gapmedics.com
W. www.gapmedics.com

ICT Information and Services

Teaching students game development
Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans & teaching tips
Microsoft – and just one of those FREE Software Assurance Benefits
Free IT equipment recycle service

Pupil reports made easy

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Teaching students game development

www.keylinkcomputers.co.uk
Keylink Computers Ltd, 2 Woodway House, Common Lane, Kenilworth, CV8 2ES

Phone: 01926 850909
Email: sales@keylinkcomputers.co.uk

Full 3d game programming is now possible with the latest release of Unity (which can be downloaded for free). All that is needed is the help and support to show students how to use it.

And that is what we have produced – complete with text, pictures and videos. We also give you all the necessary resources (models, textures etc).

There is more information on this on our website – www.keylinkcomputers.co.uk. You then need to click on ICT resources in the left hand panel.

Also, there is more information on our blog (which can be found on our website then click on “blog” on the left hand side).

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Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans & teaching tips

http://www.boardworks.co.uk/ict_637
Boardworks, Units 5–7 The Gallery, 54 Marston Street, Oxford, OX4 1LF

Email: enquiries@boardworks.co.uk
Phone: 0845 0 300 400
Fax: 0845 0 300 200

Boardworks ICT blog contains free resources, lesson plans and teaching tips for KS3, KS4 and vocational ICT teachers. Follow the weblink to download the resources free of charge or follow us on Twitter @BoardworksLtd.

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Microsoft – and just one of those FREE Software Assurance Benefits

http://www.computerbox.net/?p=913
Computer Box Ltd, Eaton Place, 114 Washway Road, Sale, Cheshire M33 7RF

Phone: 0845 658 2552
Email: peter@computerbox.net

Data Encryption – on Drives & USB sticks with Windows 7 Enterprise BitLocker secure encryption.

It seems that everyone is looking for a data encryption solution.

But did you know that potentially there is one already built in to your operating system! Check this out here …..

For more information on data encryption that can be used in your school please contact Peter on 0845 658 2552 or email him at peter@computerbox.net.

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Free IT equipment recycle service

www.prmgreentech.com
PRM Green Technologies Ltd, 19 Kimberley Business Park, Kimberley Way, Brereton, Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 1RE

Email via form at http://www.prmgreentech.com/contact.htm
Phone: 0800 840 9195

We collect redundant IT equipment (PC base units, CRT monitors, TFT monitors, servers, laptops, server racks, switches, telecom switches and printers) for recycling, ensuring all data is removed and adherence to the WEEE directive by offering industry leading environmental practices.

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Pupil reports made easy

www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/?r=hamilton
Teach ICT Ltd, 1 Ffordd y Felin, Trefin, Haverfordwest, SA62 5AX

Email: info@reportcommentbank.co.uk
Phone: 0845 094 6427
Fax: 0700 349 7137

Our point and click report writer is FREE to join and will save you hours when it comes to writing pupil reports. You can use our comments, comments from other teachers or write your own.

Combating conflict with character

Preparing students for social and interpersonal conflict is as challenging as any academic subject. However, there is a new set of resources available to help those responsible for educating teenagers about common behavioural dilemmas surrounding bullying, peer pressure, prejudice, anger and conflict management.

The COMBATING CONFLICT WITH CHARACTER series of resources emphasise character-building as a prime ingredient in overcoming relationship conflicts. Each resource centres around video dramatisations, candid interviews, and expert commentary to define basic ideas, illustrate ways in which conflicts often play out, and ultimately present methods for diffusing them – based on honesty, awareness, and respect for others – all to help pupils navigate the dilemmas surrounding social and interpersonal conflict.

There are 5 resources in the set, each focusing on a specific area with the aid of a 30-minute DVD programme and a downloadable support guide featuring an overview of the DVD programme and its main topics, some pre-programme and post-programme discussion questions, suggested group activities, student projects ideas, internet activities and assessment questions and answers. View a sample support guide here

For further details, preview clips and on-line ordering click on the title links below:

Handling Peer Pressure

Overcoming Prejudice

Dealing with Bullying

Handling Anger and Frustration

Managing Conflict Resolution

Quote promotional discount code: HHM110 for a 10% discount!

If you need any further information or assistance please contact:

Viewtech Educational Media
7-8 Falcons Gate
Dean Road
Yate
Bristol
BS37 5NH
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tel: 01454 858055
fax: 01454 858056
email: mail@viewtech.co.uk
http://www.viewtech.co.uk

Help us protect our field centres

Field Studies Council has launched a campaign calling for the government to protect education centres from closure. One in three local authority centres are currently threatened, and this could deny millions of children access to potentially life-changing experiences. In many cases these closures could be avoided.

As part of the campaign we have launched a petition which will be used to lobby the government. A link to it is here, and we would be very grateful if you could sign it and forward it to your colleagues.

The link above gives more information about the campaign, but if you would like to find out more you can visit this page of our website. Also, to find out more about the opportunities for learning outside the classroom please click on this page.

Thanks for your help

Ben Worth
Marketing Officer
Field Studies Council

Concerned about your students’ grades? Why not tell them about “Humanities Insights” from Humanities-Ebooks.co.uk?

If your students seem more fluent and better informed than usual they may already be using titles from the introductory guides published by Humanities-Ebooks.co.uk.

Humanities Insights includes superior study guides in Literature, History, Philosophy and Genre Fiction, by experts in their fields, carefully edited for clarity, and peer-reviewed for quality, and aimed at students and their teachers.

To receive our newsletter on new titles and request a FREE copy of any Insight or a FREE SAMPLE containing specimen sections on T S Eliot, Ted Hughes, Wittgenstein, The British Empire, The Secret Agent, Women in Love and The Sound and the Fury, please email richardgravil@hotmail.com

Our best sellers on Amazon are John Gilroy on Philip Larkin: Selected Poems, closely followed by Michael Cotsell’s William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, and John Lennard’s Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis.

Other exciting titles are The Waste Land by C J Ackerley, Fields of Agony by Stuart Sillars (an illustrated study of First World War Poetry, with links to online archives, including audio), and Paul McDonald on Catch-22.

Philosophy Insights cover Existentialism, Plato, Wittgenstein, Critical Thinking, and Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. General titles (aimed at Literature and Philosophy students) so far cover Critical Theory, Rhetorical terms and Modern Feminist Theory.

Historical topics, so far, include treatments of Oliver Cromwell, The Holocaust, Lenin, the Risorgimento and British Imperialism.

Our original PDF ebooks (better than the Kindle versions) are currently offered at £3.99 and are available 24/7 : no queues, no empty shelves, no wait, no postage.

OUR PHILOSOPHY: “The point of Literature Insights is not to replicate the usual kind of study guide (all summaries and suggested answers) but to distil people’s long experience of what really matters in teaching a particular text, alert students to critical issues and doubtful questions, and help them to enjoy the author’s strategies and mind-set. Insights are like pocket battleships. They are much shorter than full length academic studies, but up-to-date, authoritative and punchy. Insights are comfortable for screen-reading, they use colour, they are easy to navigate, and they make use of hyperlinks – to online resources and appendices in the text. Any illustrations are more vivid than in print. And of course Ebooks are searchable.”

To inspect our lists please visit http://www.humanities-ebooks.co.uk

Beep Beep! Days for under sevens Teach Road Safety and Save Lives

Every month, five children are killed and 179 are seriously injured on our roads while on foot or bicycle.

Brake, the road safety charity, has created a special event called Beep Beep! Day to help you kick-start your road safety learning, support their vital work and help to promote slower speeds and safer driving in your local communities. Whether you are a nursery, infant school, child minder, playgroup, primary school teacher or children’s club organiser, you can take part. You can choose to run your Beep Beep! Day on any day of the year.

The day provides an opportunity for you to teach simple road safety lessons to kids and parents, such as the importance of holding hands and staying away from traffic, while children do fun activities, such as making a wall poster of hand prints, singing a road safety song, or even helping to wash parents’ cars. You can also use Beep Beep! Day to help raise valuable funds for Brake and their work supporting families bereaved by road crashes.

Everyone running a Beep Beep! Day receives an information pack containing FREE road safety resources including stickers, placards, posters, wall charts and certificates for the children and tips for planning the day are available at www.beepbeepday.org.uk

For more information, or to register to hold a Beep Beep! Day, please visit www.beepbeepday.org.uk, email beepbeep@brake.org.uk or phone 01484 559909

How good are you at negotiation?

There is one way in which virtually every school in the UK could save itself a considerable sum of money each year.

Negotiation is something most of us think we are good at because we do it every day. We negotiate with colleagues, we negotiate with students. If we have a family at home we also spend time negotiating with them. (After all which parent has not at some time resorted to, “You can watch TV after you have done your homework”?)

But there is no doubt that most of us working in schools don’t have much background in negotiation with suppliers. We tend to accept the contract that suppliers offer us, sign it, and expect everything to be fine.

If we do negotiate it is usually to try to get a discount without necessarily noticing that in so doing we might actually be negatively affecting other aspects of the purchase.

And yet the contract between the school and the retailer offers an opportunity for each side to be specific about what is possible, to clarify assumptions and to enter into a relationship which is satisfactory and beneficial for both parties.

It is because many schools pay little attention to the contracts that they sign that the book Contract Matters:

Connecting the Education and Contract World has been written. It exists because many schools find it nigh on impossible to recover from having entered into a bad contract. Invariably all they can do is see the contract through and rue day it was signed.

Contract Matters contains numerous tips in everyday language for anyone in a school who is in charge of managing contracts. It lists the do’s and don’ts and prompts everyone to investigate assumptions before making decisions.

One minor change to a contract made as a result of reading this volume will pay for the book many times over.

Contract Matters book costs £35.00 plus £3.95 postage and packing. Further information is on-line
at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=760

Order code: CMAAA £35.00 ISBN: 978 0 9876527 3 7

Sample pages can be found at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/ContractMatters.pdf

You can purchase the book

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=760

Why this school?

Some parents know from the moment their child is born which school they want the child to go to. But of course for many others the choice of school is a matter of considerable concern and debate.

Parents make their final decision in many ways – taking into account the views of other parents, the school’s broader reputation, the impression gained on a visit to the school, the ease of getting to the school, and through a review of the school prospectus.

When it comes to the school’s prospectus, increasingly parents are anticipating that they will be able to see this information online. Where one school offers an interactive prospectus online and another does not, then the parents will tend to move towards the school with the interactive prospectus, not just because it tends to give increased information, but also because it reflects (in the parents’ eyes) a school more in touch with the modern world.

Such “interactive prospectuses” can include video content, dynamic image galleries, and interactive forms. Although there is a cost in setting up such a prospectus, it can also have a saving for schools for you will then be able to offer a smaller version of the printed prospectus – and indeed many parents will be satisfied with the online version and not seek a printed version at all.

What’s more small details in an online prospectus can be changed as needed, without any change being required to the full prospectus. And the school can promote itself more readily as being environmentally conscious.

If you would like to see some examples of an online prospectus you might like to see

St Peters High School – Online Interactive Prospectus

Burntwood School – Online Interactive Prospectus

A broader online brochure/prospectus with interactive features such as forms, videos, sliding images can be seen by clicking here.

What these online prospectus do is not just provide details of what the school does and pictures of what is in the school, they show the parent the essence of a very modern progressive school. They reflect the whole ethos of the school – not as a set of bullet points, but through the way in which the prospectus is laid out and its message is delivered via contemporary technology.

Feel free to visit our website www.inco-education.co.uk. Alternatively email us at info@inco-education.co.uk or call us on 01902 784 800.

We’ve got all your surfacing needs covered at great rates

Why pay more for less

Formed in 1999, Lindsay Surfacing Ltd is an established midlands based surfacing and groundworks contractor carrying out work to playgrounds, footpaths, roads,and car parks.

Why choose us?

· Highly competitive rates

· Quality work and reliable service

· Proven track record

· Friendly, professional, fully trained team

· All operatives hold relevant CSCS/CPCS certification

· No obligation, free quotations

Artificial grass over existing tarmac playground.

We were approached to install 450 m2 of artificial grass to an existing primary school play ground in Bristol.

The reason for this was to reduce the amount of injuries caused by children falling on the existing tarmac playground surface.

The Complete Package

we also offer the following services:

· Block paving

· Multi Use Games Area construction

· Artificial Grass

· Groundworks

· Maintenance

To find out more about how Lindsay Surfacing can assist you on your

next project, please call us

today on 01455-449383 / 07957-556561 or visit

www.lindsaysurfacing.co.uk

Lindsay Surfacing Ltd, 9 Buckingham Close, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 1TU

Careers with Drama poster

In the current economic climate, students can struggle to see the point of studying drama beyond KS3, overlooking the huge range of transferable skills they can develop.

To demonstrate to your students the wide range of careers studying drama opens up to them, we’ve created a ‘Top 10 Careers with Drama’ poster. Download it here:

www.boardworks.co.uk/dramafreestuff

Put the poster up in your classroom to show students the range of careers their dramatic skills could open up for them, from Radio Broadcast Assistant to Drama Facilitator.

Regards,

The Boardworks Drama team

P.S. If you also teach PSHEE and careers, did you know that we publish MyWorks, an online product that provides ready-made, self-marking quizzes? It’s perfect for non-specialist teachers! Find out more here: www.myworks.co.uk/pshee

Free Citizenship 11 – 16 resources

Some topics grab some students, others don’t.

It is a fact of life that although some young people care very much about the environment, for others it is not of central concern.

What’s more, for many of those who do care about environmental matters, their concerns focus on saving rainforests and protecting whales. The question of the development and recycling of metals doesn’t automatically fit into their personal agenda.

And yet it should. Without metals our civilisation would not exist. Cars, ipods, houses, mobile phones… all require metals, and all raise recycling issues.

In fact it is hard to find many a non-food product that does not contain metal. Tables, beds, noticeboards… everything contains some metal. Which is why it is so vital that students know about how metals are used and recycled.

It is with this in mind that the British Metals Recycling Association has produced the free educational project: “Metals and Me”.

Written by an experienced teacher and reflecting current best practice guidelines, Metals & Me meets many curriculum and syllabus objectives for citizenship, PSHE and sustainable development, whilst encouraging students to think about the global environmental implications of the ever-growing demand for metal.

The Metals & Me resources are available to download free from the BMRA website at www.recyclemetals.org/metals_and_me and consist of:

Three specially commissioned video modules:
What’s recycling got to do with me? addressing how widely we use metals.
Where do metals come from? comparing the environmental and energy costs of mining vs. recycling.
How does recycling work? explaining how 95% of a domestic appliance can be recovered for reuse.
Twelve classroom activities with support materials that will enable your students to develop their enquiry skills, be involved in decision-making experiences and be actively engaged in finding out about a growing industry that will play an increasingly significant part in their lives, as well as offering job opportunities in the future.
Teachers’ notes with five exemplar lesson plans suggesting ways to link the activities into themed lessons. Each lesson plan is supported by a PowerPoint style presentation for use in the classroom.
We hope you find Metals & Me a useful resource and would welcome your feedback via the online survey on the website www.recyclemetals.org.

We have received the following feedback from teachers using our resources:

“Fantastic, saved me a lot of work” D&T Teacher, Whitehaven, Cumbria

“It is excellent! Up to date, visual, and informative and very relevant to the latest curriculum” Head of Geography, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

KS5 AQA Sociology Gender and Education

Our AQA A-Level Sociology gender and education presentation includes 30 PowerPoint slides which focus on the topic of gender and education and the changes that have occurred.

The presentation explores external societal reasons as to the changes examined, as well as internal factors within schools. It begins with a look at the current situation in education and examines the difference between boys and girls and their educational success.

It then goes on to examine the history of gender and educational achievement. It also considers numerous sociological reasons as to why girls underachieved in the past. These include patriarchal curriculum, the influence of the hidden curriculum, the dominance of boys within the classroom, teacher expectations, cultural values, socialisation and parental expectations, as well as material deprivation, biological differences and peer pressure.

The sociological reasons as to why girls educational success has recently improved is also covered. These include an exploration of feminism, changes in the family, changing attitudes, new educational polices, etc.

In addition to this it looks at why boys may be currently underachieving in comparison to their female counterparts. It does this by exploring ideas of peer group status, unrealistic attitudes, labelling and employment prospects.

The presentation concludes with an examination of the importance of the topic by looking at Cohen’s idea of ‘moral panics’. Key studies and their critiques as well as key government policies are investigated throughout, and the final slide has exam questions for the students to practise.

This resource contains 30 PowerPoint slides on a CD for £24.99 + VAT. Once purchased the CD can be freely copied and networked throughout the school.

To see sample pages please email sales@classroom-resources.co.uk quoting the order code 19044.

You can order the AQA’s A-Level Gender and Education PowerPoints CD in any of these ways:

On our website
By phone on 0117 940 6409
By fax on 0117 940 6408
By email (quoting a school order number) to sales@classroom-resources.co.uk
By post to Classroom Resources, PO Box 1489, Bristol, BS99 3QJ

How good are you at negotiation?

There is one way in which virtually every school in the UK could save itself a considerable sum of money each year.

Negotiation is something most of us think we are good at because we do it every day. We negotiate with colleagues, we negotiate with students. If we have a family at home we also spend time negotiating with them. (After all which parent has not at some time resorted to, “You can watch TV after you have done your homework”?)

But there is no doubt that most of us working in schools don’t have much background in negotiation with suppliers. We tend to accept the contract that suppliers offer us, sign it, and expect everything to be fine.

If we do negotiate it is usually to try to get a discount without necessarily noticing that in so doing we might actually be negatively affecting other aspects of the purchase.

And yet the contract between the school and the retailer offers an opportunity for each side to be specific about what is possible, to clarify assumptions and to enter into a relationship which is satisfactory and beneficial for both parties.

It is because many schools pay little attention to the contracts that they sign that the book Contract Matters:

Connecting the Education and Contract World has been written. It exists because many schools find it nigh on impossible to recover from having entered into a bad contract. Invariably all they can do is see the contract through and rue day it was signed.

Contract Matters contains numerous tips in everyday language for anyone in a school who is in charge of managing contracts. It lists the do’s and don’ts and prompts everyone to investigate assumptions before making decisions.

One minor change to a contract made as a result of reading this volume will pay for the book many times over.

Contract Matters book costs £35.00 plus £3.95 postage and packing. Further information is on-line
at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=760

Order code: CMAAA £35.00 ISBN: 978 0 9876527 3 7

Sample pages can be found at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/ContractMatters.pdf

You can purchase the book

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=760

Does science matter?

It is often found that pupils first develop a love for science and the notion of a science career during their primary years as it is a fun subject which involves lots of engaging practical learning. This in turn generates an extra enthusiasm for learning.

Following the scrapping of KS2 science SATS, the hope was that science in primary schools would become fun again.

We have however discovered that a recent report published by the Welcome Trust suggests that the change has in fact had a negative effect, which has resulted in reduced subject status and less teaching time.

The question we therefore now face is how to raise the status of science at KS2 once again.

However, following feedback from a number of primary teachers, we understand that many are finding such practical lessons to be a daunting prospect to plan and carry out.

It is with this in mind that we have developed ‘Practical Science for Primary Schools’. This twelve book series offers complete coverage of National Curriculum science for pupils from Year 1 to Year 6.

The Key Stage 1 books provide independent practical activities, adult supported practical activities, simple pupil planning sheets and a choice of assessment activities.

The lower Key Stage 2 books contain simple pupil information sheets for each lesson, experiments for small group work and simple homework question sheets.

The upper Key Stage 2 books contain for each lesson detailed pupil information sheets, open ended investigations with planning and report writing frames and appropriate homework question sheets. Assessment and levelling activities are available at the end of each topic studied.

What’s more, we have received the following feedback from the Association for Science Education ‘these books are a great resource for teachers lacking confidence in teaching science and are ideal for a school looking for clearly thought-out set of lessons, where the links between the stages are clear’.

These resources are available as black and white paper books or full colour e-books or downloads.

Free sample pages are available on our website.

If you would like to know more please call 01772 863158 or email us at enquiries@topical-resources.co.uk

You can order in any of these ways:

On our website
By phone on: 01772 863158
By fax: 01772 866153
By email: Sales@topical-resources.co.uk
By post: Topical Resources, P.O. Box329, Broughton, Preston, Lancashire PR3 5LT

Topical Resources
P.O. Box329
Broughton
Preston
Lancashire
PR3 5LT

www.topical-resources.co.uk
sales@topical-resources.co.uk

Tel: 01772 863158

Art and Design at Key Stage 3

Art and Design at Key Stage 3 provides students with support, advice and information about their course and the subject and the skills, methods and materials that they will use. The book contains details of the requirements of the course, followed by a large number of projects which will build knowledge, understanding and skills.

The projects require students to look critically at other artists’ and designers’ work and then show evidence of a clear line of visual enquiry in art work. All projects cover the areas of exploring and developing ideas, investigating and making, reviewing, adapting and researching into the work of others, and making critical analyses of the work they review. Hand drawn illustrations are included.

The projects in Art and Design at Key Stage Three are divided into section by year group which are intended to be given as handouts to students. For example Year 7 covers Texture and Mark-making, Colour theory, Portraits, Mixed Media, and Ancient Egypt. There is also a comprehensive selection of extra lessons.

It is available as a copiable book (also available on CD Rom so that it can be loaded onto the school’s learning platform).

You can see a full list of the topics at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/art/T1711.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1711EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 791 3

Prices

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.
You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1711EMN

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=539

How can assembly songs provide a positive and hugely creative experience for young children?

SEALSONGS is a collection of assembly songs which aims to get children engaged through the experience of making and creating music. The lyrics were written with considerable input from Year 4 and 5 pupils, so speak from children to children, and the musical backing tracks were professionally recorded.

But the resource goes further and offers teachers detailed advice on writing new lyrics, leading singing and other ways that SEALSONGS may be used in the classroom. Thus it enables teachers to give young children the positive experience of working with others in creating new songs within the SEAL framework. There is also guidance for non-specialists in how to teach songs.

The SEAL themes are:

Song 1: New beginnings
Song 2: Getting on and falling out
Song 3: Say no to bullying
Song 4: Going for goals!
Song 5: Good to be me
Song 6: Relationships
Song 7: Changes

Two further general songs – one about writing songs and one providing a Rhyme Game – are also included in the pack.

JENNY MOSLEY (Founder of Quality Circle Time) said “SEALSONGS is a wonderful gift to any adult who wants to truly help their class or school embed SEAL as a way of ‘being’ with ourselves and others. We all know that song can lift you to a different spiritual dimension – David Stoll has given us the perfect package to help even the most music-shy amongst us to engage young people in the process of creating heart-warming songs as part of a creative team….. This is an excellent resource.”

HOWARD GOODALL (National Ambassador for Singing) said “These SEALSONGS have the authentic ring of children’s ideas and feelings in every line. This, for me, makes it a valuable and empowering set of musical tools….. with excellent supporting materials and explanations.”

The SEALSONGS book and CD are now available as a download for £10 plus VAT. This price includes a licence for full use of all the material within the school, including recording new versions of the songs. The complete package is split into different files so that schools may choose which elements they wish to record or print.

Sample music can be downloaded from www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/music/SEALSONGSSamples.zip and you can purchase the book and CD on-line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=739

The Afterlife

This 70 page, copiable book tackles the subject of the afterlife from a number of perspectives:

it considers the position of the world’s major religions in respect of the afterlife
it discusses specific beliefs, such as heaven and hell, the resurrection and reincarnation and their implication for the concept of the afterlife
it examines near-death experiences and what they add to our certainty or otherwise of an afterlife.
The book includes over 50 exercises which will give your students plenty of practice at thinking about and writing on the topic.

The afterlife is one of the components of OCR’s syllabus G582. The book is also highly relevant to students who study other syllabi and who need to examine issues such as resurrection and reincarnation.

The Afterlife was written by Francis Beswick.

You can see a full list of the topics and some sample pages at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/re/T1674.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1674EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 725 8

Prices

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1674EMN

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=491

There are always some pupils in school for whom maths is a struggle.

Indeed they sometimes struggle so much that it is possible to believe that these children might be suffering from dyscalculia.

And yet at the same time it is obvious that they are not totally lacking in the field of mathematical concepts.

A typical case might involve someone who understands the concept of number, addition and subtraction, but is utterly lost when it comes to multiplication. Another pupil may have grasped most of the fundamentals but needs to go back over some points of detail.

It is to help such pupils that we have produced Dyscalculia Practice Activities– a copiable volume that brings together elements of our earlier three Dyscalculia Activities volumes.

While some pupils clearly need the in-depth help of a volume in the Dyscalculia Activities series, Dyscalculia Practice Activities is intended for those pupils who show dyscalculic tendencies but who are able to grasp some of the fundamental elements of basic maths.

Dyscalculia Practice Activities includes a huge range of projects for pupils who can benefit by working through the fundamentals for maths (the four functions, shapes, fractions, percentages and time) step-by-step in a multi-sensory manner.

The aim of the book is to encourage activity that puts the whole of the basic maths curriculum into a context that can then be used as the pupil progresses to more advanced work.

The volume consists of sessions in which a teacher or assistant teacher works with an individual or small group of individuals on the projects in a multi-sensory manner using coloured counters, cut-out shapes, memory cards and the like.

Please note that the coloured counters and memory cards are not provided with the copiable book, but can be ordered separately. Details are at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/index.php?cPath=29

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/dyscalculia/T1782.pdf

ISBN: 978 1 86083 820 0; Order code: T1782emn

The volume is available as…

Photocopiable book, £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Book and the CD: £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book or CD…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=757

How to please all parents all of the time

Many parents get information about the school that their child attends through the school’s website. Not surprisingly, therefore, the most common reason given as to why a school has put up a website is as a means to aiding communication with parents of children in the school.

But despite this clarity of aim it is also the case that when schools do surveys concerning the use of their website they find many parents report that they can’t easily find the information that they need – and so end up phoning the school instead.

In trying to work out why this is so, it becomes clear that that the second most common reason for putting up a school website is to communicate with parents who are thinking of sending their children to your school.

So more information gets added to the site, without any thought about what is important to the different people looking at the site.

And as a result of this it can become harder and harder to find what you need on the site.

Sometimes, therefore, it is a good idea to go back to the start and re-consider exactly what someone coming to your website will be looking for, and make sure that everything can be found very readily.

This often involves having separate pathways within the site for different groups of people… one for existing parents which caters for their requirements for information, one for potential parents.

At the same time you have to remember that the majority of those looking at your site will be using a mobile device. So the site needs to be compliant to the latest technology!

This is an area that we have worked in extensively, and some of the comments from teachers who have used our services are given below.

Meanwhile, if you would like to talk about how your school can respond to organising the information it carries on the website please do get in touch. You can find out more about us on http://www.inco-education.co.uk/article-what-makes-a-brilliant-school-website.php

If you prefer, email me the details of your website and your phone number (and let me know a convenient time to call) and I will come back to you with my thoughts on what changes we might suggest to your website. You can reach me on as@inco-soft.net

Here are the comments from others…

We were after a website which met the needs of our current and potential users while providing an intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing platform. At all times INCO sort to meet this need. As our website has grown and developed INCO have been very helpful in supporting this process. I would have no hesitation in recommending INCO to you as a professional company that cares about its clients.
Mr Clive Darley, Assistant Headteacher, The Billericay School

While working with INCO on our new school website, we have been nothing but impressed. INCO have been excellent and their service support has been fantastic. The team there respond promptly and go above and beyond to help. I have no hesitation in recommending INCO to other Schools. Thank you!
Tanbir Hussain, Burntwood School

Several design companies were contacted and following numerous demonstrations I felt INCO understood our needs and had both the technical knowledge and design flair to construct a site which met our very precise demands.
Dr Derek Davies – Deputy Headteacher Sir John Thursby Community College – Burnley

The after-sales advice and support we have experienced so far makes us confident that INCO have a long term commitment to work with us to further develop our website. I have no hesitation in recommending INCO to other schools and colleges.
Mike Brodrick – ICT Manager, Haydock Sports College – Merseyside

MFL resources plus a free PowerPoint display for teaching the names of Olympic sports (no purchase necessary)

From time to time, teachers approach us asking for specific resources that they are unable to find elsewhere, and recently we have received a number of requests for a KS2 MFL resource that links in with the Olympics.

As a result we have developed three KS2 Olympics Topic Packs, one each for French, Spanish and German.

The Topic Packs give pupils an opportunity to learn and use the words for many different sports as well as practise vocabulary for colours, weather, numbers and travel.

What’s more, using the information on each country at the Olympics will help you address some of the Intercultural Strand of the Framework for Modern Languages.

The French, Spanish and German Olympics Topic Packs contain photocopiable activities and games which include:

flashcards
picture flashcards
word searches, crossword puzzles and other word games
listening activities
bingo and other games
sentence building activities
background information for France, Spain or Germany at the Olympics.
We are also offering a free PowerPoint display for teaching the names of the Olympics sports. To get a copy, email us at info@brilliantpublications.co.uk with your full name and the language you are interested in and we will email your free PowerPoint to you.

You can order the Topic Pack resources in any of these ways:

On our website. Click here for French, here for Spanish and here for German
By phone on 01449 766629
By fax on 01449 767122
By email to orders@tradecounter.co.uk
By post to Brilliant Publications, c/o Trade Counter Distribution
Mendlesham Industrial Estate, Norwich Road, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5ND

Save Now with Sibelius 7 – Summer Offer The fastest, smartest, easiest way to write music

Save over 25% on Sibelius 7 site* licenses only from SOFTPLANET

May 10, 2012 to September 30, 2012
Valid on new purchases and qualifying upgrades

* multi-user licenses, five seat minimum

Add Sibelius 7 seats £60.00 each (usually £79.00)
Sibelius 7 Upgrades £30.00 each (usually £39.00) All your seats must be upgraded
Single Sibelius 7 for Teachers & Students at home (full program) £149.00

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Contact us for the full Avid range including Pro Tools 10 at discounted prices

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Sibelius 7 is…
Ideal for Education

The latest Avid Sibelius 7 is sophisticated enough to meet the demands of top composers, arrangers, and publishers, yet ideal for your students—and you.

With Sibelius 7, writing music is:

Faster

Streamlined task-oriented interface organises commands for a smooth workflow
Customisable keyboard shortcuts for every ribbon command
Simplified note entry method—familiar to users of other popular notation software
Smarter

Native support for your 64-bit computer to unlock its full potential
Sibelius 7 now also includes Windows XP support
Massive custom sound library—including the exclusive Avid Orchestra
Easier

Single monitor convenience—perfect for laptop users
Check-out licenses add portability for on-the-go use
90 days of free knowledgeable support—via email, phone, or online

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Send your orders to hq@softplanetgroup.com
Call 01334 461244 for expert information/quote or order.
Or send Purchase Order to SOFTPLANET LTD, Greenbank House, Prior Muir, St Andrews, KY16 8LP
You have 30 days to settle our Invoice

Learn More and Save on Sibelius 7 – go to www.softplanetgroup.com or call us now on 01334 461244

All prices subject to vat and delivery

Terms and conditions apply. This promotion applies only to Sibelius 7 multi-user licenses (minimum five-seat multi-user license); either new licenses or upgrades. All seats in an existing multi-user license must be upgraded at once; additional seats can be added to your license at the same time. Multi-user licenses are only for purchase by schools, colleges and universities. You must submit an official institutional purchase order to SOFTPLANET to qualify for a multi-user license.

Teaching economic well-being

Economic well-being has been part of the primary curriculum since Every Child Matters was introduced in 2003.

However, despite the fact that this innovation was introduced nearly a decade ago there is still little in the way of material that directly relates to helping primary school pupils develop a deeper understanding of how companies work and how consumers can influence the companies with whom they interact.

It is for this reason that the simulation approach has been developed as part of teaching economic well-being. It has become, in fact, the basic way of helping children understand how companies work.

This approach is activity centred in which the pupils form companies to manufacture and sell products, and it is an approach that is explored in full in Mind Your Own Business. This is a copiable resource (available as a photocopiable book and on CD) which contains a wide range of stand-alone sessions, support work and follow-up activities, and a whole range of further steps linked to curriculum subjects.

Throughout these activities children make a positive contribution to their team and develop an understanding of how their decisions, wishes and thoughts, relate to companies.

As a result the sessions simulate the achievement of economic wellbeing which can easily be adapted to create products for sale at school or in fairs, in order to apply the system to real life situations.

Following Mind Your own Business pupils create a brand, make products and sell products – and through this develop a much deeper economic awareness than would otherwise be the case.

There are extracts from this resource, ISBN 978 1 86083 825 5, order code T1783EMN, at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/primary/T1783.pdf

Prices

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report…

By post from First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd, Corby, NN17 4HH
By fax to 01536 399 012
On-line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=759
By phone with a school order number or a credit card to 01536 399 011
When ordering the book please quote the reference T17831EMN.

The two ways to get a university place

For as long as any of us can remember, universities have demanded certain A level grades as the entry ticket to a course.

But in recent years a second requirement has been added, a requirement that has had less attention but which can in many cases have as much impact on the success or failure of an application as the student’s grades.

In fact each year we are seeing an increasing number of highly able and talented students failing to get to the university of their choice because their application does not make the most of their potential, their personality, their drive, and their ability to give something back to the university as well as be a good student.

Students now need to be well informed and focused in order to make the right choices and to give themselves the best possible chance of getting a place on the course and at the university that best suits their future aspirations.

They also need to know why they want to go to this university, to study this course, and they need to be aware that being at university is a two way process. The university gives the student opportunities – the student needs to show that he/she will seize those opportunities and give something back in return.

”How to Successfully Apply to University” seeks to clarify the process of applying for university and contains information and insights that will be useful for all students as they face the university application process. It outlines each step from the first thought to the completion of the application, and looks at all aspects of the process of selecting and applying for a university place.

The approach within the book includes carrying out research to find the best suited course/university, understanding the UCAS system, delivering the best possible personal statement, the actual application and the post-application process, funding, and student accommodation, etc.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/careers/T1779.pdf

ISBN: 978 1 86083 810 1; Order code: T1779emn

The volume is available as…

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book or CD…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=753

Great Empires of the Past

Core Concepts Video Clip Library
This video clip library of 36 two-to-three minute segments on one chaptered DVD provides a concise survey of 12 history-changing empires:

Ancient Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
The Ancient Maya
Ancient Persia
Alexander the Great
Medieval West Africa
Medieval Islamic World
The Mongols
The Incas
The Aztecs
Each empire is given an overview segment, including a timeline graphic to place it within the context of world history, and two additional segments that delve deeper into areas of particular importance. Connections to modern life and society are emphasised throughout, to help viewers see ancient history as a living presence in today’s world.

Reviews & Awards

“The primary strength of Great Empires of the Past is its consistent use of images of genuine art, artefacts, and monuments to illustrate each empire. The editing and visual style is fresh and lively, but does not obscure the iconic images …. Provides concise yet insightful introductions to key concepts as well as geographical and historical contexts…. Teachers will find the 2- to 3-minute segments useful as writing prompts, discussion prompts, or simply a way to add variety to classroom instruction and reach auditory and visual learners. Each segment could easily be used independently of all the others. Recommended.” — Educational Media Reviews Online

Available on approval from Viewtech Educational Media. Click here for further details and online ordering – quote promotional discount code: HHM110 for a 10% discount!

If you need any further information or assistance please contact:

Viewtech Educational Media
7-8 Falcons Gate
Dean Road
Yate
Bristol
BS37 5NH
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tel: 01454 858055
tel: 01454 313272
fax: 01454 858056
email: info@viewtech.co.uk
http://www.viewtech.co.uk

Interactive Online Revision for AQA ICT and Computing

How do you keep students motivated during revision?

Provide fun, accessible revision material tailored to individual needs
Allow students to take control by providing a structured revision plan
Give instant feedback so students can continually improve
Monitor progress and provide additional support if needed.

eRevision by ZigZag Education offers all of these key elements.

eRevision caters for students of all abilities through engaging exercises to learn what they don’t know and prepare for the exam. Every specification sub-topic is covered by 4 types of exercise.

Students choose their target grade and the program adjusts the difficulty of the questions appropriately, ensuring no student is left behind. Intuitive progress tracking allows students to see a map of progress to help structure their revision.

Furthermore, students can monitor their own progress and revise from anywhere using school, library or a home computer with Internet access. Teachers can monitor student and class marks too, so you can oversee their progress whilst allowing them to work independently.

View full details and order a FREE demo at zigzag.at/UM34

eRevision is an annual subscription service. Upon receipt of your order, your school registration details will be dispatched, normally within 2 working days. You will then be able to log in and set up log-ins for your students (for use on a single site and for home use).

Single-student access also available – use the link above for full details.

You can order (please reference UM34 when placing your order for FREE POSTAGE)

By phone: 0117 950 3199
By post: ZigZag Education, Unit 3, Greenway Business Centre, Doncaster Road, Bristol BS10 5PY
By fax: 0117 959 1695
By email: ict-UM34@zigzageducation.co.uk
Via the website: zigzag.at/UM34
View details of all ICT resources at: http://zigzageducation.co.uk/order.asp?userid=ICT&link=um34

Free PSHE 11 – 16 resources

Metals & Me is an education project for 11 – 16 year olds supported by the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA).

Written by an experienced teacher and reflecting current best practice guidelines, Metals & Me meets many curriculum and syllabus objectives for sustainable development, PSHE and citizenship whilst encouraging students to think about the global environmental implications of the ever-growing demand for metal.

The Metals & Me resources are available to download free from the BMRA website at www.recyclemetals.org/metals_and_me and consist of:

Three specially commissioned video modules:
What’s recycling got to do with me? addressing how widely we use metals.
Where do metals come from? comparing the environmental and energy costs of mining vs. recycling.
How does recycling work? explaining how 95% of a domestic appliance can be recovered for reuse.
Twelve classroom activities with support materials that will enable your students to develop their enquiry skills, be involved in decision-making experiences and be actively engaged in finding out about a growing industry that will play an increasingly significant part in their lives, as well as offering job opportunities in the future.
Teachers’ notes with five exemplar lesson plans suggesting ways to link the activities into themed lessons. Each lesson plan is supported by a PowerPoint style presentation for use in the classroom.
We hope you find Metals & Me a useful resource and would welcome your feedback via the online survey on the website www.recyclemetals.org.

Yours faithfully

Ian Hetherington
Director General, BMRA

How can you possibly know about every special need?

In PSHE it is often a challenge to get up to date information on key issues to use in the classroom. Issues relating to Substance Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Depression, Eating Disorders, Self Harm. Loss, Separation and Bereavement are often discussed.

To help overcome this challenge the details of 43 of the most common and equally most often misunderstood special needs are given in 2 books:

A Guide to Syndromes and Conditions
A Guide to More Syndromes and Conditions.
In each case the condition is defined in terms of the characteristics and symptoms. Guidance is given on strategies and treatments followed by details of other useful resources.

These books are available from www.behaviourmatters.com/syndromesoffer

Cost of these resources:

£25 plus £2 postage and packaging (if one book purchased)
£40 plus £4 postage and packaging (if two books purchased)
To order please contact us at:

Behaviour Solutions Limited
15 St. Mary’s Close
Abbotskerswell
Newton Abbot
Devon
TQ12 5QF

Phone / Fax: 01626 366161
Email: dave@behaviourmatters.com

University Lectures for Secondary Schools

The Faculties provides free, short films of university lecturers speaking on topics directly from the A-level curriculum. The subject sites also help students choose a university department that’s right for them and shows them what careers may follow their studies and what employers particularly value in graduates.

Each site has three levels – A levels, universities and careers to explore.

So far there are six “faculties” avaialble on line at www.thefaculties.org – English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, History and Psychology. I mention them all because you might like to pass on details to colleagues in other departments.

What is the simplest way to make major financial and efficiency savings in your school

It is a simple fact that few schools have access to anyone who is trained in the issue of contracts and Procurement.

As a result, when major purchases are made in schools (such as printing systems, telephone systems, major equipment items for departments, book purchases, etc) it is generally the supplier who writes the contract and sets down the terms and conditions.

Of course, if these contracts were between companies and individuals then the Sale of Goods Act would apply. But with contracts between companies and schools this Act does not apply. While the terms and conditions of a purchase can’t be unfair, they certainly can be written to favour one party (usually the supplier) rather than the other (the school).

Most suppliers are perfectly reasonable people, but they need to make a profit, and the issue therefore is, are they making a reasonable profit or are they trying to exploit the school for their own benefit?

Corporate Contract Management runs the School Procurement and Contracts seminars to help senior managers in schools get to grips with the procurement process, reduce the risk to the school and ensure their school gets the best out of their purchases.

An overview of our training course and details of forthcoming presentations are given at http://www.admin.org.uk/CCMseminars.html

Full details of everything covered within the one day course are given at www.admin.org.uk/CCMoneday.html

If you have any questions about the course please do call 01536 399007 or email sam@admin.org.uk

These courses are promoted by the School of Educational Administration on behalf of Corporate Contract Management

Great value online teaching resources for media studies

To help you to support your students in their creative and media learning and to save you time and effort developing lesson plans, The History of Advertising Trust has produced an online digital advertising case study.

Designed for you to adapt easily for your own use in the classroom, it is quick and simple to download and is licenced for 365 days to give you the flexibility to decide how and when you want to use the materials.

The case study demonstrates how advertising a brand has changed in time with the development of digital media and illustrates how it is possible to communicate a single, clear message to a target audience, whilst using a wide mix of media channels.

Covering the use of mobile phone and Facebook apps, interactive online games, social networking and bespoke websites, this resource will help you engage your students. Including interviews with the advertising agency team responsible for the campaigns, the case study will help you bring your students closer to the real workplace.

Full of examples of real advertising campaigns and multi-use classroom resources, the online ‘Digital Advertising – Re-inventing Lynx’ case study represents great value for money at just £30.

Click here to find out more.

www.hatads.org.uk

GCSE Differentiated Exam Practice For French, German and Spanish

The perfect solution for consolidating learning and offering exam practice
in mixed ability classes

As part of final preparations before the exams, teachers are finding Differentiated Exam Practice to be an invaluable resource. What makes these packs special is that the exam-style questions are arranged by topic and by ability, so it’s easy to select exactly what you need for the students in your class.

Each pack contains fifty different texts with comprehension questions, five for each topic:

Two for Foundation
Two for Higher
One for Gifted & Talented.
Every exercise exactly matches the requirements of the exam board specification, so students are practising essential exam techniques at the same time as revising the vocabulary and structures essential to the GCSE course.

Use these for starters, homeworks, end-of-topic consolidation, exam practice – the possibilities are endless! What’s certain is that you’ll find suitable exercises whatever the ability of your GCSE students and whichever topic they’re studying.

Differentiated Exam Practice is available for French, German and Spanish; AQA, Edexcel and WJEC; Reading and Listening. To preview each pack and to order, see: zigzag.at/UM47

Differentiated Exam Practice is available as photocopy masters, PDF files and editable Word files.

Differentiated Exam Practice for GCSE Listening also comes with professionally recorded listening files on CD.

You can order (please reference UM47 when placing your order for FREE POSTAGE)

By phone: 0117 950 3199
By post: ZigZag Education, Unit 3, Greenway Business Centre, Doncaster Road, Bristol BS10 5PY
By fax: 0117 959 1695
By email: MFL-UM47@zigzageducation.co.uk
Via the website: zigzag.at/UM47
Details of all MFL resources are given at
http://zigzageducation.co.uk/teaching-resources-for-mfl.asp?userid=Languages&link=UM47

Ensuring that students gain quality information from Education Publishers, Learning Grids and the internet, while avoiding harmful content

There is no doubt that there are many students who have grown so used to the internet that they see it as a prime source of information. For them books have ceased to be a central reference point for their studies.

Unfortunately, because of the range of material on the internet, this can be a particular problem. Indeed, as the January 2012 Ofsted framework says, it is vital for schools to minimise the risk to young people through having effective procedures for safeguarding.

So the question is, how can schools provide access to quality information without risk, and without a lot of extra work for you and your colleagues?

The answer many schools have discovered is Autology, an online service which needs no local software to install and maintain.

Autology is an educational search engine, within which all content is verified and mapped to the curriculum. It thus allows students to find the information they need, with the added guarantee that what they are finding is quality information.

It means that all students can access the very best and most informative materials online, either at home or in the school. The Autology resources include online versions of many Heinemann books, Letts text books, encyclopaedias and access to over 1000 web sources.

Through its “walled garden” approach to using the internet it is therefore possible for you to switch off access to Google and instead focus on highly reliable and, above all, safe resources.

However, that is not all. As we know, Ofsted also requires that schools narrow the gaps between the performance of different groups of students in the school.

The Autology approach assists in narrowing this gap by particularly aiding those students who find research and identifying appropriate resources difficult or unengaging.

In short, Autology meets the requirement of Ofsted by successfully engaging students in their learning. This enables them to develop the skills to learn for themselves, and enables the setting of appropriate homework to help develop these skills. This in turn helps to develop their understanding by providing equality of access to resources when they carry out their homework.

As a result students still use the same amount of time as before, but you will now know that time is focussed on retrieving and using information of the highest quality.

To see how Autology works a free trial is available by clicking here.

Alternatively, to talk through any aspect of our service please call 01244 560966 or email keithe@autology.org

You can also view the product at www.autology.org

Autology is provided by Autology World Ltd, Daresbury Innovation Centre, Science & Innovation Campus, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Cheshire, WA4 4FS

Help for SBMS in time management with TES

Now there’s help for school business managers who want to work more effectively.

PropertyPrefect from TES Foundation is already helping thousands of school users achieve better buildings management by taking the time, money and hassle out of premises maintenance and health and safety. Find out more.

Our new Suppliers and Connections module helps SBMs work together, sharing practical information on which local suppliers offer great service and value.

If you knew what other SBMs knew about local suppliers, wouldn’t you save time?

If you’re already working with other schools, in a cluster, federation, partnership or group of Academies, TES Foundation gives you the online tools to stay connected and share data effortlessly.

If you’re on your own, it’s the quick and simple way to make connections.

Set your supplier database up quickly and easily; you can even import your existing contacts from a spreadsheet.
Notify suppliers of issues with one click.
Invite other schools to connect and share your supplier list.
The more connections you have, the more shared information you will have access to.
Use our star rating system and comments from other school business managers to find the best person for the job.
Add reviews to your own suppliers and share them with other schools.
An excellent tool for clusters, federations, partnerships and groups of academies.
Book a free online demo now. You’ll know within 15 minutes whether TES Foundation can help you.

A potential Doctor in your class?

Deciding to study medicine is obviously a big commitment both for students and their families, and making this decision is even more difficult if the family has no background in medicine.

At Gap Medics we offer students (aged 16 and over) the opportunity to see what the world of medicine is really like. Through our facilities they travel to Africa, India, The Caribbean or Thailand to shadow experienced doctors and healthcare professionals.

Not only does this experience help students to make the right decision about their future career, it is also a useful addition for their UCAS forms.

Recognised by the majority of British medical schools, our hospital work experience is ideal for those students who are interested in medicine, nursing, dentistry or midwifery.

In terms of the practicalities, students are met at the airport by one of our specialist staff team members and are looked after by an extensive staff team throughout their stay.

If you have any students who are interested in a career in medicine, there are several ways of giving them the relevant information.

First, you can of course pass on this email.
Second you can direct the student to our website at www.gapmedics.co.uk to find out a lot of detailed information regarding the placements
Third you can click here to print out some information to pass to your prospective healthcare students.
Finally they can call us on 0191 269 6818 or email us at info@gapmedics.com and we’ll send a brochure in the post.
Regards
Mark Hinksman
Business Development Director

Gap Medics – Launching medical careers
Collingwood Buildings
38 Collingwood Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1JF

T. +44 (0)191 269 6818
F. +44 (0)191 229 9501
E. mark@gapmedics.com
W. www.gapmedics.com

The Foundations of Wealth

Although it is rooted in the concrete realities of life, economics often appears to students as a series of abstract nouns – productivity, supply, demand, price, surplus, scarcity and so on… that inevitably create a barrier between the student and the economic principles of enterprise.

“The Foundations of Wealth” series of video episodes have been designed to help them over the barrier. In ten episodes, each approx. 10 minutes long, it tells the story of how a primitive community makes its way from a subsistence economy to prosperity by a succession of devices – division of labour, mechanisation, money, markets, price etc.

Absorbing and entertaining, “The Foundations of Wealth” keeps students’ attention whilst presenting economic principles through combining high quality animation and documentary film material as we follow two characters, and the community they live in, through a series of economic changes and developments that illustrate the foundations of basic economic principles and mechanisms, which are then presented at work in the real world.

Episode 1. How It All Began (11 mins) – Key concepts: subsistence level, subsistence economy, scarcity, surplus

Episode 2. Division of Labour – i. Product (9 mins) – Key concepts: organisation, specialisation, efficiency, investment, capital

Episode 3. Division of Labour – ii. Process (10 mins) – Key concepts: trade, productivity, exports and imports, production line

Episode 4. Mechanisation (10 mins) – Key concepts: mechanical device, energy source, harnessing

Episode 5. A Life Worth Living (11 mins) – Key concepts: cultivation, goods and services, natural resources, leisure

Episode 6. The Market (11 mins) – Key concepts: voluntary exchange, command economy, incentive

Episode 7. Money (11 mins) – Key concepts: token of value, store of value, measure of wealth

Episode 8. Supply, Demand and Price – i. Price and the consumer (13 mins) – Key concepts: prices as information, law of demand, relative value

Episode 9. Supply, Demand and Price – ii. Price and the producer (13 mins) – Key concepts: gluts and shortages, innovation, law of supply, equilibrium price

Episode 10.The Mixed Economy (11 mins) – Key concepts: planned economy, market economy, public goods.

All 10 episodes are available on 2 chaptered DVD’s and are accompanied by downloadable worksheets to reinforce the economic principles covered – FREE Sample Support Material

“The Foundations of Wealth” video series was devised by Sir Antony Jay, author of comedy series “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister”. He is also the founder, with John Cleese, of award winning training film producers Video Arts. Carefully researched and developed with teachers to provide a valuable tool for teaching economics in the classroom, “The Foundations of Wealth” episodes are also suitable for any course where the basics of economics need to be introduced or explained in a clear, memorable and entertaining way!

Order all 10 episodes on 2 chaptered DVDs + downloadable support material – quote promotional discount code: HHM110 at the checkout for a 10% discount!

For any further information or assistance please contact:

Viewtech Educational Media
7-8 Falcons Gate
Dean Road
Yate
Bristol
BS37 5NH
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tel: 01454 858055
tel: 01454 313272
fax: 01454 858056
email: info@viewtech.co.uk
http://www.viewtech.co.uk

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Viewtech Educational Media is the trading name of Viewtech Audio Visual Media Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under number 4205240. A member of the British Educational Suppliers Association. E.&O.E.

Light and shadows: free Y3 Science resources

OnBoard is the free email service that we’ve launched to provide great free stuff for your teaching, saving you hours of time.

Our first free resource this term is a PowerPoint presentation on light and shadows for your Y3 science classes, based on QCA Unit 3f.

In it, pupils will learn about the relationship between light, an object and the formation of shadows. Pupils will observe the apparent movement of the Sun and the associated changes in shadows.

Download the free light and shadow resources:

www.boardworks.co.uk/science-free-stuff_896

If your teachers would like to download free science, maths or literacy resources, why not forward them this link?

www.boardworks.co.uk/primary-onboard-_897

Regards,

The Boardworks Primary team

What is the most effective way of helping your students manage anger?

This step-by-step, straightforward programme of ten lesson plans provides all the information you need to run a successful Anger Management programme with your students. It will enable them to gain the essential skills they need to develop their emotional literacy, using real-life examples with which they will identify. During the course, participants will learn:

self-awareness
self-management
impulse control
active listening
empathy
understanding of non-verbal cues
conflict resolution and mediation.
Central to the programme is how to deal with angry outbursts – known as ‘emotional hijacks’ – both pre- and post-hijack. It will offer your students a way through their anger to a more optimistic outlook, a better focus and acceptance of other people.

The aim, required resources and methods are outlined at the beginning of each lesson and are all accompanied by user-friendly, reproducible student and teacher worksheets. The programme is available for either primary or secondary students and in each case is priced at £39.95 + VAT plus £3.50 Post and packing.

Anger Management – Secondary, Order code: 036HH
Anger Management – Primary, Order code: 043HH
Please quote the order code when ordering:

Phone 0845 605 0230
Fax 0844 3350776
E-mail Belinda@loggerheadfims.co.uk
Post Loggerhead Publishing, PO Box 928, Northampton, NN7 9AP

What is the simplest way to make major financial and efficiency savings in your school

It is a simple fact that few schools have access to anyone who is trained in the issue of contracts and Procurement.

As a result, when major purchases are made in schools (such as printing systems, telephone systems, major equipment items for departments, book purchases, etc) it is generally the supplier who writes the contract and sets down the terms and conditions.

Of course, if these contracts were between companies and individuals then the Sale of Goods Act would apply. But with contracts between companies and schools this Act does not apply. While the terms and conditions of a purchase can’t be unfair, they certainly can be written to favour one party (usually the supplier) rather than the other (the school).

Most suppliers are perfectly reasonable people, but they need to make a profit, and the issue therefore is, are they making a reasonable profit or are they trying to exploit the school for their own benefit?

Corporate Contract Management runs the School Procurement and Contracts seminars to help senior managers in schools get to grips with the procurement process, reduce the risk to the school and ensure their school gets the best out of their purchases.

An overview of our training course and details of forthcoming presentations are given at http://www.admin.org.uk/CCMseminars.html

Full details of everything covered within the one day course are given at www.admin.org.uk/CCMoneday.html

If you have any questions about the course please do call 01536 399007 or email sam@admin.org.uk

These courses are promoted by the School of Educational Administration on behalf of Corporate Contract Management

Exciting and invaluable teaching resources for Business Studies

The History of Advertising Trust was set up in 1976 to rescue, collect and preserve the heritage of the UK advertising industry and to make it available to all for research and study.

It became a charity in 1978 and its archive has grown to become the most comprehensive collection of UK advertising and brand communications in the world.

Due to the richness and diversity of its collections, with access to thousands of authentic and accurate data sources and images, comprehensive e-learning resources, expert knowledge of the advertising sector and links with key institutions and leading advertising agencies within the industry, The History of Advertising Trust is well positioned to support your teaching needs.

We publish regular free bulletins for teachers, entitled ‘Advertising in Education’, which contain informative news stories and features from our advertising collections, articles relevant to curriculum topic areas, suggestions for use in the classroom as well as providing access to various resources.

Subscribers can suggest advertising topics, concepts or themes relevant to the curriculum, to feature in future bulletins and can ask questions in relation to the subject.

You can subscribe to our free bulletin by clicking here.

If you are already a subscriber there is no need to do anything further, except look out for our next bulletin!

www.hatads.org.uk

Historical Costumes Made Easy

One of the most exciting and stimulating ways of bringing a period of history to life is through getting the pupils to dress in the way that ordinary people (or the elite) dressed during the relevant era.

It might be the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings… whoever it was, all children love dressing up, and this is dressing up with a purpose.

But… quite reasonably many parents balk at the idea of making a costume from one of these periods.

Which is why we have produced a new and extended edition of “Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking Children’s Costumes.” This is a copiable book so that you can take the relevant section and either put it on the school website or learning platform, or print out sections and give them to parents.

In each section of the book there are details of what people wore at that time, full page line drawings of the costumes with close ups of specific parts of the costume, plus separate sections for male and female, adults and children, peasants and the upper class.

Then there are sections on hairstyle , caps and hats, jewellery, leggings and shoes, belts, cloaks, pouches, dresses, tunics, and (for the sake of completeness) under garments.

For each item mentioned there are patterns, sizing information, materials and so forth – and all of this data is repeated for the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.

In over 150 pages of A4 there is everything anyone would ever want, giving you and the parents who make the costumes, a massive choice so that it is possible (should you wish it) to have every child in the class come in showing off a different type of costume.

Everything is here, you need no other volume.

There are sample pages from the photocopiable book at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/primary/T1763samplepages.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1763EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 784 5

Prices

Photocopiable book: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the book and the CD: £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1763EMN

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=48_62&products_id=364

AQA Economics Model Answers for A2

I have written model answers to all AQA Economics 25 mark questions set at A2 since the start of the new specification. These answers cover both ECON3 and ECON4 and there are 50 answers in total.

I am wondering whether they might of help to you in working with your students to produce improved exam grades this summer.

The resource is available from www.economicsfactory.com or by e-mailing pete@economicsfactory.com Simply state your choice from the following options, along with your postal address, and I will send out a CD containing the resource, along with an invoice:

Single user: £40
Site licence for 10 users: £50
Site licence for 20 users: £60
Site licence for unlimited users: £70
Site licence for unlimited users with facility to edit the answers: £85
Kind regards,

Peter Cramp

Distinctive features of the resource include:

Each answer is annotated using the standard symbols of examiners such as ‘An’ for analysis and ‘E’ for evaluation in order that it can easily be seen where each skill is used and students learn better how to structure a good essay.

The answers include support for evaluative points using real world examples and data. It is useful to see how a small selection of real world knowledge can be tailored to the different questions set.

A relatively small number of key diagrams are used. Students can pick up which diagrams are most important from seeing those which are used in multiple essays.

The answers include a guide to exam technique for writing 25 mark answers.

The resource is comprehensive as it covers all 25 mark questions set to date. I am hopeful that teachers will find it valuable always to have an answer to hand when providing feedback on homework.

Purchase with a site licence will enable you to install the resource on your school’s VLE if you wish.

Giving history students the quality information they need in the format they like to use

There is no doubt that in every school there are students who have grown so used to the internet that they see it as a prime source of information and have ceased to see books as being a central reference point when studying history.

Unfortunately, because of the range of material on the internet, this can be a particular problem. Indeed, as the January 2012 Ofsted framework says, it is vital for schools to minimise the risk to young people through having effective procedures for safeguarding.

What today’s history students often want and need is the breadth and quality of information that they would, in an earlier generation, have found in text books and encyclopaedias, but within their preferred medium.

With this in mind we have developed Autology, an educational search engine, within which all content is verified and mapped to the curriculum. It thus allows students to find the information they need, with the added guarantee that what they are finding is quality information.

It means that history students from KS3 to Post 16 can access the very best and most informative materials on line, either at home or in the school. The Autology resources include on-line versions of many Heinemann books, Letts text books, encyclopaedias and access to over 1000 web sources.

Through its “walled garden” approach to using the internet it is possible for schools to switch off access to Google and instead focus on highly reliable and, above all. safe resources.

However, that is not all. As we know, Ofsted also requires that schools narrow the gaps between the performance of different groups of students in the school.

The Autology approach assists in narrowing this gap by particularly aiding those students who find research and identifying appropriate resources difficult or unengaging.

In short, Autology meets the requirement of Ofsted by successfully engaging students in their learning. This enables them to develop the skills to learn for themselves, and enables the setting of appropriate homework to help develop these skills. This in turn helps to develop their understanding by providing equality of access to resources when they carry out their homework.

As a result students still use the same amount of time as before, but you will now know that time is focussed on retrieving and using information of the highest quality.

To see how Autology works a free trial is available by clicking here.

Alternatively, to talk through any aspect of our service please call 01244 560966 or email keithe@autology.org

You can also view the product at www.autology.org

Autology is provided by Autology World Ltd, Daresbury Innovation Centre, Science & Innovation Campus, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Cheshire, WA4 4FS

What is the most effective way of promoting both programming and critical thinking within ICT?

From September, as we’ve all heard, the ICT curriculum in England is to be replaced by a flexible curriculum in computer science and programming. The aim, according to the Secretary of State, is to “create young people able to work at the forefront of technological change”.

So, what to do?

Say the word “Roamer®” and quite possibly you will recall one of the most defining moments in the history of ICT. But the question is, can this iconic product meet today’s challenges?

The answer is undoubtedly yes. The new Roamer is one robot, and by changing the keypad you can make it age appropriate which gives you a scaffolded approach to programming.

Early Years start with a simple keypad capable of moving the robot. Gradually new programming features are added until your top juniors are writing procedures and controlling inputs and outputs.

As the world’s only talking educational robot, the speaking helps to support pupils throughout this process.

As their programming skills grow, pupils develop their problem solving capabilities, learning to think sequentially, logically and creatively. These skills are developed through activities linked to mathematics, science, English and other curriculum areas.

This highly innovative programmable teaching aid is supported by a library full of free activities, which combined with free online training, provides an economical and practical resource capable of use throughout the whole school.

To find out more about how Roamer can be used in your classroom as a way of embracing the concepts within the government’s new model of ICT teaching, please visit http://www.roamer-robot.com/public

For more information you can also call 020 8673 2233 or email us at info@valiant-technology.com

The two ways to get a university place

For as long as any of us can remember, universities have demanded certain A level grades as the entry ticket to a course.

But in recent years a second requirement has been added, a requirement that has had less attention but which can in many cases have as much impact on the success or failure of an application as the student’s grades.

In fact each year we are seeing an increasing number of highly able and talented students failing to get to the university of their choice because their application does not make the most of their potential, their personality, their drive, and their ability to give something back to the university as well as be a good student.

Students now need to be well informed and focused in order to make the right choices and to give themselves the best possible chance of getting a place on the course and at the university that best suits their future aspirations.

They also need to know why they want to go to this university, to study this course, and they need to be aware that being at university is a two way process. The university gives the student opportunities – the student needs to show that he/she will seize those opportunities and give something back in return.

”How to Successfully Apply to University” seeks to clarify the process of applying for university and contains information and insights that will be useful for all students as they face the university application process. It outlines each step from the first thought to the completion of the application, and looks at all aspects of the process of selecting and applying for a university place.

The approach within the book includes carrying out research to find the best suited course/university, understanding the UCAS system, delivering the best possible personal statement, the actual application and the post-application process, funding, and student accommodation, etc.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/careers/T1779.pdf

ISBN: 978 1 86083 810 1; Order code: T1779emn

The volume is available as…

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book or CD…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=753

Our very best price for an HP Core I3 laptop

Save £151 and get £150 worth of extras free

The HP 630 Intel Core I3 4gb 500gb HD (normally selling at £499) comes with:

Intel Core I3
500GB hard drive,
4GB RAM, and a…
15.6 inch anti-glare display, plus of course…
Windows 7 Premium Edition, with…
integrated webcam with microphone …

+ Extra Bonus worth £150 –
3 Years HP Warranty and 3 Years Norton Internet Security
We are currently able to offer this laptop to schools for the discounted price of £348.

What’s more, if you buy 10 or more that price comes down to £342 per machine.

You can also save up to £150 if you trade in your old computer. Click here for more details.

The full description of the machine is the HP 630 A6E89EA Intel Core I3 4GB 500GB DVDRW 15.6TFT HDMI BT CAM Win 7HP.

There are more details on our website at
http://www.technoworld.com/HP_630_A6E89EA_UK707A-NortonIS_3YR/62244/product.aspx

In order to receive this special discount for schools for any of the above products, all you need to do is call us on 08444 820 111 or email us at education@technoworld.com and quote “eshot offer 30”.

This offer for this computer is only available from Technoworld PLC which is an HP Gold Partner and established for 17 years. It comes with a 7 day no quibble money back guarantee.

What is the point of education?

The notion that we might have to help our students develop an understanding of the links between education and careers might seem strange. But there is a lot of evidence to suggest this is exactly what needs to be done.

Indeed, it could be said that we need to broaden student horizons by educating them about the wide range of opportunities that are available in the world of work.

Career Detectives – a board game for use in schools – aims to do just this by providing a range of stimulating information about careers across all sectors within the context of a set of activities that can be completed in the classroom.

Working within the format of the game it enhances and raises awareness of key skills including team work, communication, leadership, creativity and confidence and embeds other key learning outcomes including healthy eating and citizenship.

Career Detectives has within it enough material for an entire term’s work. It also works on a diverse range of issues from key skills to healthy eating, from personal attitudes to citizenship.

At the same time it helps students to discover all about the world of work and which careers may interest them.

What’s more, using Career Detectives can also enhance your outcomes when Ofsted inspect as it enables you to demonstrate spiritual, moral, social and cultural development in your school. It also helps in a number of other areas, details of which can be found on our website.

In a world in which many people are perceived to be successful irrespective of their education, Career Detectives offers a stimulating alternative vision.

There is more information available on Career Detectives here.

AQA GCSE Design Technology Practice Papers (2012 CONTEXTS)

Available for Resistant Materials Technology (4552) and Graphic Products (4562)

Essential exam practice for this summer and beyond

Exclusive to ZigZag Education are 2 original practice papers with supporting mark schemes – available separately for AQA GCSE Resistant Materials and Graphic Products.

The papers are based around the summer 2012 contexts set by AQA:

Resistant Materials: The storage of small items and the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Graphic Products: Collecting money for charity
Written by a senior Design Technology examiner, the papers have been carefully tailored to mimic the format and style of the AQA examination to provide your students with the best possible exam preparation. The mark schemes contain clear guidance and example answers for hassle-free marking.

For a preview of the entire resource and to order, see: zigzag.at/AQA-DT-2012

The 2012 Practice Papers for AQA GCSE Resistant Materials and Graphic Products are available separately as available as Photocopy masters, PDF files and editable Word files.

You can order (please reference UP28 when placing your order for FREE POSTAGE)

By phone: 0117 950 3199
By post: ZigZag Education, Unit 3, Greenway Business Centre, Doncaster Road, Bristol BS10 5PY
By fax: 0117 959 1695
By email: dt-UP28@zigzageducation.co.uk
Via the website: http://zigzag.at/UP28
View details and inspection copies of all DT resources at: http://zigzageducation.co.uk/order.asp?userid=DT&link=UP28

Maths Information and Services

FREE “TRIDENT” GEOMETRY SETS…. plus FREE “exam friendly” plastic zip up wallets !
Pupil reports made easy
Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans and teaching tips

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FREE “TRIDENT” GEOMETRY SETS…. plus FREE “exam friendly” plastic zip up wallets!

www.signposteducational.co.uk
Signpost Educational Ltd. PO Box 999, London E14 6SH

Email: signpost@talk21.com
Phone: 020 7515 1797
Fax: 020 7515 4420

For every CASIO scientific or graphic calc you order (min 50) we’ll give you a FREE “exam friendly” zip-up wallet with each one.

For every LK 830 or LK 531SH calculator (min 50) you order, we’ll give you a FREE “Trident” geometry set with each one. There’s no limit to the quantities you can order, subject to stock availability. (This really is a brilliant deal as the “Trident” sets normally sell @ 99p or £1.10 plus vat).

In addition to these deals you can choose from our range of basic, scientific and graphic calcs plus “Student Essentials” packs and exam kits.

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Pupil reports made easy

www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/?r=hamilton
Teach ICT Ltd, 1 Ffordd y Felin, Trefin, Haverfordwest, SA62 5AX

Email: info@reportcommentbank.co.uk
Phone: 0845 094 6427
Fax: 0700 349 7137

Our point and click report writer is FREE to join and will save you hours when it comes to writing pupil reports. You can use our comments, comments from other teachers or write your own.

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Boardworks – free resources, lesson plans and teaching tips

http://www.boardworks.co.uk/maths_602
Boardworks, Units 5–7 The Gallery, 54 Marston Street, Oxford, OX4 1LF

Email: enquiries@boardworks.co.uk
Phone: 0845 0 300 400
Fax: 0845 0 300 200

Boardworks maths blog contains free resources, lesson plans and teaching tips for KS3, KS4 and KS5 maths teachers. Follow the weblink to download the resources free of charge or follow us on Twitter @BoardworksLtd.

Does this pupil have dyscalculia – and if so what should we do about it?

Assessing a pupil or student who appears to be poor at maths to see if the child is suffering from dyscalculia is useful as means of helping assign limited resources.

This assessment can be done through an educational psychologist, of course, although this can be rather expensive – and of itself it doesn’t actually provide any resources that can be used to help the pupil or student after the assessment.

The Dyscalculia Centre has been looking into this problem for some time, and we have now come up with an on-line test which is much lower cost than a visit to an educational psychologist.

What is more, having marked the test we then provide a comprehensive set of copiable materials relevant to that student. These resources can then be used in school by an assistant teacher or SENCO working with the student.

The on-line Dyscalculia Test covers the individual’s attitude towards mathematical concepts and issues, plus specific questions on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, shapes, percentages and time. It is intended for anyone aged over seven years, but obviously does imply that the individual would be expected to be able to answer some basic questions in each of these subject areas.

Testing costs £49.95 per pupil. This price includes taking the test, receiving a specific report in relation to the individual taking the test, and being provided with resources relevant to that individual which can be used to help them progress in maths.

To read more about the test please visit http://www.dyscalculia.me.uk/testing.html

The test itself is set up for payment by credit card on-line, but if you wish to use a school order number you can do this by phoning 01536 399 011, or by fax to 01536 399 012. In each case we will need your email address so that we can email you a link to the on-line test. There are more details about payment for schools on http://www.dyscalculia.me.uk/teacher.html