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