Sibelius 7 discount offer from SOFTPLANET Only available until Sept 2012!!

**Upgrade to Sibelius 7 with all the new features £30.00 per upgrade
(you must upgrade all your seats)

**Add new seats to your license £60.00 each
(ignore web prices)

www.softplanetgroup.com/computer-music/notation-academic-software/sibelius-7-multi-user-licence-upgrade

One Sibelius Media Pack @ £24.00 must be purchased with all Sibelius 7 orders.

Single copies for teachers and student £150.00

Check our site for great prices on Pro Tools 10-Auralia-Musition-Photoscore-Audioscore-Sibelius First etc

Please contact us now for an amazing quote – but hurry, offer must end Sept 2012.

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Please supply all Sibelius serial no/s with your order if upgrading, and state whether you want Network or Standalone seats.

All prices subject to VAT

The most cost-effective way of reviewing and helping young people who might have dyslexia

Traditionally tests for dyslexia have been conducted by educational psychologists at a one-to-one meeting, and there’s no doubt that such an approach can give a detailed and insightful view of a young person’s issues with the written language.

However the approach can be expensive and of itself doesn’t always provide an immediate indication of what one should do next to help the individual in question.

With this problem in mind, the Dyslexia Centre has produced an on-line test which can be taken by pupils and students from the age of 8 upwards and which gives a clear idea if the individual might be dyslexic, and if so, what specific help and support should be given to the individual.

If you enter a pupil or student for the test you will receive a detailed written report on the individual’s understanding of the written language and a set of resources that can be used immediately with the individual.

Full details of the on-line test are available on www.dyslexia.ac The cost of a test is £49.95, including the full report and the resources that are considered relevant for the person taking the test.

The reports are written by educationalists with many years of experience in dyslexia, and our reports are widely used by schools to help judge whether students and pupils should have extra time in examinations.

You can pay on-line with a credit card, or if you wish, you can use a school order number. Details of how to make a payment in this way are given on the site.

If you have any enquiries please call the Centre on 01536 399 011 or email me at info@dyslexia.ac

Samantha Bates

Senior Administrator, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Centre

SIXTH FORMER LANDS DREAM OLYMPIC JOB

For one keen student at The Sixth Form College, Solihull, his drive and initiative have paid off, as he has just landed a job at this summer’s London 2012 Olympic Games.

Mohammed Ali (aged 18, from Sparkhill) will be a Last Mile Team Member at the Olympics, which will involve paid work for the entire duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. As the title ‘Last Mile’ implies, Mohammed will be one of many Olympic employees to be stationed within a mile of Olympic venues to help the many thousands of spectators find their way to the events they have tickets for.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” enthused Mohammed. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I wanted to be there and when I looked on the Olympics website I saw their ‘Get involved’ section and decided to go for it.”

Mohammed applied online and was quickly contacted for a telephone interview. After suitably impressing organisers over the phone, he was invited down to Canary Wharf in London for a face-to-face interview. He was grouped with 5 other people and asked to discuss issues and situations that might arise at the Olympics, so organisers could see how he would handle any problems we might be faced with. He obviously did well, because a week later he was offered the job!

Training has been provided; Mohammed spent three days at Wembley Stadium recently, completing a variety of classroom activities and practical role-playing scenarios.

“It was great,” added Mohammed. “It was brilliant to just be in Wembley Stadium and now that I’ve done the training I’m really looking forward for the event to start. I will be based around the North Greenwich Arena, which is what most people know as the O2 Arena – it has been re-named for the Olympics.”

Mohammed is currently studying the BTEC Extended Diploma in Business Course, which is entirely assessed by coursework; thus his involvement in the Olympic Games does not interfere with examinations.

Does good handwriting matter in a digital age?

Some people who write columns in newspapers appear, on occasion, to take the point of view that beautiful handwriting is less important than mastery of the keyboard.

Education officials in some states in the USA have announced that skills crucial to 21st century success include keyboard skills but not handwriting. In Indiana for example, pupils from the age of eight sit standardised tests online. Proficient typing will help them to pass exams; handwriting has nothing to do with the matter.

Meanwhile one of the English exam boards has just conducted a test in which the students read the exam questions on tablets such as the iPad, but then have to answer the questions using pen and paper.

So where does the balance lie?

Interestingly, research undertaken by Dr Karen James from Indiana University has shown that ‘children who had been taught to write developed brain patterns similar to those found in reading adults. That doesn’t happen with keyboarding…’.

Indeed, many teachers observe that there is a link between cursive script and effective spelling. To generate cursive handwriting, the pen arm and torso work together, creating a sense of space and direction connected with a particular word. By contrast, tapping on a keyboard often involves only a gentle up-and-down movement of the fingers.

Handwriting is also an expression of personality. It is idiosyncratic, it is human, it is the hallmark of an individual. However, if you don’t put your name on a piece of typed work, the chances of identifying who it belongs to are reduced. Only if the writer’s style of writing is highly individual will the source of the writing be recognised.

To help develop a good clear style, ‘Handwriting Made Simple’ is a fully cursive handwriting programme in which all letters join. It contains twenty-nine sessions for Upper Key Stage 1 and the same for Lower Key Stage 2.

Detailed notes for teachers are also included.

This resource is available as a paper book, an e-book or a download.

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