What is the single most effective way of developing an early understanding and grasp of French?

The answer for most KS3 students to the question above is simple: immersion. Seeing and hearing people speaking French right in front of them, in realistic but highly engaging and often amusing situations.

Interestingly, the “right in front of them” part of the above sentence, is a key element. For it reflects the way in which actors in a play can draw in students far more rapidly and more deeply than a film or TV production.

It is there, it is real, it is in front of them, it is engaging, and really is the next best thing to being in France.

This is why we have created BON VOYAGE – a theatrical performance that includes key vocabulary from Key Stage 2 and 3 including : holidays, travel, directions, the weather, family, food, numbers, hobbies and interests.

At one level, it entertains. But simultaneously it gives students confidence in their ability to understand and to speak French

Bon Voyage includes comedy, music and slick physical theatre to ensure the students are focused and interested throughout. The play makes French friendly and accessible and has been designed to engage today’s young people.

It reinforces student learning at KS3 and gives a truly memorable and positive experience of the French language.

As for the storyline, we find that Pierre flies into the sunny south of France for a surfing holiday with his cousin, Lola. All Pierre wants to do is surf but getting there seems to be a struggle for our simple soul!

Lola tries to keep Pierre on track as they try out local transport and follow directions to the beach. Finally they arrive at Surfers’ Cove – but…

To read more about the production and to make a booking please click here.

If you scroll down the page you can also see what French teachers say about this performance.

For more information please call 01287 669156 or for any other enquiries please email info@flyingtheatre.com

Just Listen – Race and Religion

DVD2004 12 Minutes

A tragic story of a refugee, and attitudes to Islam.

Interviews with people who come from groups which are prejudiced against. They talk frankly about their experiences and the problems they encounter.

Race and Religion: Ibrahim and Clair: Tragic story of a refugee; a British Muslim describes her religion. Ibrahim’s story of personal tragedy dispels many of the myths that exist about refugees and asylum seekers. Clair is a Muslim and tells how lack of understanding leads to prejudice towards other religions, particularly Islam.
Made in co-operation with West Suffolk College and The Learning Skills Council for Suffolk

This programme is now available to rent or buy via our new Video on Demand service which uses the website (Vimeo).
The 48-hour rental price on Vimeo is 10% of our DVD price, making viewing more accessible to people or organisations with limited budgets. The buying price on Vimeo is the same as the DVD price on our website but includes VAT which is an ‘add on’ for DVD
To learn more about this new facility go to our ‘Home’ page and click in the Video on Demand box. To buy or rent this film on Video on Demand just click the ‘Video on Demand’ button below.
Prices on Vimeo are quoted in US Dollars but it comes to approximately the same as in Pounds.

GBP23.00 plus postage, http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/just-listen-race-and-religion-3081/

Young, British and Muslim

DVD1989 25 Minutes

Western values versus tradition for Muslim children in Britain

Muslims make up the largest religious and cultural minority in Britain. Workers started coming to Britain in the ‘60s, and soon communities were established. We meet the children of the first generation of Asian Muslim immigrants, including the pupils of the Leicester Muslim Girls’ High School, and find out how far they have accepted western values, and examine the deep-rooted strength of their faith and their acceptance of the moral and cultural values embodied in it. Even as far back as 1989 resentment is clearly beginning to build up as the children see what they perceive as slights to their religion and blasphemy against its founder Mohammed such as the book by Salman Rushdie and other attacks. Slights such as these may have helped in the development of today’s terrorists.

This programme is now available to rent or buy via our new Video on Demand service which uses the website (Vimeo).
The 48-hour rental price on Vimeo is 10% of our DVD price, making viewing more accessible to people or organisations with limited budgets. The buying price on Vimeo is the same as the DVD price on our website but includes VAT which is an ‘add on’ for DVD
To learn more about this new facility go to our ‘Home’ page and click in the Video on Demand box. To buy or rent this film on Video on Demand just click the ‘Video on Demand’ button below.
Prices on Vimeo are quoted in US Dollars but it comes to approximately the same as in Pounds.

GBP19.50 plus postage, http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/young-british-and-muslim-3075/

A Class Divided

DVD1985 60 Minutes

Jane Elliott’s unique experiment in discrimination through eye colour.

Jane Elliott, the teacher who conducted the unique experiment in “The Eye of the Storm” (q.v.), where a class of children take turns at being underdogs because of their eye colour, repeats the experiment with adults 15 years later, with a very similar effect.

Also included is a reunion of the original class, who let us know that they gained valuable insights into race discrimination through the exercise, and how it altered their outlook permanently.

Jane also repeats the experiment in a prison with staff and prisoners reversing their normal roles.

This film is of historical interest but the issues raised are still current. The film quality may not be to modern standards but the content is unique.

GBP69.00 plus postage, http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/a-class-divided-41/

Made in Britain

1982 90 Minutes

Disturbing play about unemployment and racism.

David Leland’s disturbing play about unemployment and racism. The central character, Trevor, is a teenage skinhead, who is determined to reject other people before they reject him. The play traces his increasing confrontation with the authorities through racist attacks, glue sniffing, and stealing. He eventually presents himself to his exasperated social worker after an orgy of violence and vandalism and inevitably ends up in a police cell. Convincingly acted by Tim Roth.
Made in 1982 this film reflects the cultural attitudes and language of the time it was made. The issues raised are timeless.

GBP 34.50 plus postage, http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/made-in-britain-172/

Looking for bright, green teaching space?

Conport was chosen as one of eight companies to exhibit on the UK stand at the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building.

Our Northlights were developed in the UK in collaboration with the University of the Arts. In addition to being green by design, large studies prove that daylighting improves learning dramatically.

Northlights can be as quick and economical as portable cabin systems, although they are far superior in every way. Depending on budget they can also be clad with innovative architectural finishes to make a contemporary visual statement.

If you need more teaching space next year, this is a great time to talk to us.

Please visit our website www.conport.com or call us on 020 7730 9105.

Francis Cotterill

PS We can erect Northlights during the summer holidays to minimize disruption.

Higher grades are linked to Mindset.
Develop a Mindset of success in your students as they prepare for exams.

It is easy to feel that people are born good at certain things. Lots of students still believe this because they see others around them learn things quickly and succeed effortlessly. What they don’t know is what that person is thinking that makes them so effective.

Mindset is crucial to success. There is so much research today on the importance of a Growth Mindset, but so many people have not developed it yet. Do some of your students have a Fixed Mindset? Do they believe they can’t do things? Are they set in their beliefs, that things are simply too hard for them to do?

Every school has students with Fixed Mindsets. The question is how do you develop a Growth Mindset – one that believes that with hard work and effort, anything is possible?

Raising awareness of this idea can be the first step to sow the seed for change. Next you need a structured programme to use in the weeks leading up to the exams to get them to think differently.

Our solution comes in the form of eight worksheets in a ready-made booklet – ‘Greatest Strength Workbook for Students’. It comes with a free teacher’s guide and is available as an instant download. The teacher’s guide and a sample can be downloaded for free to get you started. The full license to print for use with your whole school is only £49.99.

Helping students learn to overcome stress, teaching them to motivate themselves, encouraging them to plan for the future and develop confidence to try new things are essential skills. They help to build mental resilience and enhance overall mental well-being; together they develop a Growth Mindset.

To develop these skills, students must explore them. Finding time in the school day to focus on these areas can be challenging and you may not have the resources or ideas to hand to achieve the desired result. But could you find ten minutes to introduce an activity that was already prepared?

The full details are available at: http://newset-training.com/students.html

Thanks and I wish your students the best for their up-coming exams.

Clare Martin

Newset Training

What is the single most effective way of raising student exam grades?

There is little more frustrating than a student who you know has plenty of ability within a subject, but who simply does not seem to be able to study and reveal his/her aptitude in exams.

Fortunately, however, there is a fairly simple way of helping such students overcome this situation so that they make far more of their study time, learn more rapidly, and develop an ability to use the knowledge that they have gained within examinations.

This approach breaks learning into two simple parts: learning how to study, and then applying this knowledge to the subject matter being studied.

Self-evidently, once the student can study in a more effective and efficient manner the student also becomes more adept at reproducing this knowledge in a meaningful way when required. Then, inevitably, the student’s grades will go up.

This is where Raising Grades through Study Skills comes in. The volume, which is available either as a photocopiable master or on CD (so that it can be placed on the school’s learning platform), focuses on the ways in which students can both be helped and can help themselves by learning more quickly and more effectively.

Since the first edition of this work was published it has been adopted in several thousand schools, in some cases being used within an individual department, sometimes across the whole school.

22 separate methods of learning are detailed in the volume, plus details of 10 teaching methods which can be used to help develop the learning approaches.

There is also a series of active learning assignments and a further 15 sections on memory and how students may enhance their own memory abilities and increase their ability to utilise the knowledge that they have gained.

Results from the use of this approach have shown that once students have been shown how to study and how to ensure that they can remember and use the material they have studied, the motivation gained from the rapid success that results becomes a factor in motivating them to ever further achievements.

The activities developed in this volume can either be set up as separate lessons or can be integrated into the existing timetable.

Raising Grades through Study Skills is available as a photocopiable book or on CD Rom which can itself be copied or loaded onto the school’s learning platform or intranet.

Cat No: 978 1 86083 845 3. Order code: T1787emn – please quote with order.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/education/T1787.pdf

Formats, prices and delivery cost…

• 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…

• 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=54&products_id=267