I am writing to invite your school to a training session on tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in secondary schools on 14th October 2015

Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying is endemic in secondary schools. 55 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual students say they’ve experienced homophobic bullying, and almost nine in ten secondary school teachers say pupils regardless of sexual orientation experience it in their school, with nine in ten also hearing homophobic language (phrases like ‘that’s so gay’) in school. Almost all teachers say they want to tackle this problem, but lack the training or support to do so. These issues impact upon student lives, grades and how a school addresses these areas are scrutinised by OFSTED.

Sir Christopher Hatton Academy has worked closely with Stonewall and were the first school to achieve their prestigious “Gold Award”. We are an ethnically diverse school with a very active peer support team and were pleased to be graded as Outstanding by OFSTED in January 2015.

‘Without a doubt the most helpful training I have attended in 17 years of teaching!’

‘Superb range of ideas that will introduce staff to the practical aspect of tackling homophobic behaviour.’

99.9 per cent felt more confident afterwards and would recommend the course to others

Feedback from courses in 2014 – 2015. Statistics from The School Report (2012) and The Teachers’ Report (2014)

Stonewall Train the Trainer courses give staff the knowledge, tools and confidence to train colleagues in tackling HBT bullying and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people.

Attending a course means your school will receive year-long membership of Stonewall’s School Champions programme, including an extensive pack of resources, free access to their School Role Models programme and ongoing support and guidance. All this – the course and a year’s membership – are just £150 +VAT (£100 + VAT for qualifying schools – contact us for details)

This course will be delivered over a full day at Sir Christopher Hatton Academy – a Stonewall Training Partner with particular expertise in tackling HBT bullying.

I do hope you or a colleague can make it. For more information or to book, please contact Mr J Barker via Barkerj@hattonacademy.org.uk ASAP

Best wishes,

Mr John Barker

Sir Christopher Hatton Academy
Stonewall Training Partner

A STEM related Saturday Workshop aimed at G&T students, held in your school, and at no cost to the school.

Gifted and Talented students tend naturally to be particularly interested in latest developments in science, technology, maths and engineering.  They tend to take more notice of the news and become ever more fascinated by possibilities.

Of course, it is difficult to adjust the curriculum every time a big story that could be used with such students comes up.  And that is why the Spectacular Saturday Workshops series exists.

At present one of our most popular events is Target: Mars – a one day project suitable for secondary students from year 7 to 13.

Here we have six heroic individuals embarking on what turns out to be an ill-fated colonisation of Mars.

Each group knows that they are involved in a space race and must work together to achieve the ultimate glory of the first landing on the Red Planet.

But they have to invest their funds wisely, determine which of their team members has the skills to complete each of the changes, undertake experiments, and solve the problems they face.

They use the techniques that are fundamental to scientific research but meanwhile have to overcome a terrorist plot, an outbreak of disease, industrial espionage, and all the dangers that Mars itself will present.

Quite simply, you choose a day on which you can open up your school, and we will come in and run the event based around the theme you choose.  Our costs are paid for by parents (usually around £35 per student) although the school can, if it wishes, subsidise the cost in certain or indeed all students from its own funds.

The Target: Mars team will need access to the hall or a large room in which the project takes place from 8.30 to 15.45 and during the course of the day will provide different versions of the event for different age ranges.

We will also supply posters and leaflets to your students and all the promotional literature for parents, which you can put on your headed paper, or edit if you wish. There are more details about Target : Mars here.  

Thinkers in Education also undertakes two other Saturday projects, “Bunkered” (in which an asteroid is heading towards Earth) and “Dead on Time” (in which crime scene investigators unravel a suspicious death) – and there are details of all three projects on our website.

For further information, please call us on 01603 520866 or email events@thinkersineducation.co.uk

Activity books that will support your pupils on the journey from decoding to comprehension and on to critical thinking.

In order for your pupils to become confident in their comprehension abilities, they must first be confident in their ability to decode texts. Once decoding has been mastered they are well on their way to becoming confident in their comprehension abilities.

Towards the end of their primary school career, an ability to think critically about texts will also be established where they will be pondering questions, such as: “what does the writer really mean?” and “why has the writer chosen to use these words?”

With Topical Resources’ Comprehension Activity Books for Year 1 to Year 6 you can support your pupils with this journey, all the way from decoding texts, to comprehending texts, to thinking critically about texts.

You can see sample pages from each of the activity books by clicking on the links below:

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 1

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 2

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 3

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 4

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 5

Comprehension Activity Book – Year 6

We have also produced a Comprehension Activity Book for Year 7 which you can use to challenge your Year 6 pupils who have progressed above and beyond expectations.

The activities can either be used with full classes, small groups, or individual pupils and are available in three formats:

• Black and White Photocopiable book (£17.95)
• Full colour PDF e-book on a CD (£15.95+VAT)
• Or you can download the PDF straight from our website (£13.95+VAT)

If you are looking at implementing a whole-school Comprehension programme using our clear, concise, easy-to-follow and child-friendly Comprehension Activity Books, you can buy all seven books at a discounted price of £112 for the books, £105+VAT for the e-book on a CD, or £84+VAT for the download on our website.

Or if you’d prefer, you can order the comprehension resources:

• By phone on 01772 863158
• By fax at 01772 866153
• By email to sales@topical-resources.co.uk         
• By post to Topical Resources, P.O. Box329, Broughton, Preston, Lancashire PR3 5LT

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