Incident Management – A simple solution

Schools today are complex and demanding environments presenting a range of difficult situations.

Recent experiences have demonstrated the importance of effective safety and security – for both staff and pupils. This comes on top of corporate responsibility legislation to protect staff.

Managing these situations effectively requires a reliable and flexible communication system. Our range of communication solutions help you to deliver a safer learning environment for everyone.

Typical problems that we address or improve are;

  • Senior Leadership Team communication
  • Incident management
  • First aid and emergency response
  • Staff Safety and lone worker protection
  • Site security and intruder alerting
  • School evacuation or lockdown
  • Site & facility staff communication
  • Truancy patrols and disruptive pupil response teams

From simple, compact two-way radios that provide fast and direct communication across a campus to advanced digital systems that can integrate with fire alarms, panic buttons and door entry systems, Nationwide Radio Supplies has the experience you can rely on.

Site staff working alone can be protected with a range of measures – from radio mounted panic buttons to automatic man-down alarms – all integrated into the core radio system and keeping them in touch with colleagues throughout the school and off-site!

Even the simplest two-way radio systems help with everyday management around your campus by allowing you to pass messages and instructions quickly and easily. This ensures that staff and teams remain co-ordinated and informed at all times.

Our advanced bespoke solutions can be integrated with third party systems including email and mobile phones for complete flexibility and system redundancy.

With many years experience servicing the education sector we ensure that our solutions are cost-effective, simple and powerful.

You need complete confidence when choosing the right solution, so we can also offer free on-site demonstrations and trial periods, all without obligation.

Mention this email when responding and enjoy up to £20 additional discount per radio!

If you need more information or wish to discuss your schools requirements in detail, call us now on 0800 084 27 99 or email sales@nrsupplies.co.uk and we’ll get straight back to you.

Joining the DfE’s war against innumeracy.

The BBC and other well-known news’ services report that the DfE has declared war on innumeracy with upcoming policies that will result in pupils in England being tested on their times tables up to 12×12 at the age of 11 using an “on-screen check”.

According to the BBC the checks will be piloted to about 3,000 pupils in 80 primary schools this summer, before being rolled out across the country in 2017.

Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, commented: “Since 2010, we’ve seen record numbers of 11 year olds start secondary school with a good grasp of the three Rs. But some continue to struggle.”

“That is why, as part of our commitment to extend opportunity and deliver educational excellence everywhere we are introducing a new check to ensure that all pupils know their times tables by age 11.”

“They will help teachers recognise those pupils at risk of falling behind and allow us to target those areas where children aren’t being given a fair shot to succeed.”

Our Written Arithmetic Questions for Years one to six each provide thirty weeks of written arithmetic questions and will support you in joining the DfE’s war against innumeracy.

What’s more, times tables feature frequently throughout the question books which will support your pupils in their preparation for the upcoming on-screen times tables tests.

This volumes contain carefully graded arithmetic questions, each with their own full page answer sheet, and covers topics such as number, calculations and fractions.

The price for the books depends on the format required: paper book (£17.95) or a download from our website (£13.95 + VAT).

As always, you can order any of our resources in the following ways:

BBC article link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35216318
www.topical-resources.co.uk
sales@topical-resources.co.uk

– See more at: http://www.schoolsare.us/#sthash.1sLv6Uvj.dpuf

Survey reveals that 75% of schools say they’d benefit from having at least one more minibus.

A survey conducted by Benchmark Leasing has revealed that a significant rise in the number of schools that are leasing rather than buying their minibuses; yet one third of respondents say that they have looked into leasing, but decided against it.

It’s suggested that the reason for this is because there are few minibus leasing contracts on offer which meet the specific and varied needs of schools. Thus we’ve put a great deal of time into creating such contracts – see our top five school minibus leasing arrangements.

Furthermore, despite over half of survey respondents reporting that their secondary school already operates two or three minibuses and a quarter reporting that their school operates more than three, 75% said that their school would benefit from having at least one more.

On a final point, the survey also found that three out of four school minibuses on the road are over five years old, so are becoming increasingly at risk of breaking down or failing their MOT.

Minibuses leased from us are brand new, and with our leasing packages we offer full maintenance which covers tyre replacement, servicing, Road Tax, MOT’s, and 6 monthly (or more often to suit) safety inspections if required.

For more information about Benchmark Leasing you can go to our website, call us on 01753 859944, or email minibus@benchmarkleasing.co.uk.

Benchmark Leasing Ltd
11 High Street
Eton
Berkshire
SL4 6AS

www.minibusleasing.co.uk/school-minibus.php

minibus@benchmarkleasing.co.uk

Tel: 01753 859944

We’ve sent it to you, but you might find someone will want to borrow it.

We have just sent you the new catalogue of positive playtime equipment from Edventure. This should be with you by the 6th or 7th January.

But there is always a chance that it won’t be there because

a) somehow it got lost in the post.

b) one of your colleagues spotted it and removed it for a quick perusal of the products.

c) the fact that there is a new article in the catalogue from positive playtime expert Therese Hoyle attracted the attention of a colleague who borrowed the catalogue to read the article, and then quite possibly passed it on to someone else.

Now if b) or c) is the case I would like to apologise sincerely on behalf of your colleague. You see, the catalogue is something that teachers do like to meander through, not least because of the many new ideas in it in relation to enhancing positive play, stopping bullying before it starts, and encouraging creative experimentation.

So if your copy is missing (for whatever reason) please do click here, complete your details and we’ll get another in the post to you right away. Alternatively, you can view our online catalogue by clicking here.

I do hope you will find the article and the range of ideas within the catalogue to be of interest. You can place an order in a variety of different ways including:

  • on the website www.edventure.co.uk  
  • by faxing us to 01323 50 10 41
  • by calling us on 01323 50 10 40
  • by emailing us at sales@edventure.co.uk   
  • by post to Edventure Ltd, Hargreaves Business Park, Hargreaves Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QW.

What’s more, if you quote HH0515 on your order delivery will be free. Without quoting the code the charge is £3.95.

If we want to encourage student reading, we need to offer them a way of reading in keeping with their daily lives.

According to Android, the creators of the mobile phone system that most people use, the average person checks their mobile phone nine times an hour.

Of course statistics like these are always dubious, but given that the figure came from data collected by Android directly from users, it is probably near the truth.

It is a figure that adds weight to the notion that there are a lot of young people for whom the mobile has become the centre point of life.

All of which points to the fact that if one is trying to encourage secondary school pupils and students to do something, if the task can be related to their phone, they are more likely to do it, because the phone is so central to their lives.

Thus if we take the notion of reading, if the student can read a book on the phone, there is an ever greater chance that it will be read.

This is a key reason as to why ePlatform has become so popular with schools.  For students, it is like having the library in their hand, available 24 hours a day.

ePlatform offers more than 350,000 titles including the latest UK and international best sellers and Collection Builder compilations (lists of most borrowed titles in schools like yours) for easy collection development.

In short ePlatform puts reading into the heart of students lives, making books instantly available, as those born since the digital revolution expect.

There are also many additional features to make reading easier for those with dyslexia and other reading challenges.  Students can vary the font, background colour, look up the meaning of unfamiliar words and use internet links to learn more.

ePlatform is also the most affordable eLending solution on the market, so you can spend more of your budget on eBooks, not hosting.

Of course being digital it also means that there is no question of damage to books, no loss of books, no concern about unreturned books.  Everything is set to encourage students to read more.

The easiest way to explore this development which is changing students’ perception of libraries and reading is to book a personal webinar demonstration either:

●       By phone on 07971 661782
●       By email on: Rachel@eplatform.co
●       Or by visiting www.eplatform.co

Rachel Lindsay
ePlatform Business Development Manager, UK

Art Aid for Key Stage 3

Tone, texture, pattern, shape, colour…  undertaking Key Stage 3 Art and preparing the students to move on to Key Stage 4 is a significant step for students.

Which is why “Art Aid For Key Stage 3” was developed.  It is a Key Stage 3 volume which encourages the transition to independence and confidence during the KS3 course.

The volume contains numerous project sheets which can be used as starting blocks to write a scheme of work, used as starter activites, or used to run alongside the current scheme of work so that your students learn to work independently before getting to the KS4 syllabus.

The projects can also be used as homework sheets and to provide work for cover lessons.

As a result of this approach students will learn throughout the KS3 course how they can reveal ever greater independence in their work and have a greater level of confidence in what they do is also expected.

Projects include topics such as “About Me – and Picasso), “The human figure”, “My environment – and LS Lowry”, “Still Life”, “Printing” and so on.  In fact there are over 40 separate projects within the volume.

In this way pupils find that by year 9 their knowledge, experience and security while using a range of materials is at the right level to allow a peaceful transition into the independence of enquiry and research that is required for a successful year 10.

Better still, time that might otherwise be taken up during the Key Stage 4 years with enhancing independence and confidence is no longer required, leaving more time for the exploration of the curriculum.

Art Aid is available as a black and white copiable book with an accompanying CD.  The CD contains the text of the book plus some of the projects in colour.

The copyright licence allows the copying from either the book or the CD, so that all students can have pages relevant to their study at any time.  It is also possible to place the CD on the school’s learning platform, so that students may access it at any time.

ISBN:  978 1 86083 789 0

Price: £24.95 for the book and CD, plus £3.95 postage.

You can order in four different ways. In each case please quote our reference T1764emn. Sample pages and a contents list can be viewed prior to ordering on http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/art/T1764.pdf

  • By post to First and Best, Hamilton House Mailings plc, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH
  • By fax on 01536 399 012
  • By phone with a credit card or with an official school order number on 01536 399 011
  • On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=740

Keep up-to-date with new and updated school policies at www.policiesforschools.co.uk

When we consider that the average school now has around 70 policies to cover an array of eventualities, and adds several more policies every year, it appears that there is an ever growing demand for policy changes and new policies (outlined by the DfE) to be located all in one place.

Fortunately, we have created such a place – www.policiesforschools.co.uk.

But we didn’t stop there for we also recognise that the process of creating, adjusting, amending, and updating school policies takes up a considerable amount of time that you and your colleagues simply don’t have spare. So we decided to go a step further…

Policies for Schools have created over 290 school policies covering 20 different statutory areas which are easy to customise and thus will save you a considerable amount of time when one or more school policies need creating, adjusting, amending, or updating.

What’s more, if you have a specific need of a policy which isn’t listed on the website, we will create it for you. You can find our full list of school policies by clicking here.

To subscribe to Policies for Schools, visit www.policiesforschools.co.uk, or if you’d like to view a few sample policies beforehand, we have provided the following policies:

  • Calming Room Policy
  • Professional Learning Communities Policy and
  • School Website Policy

which are all available to download here, free of charge.

Alternatively, if you would like to know more about our service, you can email us at sales@policiesforschools.co.uk, call us on 01600 891 506, or write to us at Teachers Resource Centre Ltd, Wyastone Business Park, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, NP25 3SR.