Daily Archives: 14/04/2016

Policies

A survey conducted by the ATL has confirmed what we already knew.

TES has reported on the results of a new survey conducted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) to find out exactly why so many teachers are leaving the profession and why it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new teachers in to the profession.

The survey, which was completed by 875 education staff, has revealed that over 80% have considered leaving the profession due to excessive workloads, with 24% envisaging that they won’t be working in education two years from now, unless this problem is resolved.

Some other reasons for teachers leaving the profession (and why it becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new teachers) are: a lack of respect for the profession, bureaucracy, pay and government policy changes.

Which is why we developed Policies for Schools – firstly, to reduce the workloads of teachers and administrators, and secondly, to make the task of creating school policies that reflect the changes in government policy much less daunting for everyone.

Policies for Schools has created over 290 school policies covering 20 different statutory areas. Our policies are easy to customise and thus will save you a considerable amount of time when one or more of your school policies require attention.

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.

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.

Here is a testimonial from one of our customers:

“I find Policies for Schools very helpful indeed! In addition to the very diverse range of policies, all cross-referenced and regularly reviewed, which are available on the website all correspondence is immediately dealt with and new policies provided within 5 working days. For such a modest annual cost the website is incredible value for money!” – Anthony Welch (Headteacher Holland Park Primary School).

Link to TES article: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/more-evidence-workload-driving-teacher-recruitment-and-retention

Early Years, Lunch times, playtimes and school clubs, Play, School News

The most important factor in developing childhood happiness, confidence, and a positive attitude.

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The notion that there is one simple thing that really can make a powerful difference to the way children live their future lives is a notion that sounds very attractive.

But such a notion may leave you sceptical.  Life is, after all, by its nature very complicated.

And yet there is something that really can and does make a difference to large numbers of children: it is positive play. It has the ability to make young people happier, more outgoing, more confident, and friendlier, while also transforming the way in which they live their lives from here on.

However, although the phrase “Positive Play” is widely used, my colleagues and I have felt that positive play is something that is sometimes not always fully understood.  So we’ve decided to do something about that.

We’ve launched Positive Play Week.

It takes place on 9 to 13 May, and is an opportunity for you to focus on positive play in your nursery, engaging with your colleagues and talking with the children’s parents at nursery on the subject of positive play, engagement, and the benefits of both.

With this in mind I do hope you will take a look at our Positive Play Week website. There is a link to the website here.  But you may prefer to go straight to the nursery section here.

It contains a huge amount of information about positive play, including policies and briefing documents, ideas for activities, and a detailed review of why positive play is so beneficial for children.

There are also some ideas for the sort of equipment that nurseries can use in order to help children explore and learn about positive play.

I do hope you will have a moment to look at and explore the Positive Play Week website and then, if you wish, do let us know about the activities you and your nursery are engaging in to support positive play.

If you want to send us photographs of your positive play activities that would be wonderful. And if you have any questions or thoughts you can get in touch with us:

Finally I must thank our sponsor, Edventure, without whom Positive Play Week would never have come to be. You can find more details of the equipment they supply which supports positive play on their website.

Jenny Burrows

Positive Play Week Co-ordinator

School News

Do you have something to say to teachers in the UK?

In addition to publishing stories from the BBC, various newspapers, specialist magazines and the government education departments, we like to publish other stories too.

Stories from schools, colleges and universities, and information from suppliers about products and services in the UK that will be of interest to teachers.

If you have a positive and interesting story about your school, that you feel might interest some of the teachers who read our site each week, (we’re currently getting over 300,000 visits a month) we’d love you to send it in.

Likewise if you have a product or service that could be of interest to teachers, please send information about that in too.

We do ask for a small (and it is small) contribution to our running costs from companies that are selling education products but information from educational institutions and information about free products and services is normally published without charge.

To submit a piece for inclusion on UK Education News just email Chris@hamilton-house.com and attach the story as a word file.  Please write, at the top of the file, the headline that you want to appear on the site.  Unfortunately we can’t include any pictures on this service, but you can include a link to your website in your text, and of course that can lead to a website containing as many illustrations as you like.

If we feel that a fee would be appropriate, we’ll email you back with details – we won’t publish it without your agreement.

If you would like to talk to us about any aspect of UK Education News please call 01536 399 000 and ask of the UK Education News team.

Tony Attwood

Languages

Exceptional Languages Teaching Resources

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First and Best in Education

Deutscher Wiederholungskurs – provides material for revision for the GCSE speaking and writing tests and helps to bridge the gap between GCSE and ‘A’ level. The course presumes the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary that a proprietary course will have covered.

How to get A* in French? – analyses the writing and the speaking criteria of various exam boards and presents a simple and clear summary of these criteria written in a student friendly language.

How to get A* in Spanish? – analyses the writing and the speaking criteria of various exam boards and presents a simple and clear summary of these criteria written in a student friendly language.

How to get top marks in your French speaking & listening exams –  deals with knowledge, confidence and the application of knowledge in relation to Foundation and Higher Tiers GCSE and Core and Extended IGCSE French.

Learning Spanish – a 143 page, copiable manual for secondary school students of Spanish at beginner to intermediate level.

Perfect the Past Tense for GCSE French – a resource which will give your students structured practice in a complex grammatical area which is vital to their success at GCSE.

The EAL Coordinator’s Manual – provides a guide to the admission, orientation, induction and integration of EAL pupils and, as such, is a very useful resource for teachers new to EAL intent on making inclusion a reality for international new arrivals in their school.

Email: sales@firstandbest.co.uk
Telephone: 01536 399007
Postal address: Hamilton House Mailings Ltd, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd, Corby, Northants, NN17 4HH

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Carel Press

Succeed in English: EAL Posters – a vital visual support for English as an Additional Language to help students remember.

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Signpost Educational Ltd

Student Packs for Lessons and Exams

Telephone: 020-7515-1797
Postal address: SIGNPOST EDUCATIONAL LTD, PO Box 999, London, E14 6SH, UK

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SSS

Interactive MFL Software – request your 14-day free trial of MFL Educational Software Solution.

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UniTasterDays

Search Taster Day Events – helps Languages teachers to discover an array of events to book students on to, such as university and college taster days, workshops, residentials, open days, outreach events and widening participation opportunities.

Email: info@unitasterdays.com
Telephone: +44(0)208 798 0982

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ZigZag Education

Languages Teaching Resources – publishers of teaching resources for schools.

Email: sales@ZigZagEducation.com
Telephone: 0117 950 3199
Postal address: ZigZag Education, Unit 3, Greenway Business Centre, Doncaster Road, Bristol, BS10 5PY

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You can find more Exceptional Teaching resources at exceptionalteaching.org.uk

Special Needs

A proven resource to easily create reading for pleasure with your pupils –

Save time as a teacher and know exactly which stories relate to which area of the curriculum (think lesson plans done for you!!)

A low reading ability affects not just English but all subjects and adversely affects the social wellbeing of the pupil.

We have discovered what is probably the easiest and most enjoyable way for both teachers AND pupils to engage in this vitally important area of learning.

Perfect for use with all pupils and it is particularly useful with reluctant readers, special needs children and pupils who have English as their second language.

Making it SUPER EASY for teachers in 2016, Ziptales link all of their stories to the curriculum in a manner that is easy to use, with practical ways to help with each strand listed line by line!

Try Ziptales for 30 days, with your entire school!

No commitments, no obligations. Just see if we may be a good fit for your school.

Ziptales – new to the UK, are a proven resource for over 10 years in Australia for literacy e-learning in primary schools (with over 20% of all primary schools using Ziptales).The UK site offers British voiceovers and all stories link directly to both the National Curriculum and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.

Over 500 fun interactive levelled readers, puzzles, games, poems, videos and lessons, with comprehension quizzes, voiceovers, animations and worksheets.

Call Ziptales on 02030 953 262 for a free demonstration at your school, or go to www.ziptales.co.uk/tryfree.php to find out more right now.

History

What is one of the best ways of making history come alive without leaving school?

One of the most exciting, stimulating and effective ways of bringing a period of history to life is through getting the pupils to dress in the way that ordinary people (or the elite) dressed during the relevant era.

The problem is that this often involves parents in helping to prepare costumes – and not all of them welcome an extra round of work at home.

The children do love becoming Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings… because all children love dressing up, but the issue is entirely one of making all the parents feel ok about the project.

It is to solve this problem that we have produced a new and extended edition of “Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking Children’s Costumes.”  This is a copiable book so that you can take the relevant section and either put it on the school website or learning platform or print out sections and give them to parents.

In each section of the book there are details of what people wore at that time, full page line drawings of the costumes with close ups of specific parts of the costume, plus separate sections for male and female, adults and children, peasants and the upper class.

Then there are sections on hairstyle, caps and hats, jewellery, leggings and shoes, belts, cloaks, pouches, dresses, tunics, and (for the sake of completeness) undergarments.

For each item mentioned there are patterns, sizing information, materials and so forth – and all of this data is repeated for the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.

In over 150 pages of A4 there is everything anyone would ever want, giving you and the parents who make the costumes a massive choice so that it is possible (should you wish it) to have every child in the class come in showing off a different type of costume.

Everything is here, you need no other volume.

There are sample pages from the photocopiable book at  http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/primary/T1763samplepages.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1763EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 784 5

Prices

  • 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 report… please quote the order ref: T1763EMN

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