The School Improvement Conference

“We run our schools differently. Students want to attend them, teachers want to work in them and other schools want to learn from them.”

This year we are running our School Improvement Conferences on November 30th 2016, February 1st 2017 and April 26th2017.

We would like to share with you the strategies we have developed that have helped our students across the Trust deliver Progress 8 scores up to 0.76. These strategies also formed the bedrock that transformed failing schools into good schools in a short period of time.

For more information please take a look at our brochure and booking form by following the link below. We look forward to working with you.

http://www.rodillianacademy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Edlounge-A5-12pp-WEB.pdf

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Why isn’t that reindeer flying?

Why there is a great value in maintaining the traditional Christmas stories with children from all cultural backgrounds.

Christmas stories demand a certain suspension of disbelief, and as such the theme of Christmas makes a perfect starting point for storytelling.

And yet occasionally some children do get concerned with how Father Christmas might visit them when they live in an apartment with central heating and no chimney.

For this reason when Snail Tales brings Christmas stories to schools we work from the premise that it is important for the traditional tales of this time of year to retain their form and style, while at the same time engaging with other cultures and indeed modern day life.

That doesn’t mean we actually talk about chimneys and central heating, but rather that we take as our starting point the notion that the Christmas spirit is not just snow (which of course we rarely see at Christmas in much of the UK), robins, and Dickensian images of boxes wrapped in paper.

Our aim is to make it plain that Christmas is also about generosity – and indeed generosity in spite of it all.  It is about camels in the Arabian deserts as well as grumpy widows in the winds of Siberia.

This, we feel, is the real theme of Christmas as it is celebrated all around the world, not just in storytelling but also in puppetry and ballad.

Thus Snail Tales offers stories that will expand the cultural awareness of the children you teach and develop their literacy skills, while giving them a sense of fun in a way they may not come across through any other source.

We offer Christmas storytelling as a full-day and a half-day programme which can include an assembly suitable for the whole school and/or stories for individual classes.  We also offer an optional free after-school staff training session with every whole day booking.

There is more information on www.snailtales.org/christmas. You can also ask us to pencil you into our diary by completing our online booking form.

Or, if you have an immediate question, please do either:

 

Leavers Hoodies are for Primary Schools too!

Once thought of as only for Secondary schools, leavers’ hoodies are now being seen by primary schools as a method of raising their profile within their local area.

With many companies simply refusing to do small orders, it can often be difficult for smaller primary schools.  That’s where we can help.

At LEAVERSGEAR we are all set up for you. 

The LeaversGear website is bang up-to-date with the latest 2017 design suggestions AND we now have INTERACTIVE PAGES for you to get an idea of how your hoodies might look.

Click here  to be taken straight there.  Have a play – it’s FUN!!

See what other staff think.

At this stage, just enquire by clicking here.  You will receive specific information on pricing, an order form and a draft of what your hoodies could look like – with your logo and school name etc.

AND….We can even send you some FREE samples to help with colour choice and that all important task, sizing.  NO charge, no deposit, no complicated authorisations….Just ask and they will be delivered withing 48 hours.

We make it all hassle-free and we keep you right on track throughout the process which we have simplified to one simple order form.

We don’t just do Leavers hoodies and T shirts; we can do customised clothing for any purpose e.g. casual uniform, school trips, outdoor activities, sports hoodies etc.

Remember, all you have to do is click this link and we will email you right back with your own specific quote and full information..

We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards
The LeaversGear Team

www.leaversgear.com
E-mail: enquiries@leaversgear.com
Freephone: 0800 9545662
Phone: +44 (0) 28 91853974

 

 

Resources and Support from ATM

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ATM Resources with activities for problem solving, reasoning, collaborative working, developing independence and much more….

Recommend for you…

ATM

Assessment in the New National Curriculum – an ATM perspective
A brilliant collection of tasks that illustrate how teachers can use ordinary classroom practice as the basis for assessment.  54 page + PDF slides

Learning Mathematics with Origami
Practical advice and activities on how to use origami with learners while offering opportunities to thinks creative, justify decisions and opinions and deepen understanding and reasoning.

Mathematical Imagery
An extensive collection of activities and writings on various aspects of imagery with a diverse collection of images and example questions for use in the classroom

Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice
A collection of meaningful projects for the Secondary classroom that encompass collaborative problem-solving while promoting discussion and engagement.

We Can Work It Out – collaborative Problem Solving for the Mathematics Classroom
This ATM best seller is a photocopiable book containing sets of group problem-solving cards to challenge and develop reasoning in the classroom.

Thinking for Ourselves
A fantastic book for KS1 and 2 containing activities to encourage chilldren to think by themselves or in a group and comes with a PDF of resource cards and activities to use alongside the problems.

See the full Publications Catalogue that feature some ‘flavour of…’ activities as well as our most popular resources.

You can also view all our resources in the ATM online shop.

Members of ATM receive discounts on resources as well as all the other benefits of membership.

Find out more

The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM)

Members can now Join ATM at any time and receive twelve months of membership, including instant access to member discounts and resources.  You can spread the cost over ten monthly instalments from as little as £4.70 for NQTs and £5.00 for personal members per month.  Joining will give you access to thousands of activities, ideas, research, discussion,  resources and publications covering everything from problem solving and reasoning to collaborative working, developing independence and much more…   www.atm.org.uk

A cocktail of mismatched and ill-considered elements

What is one of the simplest ways to ensure that your school signage isn’t a cocktail of mismatched and ill-considered elements?

So often the signage of a school is a cocktail of mismatched and ill-considered elements – the product of years of piecemeal additions. And, as a result, the opportunity to convey a cohesive message and a sense of school values to visitors, including Ofsted, is lost.

But for now, I just want to focus on one element – the school’s external noticeboard. For a school’s external noticeboard is something that visitors not only see first, but which is typically utilised and scrutinised more than any other, particularly by parents.

Indeed, if you are looking to buy an external noticeboard for the school which will make use of the opportunity to convey a cohesive message and a sense of school values to visitors or if you would like to replace your school’s noticeboard because it is failing to make use of this opportunity, Greenbarnes can certainly help.

We regularly supply schools with a range of external notice boards – from aluminium and hardwood to man-made timber – so you are sure to find an external notice board on our online shop which will suit the look and feel of your school.

Please do call us on 01280 701093 and we’ll be pleased to discuss our boards, send you a brochure, and give any advice and guidance that you may require.

Michael Barnes

 

Free presentation on Hurricane Matthew

Give students an insight into how a charity responds to a humanitarian emergency and challenge them to support those affected

It’s just two weeks since Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti. Over a thousand people have been killed and more 2.1 million people have been affected.

Download our Hurricane Matthew presentation for schools

Our teams are on the ground, caring for injured people, distributing mobility aids including wheelchairs and making sure aid reaches the most vulnerable people living in isolated areas.

Can your school help by holding a Bring A Coin For Haiti collection, holding a non-uniform day or bake sale during morning break? Our free Presentation (PDF slideshow with notes) for assemblies, lessons or tutor groups gives an insight into the situation on the ground and what Handicap International is doing right now to support the most vulnerable.

Andrénise, seen in this photo with her young son, was hit by a brick during the hurricane. She tells us, “I thought I was going to die, I screamed for Jesus to save me”. Please can you help our emergency teams in Haiti respond to this awful disaster in one of the poorest countries in the world.

For a Fundraising Pack please email schools@hi-uk.org or call me on 0870 774 37 37.

Thank you for supporting our emergency response,

John McGeachy

Handicap International UK

P.S. Does your school have a community action or charity coordinator? Please can you forward this on to any staff member that you think may be interested.

Discussion starter video ideal for Tutor-periods or Lessons

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Take-One.TV is a free discussion-starter resource ideal for school Tutor Periods and Lessons.

We are delighted to provide a free Take-One resource based on Disney’s Queen of Katwe (releasing in UK cinemas this Friday, 21st October). This is the vibrant true story of Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), a young girl from the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda. When she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) she finds the confidence and determination she needs to pursue her dream.

The one-minute Take-One video features the popular singer/songwriter Alicia Keys reflecting on the film and commenting that ‘when women are empowered, the world changes’.

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The one-page Teacher’s Guide accompanying this Take-One episode supports discussion around the questions posed in the video:

  • Why does empowering women make such a difference to the world?
  • What will it take to enable everyone to fulfil their potential?

It provides a few Key Facts to build the discussion, such as how research has shown that increases in women’s income correlates with improved outcomes for their families (e.g. leading to greater expenditure on family welfare, nutrition and girls’ education) compared to similar increases in men’s income.

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Disney’s Queen of Katwe stars David Oyelowo, Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and newcomer Madina Nalwanga. It is directed by Mira Nair and opens in the UK on October 21st.