Daily Archives: 21/03/2018

ICT

What is a fun way to bring your computing curriculum to life and really engage and inspire all of your students?

I’ve often heard colleagues in schools suggest how difficult it can be to teach computing and to keep their students engaged.

Often there is a large range of ability in the class, from the very bright students who have made raspberry pi weather stations in their back gardens, right through to those who struggle to grasp the basics.

Despite these challenges, both teachers and students love the idea of using robots in their lessons.  Anything that can move around, flash lights, and play sounds will help bring topics to life. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds and time it isn’t always possible for schools to purchase and use their own robotics kits.

To make it easier and more affordable to bring robots into your classroom we have designed a range of hands on robotics workshops. We bring all the equipment to you and have a range of fun themes to choose from, including: robot wars, robot farming, and maze solving.

Students are encouraged to learn by doing and trying out their own ideas. They are given plenty of guidance when needed, but at the same time we tend not to “teach from the front”. We like to give students the opportunity to be creative and make their own mistakes.

We are currently offering an extra hour free for a half day booking, which is £300.

Or a free Arduino board with a full day booking for £400.

(Please note some travel expenses may apply depending on which area you are in, please get in touch for details.)

If you are interested please hurry as we can only run this offer until the end of May 2018. We are nearly fully booked for summer and are now also taking bookings for the new academic year.

For more information and to book please contact me directly on 07703 294 942, email: zan@zobotics.tech or visit the website: www.zobotics.tech

Literacy

Scroll down to get your FREE pdf download of  ‘Ideas to get your pupils forming Simple Sentences’  from the popular resource, ‘Daily Sentence Structures’ 

Children typically know exactly what they want to do and say at any given time, which can be very time-efficient when it comes to creative writing. Yet some pupils lack the confidence to apply their creativity in a way which responds to the demands of the English programmes of studies. Which is why we have produced Daily Sentence Structures.

The Daily Sentence Structures approach raises attainment in writing across all abilities and covers many of the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum, including: grammatical structures, creating effect, using commas to mark phrases and clauses, sustaining and developing ideas logically, varying sentence structures, and using semi-colons and dashes.

The exercises have been broken down into 15-minute sessions making them ideal for use at the start of the day before lessons commence, at the beginning of a lesson as a warm-up activity, or at the end of a lesson in the rare occasion that you have 15 minutes to spare.

For more information or to order Daily Sentence Structures for £18.50 as a printed book, £12.99 as an e-book, or both for a discounted price of £22.40, visit https://www.brilliantpublications.co.uk/book/daily-sentence-structures-667.

Alternatively, you can place an order:

  • over the phone on 01449 766629
  • by email to orders@tradecounter.co.uk
  • by fax on 01449 767122
  • or by post to Brilliant Publications, Mendlesham Industrial Estate, Norwich Road, Mendlesham, Suffolk, IP14 5ND

Click here to get your free pdf download of  ‘Ideas to get your pupils forming Simple Sentences’

School News

Debate Chamber Summer Schools 2018

The Debate Chamber Summer Schools offer students the opportunity to find out more about some fascinating subjects, prepare for university applications, meet like-minded peers and get to grips with some tough intellectual challenges.

The material will be challenging (for our older age-group, about the level of difficulty one might expect in the first year at university), but a relaxed atmosphere, with plenty of discussion and debate, creates the perfect environment for getting to grips with new ideas. Working in small groups (usually around 14 students per group) over several days means a real chance to get to know tutors and fellow students, and to explore the topics or questions that particularly interest each individual.

We offer a wide range of subjects, including medicine, law, science and mathematics, but here I would like to take the opportunity to highlight a few of our most popular events, all aimed at students with a keen interest in understanding more about current affairs, society, and the world around them.

Humanities and Social Science Highlights for 2018:

The International Relations Summer School for students aged 15-18. This course will introduce the central theories involved in the academic study of IR – realism, liberalism and constructivism – and will look at a range of detailed case studies in order to apply, test and explore these theories. Topics covered will include military intervention, international law, development aid, feminism and IR, and regional sessions looking at China and the Middle East, and at the European response to the migration crisis. Students will be encouraged throughout to consider their own responses to international affairs, and to engage actively with material through strategic exercises, policy briefings and debates.

See more details about the International Relations Summer School – https://debatechamber.com/project/international-relations-summer-school/

The Economics Summer School for students aged 15-18. Focusing on political economy and macro-economics, the five-day Economics Summer School will include seminars on a diverse range of topics, from financial and currency markets to an analysis of economic inequality and its potential remedies. We will also be looking at development strategies in emerging economies, and on the impact of Brexit on the UK and other economies. The focus throughout will be on debate and discussion, and on encouraging and supporting students to engage critically and actively with the material.

See more details about the Economics Summer School –https://debatechamber.com/project/economics-summer-school/

The Politics Summer School for students aged 15-18. This five-day course will look at both political theory and political science, giving students a great introduction to undergraduate level study. It will include seminars on questions of political philosophy – including human rights, representation, and civil liberties – workshops on what we as citizens can do to influence policy areas that we care about, and political science workshops on the emergence of populist movements and changing voter behavior in both the UK and US. The Summer School will conclude with a full day Mock Parliament, with participants taking the role of MPs, forming parties, making policy and debating legislation.

See more details about the Politics Summer School – https://debatechamber.com/project/politics-summer-school

Practical Details:

All the Summer School events will be held at University of London venues in Bloomsbury, Central London, and will take place in July and August 2018. Please note that these courses are not residential, and accommodation must be arranged independently if required.

You can find full details of schedules, dates, costs, student reviews and tutors at https://www.debatechamber.com/summerschools/. There is a limited amount of bursary funding available for students who would otherwise have financial difficulty in attending – please see our website for details.

To book a place please visit https://www.debatechamber.com/, call us on 0845 519 4827, or email info@debatechamber.com. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Assemblies

What is the simplest way to make Assemblies engaging, relevant and also varied… day after day after day?

There undoubtedly are some teachers who can create ceaselessly varied and engaging assemblies which are also relevant to the moment, and to such colleagues all I can say is, “I salute you.”

And I say this because I know just how hard it is to undertake every other duty one has in the school, and keep coming up with assemblies that really will inspire the children and develop their thinking.

It was as a result of this thought that some of us began to build a collection of assembly stories that could meet the social and emotional needs of children.

Stories that would encourage a whole school focus on the values we wished to present.  In fact what we produced, and have been developing ever since, is a set of over 350 assemblies which are instantly available, and fully scripted, with new assemblies being added every month.

Then we divided the assemblies into 12 categories along with an index which allows you to choose your assembly by topics as diverse as community, citizenship, saints’ days, black history, social and emotional stories, and so on with each assembly having its own supporting presentation material and a set of ready-to-use key word cards.

The result is The Assembly Box.

You can read a full example of one of our assemblies by following this link. Additionally you can see the complete list of the 12 main categories and from there you can go into each category and see the details of all the assemblies on offer.

All the details are available at http://www.assemblybox.co.uk where you can also order online.  The complete set of all of our assemblies costs £149 (+ VAT). If you have any questions please email enquiries@assemblybox.co.uk