www.practicalaction.org.uk/education

The Education area of their site has a wide range of content for teachers and pupils, including:

• Videos showing how designers make their sustainable products (useful for DT).
• A sustainability handbook for teachers of Design and Technology.
• Free posters, homework activities, wordsearches, classroom activities, videos and songs linked to renewable energy.
• A selection of experiments, demonstrations and activities which can be used to support work linked to climate change.
• Cross-curricular videos and lesson activities.

www.plan-ed.org

Plan also offer a comprehensive site for teachers which offers free teaching resources, video clips, photos, fact sheets and more, all linked to the countries where they work. You can also find out about the projects that Plan are supporting, as well as find out how your school can support the work that they are doing.

www.gosh.org

Visit the site to register, find instructions about getting involved in the Guinness World Record attempt and download a fundraising toolkit for ideas to try during the week.

From 8-14 February 2010, they are asking primary schools to support Bliss by organising cake sales during the week leading up to Valentine’s day. This is a fantastic opportunity to involve teachers, parents and pupils in an event that everyone can take part in. You’ll also be making a real difference to the lives of babies born too soon, too small or too sick.

www.cakeadifference.org

Visit www.cakeadifference.org for more information, to download a variety of Cake a Difference posters or find some more scrumptious recipes.

The super-simple scheme enables schools to bulk buy Sport Relief Socks from www.sportrelief.com/schools and sell them for just £2 a pair to pupils, parents and of course teachers. For the first time this year, as an extra incentive, Sport Relief’s friends at Sainsbury’s will give schools one Active Kids voucher for every pair of Socks purchased through the Sport Relief Sock Deposit Scheme. This means that schools can collect 20 vouchers per box of Sport Relief Socks. Schools can choose to pay an initial deposit of just 60p per pair and then pay the remainder (£1.40) after the event, so 20 pairs of Sport Relief Socks can be ordered for a £12 deposit per box – it’s that simple.

But that’s not all; there are hundreds of other ways that schools can rise to the challenge for Sport Relief and by taking part, students will be part of a campaign that’s active, inclusive and fun. And, the best bit is, all the cash raised will help people living unimaginably tough lives both across the UK and the world’s poorest countries.

For more fantastic fundraising ideas, take a look at the Sport Relief teaching kits, available for free now from www.sportrelief.com/schools.

VSO, the UK’s leading volunteering charity, are urgently looking for primary teachers to go overseas on placements and deliver ‘in service’ teacher training as soon as possible. You need to be a qualified primary teacher with at least three years’ experience; if that’s you this presents a fantastic opportunity to work in countries like Thailand, Nepal, China and Ghana and to share your teaching skills.

VSO volunteers work by serving teachers in a cluster of primary schools, introducing them to a more participatory, child centred methodology. You’ll be observing teachers and feeding back and also helping them to develop materials using local resources, and working with teachers to improve education programmes by increasing the quality of education and teaching methods. Roles are generally longer term, ranging from one to two years, and we also have occasional short term assignments for up to six months.

In return, VSO offer comprehensive financial, personal and professional support. Volunteers are provided with extensive training before their placement, and VSO’s financial package includes a living allowance, return flights, accommodation, insurance and more. When you return to your home country, VSO helps you to resettle and many returned volunteers stay involved with the organisation long after their placement ends.

Now is the best time to volunteer. The Government has made funds available for members of public service pension schemes, including teachers, to volunteer for up to two years with their pension paid. This new scheme will benefit you, your career and the UK education system.

There’s a great video about a primary teaching placement below that really shows what you can gain from volunteering.

www.bullying.co.uk

The Bullying.co.uk website has a huge collection of articles for young people, schools, parents and other adults. There is also a useful section about cyberbullying. Don’t forget to follow Bullying UK on Twitter, or consider making a donation if you can.

They have teamed up with a host of stars from TV, pop, stage and celebrity gossip who have recorded a bedtime story for the nation. ITV’s This Morning presenter, Eamonn Holmes, Jade Goody’s former partner Jeff Brazier, the star of West End musical Hairspray, Brian Conley, and pop superstar Damon Albarn of Blur can all be seen reading Roald Dahl’s classic story, Fantastic Mr Fox, on their new YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/childrenssociety.

Here’s a preview of one of the videos:

The Bedtime Reading campaign is designed to encourage parents, especially fathers, to read to their children and coincides with the launch of 20th Century Fox’s latest animated movie, Fantastic Mr Fox.

There is an online resource with some hints and tips at www.childrenssociety.org.uk/reading.

What is big book sale?
It is a primary school fundraising event where pupils bring in their old story books, set up and decorate a stall and sell the books to each other in aid of the MS Society.

When is big book sale?
Big book sale can take place anytime during the first week of March as part of the World Book Day celebrations. If this isn’t convenient schools can chose a date that suits them.

Why take part?

The big book sale:
•       develops literacy and numeracy skills during key stages 1 and 2
•       promotes reading at home through peer-to-peer book recommendation
•       develops real life numeracy skills through money handling on the day
•       gives children and parents access to cheap story books helping to promote reading at home, highlighted by the National Curriculum as the most important way that parents can help their child’s literacy.

And if that’s not enough
The big book sale raises essential funds for the MS Society which are shared with the school if you raise over £200!

Register today for your free fundraising pack!

• Online www.mssociety.org.uk/bigbooksale
• Call 0870 241 3565
• Email schools@mssociety.org.uk (please quote Teaching ideas)