Plan is one of the largest child-centred community development organisations in the world, helping children and their families in 48 of the poorest countries to break the cycle of poverty. In the countries where they work, one out of five children die before the age of five, and the ones who survive often go hungry and have no chance of learning to read and write.

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.

The Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity are running a week of Peter Pan themed fundraising activities and a Guinness World Record attempt in aid of the charity. The week runs from 26th to 30th April and thousands of people will be taking part in the biggest ever Peter Pan dress up day on Friday 30th April.

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.

Cake A Difference is a brand new fundraising initiative for Bliss. Bliss is a charity dedicated to helping premature and sick babies throughout the UK and it is only through voluntary donations and fundraising that they are able to carry out their work.

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.

Sport Relief is calling all school teachers to join in one of the UK’s biggest fundraising events in 2010 and get the whole school kitted out and active in Sport Relief Socks.

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.

The Teenage Cancer Trust have just launched an online resource for schools, which can be used for PSHE lessons and general assembly. It’s an interactive resource with lesson plans, discussion topics, video, and fits with syllabus guidelines. It touches on topics revolving around teenage cancer, looking at health, communication, relationships, bullying, and seeks to promote understanding and education about health issues.

The resource is available at www.teenagecancertrust.org/learningresource

In 2000, 164 countries committed to achieving Education for All by 2015. As access to education is improving, enrolment figures are rising fast, and developing communities now urgently need qualified teachers to deliver quality education.

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.

This month, the Children’s Society is running its annual National Bedtime Reading Month, which started yesterday.

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.

The countdown to Sport Relief 2010 kicks off this month with the launch of exciting, free education resources for primary, secondary and early years groups. The resources, spanning the English, physical education and citizenship curriculums, bring alive the stories of young people in the UK and overseas. Sport Relief’s School Kits are available to order for free at www.sportrelief.com/schools. The kits provide teachers with all the tools they need to get set to ‘Rise to the Challenge’ and inspire their students to get active to help some of the world’s poorest people, both at home in the UK and overseas.

Sport Relief’s free to order resources range from lesson and assembly plans to photos, videos and real stories about children and young people supported by Sport Relief funded projects.

Sportacus, from BBC’s LazyTown is back to excite and inspire early years groups with a host of learning ideas. Early years kits will also include a full colour story book, helping children to understand the differences between their lives and those of other children around the world.

For primary and secondary schools, Sport Relief offers English, PE and citizenship lesson ideas and resources for key stages one to four, including lesson plans and activities that will get students thinking like journalists, with a dedicated area on www.sportrelief.com/schools for them to upload their reports on the issues affecting them in their communities, for all to see.

Get Your Socks on for Sport Relief with the Sport Relief Sock Deposit Scheme for schools. An easy way for schools to fundraise, simply pay a deposit for an order of Sport Relief stripy socks from the website and sell the socks in your school. For every pair of Sport Relief socks ordered through the Sock Deposit Scheme, Sainsbury’s is kindly giving one Active Kids voucher to the school. The Sport Relief sock will also be available to buy in UK Sainsbury’s stores for £2.

The Sport Relief fundraising campaign kicks off in January, when schools will be able to find a wealth of ideas to inspire kids of all ages to rise to the challenge and raise money for Sport Relief.

Important date for your diary – 19^th March 2010: Sport Relief Friday across schools in the UK kicks off the Sport Relief weekend of fundraising fun!

Calling all teachers, parents and governors! The big book sale is here!

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)

Shelter has launched a specially designed classroom kit to help teach children important lessons about housing and homelessness.

The kit follows an interactive programme of themed work, packed with exciting and stimulating free resources designed for teachers to use in the classroom to educate primary and secondary children in a fun and interesting way about the complex issues of homelessness.

Currently there are over 79,000 homeless households trapped in temporary accommodation in Britain, the majority of which will have children. Homeless children are two to three times more likely to be absent from school than other children due to the disruption caused by constantly moving around. The charity believes it is vital children learn about the issues at a young age to help develop understanding and awareness.

The kit also includes information on Home Time!, Shelter’s day of fundraising action for schools. The charity hopes that children will be motivated by what they have learnt and dedicate a day of fundraising for Shelter in the New Year to help change the lives of thousands of homeless children.

For more information on Shelter’s classroom kit go to www.shelter.org.uk/teachers.