The BBC’s School Report News Day takes place on Thursday 11th March. Is your school taking part?

For those who are new to the project, it aims to turn classrooms into newsrooms, giving children a chance to make the news. Pupils are given opportunities to make news reports about things that are important to them, through the radio, TV and online. You can find out more in this video which explains more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/

The BBC site has some useful links and resources for those planning to take part:

• Advice about getting ready for the day,
• Posters to decorate your newsroom,
• Reward certificates for those taking part.
• Suggestions for stories that the pupils could report on.
• A suggested timetable of activities.
• Lots of other resources for teachers.

The School Report site is an extremely useful resource for those taking part in the day, but lots of the content could also be used at other times of the year too.

TES Connect currently hosts one of the world’s largest banks of teaching resources and lesson plans. At present, there are over 44,000 resources which can be downloaded for free.

The site is planning to expand further by adding significant amounts of content and launching dedicated resources destinations for teachers in their specialist areas: TES Primary, TES Special Needs and TES Secondary subjects.

www.tes.co.uk

TSL have also acquired i-board (www.i-board.co.uk) and made over 500 interactive whiteboard activities for KS1, Foundation, Primary and Special Needs available to schools and teachers for free.

The site is also planning to:

• Improve the search experience for teachers, organising over 18,000 existing primary resources and creating a further 1,000 Key Stage 2 digital whiteboard resources.
• Procure and host over 2,000 resources aimed at Special Needs.
• Add over 3,000 secondary teaching resources from englishteaching.co.uk to the existing resources on TES Connect.
• Add new Key Stages 3, 4 and A level, podcasts and videos from MrBartonMaths.com to the site and develop new mathematics resources.
• Collaborate with David Smith, creator of Brain Cells (brain-cells.co.uk) and The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (CIMT) to share content on TES Connect.

A survey from BBC Newsround has found that many children are kept up late at night by video games, mobile phones and televisions. An article on the BBC News site explains that:

“Newsround sent a questionnaire to 1,000 children aged between nine and 11 at schools across the UK. Most said they went to bed at 2130, but a quarter said bedtime was 2200 or later and half said they were not getting enough sleep and wanted more.

Health experts have linked a lack of sleep to problems with concentration, behaviour and school work. About half the children asked said they were staying up to play on computer games or their mobile phones or to watch television.”

Image - Dreaming Children

The article goes on to explain that:

“Scientists have linked a lack of sleep in children to problems with concentration and schoolwork. Energy levels can be lower and sleep-deprived children can be irritable or behave badly. A recent study by academics in Finland suggested a good night’s sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behaviour among children.”

Does this affect the children in your classroom?

The Health and Safety Executive is running a new campaign to reduce slips, trips and falls in the workplace. Throughout 2008-2009, across the Education sector in the UK, there were 948 major injuries and a further 1865 that resulted in workers having to take more than three days off work as a result of slips, trips and falls – resulting in costs in excess of £60million.

In response, the HSE has launched a new phase of its Shattered Lives campaign. As part of this, people can visit the Shattered Lives website for practical advice and guidance.

www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives

On the website, people can find out information on how they can easily reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls in the classroom and see what other organisations have done.  Advice ranges from how to deal with spills and other slip risks, to the importance of using ladders correctly to reduce the risk of falling from height.

Following this week’s Safer Internet Day, lots of news stories and Internet safety resources were announced. Here’s a summary of what I discovered:

• CEOP revealed a new Internet safety resource for children aged 4-7. Lee and Kim’s Adventure, Animal Magic, is an 8 minute animation which involves a brother and sister navigating the online world with the help of their trusted superhero friend SID. Here’s a promotional video to tell you more about the resource:

• There are lots of related resources for teachers, which you can download here.
• These resources share four top tips for younger children to remember:
  • People you don’t know are strangers. They’re not always who they say they are.
  • Be nice to people on the computer like you would in the playground.
  • Keep your personal information private.
  • If you ever get that ‘uh oh’ feeling, you should tell a grown-up you trust.
• There is also a music video which children can use to help them learn and remember the messages shown:

Did you discover any new Internet safety resources this week?

Here are links to some of the new resources that I’ve discovered via my Twitter network:

• BBC Wildlife Finder (from @mrstucke) – Watch videos of the most amazing animals in the world, from the BBC.

• You can now follow the fantastic Primary Resources site on Twitter – @primarystuff
• Use this amazing ‘Punched Out‘ font for your classroom displays and learning activities. The font makes printed nets of different letters. Just cut them out and stick them together.

• Try out ThinkDraw to create and rate pictures using a range of objects and colours. Thanks to @simonhaughton.
• Schools are now starting to develop their own iPhone apps as a way of sharing news and information with parents. Try the new application from Porchester Junior School (via @xannov).
• Scimorph is a new augmented reality site which teaches you about gravity and bacteria. Print the marker provided, place it in front of your web cam and interact with Scimorph while he teaches you! Thanks to @mbarrow for sharing this.

• Google have added an ‘Ocean Showcase‘ feature to Google Earth. Looks like a wonderful resource for schools (thanks to @dajbelshaw).
• The wonderful BBC Primary History site now has a ‘World History’ section. Suggested by @simonhaughton.
• Wikipedia have a ‘Simple English‘ version which uses simple words and grammar, making it much easier for children to read and understand. Recommended by @tombarrett.

Don’t miss the previous posts in this series:

• Part One
• Part Two

What have you discovered on Twitter recently?

Image – Twitter Logo Map 09

The new primary curriculum, which becomes statutory from September 2011, is now online. Its aims are to enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve,
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives,
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

Through the curriculum, children should develop the skills, attitudes and dispositions that they need to become well-rounded individuals and lifelong learners. These include literacy, numeracy and ICT capability, learning and thinking skills, and personal, social and emotional skills. There are also six areas of learning:

• Understanding the arts
• Understanding English, communication and languages
• Historical, geographical and social understanding
• Mathematical understanding
• Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing
• Scientific and technological understanding

Religious education is also a statutory subject, as it is in the current curriculum. However, there will also be a statutory requirement for all children to learn a modern foreign language. Dance, drama and citizenship also become part of the statutory curriculum through the new areas of learning.

Find out more at the New Primary Curriculum site.

A report from Ofsted claims that some schools in England are struggling to teach citizenship properly. From the BBC report…

“…in some secondary schools, pupils have “important gaps” in their knowledge. However, inspectors say lessons have improved since they were made compulsory seven years ago.

The article goes on to say that…

“Often citizenship shared a timetable slot with Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, but the time allowed was “too little to do justice to either subject”, inspectors say.”

Image – Writing Exams

However, on the positive side…

“Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert, said: “Citizenship is becoming a well established part of the school curriculum and this report highlights the ways in which schools are successfully promoting social responsibility, community involvement and political understanding.

“It is important that the good practice featured in the report is replicated more widely.”

How do you feel about the teaching of citizenship? Do your pupils have ‘important’ gaps in their knowledge? Is there too little time to do the subject justice?

BETT, the ‘world’s largest educational technology event’ took place last week and I was very lucky to be able to spend a few days there. Here are some of the things that I discovered:

• Anithings – A ‘creativity tool’ which lets children create animations by simply dragging objects around on screen. It costs £250 for a site licence, but there is a 10% discount during January.

• Interactive Resources – This company makes the (extremely useful) Maths Packs, Teaching materials and Primary Games which can be used on interactive whiteboard and / or individual computers. During BETT, I was given a quick tour of the new online version of their site, allowing teachers (and pupils) to access the resources online at home and school. Teachers can also filter all of the resources by subject / topic and allocate activities to students who can try them when they next log in.
• Story Stage – I watched a demo of this software from Scholastic and was really impressed at the ability to connect multiple mice to the same computer, allowing children to work collaboratively. Why doesn’t all software allow multiple users like Story Stage?

• Smart – It was nice to hear about the release of Smart Notebook 10.6 (available now) which brings compatibility with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on the Mac. It also has a ‘transparent’ tool which makes the Smart Notebook interface disappear, as well as a number of new Maths tools.
• 2Simple – I managed to get a final copy of 2Create a SuperStory, as well as trials of 2Assess ICT and the Online Tools. I’m really impressed with the potential of the online tools, allowing children to use creative software at home and school and save their work to an online storage area. Anthony Evans showed me 2Design&Make (built into the online tools) to make some fantastic 3D models.

• Linkbun.ch – Allows you to share lots of links with one small link which can then be shared via email / Twitter etc. Thanks to @ianyorston for sharing this gem.
• Stupflix – This looks a little like Animoto (as both allow you to combine audio / photos / video) but Stupeflix seems to have more customisation options. Shared by @digitalmaverick.

• Dabbleboard – An online collaborative whiteboard. I’ve used Dabbleboard at home once or twice, but never in the classroom. @bevevans22 talked about this during a Teachmeet Takeover session and I can definitely see it being a valuable addition to a lesson.
• Scratch – Scratch is a programming language which I’ve always thought was a bit complicated. However, @mberry gave us all an entertaining 7 minute demonstration of the program and made it all look incredibly easy. Downloading and trying Scratch is now high up on my ‘to do’ list.

• Newseum - @digitalmaverick mentioned this during his Teachmeet Takeover session about Glogster. The Front pages section lets you view the front pages of a huge collection of newspapers from around the world.
• Class blogging - Oliver Quinlan gave a really inspiring presentation about his class blogs and how time is given for the children to respond to each others’ blog posts. We regularly post items on our school website / blog but children rarely have time to add their own thoughts… something that is sure to change now!

Did you go to BETT? What did you discover?

From an article at guardian.co.uk… “Ed Balls is to publish a new curriculum for all primary schools which will reorganise traditional subject areas into “thematic” headings and introduce compulsory sex education for the first time, under plans set out in the Queen’s speech last week.

The bill will legislate for the new primary curriculum, starting in September 2011, to reorganise traditional subject areas such as history and science into thematic areas of learning, such as “historical, geographical and social” lessons. The aim is to try to ease the pressures of the cumbersome curriculum on schools and give schools more freedom to do cross-subject thematic lessons.

There is greater emphasis on children’s happiness and wellbeing. The bill also makes personal, social and health education – including sex education – mandatory in primary schools for the first time, though parents will still be allowed to opt their children out of lessons until they turn 15.”

How do you feel about these proposed changes? I know that some schools have decided to move towards thematic teaching anyway… each term, we have one theme and base our teaching and learning experiences around that theme (although sometimes this isn’t always possible).

How are you planning at the moment… and do you welcome the new ‘thematic’ lessons? Leave a comment…

Image – Ed Balls