Film: 21st Century Literacy, the group of organisations which lead on film education activity in the UK and which encompasses the British Film Institute (BFI), Film Club, Film Education, First Light and Skillset, has welcomed today’s publication of the Film Policy Review led by Lord Smith of Finsbury.
Interactive, online training sessions for teachers have been introduced by the education charity FILMCLUB so more schools can reap the educational and social benefits provided by school film clubs.
In support of National Storytelling Week on January 30th, the education charity FILMCLUB has produced a new classroom resource to help teachers bring to life through film the ancient art of storytelling.
A new resource to help teachers address the challenging subject of the Holocaust is now available from the education charity FILMCLUB. The resource, developed to tie in with Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday, January 27th, includes a season of seven expertly selected films, each accompanied by a synopsis, discussion points and review starters to ensure the themes in the films can be fully explored.
SEN ASSIST
New software to aid children with special educational needs that is proving a hit with teachers.
GeoAze is an "Educational Geography game for ages 7 to adult, playable in
multiple languages. Maps are exceptionally accurate, clear, resizeable and
customisable.
If you love art or are bursting with creative ideas, this is the competition for you. Design a sporty cover for Puffin Post – the world’s best book magazine for children – and your work could be flying into thousands of homes and displayed in the Southbank Centre in London!
Farmhouse Breakfast Week returns from 22 – 28 January 2012. This well established campaign aims to reduce the number of people who skip breakfast by encouraging them to Shake Up Their Wake Up.
The Communication Trust, a consortium of nearly 50 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, in partnership with Pearson Assessment has named the winners of the Shine a Light 2011 Hello campaign awards – a national awards scheme focused on children and young people’s communication.
A podcast is an audio or video recording which is shared online. In its simplest form it could be an audio recording of a pupil’s experiences of a class lesson. More elaborate podcasting can involve moving images, video and sound bites, combined to create a complete multimedia learning experience.
The National Trust's mass online farming experiment, MyFarm, has now added teacher content to its website to help bring farming to life in classrooms all over the country.
Nicola Benedetti, world-acclaimed violinist and patron of CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people, is joining Strictly Come Dancing champion Karen Hardy to discuss how practising music, song and dance can have a positive impact on health and wellbeing in schools.
The Gunpowder Plot is the latest free downloadable Adventure Game from Doctor Who featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy and - for the first time - Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams and Ralf Little as Guy Fawkes.
Universally Speaking: the ages and stages of children’s communication development are three free resources that provide guidance on what stage children and young people should be at with their speaking and listening. They have been produced as part of the Hello campaign - the national year of communication.
WaterAid now have some exciting new resources for primary and secondary schools called ‘Buckets of pennies for buckets of water’ which they have just launched. The resources include posters, assembly kits, stickers and lesson plans to help teach about issues related to water and sanitation whilst raising vital funds for WaterAid’s work. All the resources are available to be ordered for free at www.wateraid.org/bucketsofpennies
Balanceability - the UK's first and only accredited 'learn to cycle' programme for Foundation Stage children will raise physical activity levels in schools, as required in the Government's Start Active, Stay Active policy.
The Chippendale Society has launched a new and interactive website which will help engage primary school age children with the life and work of the famous Yorkshire furniture maker, Thomas Chippendale
Wuraola, Nneka and Azeezah are three African girls who learn about different Queens of Africa in stories set in today’s Africa. Black girls (and boys) here in the UK will be able to identify with the stories about the Queens because the skills and strengths they feature are ones they will relate to in today’s life at school such as honesty, confidence, being brave, recognising each other’s qualities and being resourceful
The world’s leading charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has updated and re-launched its toolkit ‘Talking T1 -Learning about Type 1 Diabetes’ which is designed to help schools support children with type 1 diabetes in the classroom
The Bottle Family is made up of over 827 plastic bottles, and has been created to demonstrate the large amount of plastic carbonated soft drink bottles that the average British family will use in one year.
In the discussion about reducing the environmental impact of the plastic bottles used for soft drinks, some people might want to switch to a home system for refilling bottles, but we should not forget the importance of recycling
As nurseries across the country continue to close at an alarming rate, an independent initiative has been launched to help those remaining manage the logistics of putting together fun and engaging sessions with pre-school pupils
Combining video, interactive games and workshops, Film Street introduces children and teachers to the world of films and filmmaking and inspires them to create their own films and animations. Originally funded by the DCMS, Film Street is now primarily funded by LGFL (London Grid for Learning).
As if visiting Tower Bridge isn’t exciting enough, young visitors can squeeze even more fun out of a trip to the most famous bridge in the world this May Half Term with the brand new interactive kiosks placed along the East and West walkways
England’s latest rugby star, and recently crowned Aviva Premiership Player of the Season, Tom Wood, is lending his help and support to a new five week programme - ‘Tackling Numbers’ - which will use rugby to improve the maths skills of thousands of schoolchildren in England.
www.clipart.dk.co.uk combines DK’s amazing photographic library and outstanding information - making it a must-have tool for any student, teacher or parent. Now, every Clip Art image comes with a description and there are 2 new ways to search for an image via 'School Subject' or 'A-Z Categories'. 'My Projects' provides a handy template for project creation, pulling together images and descriptions from Clip Art in a template of your choice.
If you're concerned about a dangerous road, or cuts to road safety in your area, Zak the Zebra, mascot of the charity Brake can help you. You can report your concern to Zak online or by calling or hotline and you’ll get lots of advice on running a local road safety campaign to address the problem
Guardian News & Media launched a brand new website – the Guardian Teacher Network – giving teachers across the country access to one of the largest collections of curriculum resources in the world.
Let’s end with a SWISH. Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach students how to change their own behaviour or negative responses? We can do this using the SWISH technique from our NLP toolbox.
Syncope Trust And Reflex Anoxic Seizures (STARS) www.stars.org.uk , The Blackouts Trust, is a charitable organisation which works together with individuals, families and medical professionals to offer support and information on blackouts, Syncope and Reflex Anoxic Seizures
Since term began just four weeks ago, over 1600 schools have signed up to BBC Headroom’s Wellbeing project for schools, and the number continues to grow daily as word of Headroom’s innovative and inspirational resource pack continues to spread.
Australian pre-school group The Wiggles have launched a brand new resource available free to early years settings in the UK, Australia and United States.
The Intellectual Property Office has a cracking new way of teaching children, at all key stages, the value of Intellectual Property, with the help of Wallace and Gromit.
With children heading back to school over the next couple of weeks and increasing pressure to achieve good GCSE and A level grades, the dilemma for parents is ‘how do I help my child?’
BBC Headroom, the BBC’s mental health and wellbeing initiative, is linking up with CBBC’s Bugbears to provide an innovative and inspirational resource pack to support the teaching of wellbeing in primary schools, it was announced Wednesday 19th May.
Asthma UK is today urging all schools across the UK to act now to keep children with asthma safe at school and is launching an emergency appeal for donations to fund life saving training and resources.
The Chatterbooks network of children’s reading groups is now supporting primary schools to inspire more children to read for pleasure, with potentially life-changing results.
Plays are written to be seen and heard, but for many schools and individuals, theatre trips can be difficult to organise and are expensive. And that’s assuming the play you want to see is being performed within travelling distance
In the UK children are required to be in fulltime education in the academic year of their fifth birthday. For summer-born children, this means they are just four years old for most of their first year at school.
The official Grim Gruesome website, www.grimgruesome.com, has just been updated with a brand new webpage for ‘Schools, Children’s Book Groups and Libraries’.
Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has produced an online classroom kit that offers an interactive programme of themed work exploring the complex issues they deal with every day.
No two children learn in the same way which is why a one-size fits all approach to teaching will never successfully reach all pupils. Sitting up straight and listening while teacher uses the whiteboard is a perfectly valid method of teaching for all those who absorb information through their eyes and ears – visual and aural learners - and who concentrate best when sitting up straight.
Schools for deaf children are being faced with an increasing demand for research, which whilst highly valuable, needs to be balanced against the impact of the interruptions to pupils’ education.
For the first time the international development charity ActionAid, together with Indian NGO ACCORD, is offering the opportunity for two UK teachers to volunteer for six months teaching in the southern Indian village of Chembakolli.
You can now raise money for your school every time you shop online. EduPayment’s fundraising marketplace (www.eduPayment.co.uk) makes it possible to earn funds for your school by simply selecting a retailer from their marketplace whenever you shop on the internet.
Rockford’s Rock Opera is a unique free audio book – an ecological musical story with songs, clear narration, animated videos and FREE teaching resources. What’s more, it’s now being used by over 4,000 primary schools around the world and is gathering thousands of evangelical fans.
We Are What We Do is a new movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world. As part of our latest initiative, Young Speakers, we have trained local 6th form students to come into primary schools and give presentations around the power of small, simple actions to bring about massive social and environmental change
Well isn’t it great being able to speak another
language! For more years than I care to remember– be it French, Spanish, German or Italian – the look
of the young child who ventures forward and proudly professes,“Guess what? I can speak another language!” has always stopped
me dead in my tracks.
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., today officially launched proposals which will see radical changes in the way Junior Cycle students are taught and assessed in second level schools.
The new limit of eight subjects will be a requirement for students entering second level schools in 2014 and taking the examination in 2017. This will form part of major changes in the Junior Cycle which have been proposed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
The Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn TD has welcomed the commitment by the main educational publishers to give substantial discounts to schools that run book rental schemes.
The Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, T.D., is encouraging parents to stand for election for appointment to Boards of Management of primary schools.
Today in Finland Alexander Amini from Dublin was awarded the highest accolade at the 23rd European Union Contest for Young Scientists. The 15 year old Castlenock College student won the prize in computing with his Tennis Sensor Data Analysis project.
Taking Action on Disability by organising a collection on behalf of Enable Ireland can achieve great results for children and adults with disabilities and their families, as well as delivering great rewards for your school.
The Department of Education and Science (DES) has committed to developing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure in schools in Ireland.
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn T.D., today (Monday 13th June) opened the way for an overhaul of the enrolment policies in all schools
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn T.D., today told the Dáil that he would meet with book publishers and representatives of parents shortly to discuss the high cost of school books
The Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, Brigid McManus, and Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes, today announced the launch of a data protection Code of Practice for the Department
The Minister of State for Equality, Integration and Human Rights, Mary White TD, today launched Ireland’s first national Intercultural Education Strategy.
The Director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), Seán Cottrell has asked the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners to clarify ‘Why national schools are not entitled to claim VAT refunds like any other business, despite the fact that the Department of the Environment specifically categorises schools as businesses when imposing water charges?’
The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, TD, today published the outcome of work undertaken by her Department, at the request of the Catholic Church, to identify areas that may offer potential for the church to divest its patronage of certain primary schools.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan TD, today confirmed reform to the ‘Cycle to Work’ scheme for teachers and school staff.
With climate change, cost of food and the old credit crunch on our doorstep, there was never a better time to start thinking about growing your own vegetables.
The Mini Company ‘Get Up and Go’ programme is designed to promote an understanding and appreciation among Transition Year students of how business works and to promote the development of entrepreneurial skills and an overall interest in enterprise education.
In response to a suggestion from Principals attending the annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), more than €40,000 has been raised by primary schools for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.
Launched at Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in Galway in 2009, this remarkably simple, yet powerful set of short stories with a difference are proving to be captivating material within the world of children and the teaching profession globally.
Challenging activities that include extension ideas for the more able. Activities develop spatial visualisation, logical reasoning, establishing criteria, interpreting, analysing, organising and using information, strategic thinking and using patterns
An excellent seven-book photocopiable series for the entire primary age range with high-interest, creative, fun yet challenging activities to satisfy the demands of the early finisher
This course will provide teachers with the skills to set up a school’s website or blog, using NCTE’s new blogging service for schools, Scoilnet Blogs. This course has been designed for teachers who will be administering their school’s website/blog.
In an economic climate, where families are under extra pressure financially, as are schools- This is a wonderful idea-Free Whiteboards for schools. This scheme is free to partake in, requires no money in terms of fundraising, but it insures that our sick babies (The Forgotten Children of Ireland) have appropriate care.
EAGER teachers across the nation are signing up for a new ICT programme which makes them even more ‘computer-savvy’ and thus, helps pupils glean core skills and competence needed in our digital age
The announcement today by The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Seán Haughey, TD, to create a new, single coordinated School Support Programme from next September was welcomed by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network.
‘The Year Round Organic School Garden’ is a practical guide for teachers and other education practitioners. It aims to help with the planning, design, creation and use of an organic school garden with children and teenagers.
safefood and West Cork LEADER Co-operative launched Taste Buds, a new interactive education resource for eight to ten year olds. This teacher-led CD resource, launched by Minister Batt
O’Keeffe, T.D. Minister of Education & Science, will teach children about
the origins of their food and the importance of healthy eating and physical
activity using five, fun animated characters.
Senator Marc MacSharry has called for a new Entrepreneurship Education
policy to be introduced into Ireland's 3,292 Primary Schools. The Sligo
based Senator stressed that Ireland needs a strong spirit of
Entrepreneurship among the next generation for the country to prosper
and reach its true potential.
The toolkit can be downloaded from www.unhcr.ie after the launch event. Students in Irish classrooms are more international than ever. How do young people feel about their new classmates? Do they understand the reasons why they have left their home countries and come to Ireland?
VSO, the charity that recruits volunteers to work in developing countries, has announced that it sees the job losses in the education sector in Ireland as a positive for the developing world.
The “Miracle Tree” campaign, run by Vita, an Irish not-for-profit company is designed to emphasise the vital importance of trees, in particular the Moringa tree, to the development of sustainable livelihoods for the people of the Horn of Africa.
900 Primary school Principals at the Irish Primary Principals’ Network’s (IPPN) annual Conference in Killarney are today asking the Minister for Education and Science to deliver key reforms to the way in which funding and staffing is allocated to primary schools. Responding to the economic reality, Principals have identified that the current crisis which has led to major cutbacks in education also presents a golden opportunity for reform.
Principals clearly identify the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) as the agency that has the most positive effect on children in schools. They are also one of the agencies that impact least on the administrative work of the school.
A survey of primary principals taken in the week prior to the revelations from the Roscommon trial shows that 85% of primary school principals want mandatory reporting legislation to be brought in to protect children at risk. At their annual conference in Killarney, over 900 Primary Principals, members of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network will hear a strong call for more effective child protection measures.
‘Hands on Science’ features fun activities to encourage ‘learning by doing’ amid Science buffs.Primary pupils nation-wide are being encouraged to discover just how relevant and exciting Science is by conducting their very own experiments with everyday bits and bobs found in their classroom and in their homes.
The European Commission is to set up a European Digital Library of literature, music, painting, photography and film. The library, which will known as Europeana, will be launched in November and will contain digital versions of the vast amount of material in museums, libraries and archives across Europe.
Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe, T.D., today (10 July, 2008) published two reports on ICT in Schools. Investing Effectively in Information and Communications Technology in Schools 2008-2013 is the Report of the Strategy Group appointed to advise on the priorities for investment in ICT in Schools having regard to the critical success factors for successful integration of ICT into learning and teaching
A leading book publishing company is to provide light relief for primary school pupils who are physically and mentally burdened by the way they currently learn Irish.
Whether teacher or parent, if you’re looking for some inspiration online for kids this summer and beyond, you can’t do better than logging onto the TOP 10 SCOILNET sites for the first week of June
The Digital Schools Award initiative recognizes the excellence in a school's approach to the integration of ICT in teaching and learning. The Award scheme is unique in that is has the full support, not only of NCTE, but also CESI, INTO, IPPN and NCCA, all of whose views have been fully represented in its development.
Beo.ie - An chibirbhulaíocht
Léiríonn staidéar cuimsitheach ar tugadh faoi le gairid gur fadhb choitianta í an chibirbhulaíocht i measc an aosa óig. San alt seo, pléann Caoimhe Ní Laighin an éifeacht is féidir a bheith aici ar shaol an íospartaigh Tá an t- alt seo dírithe ar dhaltaí Ardteiste ó thaobh ábhair de agus ó thaobh leibhéal deacrachta na teanga.An chibirbhulaíocht: tá gá le gníomh
Fotocube
If you have any photos that you would like to present in a different way, then why not think about getting them printed directly onto acrylic freestanding blocks or wall-hanging panels? These could look great for displaying in your schools, either on the wall or for presentations or open days. More>> http://www.fotocube.co.uk/(website presently being updated but you can still email
Dr. Tanya Byron, clinical psychologist and TV presenter has published her independent review commissioned by the UK Government. Dr. Byron investigated the potentially harmful effects on children and young people from inappropriate content on the Internet and video games. More www.webwise.ie/article.aspx?id=9024
Star Site - Togher NS gets Star Site
Very simple site for a 59 pupil school. Lovely 'pupils work' section displaying the numerous projects.
One of the most searched for terms on the internet is 'games'. Games can be both educational and fun and can have appeal to a wide variety of ages and skills. Scoilnet have a number of links that may be of interest. Visit http://www.scoilnet.ie/article.aspx?id=6013
Webwise in the Primary classroom
Pupils can follow the adventures of Niamh & Fionn as they chat online for the first time & have fun learning about email, chatting and personal information online.Visit http://www.webwise.ie/article.aspx?id=8180
For more information on these and other Internet Safety information, visit http://www.webwise.ie
Jumpcut - edit video online
Are you looking for an easy way to upload, edit and share your videos and photos? Why not visit Jumpcut! Once you register free, you can start making movies right away by uploading your favourite video clips, photos and audio right from your computer or digital camera. The uploader will automatically create a movie from the files that you upload. Then you can open up the web-based editor to rearrange the clips and photos, add titles, effects and lots more. Visit http://jumpcut.com/
Des Bishop's Cúrsa Gaeilge
Abair Leat - online language course to improve your Irish. Microphone needed!
The Department of Education and Science plans to use new technologies to map and plan school locations in order to meet the increasing school going population. It is predicted that the school going population will increase by some 100,000 over the coming years, raising the primary school population to well over 500,000.
Qualified secondary teachers from Ireland are being invited to consider moving to a major European city to teach in one of the international schools set up to educate children of EU personnel.Ads are appearing in national media this week inviting suitably qualified teachers to apply for a posting abroad which has an attractive package for those seeking a wider European experience.
ImageBank
A photo library website where people can search for and share photos for educational use, was launched recently by NCTE and Scoilnet. ImageBank has been developed in response to teachers' needs and is intended to act as a support to students and teachers in Irish education by providing photos of Irish places and spaces, animals, sport and flowers, amongst other things. For more information, visit their website
Chatwise Teaching and Learning Module
The Webwise interactive lesson 'Chatwise' dealing with emailing and chatting targeting 7 - 11 year olds, can be found in the Learning Resources section. The Chatwise Internet Safety module contains a teachers' guide, interactive digital resources, classroom-activity worksheets and take-home activities. For more information, visit http://www.webwise.ie/article.aspx?id=8180
“Since 2005, most primary school children with special needs do not need assessments in order to access extra teaching supports”, Minister Mary Hanafin told the Dáil during a private members debate this evening.
The Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin T.D. has outlined the progress that has been made by the National Council for Special Education in working with schools to provide educational services for children with Autism throughout the country, based in their local community
The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin T.D., has laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas a special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on lapses in internal control at the National Educational Welfare Board
Purse Search Ireland want you to help them learn more about Ireland's skates and rays. Join in the hunt for Mermaid's Purses! Get involved in marine Conservation! Mermaid's purses are the eggcases of sharks, skates and rays that are commonly washed up on Irish beaches
Internet safety: whose responsibility? A teachers' survey. As young people spend more time online and generate and consume a growing amount of content, the importance of internet safety is constantly increasing
