CPD via Skype from New Zealand

It is many months since I have updated my blog and I am feeling decidely guilty about it!! Home life and changes at school have kept me busy in the last few months but I have decided that I must get back into the habit and use this blog to record my continuing journey and development as teacher even after 22 years in the profession.

Recent months have seen me regain the reigns of developing ICT at school as well as a secondment to the University of Plymouth to lead seminars with Year 1 and Year 3 B.Ed students in the "Use of ICT in subject teaching". This has brought new perspectives which present new and exciting challenges. I will undoubtedly blog more on this in coming months.

The purpose of today's post is to share this week's CPD! This came courtesy of New Zealand's 2010 Learning at SchoolConference. David Kinane was presenting a breakout session entitled "90 tools in 90 minutes". I was intrigued and asked David if I could skype into his sesion. Therefore at 0:45 on Thursday 25th February I was ready to follow his presentation using the desktop sharing facility and a free call to hear him.

90tools90minutes Lats10

View more presentations from David Kinane.

Two tools that I will be investigating further after David's presentation are Dipity and Glogster.

Whilst watching I recorded part of the presentation with CamStudio and recorded the while 90 minutes using Audactity. I promised to share it with David, so here is the video to start, while I endeavour to work out how to share the 90 minutes of audio!

Audio Part 1

Audio Part 2

Audio Part 3

Audio Part 4

Sissinghurst Castle Garden

Bodiam Castle

Exploring the opportunities offered by the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum

Global Citizenship Conference, 20th May 2009

The keynote speech entitled, “Life, the Universe and Everything; a Bunch of Roses” was presented by Alan Dyer who is the Associate Director of the Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Plymouth.

Alan opened with this extract from The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel L. Carson, copyright 1956.

A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. Parents often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted on the one hand with the eager, sensitive mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, “How can I possibly teach my child about nature -- why, I don't even know one bird from another!”

I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused -- a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love -- then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.

This in essence is what the message of the day seemed to be…that we as educators, teachers, adults, leaders, parents have a duty to maintain in our children that sense of ‘wanting to know’ the ‘sense of awe’ and to do this through experiences of the real world. What was evident and somewhat reassuring is that the Rose Review is opening the doors to the real world and experiential learning. It is allowing us to step back to the wonder of childhood. We want the children to engage with the real world making it an experience that they will never forget…allowing them to take risks without being at risk. It allows us to be less constrained by an over abundance of key objectives, to be more creative in the way we pick up current themes and topics and encourages us to engage the children in compelling learning experiences. The Rose Review in my mind presents us with an exciting time ahead.

Dr Fran Martin from Exeter University gave an Overview of the Rose Review of the Primary curriculum.
The three aims of the new Primary Curriculum are that children 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.

The Report details Essentials for learning and life

Literacy
Numeracy
ICT capability
Personal
Development (which encompasses; Learning and thinking skills; Personal and
emotional skills; Social skills)

Currently there are six areas of learning which are

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

In terms of this conference and the focus being Global Citizenship the third of the key aims was our focus. How can we encourage and engage children who will:

Be responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society
Respect others and act with integrity
Understand their own and other’s cultures and traditions within the context of British heritage, and have a strong sense of their own place in the world
Appreciate the benefits of diversity
Sustain and improve the environment, locally and globally
Take account of the needs of present and future generations in the choices they make

The workshops that followed aimed to demonstrate a Global Perspective in key Subject areas. My particular interests for the day were in Maths, Science and Geography.

A Global Perspective in Maths (led by David Moore, Drake Primary School, Plymouth)
David looked at how including a global perspective in maths lessons can enhance children’s experiences, helping them make not just to develop their awareness of being a global citizen, but also help to strengthen their mathematical understanding.

Key Concepts in Global Education and links to Maths
Interdependence: Showing that mathematicians from many cultures have contributed to the cultural development of modern day mathematics. Maths is a universal / global language
Diversity: explore number patterns from a range of cultures. Through this they can learn to appreciate the mathematical ingenuity of other cultures. Number patterns / mathematical igenuity of other cultures
Sustainable Development: understanding the need to maintain and improve the quality of life without damaging the planet for future generations. Data handling
Social Justice: understanding the importance of social justice as an element of both sustainable and the improved welfare of all people. Fair Trade - prices / raw materials etc
Values and Perception: developing a critical evaluation of representations of global issues. Average pay (mean / mode / median) political statistics!

tbc

Primary Modern Languages

Wednesday 18th March 2009
The aims for this day were to set the context for PML in light of the curriculum review by Jim Rose, to develop understanding of the KS2 framework for Languages, enhance the understanding of the Subject Leader, to develop skills for language learning across the school and to explore Quality First teaching in Primary Modern Languages.

The most important area for us to consider at Woodford Junior School is the reshaping of the Languages Curriculum as the curriculum review suggests the move to 6 key strands. These strands will be skills based curriculum areas. Languages have been incorporated within the strand of ‘Understanding English, communication and languages’. This will encourage and exploit links between literacy and languages and transferable skills.



Key Stage 1 and Post 14 are non statutory elements of Languages for Life, whereas KS2 and KS3 are statutory elements or will be from the academic year 2010 / 2011. If you look at the balance of this there are four years of language at Key Stage 2 and only three years at Key Stage 3. This shifts huge responsibility to Key Stage 2 for the teaching of languages.

The statutory entitlement for languages is 60 minutes. It is suggested that this is best modelled as a 30 minutes discrete lesson followed through the week by 3 x 10 minute integrated sessions. We currently do 30 minutes per week which is blocked into hour sessions for half a term.

It has been suggested that there is an impact on children’s learning across the board, notable a raised achievement in Literacy. Other examples suggest that when multiplications tables are done as a mental oral in French language, the children focus on the language and the facts acquired in Numeracy are incidental.

It is suggested that schools only focus on one or two languages to ensure rigorous and sustained progression across the key stage. This will also ensure that the national expectations of level 4 for languages will be achieved also. This is the end of the preliminary stage of the Language Ladder.

The Rose report recommends that there should be continued rigorous and thorough subject development and a continuance of the development of the Work force. In Plymouth this is going to be through funding of Languages training.
For the next academic year we will not be required to submit an action plan for funding as we have in previous years, rather the money will be accessed through attendance at training days which will be for specific year groups. The funding will be released as ‘supply cover’ through attendance at the courses. The courses themselves will be free. School will be able to send as many staff as they want to each course but supply cover will only be give for one teacher, if both teachers in a year group attend training the school would need to cover the costs for the second and subsequent teacher. These courses are due to start after Easter.

The feeling is very much that teachers will be at the forefront of language delivery therefore attendance at the sessions is vital to develop confidence and ideas for teaching languages. Class teachers will need to develop their skills.

At the moment we use a French Native speaker to help plan and deliver lessons alongside the PML Subject Leader. This often means though that integrated language work does not take place.

In my mind the ideal model for the development of quality first languages at Woodford would be to continue to use Gabrielle along side the subject leader to deliver 30 minute discrete language sessions to each class each week. This would then be supplemented by integrated sessions by staff in their classes, through activities for brain breaks, mental orals, classroom routines etc. It is vital that fun remains at the heart of language learning.

Primary Geography Conference, 25th September 2008

As always the half day conference led by David Weatherly was a morning well spent. I always come away with resources and ideas that can be used or adapted easily for our curriculum.

Today David was quite excited about the Primary Curriculum Review which is due at the end of October. He suggests that there will be broader areas of learning experiences; there will be less in new programmes of Study. We will be encouraged to spend longer doing less and there will be greater inter subject connections. This is certainly good news and will involve better quality teaching and learning opportunities.

David always refers back to what we are looking to achieve when we teach geography – referring to it as a table with four legs and a table top.

1. Where / How do the children progress and what opportunities do we offer the children to ensure that they are able to exhibit level 2, 3 4 or even level 5 capabilities? What opportunities are there for the children to reach conclusions, to reason and explain, to use simple or appropriate advanced vocabulary?
2. Geography should be an enquiry, experiential, investigative, independent personalised learning. What do we do to find out where the children are now? What do we do to move them on to where we want them to be in terms of the learning activity? How do we help make sense of geographical Enquiry processes?
3. There are really very few PoS and there will be even less in the new curriculum.
4. The Primary National Strategy encourages us to be imaginative and creative ensuring that we are robust i.e. the children are being appropriately challenged intellectually.
On top of all this we have the topic / theme / issue / dimension.
If there is no BIG idea then don’t teach it!

Higher order thinking skills will be a key focus in the new National curriculum.

The buzz words (for interviews) then at the moment are metacognition, robust curriculum and appropriate expectations.

We then looked at the theme of RIVERS. The big idea being ‘Through erosion and deposition, river water changes the landscape’.
The unit hangs around a series of key questions which are

1. What is a river?
2. What happens along the course of a river?
3. Where do rivers get their water?
4. How does a river change from source to mouth?
5. Where do rivers start and how do they change the landscape?
6. Why does water suddenly fall along a river?
7. Why do rivers bend?
8. What happens at the mouth of a river?
9. Is this the most famous meander in the world?
10. How and why does the River Otter and its valley change from source to mouth?
11. How can we help infant children to learn about rivers?

Throughout the unit there are a range of activities to engage the children – many of which involve observing, discussing, describing, comparing, contrasting, reasoning, estimating, explaining, describing patterns, processes, links and relationships, suggesting explanations and conclusions. There are connections to many other curriculum areas.

In terms of attainment it was interesting to note that all agreed that attainment does not have to be replicable – it is a snap shot at that moment in time!

In December, Devon Education Services are planning a day conference which will focus on the current curriculum review emphasis on the importance of a strong flexible learning programme. The day is themed ‘Creative and coherent cross-curricular planning in the primary curriculum: the weather and our world’. I hope that I will be able to attend.

VIASL - IFIP 23rd - 26th June, Prague

Although I have kept a diary of my week in Prague on my wiki I felt I should add something to my CPD record. This isn't the normal CPD you might expect to be recorded in a teacher's record. It is a quite remarkable opportunity which arose out of an international partnership with Meadowbank Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand, maintained and developed on the whole by myself and David Kinane who is the IT Director. Our partnership which began in late 2006 instigated the "blog" Tohatoha in May 2007, as means of sharing our work and showing our collaborative projects.



During the Autumn term, David contacted me and asked whether I would be interested in presenting a joint 'paper' at the Valuing Individual And Shared Learning: the role of ICT Conference, organised by the International Federation of Information Processing, which was to be held in Prague in June 2008. We had a story to tell about our partnership, the technologies we were using and the collaborations which we were undertaking. An abstract was drafted and sent to the organising committee, who asked for this then to be written in more detail before final submission in January 2008. Once our paper was submitted there was no going back and I don't really suppose I thought we would be accepted, but to my (our) amazement we were and in March we were invited to present our paper at the conference.
With the support and permission of the Governors and Head Teacher I began the logistical preparations of booking flights, hotels etc, as well as preparing my husband for the fact that I would be away for 5 days leaving him to cope with our three children on his own! June still seemed a long way off! David and I began planning the presentation for the conference. Courtesy of skype, email and wikis we transferred our work back and forth between New Zealand and Plymouth until we were happy with the results. The PowerPoint presentation and bulleted script complete we realised that we were ready and June had crept up on us. David's journey to Prague is far more impressive than mine (read David's blog from June 18). My first anxieties were obviously our meeting at Gatwick. We had been working together in a virtual world for the last eighteen months but now virtual was to become real! I needn't have worried - our meeting was easy, like old friends and soon we were finalising the presentation and making several back up copies. I shan't comment on the journey here as this has been detailed in my wiki!
The conference was held at the University of Prague's Faculty of Education and day one was intimidating. I (we) suddenly realised that we were part of a conference which consisted mainly of doctors, professors, lecturers and researchers in the area of education. Their papers represented research into aspects of pedagogy related to ICT, IWB, digital literacy, ITT etc. They were all experienced (some leading professionals) in their fields and in my mind we didn't compare. I was terrified! That night (Monday) David and I decided to go through our presentation, making sure that we knew which of us was covering which aspect of our 'story'. The fact that we hadn't researched, or weren't presenting facts and figures, but simply sharing our collaborative community and the technologies we used seemed so different to the presentations we had been listening to all day.
As Tuesday dawned I felt like a 'wobbly jelly on a plate'! Thankfully the keynote speech for the morning was more interactive than previous presentations and the content gave both David and I ideas as to possible future projects. Create-A-Scape: mediascapes and curriculum integration gave me all sorts of ideas as to how we might be able to do similar projects at Woodford and in partnership with Meadowbank. I've no doubt we will investigate this further at a later date. I can't say that I concentrated much during the next hour as 11:30 loomed and our 'turn'.
As the hour approached I was surprised to see so many people entering the room. We were now in split sessions and had only anticipated 15 or so. However as we began to get ready the room suddenly filled and people were standing at the back of the room as there weren't enough seats! The chair, Tomas O'Brian left us to introduce ourselves. With prompts in hand we began. Ours was a 'short' paper and therefore only 15 minutes with 5 for discussion. (Long papers were 25 minutes with 5 minute discussion time). We worked well together taking over seamlessly at the relevant points. That was the fastest 15 minutes of my life! We ran out of time, answered further questions and left the 'stage' to a room buzzing and full of praise. I was amazed! Here was a room full of academics congratulating us on our presentation, on our collaboration and the sustainability of the project. During lunch three of the delegates made a beeline for us at lunch in order to continue and further discuss the collaboration. Even at the end of the day during the reporting and discussion session, half of that block was taken up again with discussing us.
Wednesday was a 'cultural' day and we therefore took the opportunity to explore the incredible architecture that is Prague. Charles Bridge, Prague Palace (castle), St Vitus' Cathedral, St George's Basilica, Golden Lane, the Old town Square with its Astronomical Clock offer the most eclectic mix of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classic, Art Nouveau, and contemporary architecture. Prague really is breathtakingly beautiful!

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The final day of the conference explored further themes of educational research into pedagogic practices and the use of ICT. The final keynote speech of the conference focused on 'Embedding interactive whiteboards in teaching and learning: the process of change in pedagogic practice'. It was based on research carried out by the government which ran over 2 years to evaluate the effect of IWB in the classroom, i.e. did the use of the IWB have an effect on raising the standards in Literacy, Numeracy and Science. The research concluded that the length of time pupils were taught with an IWB was the major factor that raised attainment. A point to note however is that the IWB does not always have an impact on lower attaining pupils and these pupils may benefit from using IWB in different ways. How might we tackle achieve this at Woodford? The conference closed with thanks and presentations to the organising committee and goodbyes!

I have not noted the content of all the papers here but over the next few weeks I hope to write more as I review and consider my notes.

I have very much enjoyed my time in Prague. It has been a great experience to present at this conference of the International Federation for Information Processing. At the beginning of the week I was totally overwhelmed by academia and the papers that were being presented but the buzz and comments after our presentation about the work we have been doing with Tohatoha certainly helped put that into some perspective. We now have a peer reviewed, published paper! I even have a certificate as proof of our presentation. This is certainly something to add to my CV! Who knows what will come from this? It will certainly move our links with New Zealand forward as we push to develop our work further. All we need is to maintain the creativity and the enthusiasm.

Journey to Prague

Wenceslas Square, Prague

I have set up a diary 'wiki' to record the collabortaion and developments of the links between Woodford Junior School, Plymouth, Devon and Meadowbank Primary, Aukland, New Zealand. In particular the collaboration between myself and David Kinane which have led us on our 'Journey to Prague'

Learning Platforms – Transforming Learning In Your School

Session 1: Educational Drivers of Change and implications arising for leaders
Julian Nietrzebka and Jim Gardner
This session explored current educational developments and drivers for change, including globalisation, personalisation and the embedding of modern technologies in learning and teaching. The main thrust of the session was we need to be very clear about ‘our’ vision for the future. How do we educate children to enable them to move forward? It is important for schools to self reflect and evaluate where they are now and what the vision for the future is. Think about Global ways of working. What skills will the children need to be successful in a global economy?

It is clear that we live in a changing world. There is is strong focus on sustainability as well as a reliance on technology. We live in an ethically and socially diverse society with complex educational pathways and demanding employers.

One of the key elements of Every Child Matter is to achieve economic well being but do we fuly understand the learning expereineces of our students today and what skills they will need to be successful in a global economy.

What are the skills and attitudes that employers value?
Being able to communicate orally at a high level
Reliability, punctuality and perseverance
Knowing how to work with others in a team
Knowing how to evaluate information critically
Taking responsibility for, and being able to manage one’s own learning and developing the habits of effective learning
Knowing how to work independently without close supervision
Being confident and able to investigate problems and find solutions
Being resilient in the face of difficulties
Being creative, inventive, enterprising and entrepreneurial

There are four main challenges facing schools, including ours:
1.Personalisation
When children were surveyed as to the key changes they would like to see in their learning they were:
The structure of the school day; greater use of electronic devices; Freedom and choice; More technology

2. Transforming of pedagogy
The consideration of the transforming pedagogy is one which highlights the challenge of changing:-
group - personalised, content - process, individual - collaborative, subject - cross curricular, low ICT capability - high ICT capability, short time slots - extended time slots, school based - anytime, anyplace

3. E-maturity
Would we class our school as an e-mature school? Looking at the elements which combine to build an e-mature school I would say no! Some may think this harsh. All the staff use the IWB on a daily basis and the children have access to the ICT Suite twice a week for discrete and cross curricular ICT sessions.

Having recently perused the BECTA self review tool, I feel that e-maturity is most definitely a long way off for us. There are many aspects of ICT at which we are good, but technology is moving forward at such a rate that we are slowly being left behind. Some of us are keen to move forward but are constrained by the blocking of services or by the availabilty of resources. The ICT Suite may have helped develop the skills of the children and is a conveneient way to teach ICT skills but it does not allow the ability to offer real ICT education. An interesting article by John Naughton in the Guardian expands on this.

4. Learning power
We have to consider "How do we enable learning with technology?"

The aspiration is that by 2010 all schools will have integrated learning and management systems so that each individual will be able to maximise their potential through the personalisation of their learning and development.

The changes that need to take take place are time, space, pace and place and that ICT skills become an ICT education of learning, researching, creating, publishing and sharing.

Session 2: Assessment for learning and learning to learn – collaborative online tools
Owen Johnson
Session 3: Enhancing learning, communication, collaboration and information management in the secondary school
Ann Duffy for FROG and Colin Hampton and Peter Twyman from Lipson Community College

Both these sessions were really a sales pitch by the relevant companies for their products RealSmart and FROG. RealSmart includes solutions SmartAfL and ScreenFlash, and integrates a peering system, web content creation, learner controlled calendar, and casting technology to provide a 'real' learning environment centred around the learner. This is currently aimed at the secondary market. It is difficult to see how this might look or operate in a primary environment.

Session 4: Effectively using a Learning Platform to extend learning opportunities
Fiona Aubrey-Smith
This session highlighted how primary schools might really use an LP (in this case from UniServity cLc learning platform) to offer a range of interactive / global learning activities. It showed how LP’s could be used to support collaborative projects, key stage transition and peer mentoring.

Session 5: The Local and Developing Context in the Southwest
John Pering and Ian Southwell
This session looked at the developments occurring within the SWGfL area and at local authority level. It tried to identify the support solutions that will be made available to schools as they build their learning platforms to meet current teaching, learning and administrative needs, but above all to bring transformation into teaching and learning for the future.

George Harrison— “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there”

Transforming Learning is not about Government targets. It is not just about IMPACT but also ENTITLEMENT. It is the opportunity to learn through new methods—Learning Platforms. We shouldn’t be driven by the technology but by what we want to achieve.

The final session really highlighted the inadequacies and unpreparedness of the South West for VLE / LP. Fourteen of the fifteen LA s in SWGfL have agreed to use Merlin which is still in development by RM Netmedia. It is hoped that this will be ready for pilot during the summer term and early adopters in August / September 2008.

It was evident from the atmosphere in the room during this session that there seems to be very little faith in SWGfL / Merlin, especially given the problems which have arisen using the SWGfL Portal! I suppose the question to be asked here is, when 14 out of 15 LAs in SWGfL agreed to take Merlin on board, who made and how was the decision taken? Were Head teachers and teachers in the classroom learning environment consulted? I think from the queries and unease around the room this was not the case!! I await the developments and news from our ICT Coordinator in due course.

Geography Primary Focus Day - 11th March 2008

Reason for attending: Although we do not currently study this Unit, in looking how to improve the cuurent Geography Scheme of Work at Woodford, I felt this might offer ideas for improving those units which we already study.

The focus for the day was based on Unit 13: A contrasting locality in the UK, focussing on Lochinver rather than Llandudno (with strong environmental, sustainability, Literacy, Numeracy and ICT strands). This unit is a good way to address environmental issues.
As always the day provided us with a fully resourced Scheme of Work based around a tiny village of Lochinver on the Scottish West Coast.—photos / activities / ideas—all in hard and soft copy.



In the recent review of KS3 there has been a swing to “integrated topics” - however the appropriate expectations have disappeared. These need to be addressed in individual subjects – e.g. what are the key skills that are subject specific?

This could be the next challenge facing the Primary Curriculum. However, it is important to remember that the level descriptors / expectations should be the spine of the approach.

By the end of KS1 most children would be at Level 2. By the end of KS2 most children will be at Level 4 with some aspects of level 5. It is important in planning a scheme of work to incorporate levels (P)1—4 (even 5).

What’s the point of Geography?
At its heart—it is the study of the physical and human environment and how the two are linked / related. It is not assessment driven but led by intellectual development. Geography should be a range of enquiry based activities—a broad diet of differentiation by activity—a range of learning activities. Think! — where are the children now? What do I want them to do to move on? —How am I going to help them to move forward?

Remember Enquiry based activities are where the children do not know the outcome—they are challenged to come up with answers. Higher order thinking skills are therefore inherent in geography.

The Excellence and Enjoyment document allow us to be creative, imaginative, - intellectually robust whilst maintaining the expectations. This Unit certainly fufills this criteria.

From the Geography Programmes of Study the areas the children should study are:

Key Stage 1
Local Area (referring to the immediate area of the school)
Contrasting local area (UK and abroad)

Key Stage 2
Rivers /or Coasts
Environmental issue
Settlement
Contrasting UK locality (larger area)
Contrasting locality in a less economically developed country.

These were the Key Questions and activities for this unit on Lochinver but they could easily be adapted to any locality study:-

1. What is the site and location of Lochinver?

A great speaking and listening activity to start any study of a place is to consider its site and situation. I’d never really considered these as different before now but this became clear. (not being a geographer by first choice) Situation is where the place is in relation to its complete surroundings. For example Plymouth is in the South West of England in the south of Devon. It is on the coast. It is linked by the A38 to Exeter. It is south of Dartmoor. Site is the original reason for its location. Ask the question why was Plymouth located here? Using maps and photographs of any area is a good way into a study of that locality (especially if it is not easily accessible)
2. What things can you see from the grounds of Lochinver school?
4. Why is Highland Stoneware in Lochinver an example of a manufacturing industry?
5. Is the fishing of langoustine at Lochinver sustainable?
6. Why does Lochinver have such a large number of services?
7. Where do people stay when they visit Lochinver on holiday?
8. Why do people come to Lochinver on holiday?
9. What happens at a fish farm and is it a good thing?
10. How does the environment around Lochinver Primary School compare with the environment around our school?
11. What do I like about living where I do and what would make it better?
12. How and why is the environment at Little Assynt changing?

This unit contains a sustainability issue about the fishing of langoustines which are flown to Spain. It allows a cross curricular link in using Numeracy to work out the ‘carbon footprint’ of this industry comparing it to average household carbon footprints. This can then link to a climate change issue which allows us to personalise the issue of climate change. Using a picture (in this case) of Elhaji cleaning shoes in Banjul and a photograph of a Lochinver fisherman and asking how the two are linked.

Another environmental issue / science link is the life cycle of salmon which are farmed in the bay. The study also looks at how the area is being changed and looks at the recolonisation of pine martens to their native habitat. This provides great links with Science / habitats and adaptations.

In considering the Geography at Woodford Junior School and reviewing the curricular map—we currently cover 5 units of geography, where we need only to cover four.

In Year 3 is a study of Chembakoli (Contrasting locality on a less economically developed country)
In Year 4 there is a study of Climate Change (Environmental Issue)
In Year 5 is a study of Totnes (Settlement) and Rivers
In Year 6 a study of World Heritage and Coasts.

The Rivers unit in year 5 is being developed to include a study of rivers in Gambia to develop the Global Dimension of the curriculum. The World heritage and coasts Unit also allows for study a contrasting locality in a less economically developed country.
The Units on Climate Change and World Heritage and Coasts are new units and have been resourced through previous geography focus days. They are therefore enquiry based units of work. They also include a global dimension and have allowed the development of cross curricular work. A deeper study of the other units need to be made to ensure that these units also allow the children to develop a range of skills at all levels of expectations, as well offering activities which will encourage the development of good geographers.

E-Safety Conference,

With the surge of Web2.0 tools, social networking sites, blogs, wikis etc and my continuing exploration of all that is cyber-space, I felt it was important to learn more about the issues and problems that we as educators face in this ever increasing digital age. Even I have fallen foul of dubious individuals trying to contact me via Skype. I was too eager to use technology and not quite savvy enough to block unwanted attention. Needless to say my New Zealand link, David Kinane soon pointed out the error of my profile! As we as educators have greater access to the internet and its treasures and increasingly share these with our children we must also take responsibility for their safety.

This post is written from my notes and jottings at the conference.

The first keynote speech was made by Stephen Carrick-Davies of Childnet International.
It is true that we want or need to model good practice. With ever increasing online tools that are free to use and easy to register to this is an exciting and also challenging time. Children enjoy and benefit from using technology, however we need to ensure that children are safe online. We should recognise and understand the dangers whilst also embracing the opportunities.

A group of students from Falmouth College were asked what they loved about the internet. The responses were as would be expected. It is easier to contact friends, using MSN and Bebo. Nowadays this access is a very personal and portable technology. To many parents though and even some educators it is still unexplored territory and as such is seen as dangerous and to be avoided.

An interesting point made by Stephen was:-

“……. earlier generations had to sit through huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this:

1. Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2. Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3. Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.”
Douglas Adams

I want to be able to exploit the benefits of the internet, maybe not in the same way as young people might ...... but certainly in a way that it was intended. My recent links with New Zealand would certainly fulfill its creators vision.

Tim Berners-Lee ‘Weaving the Web’ 1999

"The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for social effect - to help people work together - and not as a technical toy…. The ultimate goal of the web is to support and improve our web like existence in the world"

The Internet is part of modern childhood. "The online converged world is the child's world." It is always on. It offers an active not passive medium. It is anonymous. It allows access to the world. It allows acceptance– identity and status. It gives children a voice. It is away from supervision. It is addictive.

With this in mind then what does a shared responsibility look like? What are the issues for schools, curriculum, CPD and parents? With the increase of Web2.0 the use of the internet is changing. Web2.0 allows uploading, creativity, personal, converged media and is truly interactive. In schools this is supervised, filtered and monitored. Out of school though there is often no supervision, filtering or monitoring and young peoples social speak allows a simple POS to warn others of “parent over my shoulder” or even MTIW GTG “my teacher is watching—got to go!"

In conducting a very simple survey with my class (aged 8/9) I found that several used MSN to contact friends and family and also shared BEBO accounts with older siblings. This highlights that though we may feel that children at 8 years of age would not be accessing social networking sites they are.

Daniel Broughton MD a pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic says

we are doing our children a disservice if we try to remove all risks from their lives.

I agree but we must therefore make them aware of the risks and how to deal with them.

Stephen suggests we must avoid Digital Panic and Digital Promise and look realistically at the positive opportunities of Social Networking which are:

1. Young people have a space to hang out and express themselves and “gather” in an adult free space, in much the same way as young people used to at the youth club


2. There is an opportunity to be creative, and express themselves with original content, customise pages and engage in collective self expression and collaboration.


3. Young people need a space to manage risks for identity and test boundaries. Most appear to be capable of self-regulation if they are made aware of the risks.


4. There is active communication, strengthening of existing relationships, sharing ideas, supporting and helping each other.


5. They are acquiring new skills which are highly valued in the new knowledge economy. e.g. - creativity, presentation, team building, retrieving information, assessing value, analysing, reviewing etc.
   

The dangers to children of the net are threefold. Through commerce, invasion of privacy and the blur between advertising and information; through content, inaccuracies, extreme views and pornography and its self created and finally through contact, unwanted contact, paedophiles and cyber bullying.

What then is cyber bullying?

It is “The use of ICT, particularly mobile phones & internet, deliberately to upset someone else” The range of technology used in cyber bullying is wide and complex from Mobile phones, IM, Chat, Email and Webcam to Social networking & Video-hosting sites, Virtual Learning Environments and Gaming. As with any form of bullying it can ruin the lives of children (and adults!). Research from the Anti bullying Alliance, 2007, quotes that 22% of young people (in the UK) reported being the target of cyber bullying. It appears to be a growing issue of concern. This is a whole-school community issue and strategies are needed to prevent and respond to it.

How is it different from other forms of bullying?

There is often a change of role - the bully may be weak and the victim strong! Due to the forever on nature of technology there is a lack of closure. The perception of anonymity, often results in saying things that wouldn’t be said face to face. It can be 24/7 contact – there is no escape even at home. As it is not face to face it is not always possible to see the affect.

Cyber bullying does leave a trail! A trail that can be traced as was illustrated by the next keynote speech. (to be dealt with in a another post)

The key Question for Schools is:
Do we recognise the educational value of these online services, pilot new models of learning and embed E-Safety into the PSHE, Citizenship, ICT Curriculum ?

OR

See this as purely an “out of school issue” and “simply” block and control student’s use of these services?

To tackle this effectively it should be a partnership of the whole school community, between teachers, young people and their parents / guardians.

Stephen suggests that for teachers:

TEACHER TRAINING & CPD
Teachers urgently need help in understanding the technology and safeguarding issues.
PRACTICAL CURRICULUM- RELEVANT RESOURCES
Supremely relevant to the Curriculum and E-safety education gives unique opportunity to address offline issues with relevancy, child-centricity and impact
SUPPORT IN PROMOTING POSITIVE USAGE WITHIN SCHOOLS
Recognise educational value of these services. Pilot and nurture new models of learning.

For Parents:

“Parents and the home environment they create are the single most important factor in shaping their children’s well-being, achievements and prospects” Alan Johnson Education Secretary

BETTER ENGAGEMENT WITH TECHNOLOGY
Parents trust information which comes from schools. They need help in understanding the Social web and the very real “out of school” dangers

SUPPORT IN ENGAGING WITH CHILDREN - For example 4 out of 10 young people say that they receive no or very little information from their parents about sensitive or “risky” issues, (Every Parent Matters)

and for Young people

PROMOTE ONLINE CITIZENSHIP + ACTIVE CARE FOR THEIR PEERS You can’t download an “Empathy” patch !

SUPPORT Young People IN THE CREATION OF THEIR OWN RESOURCES
We are not capitalising on the very obvious part of the solution!

VALIDATE INFORMAL LEARNING AND PROMOTE THE POSITIVE!
We negate children’s moral leadership at our peril. YP can change the world positively with this technology !

So do we......

Do we recognise the educational value of these online services, pilot new models of learning and embed E-Safety into the PSHE, Citizenship, ICT Curriculum?
OR
See this as purely an “out of school issue” and “simply” block and control student’s use of these services?

Blocking of services is one which I already have many frustrations with. In our collaborative work with New Zealand, Web2.0 tools and even our joint blog were initially blocked. You Tube is still blocked and means that videos we produce cannot be uploaded there but have to go via Teacher Tube instead - this is not always as reliable and thus has its own frustrations! David's avatar of me (left) was created after a particularly frustrtaing day of the blog being blocked and not being able to view a video which had been uploaded by Meadowbank about their school day. I hope that at Woodford we can embrace the opportunities and educational value of online services and surge forward into the technologocal age with as much confidence as our young people!

Watch this space!!

Coming to terms with French grammar, pronuncaition and vocabulary.

Session 8 - 27th November 2007
The final session! Today focused on vocabulary and conversation involved with meals, food shopping and ordering food in a restaurant. We also drafted a letter for a pen pal (final homework task!).

Qu’est-ce que tu manges pour le petit déjeuner? - des cereales, un croissant, un pain au chocolat, du pain, du pain grille, des fruits, du beurre, de la confitire, du miel, du sucre, du cafe, du lait, du chocolat chaud, du jus d'orange et de'leau. When we want to say some (de) of...... note the use of du (de + le) and de la (de + la) and des (de + les).

Role play was the last session, with me being set up at the end big style! I played waiter to my partner and Gabrielle ( at the last moment!). However I got through it with more confidence than I would have at the beginning of the sessions!

A suggestion when teaching vocabulary is to use different colour to show masculine and feminine
la salade, le poisson, les pâtes, le riz, la glace, le yaourt, les chips, le jambon, le sandwich, le coca, les frites, le poulet, la viande, la pizza.

Addi tonal useful phrases in this were tant pis - never mind and Il n'y a rien - there is nothing and il n'y a pas du pain and le chef est parti!

We finished with expressing opinions eg - j'aime, j'adore or je n'aime pas, je deteste, c'est superbe, c'est cool, c'est null!

Did the course meet my expectations and what are the next stages for me?
The Objectives of the course were:·

To manage basic grammar appropriate to the classroom

To understand important pronunciation rules

To learn vocabulary/structures appropriate to classroom teaching

My Reasons for Attending were that in order to support staff in my role as MFL coordinator it was important that I have a good grasp of the basics in French. Although I did French at school and have a degree of simple conversation, this course would offer a good opportunity to refresh this.

The course has certainly allowed me to build a vocabulary and understanding of basic grammar which is appropriate to the classroom at key stage 2. Pronunciation was always my concern in speaking French and Gabrielle has really highlighted the importance of good and correct pronunciation. We have practised and practised this throughout the last eight weeks and i feel that I have fair grasp of pronunciation now! I don't claim to be expert but I certainly have enough knowledge now to support staff through the introduction of french next term.

If the opportunity arose to attend further courses at an intermediate level, then this would be beneficial. i certainly think that next year, if the same course is available that other members of staff may benefit too.

The next stages in my role are to procure the relevant software / access to Heinemanns "Tout le Monde" series and to write the scheme of work for the first year of French teaching. This needs to include links to relevant software, songs and fun activities for staff and children. I intend to make all planning electronic so links are embedded in the planning and easily accessible!

My Amazing Journey - Rising to the Challenge!

Well, I have finally completed the challenge set by David in his post A challenge for you All. Although I was keen to record my daily jaunt from Cornwall to Devon across the River Tamar, the logistics of setting up the laptop with a webcam on the dashborad of the car were ones which I did not overcome. Eventually following David's lead (without bike!) I decided to set up my Camcorder instead! The first time was a disaster as the tape I chose to fix the camera came loose and the camera slid across the dash and back again! After a few days contemplation, David suggested duck tape! The next few days proved pointless with the good old British weather dampening proceedings! It was then, one bright crisp November morning that I ventured forth with duck tape and camcorder (duly charged and ready to go). If only I'd had foresight! A normal journey of 35 to 40 mins became 57 minutes. You will note the extended time taken to get through the Tamar Tunnel and across the bridge. Some unfortunate had caused an accident just off the toll gates of the bridge! Anyway the video got to its last length just as I arrived at my destination! Job done! Reducing the video file to just a little short of 8 minutes creates an almost rollercoaster feel to the ride -yes it makes me feel giddy, but then I've never been able to get on any fairground rides! For those of you who brave enough to view - have fun!

Yesterday I also recorded the journey home as this follows the route across the Torpoint Ferry. The light just about lasted! The end of the journey looks dark but, honestly I did have my lights on and could see clearly!

I have to admit that after completing the same journey for the past 7 years it had become a journey in automatic pilot. The challenge made me take note once again and although the camera sees only the road and wide angle straight ahead, the fields, the river, IK Brunel's bridge and the rising sun to the side made me realise how fortunate I am to live in such a beautiful county!

Coming to terms with Basic french Grammar, Pronunciation and Vocabulary

Sessions 3 - 6 (16th, 30th October / 6th , 13th November 2007)
Session 7 - 20th November 2007 - apologies for absense sent

I have been preoccupied with other projects recently and therefore any record of my improving French granmar, pronunciation and vocabulary is sadly off track. I will attempt to remedy this now.

The past four sessions have seen us encouraged to work hard on our reading and pronunciation of "La chenille qui fait des trous".

Session 3 provided a plethora of information and instruction on the formation and pronunciation of verbs in the masculin, feminin, singulier, pluriel, first person, third person etc. My french lessons of 30 years ago came flooding back as we chanted Je coupe, tu coupes il/elle/on coupe, nous coupons, vous coupez, ils / elles coupent.

1st person singular : -e
2nd person singular : -es
3rd person singular : -e
1st person plural : -ons
2nd person plural : -ez
3rd person plural : -ent

Then of course, as with all things grammatical, there is the irregular set! eg pouvoir, svoir, devoir, vouloir etc.

In French, there is no neuter pronoun (" it " in English). That means that things can be either masculine or feminine. In English, the 2nd person pronoun is " you " whether in singular or plural. Formally, in French, if you talk to one single person, you use " tu " and if you talk to a group of people, you must use " vous ". In fact, the " tu " form is commonly used between people of same age, or same social rank. When talking to an older person or to somebody above you in rank or someone you do not know very well you should use vous form. " tu " marks familiarity while " vous " marks respect.

Session 4 started with a quick survey (Faire un sondage). Collated data was then presented using bar charts etc - good cross curricular links for FL, Maths and ICT. Also a great activity for practising verbs in the imperative is "Jacques a dit". Much of this session looked at how to write / give instructions for simple tasks which would easily link to instructions work in literacy. The grammar is the same in that the inperative verb comes at the beginning of the sentence and is in the vous form (you formal). The following are my instructions - can you follow them?

Instruction une Carte Noel

Prenez un fueille de papier

Pliez en duex

Decoupex ine etoile d'or

Collez l'etoile au milieu du papier

Ecrivez "Joyeux Noel" au dessus l'etiole

Ecrivez votre message dans la carte

A suggested website with useful instructions was the cookshow.com where simple french recipes can be accessed along with video. Once in the site, select recipes and the french as the language.

Tarte aux Pommes

Session 5 was very interesting as we spent time considering the pronunciation of l'alphabet and how letters can be grouped to help learn the pronunciation.

A H K (ah, ash, kah)

B C D G T V W (bay, cay, day. jhay, tay, vay, doublevay)

E (eu)

F L M N R S Z (ef, el, em, en, air, es, zed)

I J X Y (ee, ghee, iks, ik-grek)

O (o as in hot)

Q U (koo, oo)

A good game to reinforce the correct pronunciation of l'aphabet is Le Pendu (Hangman).

In reading "La Chenille..." there are many liaisons where once silent letters merge with those which come after eg. mais elle a, un petit oeuf etc

Session 6 started with considering when to use a, en and chez for example a Paris, en France, chez LeLerre.

a + le = au, a +les = aux

A good game to use for reinforcing vocabulary is Kim's game " Qu'est-ce qu'il manque?" (what's missing?)

Possesive Pronouns in French les adjectifs possessifs

In French, they agree with the following noun. But in the plural, there is no difference between masculine and feminine.

For example son cheval = his / her horse. The possessive pronoun refers to the masculin horse (le cheval)

C'est le chat de Marie ; c'est son chat.

Mon père travaille dur.
Nous avons trouvé tes chaussures.
Nous gardons leurs enfants.

Useful Websites:

Languages Online
Languages Online (Australia)
Primary Languages

Video Resources
Stories in French

French Langauge Course

The French Tutorial

Coming to terms with Basic French Grammar, pronunciation and Vocabulary

Session 2 (9th October 2007)

The focus for today's session was very much grammar and intonation. Regional dialects and poor annunciation often mean that in English spoken language the wrong interpretataion can be made. How often have you heard the voice raise at the end of a sentence - yet it wasn't a question!! In french it is very importnat to maintain the correct intonation. For example in questions where there is a yes/no repsonse the intonation would go up at the end of the question. Where a longer repsonse may be necessary then the intonation raises in the middle. In general a statement has one level of intonation but the accent is on the last syllable that is heard. (see grahic for clarification).

In French there are 9 personal prounouns (les pronoms personnels - je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles) and it is important that we know when the etiquette of using these, especially tu et vous.

Questions are easy to introduce and use in the classroom. Children can respond to questions which they hear with simple phrases.

Comment ca va? - How are you? Ca va bien!

Qui est-ce? Who is it? C'est Henri!

Ou habites tu? Where do do live? J'habite en Cornouille.

Qu'est-ce que c'est? C'est un crayon.

Quel age as-tu? How old are you?

Quand est-tu ne(e)? When were you born?

Pour quoi as-tu froid? Why are you cold? Parce que c'est l'hiver!

A point to note in pronunciation is that an 's' between two vowels becomes 'z'

When learning numbers - make sure the children learn how to write numbers in French correctly as there are significant differences which must be observed. Sing the numbers to weel known tunes and play bingo in french.

We reviewed places in France and asked Ou habites tu? J'habite a Lyon... When talking about towns etc then we use 'a' ...a Plymouth, a Paris, a Madrid but when talking about countries / regions then we use 'en'......en Cornuoille, en France, en Espagne.

We also reviewed the days of the week, months and seasons briefly.

Relevant documents and files can be found here

Coming to terms with Basic French Grammar, pronunciation and Vocabulary

Course Focus:
Run under the auspices of the Plymouth Early Language Learning regional Support Group. The aim is to develop linguistic competence and confidence teaching/ starting to teach French (Ks1/Ks2) The focus will be primarily on language improvement and pronunciation but there will be many practical activities / games and a short review of commercially produced resources.
Objectives:
· To manage basic grammar appropriate to the classroom
· To understand important pronunciation rules
· To learn vocabulary/structures appropriate to classroom teaching


Reasons for Attending:
In order to support staff in my role as MFL coordinator it is important that I have a good grasp of the basics in French. Although I did French at school and have a degree of simple conversation, this course would offer a good opportunity to refresh this.

Session 1: Tuesday 2nd October 2007
I have to admit to being incredibly nervous when I arrived for this the first of eight sessions, to improve my French grammar, pronunciation and vocabualry. This heightened at the realisation that the course leader was native French and that at least one other attending this sessions was fluent! There are in fact only five of us! A small intimate group!.... so very quickly we have to get over any nerves and embarassment at not quite having the correct pronunciation or vocabulary. As the session progressed, I quickly realised and reinforced that I understand much more than I can actually vocalise confidently. But then this is what this course is all about. Gabrielle Bogart insists in explaining everything in French (well almost) and reinforces that this is exactly as we should when teaching our children. As soon as you start to translate, the language is lost! This first session then was an assessment of our language capabilities in French. It included simple and basic introductions - Je m'appelle..... Comment tu t'appelles? Ca va, Oui, ca va bien / Comme ci comme ca! Non, ca va pas! (Not strictly correct if written but acceptable in spoken french... correctly written it should be .....Non, ca ne va pas). Quel age as tu? J'ai......ans. Ou habite tu? J'habite a Plymouth / en Cornouille. A simple test encouraged us to listen for the sounds i / u / ou and identify which sound we heard. A score of 14/15 was a great relief! Roll on session 2!

Our task for this week then is to practise our introdcutions. With our classes, take the register in French and sing "Joyeux Anniversaire" if appropriate!

Resources supplied at this session can be found at the following link. Inclded are the first two parts (mp3 files) of "The very Hungry Caterpillar" in French which we will read at the end of our eight sessions with perfect pronunciation and expression!

I have done the register in French with the class, but the first approporiate birthday will actually fall the day after our second session!

I have ordered the Eric Carle book via Amazon France!

International School Award 25th September 2007

Course Focus:
John Rolfe from the British Council will set out the requirements of the award and its relevance to all schools.

Reasons for Attending:
As we will be applying for the full award this year—it is important that we are clear as to the requirements and also how evidence can be submitted.


Full ISA accreditation lasts for 3 years. There are already 23 schools across Plymouth who have the full award. The South West seems to be leading the way in International / global work.

The work of the school in developing the International dimension of the curriculum is an area which can attract local / national media coverage. The work should highlight a sense of staff and pupils as ‘global citizens’.

To achieve the Full International School Award – it is important that a portfolio of evidence to collected. It has been agreed that we can submit an e-portfolio as evidence. This could be the first one that the British Council accepts and if we get it right could be used as an exemplar for schools in the future.


We must:
have an international policy and co-ordinator (with a job description) / committee
ensure that the majority of activities are curriculum based ( recently the British Council panel discounted activities which were after school clubs)
there must be at least 7 activities with at least 75% of the children involved
ensure that arrange of year groups and subject areas are involved in international activities
ensure that the activities are all year round.
evaluate the impact of the international activities ( this needs to be a light touch)
include collaborative work with partner schools in other countries – there must be evidence of this
use arrange of opportunities and programmes ( e.g TIPD Comenius, World links, IPH)
consider how the wider school community can be involved

The timescale for the full application:-
September 07 – December 07 – schools apply online
September 07 – July 08 – activities undertaken with evidence collated
July 08 – portfolios submitted to the British Council panel
October 08 – awards presented

The target is that by 2012 that all schools will be involved in international activities

“One can’t truly educate young people in this country without the international dimension being a very significant and real part of that education.”

ECM – Put the World in your Class

In collecting the evidence – even when activities fail include supplementary activities.

Jill Bailey introduced me to John Rolfe (British Council). Both are impressed by the work (Tohatoha BLOG) we have with Meadowbank and also my initial e-portfolio. (Jill has set up a BLOG for her work with China after seeing our work!) We also discussed the possibility of obtaining funding for my visit to Prague, should the presentation that David Kinane and I propose, be accepted.

It is important that as the first school to present their work as an e-portfolio that we get it right. I can collate the portfolio and present but I need everyone to support me in this by providing electronic copies of their work and evidence of children’s work and photos. This should not be an onerous task as the “Portfolio Evidence” folders are set up on the network and all I request is that planning, flips (where appropriate), examples of children’s work, photos, audio and video recording are uploaded to the relevant files. The International element is not just another curriculum subject but seen as the way forward in ensuring that our children are prepared for the world in which they are growing up in an ever shrinking world. It can and should be an integral part of the curriculum and afford us ways to think more creatively in the way in which we plan. The recent Geography Conference – see previous Blog- highlights how an international element can be integrated into key themes of water, recycling, climate change, environmental issues. Certainly something for us all to think on!

Follow up actions:
· Apply for Full ISA by December 2007
· Collate evidence and resources and update e-portfolio
· Maintain contact with Jill Bailey and John Rolfe re funding
· Continue to look for partners—eTwinning etc—liaise with Julie Downs
· Consider how to get staff fully on board for the International dimension in our curriculum?

Ensure that the e-portfolio contains the elements required as outlined in an e-mail from John Finch