Primary Teacher UK

Do You Remember The First time?

New school musical deals with transitions from child’s first day in primary until they leave for secondary school. Managing a class’ transition from primary to secondary school requires delicate handling and a well thought out process. Guidance offered to teachers includes integrating transition activities into the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) programme teaching pupils how to deal with change and to have a leaving ceremony on the last day in year six class as a clear signal to the pupils that they are moving on.

A new leavers’ musical called Do You Remember The First time? for year six classes in primary school, incorporates all of these activities in a single summer term project climaxing with the final performance at the end of term.

The musical by year six teacher and musician Andrew Oxspring of Edgy Productions is a celebration of the real “First time” experiences children go through during the course of their primary school lives. Reminding pupils of the transitional changes they have already gone through, teachers can show them that change is not as scary as it may at first seem and that it should be a positive step forward in their lives.

Do You Remember the First Time? reminds pupils about some of the many “first times” they have already experienced including: their first day at school, learning to tell the time, waiting outside the office after being sent to the Head, their first sports day and the first time they were allowed to join an after school club.

The whole thing culminates in the children’s first real goodbye, introducing the class to new feelings and new expectations as life gets more serious and more exciting, all captured in the final scene and song, “The End Of The Road.” Andrew Oxspring first wrote school musicals to help his own year six classes to reflect on their time at primary school and prepare for their scary move up to “Big School”.

He says, “I believe children benefit from a half term’s stress-free reflection on all that has been achieved across the board, during the children’s final year and throughout their time at primary school. It shows them how far they have already come and gets them ready for the next step.”

Do You Remember The First Time? comes with a full script including detailed stage directions and production tips, a CD of vocal and backing tracks, continuity music and sound effects and piano score with vocal line and guitar chords.

For more information please go to www.edgyproductions.com or call 0845 8333348

Turn off your lights and enjoy an Earth Hour of darkness

You might not expect me to be asking you to turn your lights off, but that's exactly what I'm doing on Saturday 28th March.  That's because, from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm wherever you are in the world, we will be plunged into darkness for this year's Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is a global WWF climate change initiative which invites individuals, businesses, governments and communities to turn out their lights for one hour on one day of the year to show their support for action on climate change. The event began in Sydney in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights. In 2008, more than 50 million people around the globe participated. In 2009, Earth Hour aims to reach out to 1 billion people in 1,000 cities and act as the first ever global election, in which people vote for planet Earth (and against climate change) simply by switching off their lights.

Some well-known landmarks all across the world are getting involved too; the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and Golden Gate Bridge will all switch off their lights, and our very own London Eye will be dimmed in support.

Check out http://www.earthhour.org/ for more information and to register your support for Earth Hour.

The Life Channel becomes the Change4Life Channel

For the whole month of January, The Life Channel will be transforming its entire network branding in support of cross-government campaign, Change4Life.

Aiming to help every family in England eat well, move more and live longer, Change4Life is a new movement supported by the Department of Health which primarily focuses on the issue of
obesity in children.

The Life Channel TV network’s mission is similar to Change4Life: to help and inform the general public. Key community, health and well-being messages are broadcast on The Life Channel’s screens, which are strategically placed in hotspots where people carry out their daily lives; including doctors’ surgeries, schools and other community outlets in the UK and overseas in South Africa and across Ireland.

“We are very proud to be involved in the launch of this great campaign,” said Phil Austin, Managing Director of The Life Channel. “Change4Life underpins the programming strategy across The Life Channel’s networks and is therefore a fantastic fit. We hope that our TV channel, out in the community and with an audience of 5 million per month, will help ensure that parents and children get the message.”

This is the first time The Life Channel has changed its carefully built up,  recognisable channel brand identity. Change4Life’s campaign is very clearly branded with a distinctive yellow background and simple figures. All communication follows brand guidelines which are available for all partners to use. The campaign has also produced an introductory advertising campaign with 90” and 60” executions.
It is also the first time that The Life Channel has allowed any paid-for messaging on its Schools network. The full 90” version will play on The Life Channel Schools network and will be available for download from the Schools Portal (www.tlcschools.tv).

If Change4Life’s campaign is successful, The Life Channel will have helped to make England the first major nation to reverse the rising tide of obesity in the population.

TeacherShare

TeachShare is an resource for teachers related to a range of environmental topics.  TeachShare, has now added a new Eco Christmas section. Eco Christmas is their first theme and contains:

• Christmas Assembly Ideas
• Christmas Themed Classroom Projects
• Festive Fun Ideas
• Christmas Inspired Innovations

You can get free access to TeachShare by using the promotion code ecoc08 and fill in a few more details. Once you have registered and activated your TeachShare account, logon to TeachShare, click on the Santa animation or the Eco Christmas link on the left menu and enter the Christmas Eco wonderland.

If you have any content that you would like to share with other teachers, let TeacherShare know. They aim to put any selected material on the website within 24 hrs, along with recognition for your efforts.

Link: http://teachshare.resike.co.uk/

MyDish.co.uk Cookbook

Carol Savage, founder of MyDish.co.uk, is hoping to transform the eating habits of children by helping schools create their very own personlised cookbooks.

The MyDish initiative has been hailed as a great way to get kids involved in cooking and interested in eating well.  MyDish hopes the cookbook can be used as a fun, practical incentive for children to get more involved in the kitchen.

Participating schools will reap the benefits by receiving 100% of the profits from all sales of the books. Schools are welcome to take part as an entire school or as an individual class - it is up to the school.  The books will be created with selected recipes donated by the pupils including their own hand picked photographs, pictures and recipe memories.  

Carol Savage says ‘the government has stated their intention to tackle the issue, but our own initiative could have a huge impact on the problem. Not only will it get kids interacting and swapping tips, but it will help push healthy eating back to the top of the agenda’.

You can find out more on the MyDish website at schools.MyDish.co.uk.

Learning together to be safe toolkit

Schools can play a key role in empowering young people to reject the messages of violent extremism, Ed Balls the Schools Secretary said as he launched advice for schools on how to contribute to the fight against violent extremism. The Learning together to be safe toolkit aims to show how all schools can help build mutual respect and understanding, encourage debate and provide support to vulnerable pupils.

While violent extremism influenced by Al Qaida currently poses the greatest security threat other forms of extremism and hate- or race-based prejudice are also affecting our communities and causing alienation amongst young people. The toolkit shows how education can be used to tackle all forms of extremism and build a stronger, safer society based on core British values.

The toolkit responds to calls from practitioners for practical advice and is the result of extensive consultation with young people, teachers, and community representatives. It is part of to the Government’s wider PREVENT strategy.

Local areas need to work together to address the particular issues they face. The Government is providing £4.68 million additional funding for local authorities and the police to provide customised local information and support schools in using the toolkit.

The Government are also making the “Watch Over Me” DVD – a resource for schools to use to explore controversial issues with pupils – available free for all schools for the next three years.

The toolkit aims to:

• Raise awareness of the threat from violent extremist groups and the risks for young people and provide information on how schools can work with others in partnership locally;
• Show schools the positive contribution they can make – equipping young people to challenge extremist views through programmes like SEAL in primary schools and Citizenship in secondary schools; and
• Encourage staff to support vulnerable pupils and manage risks.

You can download the toolkit from: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/violentextremism/toolkitforschools/

Hands On Scotland

HandsOnScotland,  is an online resource for anybody working with children and young people. The website provides practical information and techniques on how to respond helpfully to children and young people's troubling behaviour, build up their self-esteem and promote their positive mental wellbeing.

The website was commissioned by the Scottish government through HeadsUpScotland and was developed by Playfield Institute (NHS Fife) in partnership with Barnardo's and the University of Dundee.

You can view the website at: www.handsonscotland.co.uk

Shift Happens

Here's an interesting video to help focus our minds on the need for education to embrace a fast changing world. The video is release under the Creative Commons lisence which allows you to download it for use as long as you credit its source. You may also modify the video as long as your new creation is released on the web.

If you haven't already seen this video then have a look. There are various versions of it - here's the version that I liked at Microsoft. For more details on how the video could be used in courses have a look at the Shift Happens wiki.

Google Education

Google is launching a website with resources and news for teachers. The free online materials show how to adapt Google Maps and Google Earth for classroom use. Google says it will support lessons in history, geography and citizenship.

History topics include the slave trade, castles and the British Empire and geography topics include climate change and natural disasters - based around information integrated with Google's online maps. While these are based mainly for secondary pupils there is certainly potential for some of the materials and ideas to be used with KS2.

Link: http://www.google.co.uk/schools/index.html

What Money Means

Late last week, teachers and MPs came together at the House of Commons to celebrate the launch of What Money Means, a unique five-year programme developed by educational charity pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) and HSBC to improve financial teaching in primary schools

Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North & Leith and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt and Personal Finance, sponsored the event and delivered a speech praising the programme. HSBC Bank chief executive Dyfrig John and pfeg chief executive Wendy van den Hende also spoke, praising the work teachers and local authorities have done to ensure primary school children are given the knowledge they need to become financially capable.

Teachers and representatives from local authorities were present at the event to celebrate the success of their projects, which took place in Bolton, Medway, Hartlepool and Tower Hamlets.

What Money Means has been developed by pfeg and is supported by HSBC with an investment of £3.4 million and the involvement of up to ten thousand volunteers from across the organisation. It is the only national initiative of its kind specifically designed to improve financial capability education in primary schools. Over the next five years, What Money Means will provide 17,500 primary schools with resources, materials and support in the classroom that will help teachers equip children with a solid understanding of how to use money responsibly. It is expected that through the programme around 10,000 HSBC employees will support the initiative in their local communities by working with teachers and parents to share their expertise.

What Money Means will bring pfeg, local authorities and educationalists together to develop resources and approaches that will help primary school teachers feel more confident teaching money skills to younger children. Primary age pupils have considerable awareness of money and a strong savings instinct but by the time they reach their late teens many have already experienced debt. What Money Means is designed to help meet the needs of individual schools, while making lessons relevant to children’s everyday lives.

You can get more information on the What Money Means project from the pfeg website: http://www.pfeg.org/Primary/WMM/AboutWMM.asp including details on how to get hold of a copy.

For those schools focusing on Economic Well Being this will be an essential resource.