Bromley ICT Forum Blog

“Teachers here in the UK have the job of ensuring that children grow up with an understanding of the interconnectedness of the world and the positive role that they can play in today’s global society.”    Department for International Development/DCSF Bringing the World into the Classroom 2008

 London’s Development Education Centre, the Humanities Education Centre (HEC), based in Tower Hamlets, is working with London Grid for Learning to promote the global dimension and poverty reduction agendas in our schools. It aims to support all groups and providers working in or with schools to frame what they are doing within the global dimension. HEC has been working with Tower Hamlets City Learning Centre and e-Learning Team over the past few years exploring ways of using ICT to deliver the global dimension.

It has now launched a global portal that has areas for teachers and their students to start exploring, across the curriculum issues such as water, gender, health, transport, food, trade, tourism etc, and there are webquests exploring how the DfID works, what is sustainability, how to be a UN Special Rapporteur for human rights…

Visit the Global Portal; book HEC to run a free session for your CLC or PDC or conference or professional development day; or for advice and support contact: e-mail: hec@gn.apc.org  global portal: www.global.lgfl.net

tel: 020 7364 6405                     fax: 020 7364 6422 

website: www.citizenship-pieces.org.uk

http://www.globaldimension.org.uk 

On behalf of

Michael Newman

Global Citizenship Project Worker

Humanities Education Centre and City Learning Centre

Tower Hamlets Professional Development Centre

The Renewed Framework for Numeracy on the London Grid for Learning

I-Board Maths for KS1 joins KS2 Multemaths from Cambridge-Hitachi and BEAM’s Maths Raps to provide London’s Primary schools with a really comprehensive coverage of the renewed Framework for Numeracy.
Working together through LGfL, the London local authorities have purchased these resources for their schools at a fraction of the cost per individual school. By making them available online on the Grid, this saves each individual ICT co-ordinator the time and bother of installing the software on each school machine, LGfL can deal with technical problems centrally and teachers can access the resources at home by using their LGfL username and password.

I-Board Numeracy is organised into the seven new strands across each year group
It has hundreds of interactive maths activities to strengthen pedagogy and employ whiteboards as an effective resource.

At every level, the user can
• launch the activity
• check the Help button for the selected activity to find out how the activity works
• send feedback on the activity (or suggestions for new ones) back to the developers at I-Board

Find this in the KS1 Maths menu or directly at www.iboardmaths.lgfl.net

(From Caroline Greenall and Penny Jones) 

Free Interactive Whiteboard Training Event
LAST CHANCE

Churchfields Primary and Nursery School are excited to be hosting an Interactive Whiteboard users cluster meeting on Tuesday 10th June
3.45 (for refreshments)
4.00pm – 5.00pm
Come along to:

• Find out some free training tips
• Share flipcharts and resources
• Update yourself on the new developments in IWB technology including pupil response systems
• See a range of new available software
• Every attendee will receive a free goodie bag of ready to use resources
• Lots of great competitions with fantastic prizes
• Have free refreshments

Everyone Welcome

This event is run in conjunction with Promethean Technologies but is suitable for users of all IWB software and hardware.

Don’t forget to bring along your memory key!

If you would like to attend please email:
pennyj.churchfields.bromley@lgfl.net

If you would like to take the opportunity to share your own good practice or demonstrate any of the work you have done using IWBs please let us know, we can definitely fit you in.

Penny Jones (DHT) & Caroline Greenall (ICT SL)
Churchfields Primary and Nursery School
Churchfields Road
Beckenham
BR3 4QY
0208 650 5247

(Message from Alison Tanner and Seld Ziya)

 Venue:Darrick
Wood
Junior
School BR6 8ERDate:  Wednesday 11^th June

I am writing to invite you to an event which we are holding at Darrick Wood Junior school on Wednesday 11^th June at 4pm.

The purpose of the event is to bring teaching practitioners together to learn new interactive teaching techniques as well as sharing their experience with others. 

 Using an interactive whiteboard and voting devices we shall share flipcharts and other downloadable curriculum based resources as well as showing you other resources which are free such as Top Tips, Love you Whiteboard and research into learner response devices – the Reveal project.

You will be pleased to know that whatever your interactive whiteboard type is you will benefit from the session as tips and software are not manufacturer specific. 

At the end of the session you will have the chance to take away 60 day trials of either Activprimary or Activstudio software as well as other useful resources.I very much hope you can join us, and look forward to meeting you and helping you to maximise your impact in class.

If you would be interested in attending please could you let us know numbers by ringing 01689 85730 or emailing tanner.darrickwood-jnr.bromley@lgfl.net   

Asus Minibook presentation (Chris Browning)

The Asus Minibook is a great innovation that made its introduction at BETT this year.  Like a small laptop computer, the Minibook has WIFI capacity, along with access to multimedia software and the internet. Unlike the laptop the price of these machines make it extremely attractive for schools wishing to build and improve upon  their computer pupil ratio. Chris provided an overview of the product and outlined its features in more detail. What was impressive was its functionalilty and its price (£199). The built in WIFI  of the Minibook  offers a great deal of potential for students to engage with school VLE (Virtula Learning Environments. They are also extremely light and portable.

http://www.rm.com/Primary/Products/product.asp?cref=PD1030046

There are some tweaks that need to be addressed with the Asus Minibook. Battery power only lasts for up to two hours which could pose a challenge for use in classroom activities. RM are promoting the Minibook as a portable device to support learning between home and school.

Organisations such as Go Education are addressing the battery issue by  supplying hardware such as desk chargers and  cabinets for the  Minibook. 

 Eportfolios and Honeycomb  (Phillipa Lloyd Perks)

Honeycomb is a great online tool that takes advantage of using Web 2 Technologies. For schools considering the creation of student centred eportfolios, this online tool offers some interesting features, although some of the functionality was limited http://www.rm.com/Primary/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD1075734&position=1   Phillipa has offered an account for any school interested in using or trialing Honeycombe as a possible eportfolio solution. If you are interested please indicate using  by clicking the Comments link on this blog entry. ICT in the curriculum 

 During this session delegates looked at Schemes of Work  and shared some local examples of strategies in  planning and delivering great ICT enriched lessons. The most successful strategies were those where ICT was used to support and enrich other areas of the curriculum rather than teaching it as a subject. There is a perception that the ICT strategies on the QCA site still promote lesson strategies which have been ‘out grown’ by the learners.  Concepts such as databases for example are best delivered within the context of a science or geography activity rather than a unit of work by itself.  There doesn’t appear to be much advice on the QCA site about implementing Web 2 Technologies (learner interactive technologies such as blogs, wikis and podcasting) although to be fair there are some examples of lessons where podcasting was used.

 It was great that members brought along some examples of the work they are currently doing with ICT and I would like to thank Alison Tanner (Darrick Wood Junior School), Mark Wynard (Malcolm Primary School) and Emma Cook (Pickhurst Infants School.)

All the delegates found it was very positive to examine the work of teachers from other boroughs and all expressed a desire to do something similar in Bromley. Therefore it was decided that the next meeting should be devoted entirely to teachers teams jointly planning work together.

Churchfields Primary and Nursery School are hosting an Interactive Whiteboard Cluster Meeting on Tuesday 10th June commencing at 3:45pm

Come along to:

• Find out some free training tips
• Share flipcharts and resources
• Update yourself on new developments in IWB resources including the pupil response systems.
• See a range of new available software
• Take away some free resources
• Have free refreshments

This event is run in conjunction with Promethean Technologies but is suitable for users of all IWB software and hardware.

Don’t forget to bring along your memory  key!

If you would like the chance to attend please email: pennyj.churchfields.bromley@lgfl.net

If you would like to take the opportunity to share your own good practice and demonstrate any work you have done using IWB’s please let us know, we can definitely fit you in.

Penny Jones (DHT) and Caroline Greenall (ICT SL)

Churchfields Primary and Nursery Schools

Churchfields Road

Beckenham BR3 4QY 0208650 5247

Primary ICT Coordinators (Foundation, Key Stages 1 and 2) 

Some time ago we mentioned the excellent Newham Schemes of work for ICT as well as the materials produced by National Curriculum in Action.

You might want to consider these links and documents put out by

 Greenwich LA,

Hertfordshire Grid for Learning,

Wokingham Primary Schemes of work 

 Darrick Wood Junior School.

If you would like to share your school’s scheme of work or provide examples of successful lessons please email me at andrew.ferrier@bromley.gov.uk
Click here to download Lesson plan proforma

As Tesco would say ‘every little helps..’

ICT in Schools 2004-7

Reprinted from NAACE Newsletter

HMI David Anstead presented Ofsted’s findings about ICT during a conference seminar. These “long reports”, based on a sample of schools, supplement the Section 5 inspections, which no longer directly report on subjects. He was unable to say anything about the content of the next 3-yearly report, due out in autumn this year, but David’s presentation was drawn from the same evidence base that will be used for that report. Caution must also be exercised regards the accuracy of your editor’s notes! Given that the report will be based on survey visits made between 2004 and 2007, it is effectively monitoring the impact of policy implemented to 2003.

Continue Reading »

Reprinted from the NAACE Newsletter

There are two objectives for this article: describing the podcasting project we have established in Halton and inviting your participation. This principle of participation and collaboration lies at the heart of the project.

We decided that any project aimed at producing teaching and learning outcomes through podcasting needed to acknowledge the following key factors

Continue Reading »

Since Bob Usher’s  course in January, many of our schools are now beginning to incoporate Podcasting as a strategy in the delivery of engaging curriculum activities.

We have  examples of teachers using podcasts as a strategy for supporting children with their homework such as teacher,  Karen Easterling’s ‘Division using Chunking’ podcast at Farnborough Primary School. We can also see examples of  students recreating and processing their learning in the form of their own podcasts such as the Year 6 Flashback at Darrick Wood  Junior Primary School. Churchfields Primary School (Christmas in Argentina ) and Warren Road Primary School  have also been very active in using podcasts to supplement their curriculum program.

Podcasts are not hard to do and they can offer  great value to the school’s curriculum program. They can be used successfully from Reception to Key Stage 4.

The LGFL offer a site for hosting podcasts produced by teachers and children. Schools can set up their accounts and load their podcasts to be shared with other schoools. The site also has some great suggestions for incorporating podcasts into currioculum planning along with tools to help you get started (and most of those tools are free). Visit Podcast Central for more information. (Use your LGFL login and password to get cracking…).

If you are interested in having your class participate in a podcast ICT Project Adventure please email me. If any other Bromley Schools (or from any other borough for that matter) are using podcasting, please share your thoughts with us on the blogsite. I would be really keen to hear from your, especially any secondary schools)