Northern Grid for Learning - School Broadband, eSafety, Learning Resources and More
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Northern Grid - Broadband Update #211 May 2012
Firewall Change Freeze - 1st June 201209 May 2012To Our Customers: Please note that there will be a change freeze activated on the 1st June 2012. No further firewall changes will be accepted after the 31st May 2012. This change freeze will stay in place until the end of the current contract with Easynet which is the 31st July. On the 1st August firewall rule changes will be managed by BT and the new process will be sent out to you before that date. Thank you Programming in the Classroom26 April 2012How programming fits with the curriculum
Recently there have been some high profile national debates about what schools should teach as part of the ICT curriculum and a high profile has been given to programming. Programming in schools isn't new and builds on work they will already be doing. It starts in early years with work on instructions, positional language and knowledge of machines and devices that can be controlled in the world around us. Much of this early work doesn't need to involve technology at all but there is lots of technology that can be used to support it. Floor turtles and computer based resources can be programmed with simple instructions or complex sequences and there are several free applications. On this page there are resources to support programming for pupils of all ages. Northern Grid has produced more information about control and our scheme of work has more information about the progression of skills. Northern Grid can work with schools to support their teaching of programming, contact For winning one of our Teacher Awards last year, Stephen Ainsley from Harton Technology College in South Shields asked for us to develop a mobile app (specifically an iOS app originally) for the school. Stephen wanted an app version of their school planner – in other words, a digital version of a homework tracker, timetable viewer and school information database. This article is intended to briefly cover the route we took when developing our first mobile application. “very interesting and thought provoking and the information was delivered very clearly and concisely” Northern Grid delivered an in school support session on Parental Engagement to the staff of Ash Trees School in January 2012. The aims of the 1 hour session were to: The session included: Glenn Atkinson, ICT coordinator at Ash Trees provided the following feedback: “the staff and myself found your input very interesting and thought provoking and the information was delivered very clearly and concisely. I know you had condensed your usual delivery to meet the limited time available for our staff meeting but I do feel... Northern Grid has been working with schools to provide broadband connections since 1999. Many people don't realise that when it started there was no technical infrastructure in place and our priority wasn't to provide the regional network but to work with teachers and local authority advisors to look at how the technology could be used to support teaching and learning and make a difference in the classroom. This clearly demonstrates that Northern Grid's two priorities were improving teaching and learning and working in partnership with schools. We continue to focus on these priorities and to provide support to all our partner schools. This support is even more important now than it was when we started. There have been significant changes nationally and locally and much of the support that was previously available from Becta and Local Authorities has disappeared. Increasingly schools are being told that they know best about what is needed and that they should get on with it. While... Find out about our latest news, upcoming events, and some of the best educational resources on the web in our Monthly Newsletter. Enter your school for the Northern Grid Awards Will your eSafety provision deliver an "Outstanding" judgement? Creative Strategies to Support Literacy KS2 Leave a comment below A superb eSafety video from Northern Grids' ‘Protecting Adults Who Work With Children’ event. VC Equipment in the following LA’s requires no changes VC equipment in the following LA’s requires a change to the Gatekeeper IP address For advice and support please contact your LA or contact Northern Grid on 01914611844 or email mark.vinnicombe@northerngrid.org Subscribers to our newsletter were told about all of the benefits you can get from Northern Grid and the exciting upcoming opportunities throughout the region and beyond. This is a collection of useful information about the services Northern Grid offers and what to do if you want to buy a service from us, or if you want to leave us to go elsewhere. The broadband Northern Grid provides to schools and Local Authorities is currently provided through Easynet. Our contract with Easynet will expire on July 31st 2012 and Northern Grid is going through a procurement process to identify who will provide our connectivity after this date This means that information in the documents on this page is likely to change. To make sure you get the most up to date information heads can complete the Expression of interest document. See the Procurement briefing note for more information. Schools are well aware of the need to keep pupils, teachers, data and systems as safe and secure as possible. All schools need to ensure that they have an up to date Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). To support schools in meeting their eSafety requirements Northern Grid has a responsibility to ensure that the whole Regional Broadband Network continues to be safe and secure. This means that all organisations connected to the network need to abide by a common Northern Grid AUP. As technology changes rapidly this Grid AUP is updated regularly. The Northern Grid Acceptable Use Policy has been endorsed and approved by the Northern Grid Directors who are all senior managers within partner Local Authorities. Your Local Authority has agreed to abide by this AUP. This policy applies to all users of the Northern Grid broadband network whoever they are, whatever devices they are using, whenever and wherever they are connected to the network. This also includes users within a directly connected establishment or users connecting to the network remotely. Any school, LA or other educational organisation using Northern Grid for Learning's Network or Service is required to comply... Where ICT is used effectively to support learning, attainment and achievement can increase. Outstanding schools are ones where ICT is embedded within all aspects of school life and where management, teaching and support staff and learners exploit technologies. Do you know how ICT is used in your school? ICT and online technologies can support your staff, promote more engaging teaching, motivate pupils and help you engage more effectively with parents. The list below will help you get off to a good start in the new academic year. The pupils were engaged right from the beginning of the session and were keen to investigate how everything worked. The level of interest and skills shown by the pupils was of a very high standard. The structure of the day almost demanded this along with a mature approach to editing and producing to targets and deadlines. The pupils at Normanby certainly stepped up to the mark during this intensive and challenging day. This day-long course which can be customised to appeal to all learners really gave the pupils an insight into the decisions you have to take under pressure to ensure a programme gets 'on air' to deadline. During the day the groups of pupils showed how adapt they were at... | ||||
Northern Grid has signed a 5 year contract with BT and will be providing new, fast, affordable and robust broadband connections to schools across the North East of England. The update reports are intended to keep you informed about what to expect during the installation process and the services that will be included.
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The focus of the session was how technology can be used to support effective parental engagement.
On November 29th schools from across the Northern Grid region came together at the launch event of the Northern Grid Leading Schools Network. Only 14 schools had been invited to participate in this network to work with schools which, like them, were doing exciting and innovative things with educational technology.
As part of our on-going service improvements the Videoconferencing infrastructure has been upgraded in compliance with the H.460 security protocol. The new service improves security, reliability and performance of video and audio conferencing.
Northern Grid is always keen to promote and facilitate the use of cutting edge technology in its partner schools. Lights Camera Action is a unique and interactive TV workshop using a portable television studio with the latest 'virtual' computer generated set which gave the pupils and staff at Normanby Primary a rare opportunity to experience life in the high pressure world of broadcast news.
