The Early Surfers' Zone is now live within the "I work with Kids" section of Childnet International's Kidsmart website.
Internet safety presentations for Nursery, Reception and KS1 aged children
The Early Surfers’ Zone is designed for the parents and carers and educators of 3-7 year olds, to help introduce young children to the idea of internet safety, in an age-appropriate, fun and engaging way. The site introduces the character of Smartie the Penguin, who learns to be safe online, by asking his family for help whenever anything happens to make him feel upset, confused or worried.
The resources include a new printable E-book, accompanying questions for discussion (for parents / carers / school staff who are reading the story), a lesson plan with relevant curriculum links, and subsequent follow-up activity ideas for children to complete at home. There is also an art gallery for children to submit their posters and creative work.
The new resources can be found at Kidsmart website, where you now have the chance to select resources for Foundation Stage KS1 and KS2 children.
made possible by the unstoppable enthusiasm of Bill Lord,
Learning and Teaching Consultant, CfBT Lincolnshire.
“Excellent delivery, range of activities on display superb and relevant information provided that will have a definitive impact if applied correctly - excellent range of information given." Primary KS2 teacher.
2 December 2011
It was way back in the summer of 2011, in the Northern Grid offices, we first discussed the idea of offering a course on creative approaches to developing key stage 2 literacy skills. Bill Lord’s enthusiasm for, and deep understanding of, literacy issues and strategies, alongside the boundless optimism and creativity of Vital’s Steve Bunce ensured that we could develop a CPD event that would be engaging and effective.
Bill, who is currently working with the Learning and Teaching team in Lincolnshire Local Authority, created a ‘Cluedo’ style narrative which would form the basis for the successful half day CPD session on 2 December 2011. The interactive training session; ‘Chapter One’ was to be the first of a two part CDP programme; Creative Strategies to Support Literacy.
We knew what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to create a life size Cluedo style environment with rooms, props, artefacts and technology for teachers to explore and further develop the narrative and activities. Steve arranged for us to use the top floor at the Open University offices in Gateshead. A large spacious area to allow us to show how teachers could create a similar space for learning in the school hall, or even within a classroom. We are hugely grateful to Vital’s Gemma Cook who produced, as if from nowhere, crockery, candelabras, plants, clothes, hats and kitchen utensils to create the ‘rooms’ for our crimes scene.
Unlike traditional ‘whodunnits’, Bill had left the story open and this would provide the delegates with the opportunity to further develop activities, ideas and focus on specific areas of literacy skills and learning opportunities. We felt confident that we had created an exciting and dynamic CPD opportunity yet very aware that the success of the event would depend of the willingness of the delegates to bring their imaginations and ideas with them. We needn’t have worried.
Friday was one of the most interesting, and demanding CPD sessions I’ve been able to experience. Teachers from across the region willingly entered into each of the activities and stepped outside their comfort zones to experiment, discuss and learn from each other. We created three groups and each group used green screen technology (after planning and discussing in the comfort of summer chairs in the garden area) to hot seat and develop character resources. In the dining room they created sound files with digital audio recorders and in the kitchen they used cameras to create evidence and resources. In each room they learned how to create, upload and share their resources via a Posterous blog which will be a key resource for them and colleagues beyond the event. We are very grateful toIan Campbellof Q4 technologies for freely giving his time to help ensure all teachers were able to gain in confidence in using the green screen technology.
We’re hopeful that the teachers who attended on Friday for ‘Chapter One’ will become leaders at the second event, ‘Chapter Two’ in February where we hope to share their use of the resources and expereinces with other teachers from beyond the region.
All the resources used on the day can be found on Bill’s blog.
If you would like more information on how Vital and Northern Grid can help develop creative literacy activities in your school please email support@northerngrid.org
Thanks to everyone for a positive and immensely enjoyable day.
A head teacher from a primary school in one of the Northern Grid partner LAs recently asked about teaching Control Technology and what equipment was needed. Susie Arnott, who has worked with Northern Grid regularly over the last few years, has produced this helpful guide.
Teaching Control Technology in the Primary Curricuum
Teaching control technology starts in Early Years.
Many Early Years settings will have lots of role play toys such as microwave ovens etc. that have buttons to start timers, noises etc. Old “real’ items, such as old mobile phones also offer opportunities for important play and talk. Adults should draw attention to the “cause and effect” of pressing buttons etc., and also discuss the control switches, dials etc. on real-life machines and gadgets.
The most frequently seen “formal” equipment is the BeeBot which has a simple set of control buttons to make it move forwards, backwards, turn to right or left and make a sound. There are lots of accessories to add, such as additional shell tops to transform your BeeBot into a variety of different characters/colours, and play mats that encourage the planning of routes.
Play with BeeBots (and other programmable toys) begins in an experiential way. Structured, adult-supported activities are needed to supplement free play in order to develop the important sequencing strategies for making complicated actions in one go. With the addition of some support materials for planning or recording moves, children’s development in understanding of this technology can be extended greatly. This can be as simple as providing a set of teacher-made cards which match the buttons on the toy and setting them out in a sequence to show the buttons to press to complete a specific action.
Many schools also have ROAMER. This is more suitable for use with children in Y2 up – if they are to develop sequencing and programming skills they need to go beyond the one-move-at-a-time stage. In addition, Roamer can have procedures saved to memory to be called up later. Work with Roamer can be greatly extended by integrating it with RoamerWorld software – so Roamer can be programmed on a computer and the instructions downloaded to the toy for it to carry out the commands in the “real world”. Having the software on the network allows all children to work at programming, then turns can be taken to download their instructions to the robot. http://valiant-technology.com/uk/pages/roamer_rworld.php
The latest Roamers, RoamerToo can have additional activity behaviours installed (many are free downloads from Valiant) and the battery technology is vastly improved (this was a management issue with the original Roamers.) Valiant claim the RoamerToo is suitable for Early Years as well as older children because of these additional behaviours.
The Valiant website has an excellent research library section giving explanations of the pedagogy behind control technology – from Seymour Papert, the inventor of the Logo programming language, to topics on SEN etc.
There are other robots available, including Pippin (replaces PIP) and Pixie from Swallow Technologies, but BeeBots and Roamer are most likely to be in schools.
The next step in developing control technology is based on using versions of Logo on the computer.
There is no one de facto Logo standard, but schools can download free versions. Commercial companies produce versions too, usually with a range of scenarios included.
Examples:
MicroWorlds
2Go from 2Simple
BlackCat Logo etc
Logo could be integrated with Lego at one time, allowing children to control lights, motors and sensors, but since the development of Lego Mindstorms, Lego have opted for a different programming language. The NXT robot linked to Lego Mindstorms software (or the 2Simple 2NXT interface) is a powerful combination, allowing children to program both inputs and outputs, and to learn about the use of sensors to control events remotely. The computer interface uses drag-and-drop units of coding, so children do not have to type instructions, but rather create a sequence of “blocks” which contain the coding instructions. Children create the program on the computer and download it to the robot which then performs the instructions on the floor.
A free piece of software with similar coding blocks is Scratch from MIT. Children can create animations, games, music and art, it has its own education community and an area to showcase projects.
Codecademy also used by some teachers – a free set of interactive coding tutorials.
Others are exploring Kodu, which is a free programming tool for the X Box, from Microsoft.
Having a go at writing simple html code to create web pages, even if these only live on the school network, is another rewarding activity for children, and again, gives some insight into the real world.
Following the adventures of space technology, such as the Mars Rovers, links control technology work into the curriculum very well.
A word of warning about “coding blocks” I have observed many children learn to program with Logo, and feel that learning to write commands is a powerful skill, giving real insight into what is being “controlled”. I worry slightly that sticking coding blocks together might lose a little of that powerful understanding. Lots of discussion about what is being created would help alleviate this.
Interestingly, it’s not always the brightest children who get to grips with writing commands – sometimes children who rush in thinking they’ve grasped all the concepts make lots of mistakes and get frustrated, while others taking a slower approach can achieve great results and achieve huge satisfaction from their “creations”.
So, with a small investment - some BeeBots, one or two Roamers plus RoamerWorld software, a version of LOGO, a Lego NXT robot (more if you can afford it) and some free software downloads, schools can be right up there in teaching control technology in the primary school.
Finally, the most important investment needs to be in CPD for teachers – without this the whole project will be blighted, because it is teachers who need to drive and support this with passion and enthusiasm as well as sound understanding of constructivist pedagogy and willingness to learn some programming themselves, even this happens alongside, or just ahead of the children.
Esafety Ideas For Teaching Esafety to Primary School Learners
A local primary school contacted Northern Grid and asked for a session on resources for teaching esafety to their pupils, and it was agreed that I would deliver a session during their weekly staff meeting.
This is an interesting area for staff development and on one level is a fairly basic task in identifying (often online) activities for children to try. There are many useful and accessible online activities available on websites across the world and for local examples we need look no further than and www.childnet.com and CEOP's www.thinkuknow.co.uk.
Whilst these activities and associated resources will provide some support for the young people in our care I feel that esafety and safeguarding support needs to move beyond specific focused and sometimes isolated activities at the computer in the ICT suite. Our challenge is to ensure that we help our youngsters become confident, safe and considerate digital citizens, unlike many of the adults online across the world, who currently model inappropriate and irresponsible behaviour for our youngsters to emulate.
We can see the most inappropriate and unsafe online behaviour by adults of all ages on forums, newspaper and media websites and across social media including Twitter and Facebook. If the children in our primary schools are to mature to become responsible, thoughtful and valued digital citizens then our esafety support must extend through all our teaching and not be seen as something that is only addressed in the ICT lesson.
We need teachers to:
Model
Engage
Embed
in the same way that the dedicated professional teacher has always modelled appropriate language and behaviour in school and beyond the school gates. It is only by making online behaviour the same as, and as normal as, traditional life skills that we can hope to nurture a new generation of responsible and supportive digital citizens.
Northern Grid has been working with Northumbria Police to develop teacher resources within a web resource that contains a wealth of crime prevention information and personal safety advice aimed at youngsters. Issues such as alcohol, awareness, drug misuse and bullying are all featured on the site, with information on where to get help and what is and isn't legal.
More about ebeat
Young people, parents and teachers can now get information about Northumbria Police at the touch of a button after the launch of a new youth website.
Called ebeat, it's been designed with help from school pupils and teachers and features interactive sections, advice and information and a range of educational resources.
Resources available include specially developed lesson plans which teachers can use in school. The first lesson plan, covering alcohol awareness was launched earlier this year, with an interactive tie-in game also available on the site.
The second set of lesson plans have just been added and cover anti-social behaviour.
The new site also contains a wealth of crime prevention information and personal safety advice aimed at youngsters. Issues such as alcohol, awareness, drug misuse and bullying are all featured on the site, with information on where to get help and what is and isn't legal.
There is also advice on a career with the force, including how to go about becoming a Northumbria Police officer.
Web Services Team Leader Ian Sparham, said: "We're always looking at ways of making our information as accessible to as many as possible but before now we've had no dedicated site for young people.
"Teenagers can be a challenging audience to reach and that's why young people have been closely involved with the content."
"Our aim with the new website is to make it as interactive and informative as we could and we hope young people will go online, have a look around and let us know what they think of it."
SCHOOLCHILDREN are being encouraged to take part in an online meeting with police officers.
Pupils from junior and senior schools are being invited to use the virtual meetings to pose questions to officers and find out how their community is policed.
Officers will also ask the young people what they think about policing.
Inspector John Smith, from Killingworth neighbourhood policing team, said: “This is the first time we’ve involved schools in North Tyneside in online meetings just for pupils.
“We want to encourage young people to get to know their local officers and find out what we do to help them and their families.
“Our officers see schools, pupils and staff as very much part of the community we police and want to continue to build strong relationships with them.
“We think that asking pupils to contact officers online from school will help us do that.”
The meetings will take place on Wednesday, October 19, via the Northumbria Police website for young people, specifically designed for children.
Officers have set up two meetings, one for six to ten-year-olds and a second for 11 to 16-year-olds.
The youngsters will take part via the youth police site ‘Ebeat’, which is aimed at teenagers and ‘My Pod’, which is an interactive portal for children, parents and teachers to learn about policing and what officers do to protect the public.
The website contains fun games and activities aimed at different age-groups with key messages to help inform children about their police officers and the importance of their safety.
Insp Smith added: “We hope to get a good response to our first school on-line meetings and then aim to run them on a regular basis in the future.”
The Museum of London offers sessions for Primary, Secondary and SEN groups. Each session allows pupils to interact with characters or educators from the Museum and investigate objects from the museum collections via a television screen or interactive whiteboard.
The museum covers a range of different topics, including a new session on the Olympics for KS2 in 2012.
Details of the full range of videoconference sessions are available here.
Parliament's Education Service works with schools and Members of both houses of parliament to support pupils to develop their understanding of Parliament and democracy.
They provide free online resources to support citizenship for teachers and pupils from 5 to 18 years old. These include games, videos, whiteboard resources and lesson plans.
They also provide school visits, an outreach programme and printed resources.
Get Involved and promote good practice in this region.
Childnet’s Film Challenge was launched last year and received some great entries from young people. Childnet are hoping to build on last year’s success and see another batch of fantastic 60 second films promoting the positive uses of the internet (previous winners can be seen on at http://www.childnet.com/film/).
Positive and inspiring use of the internet is at the heart of Film Challenge 2011 and we at Northern Grid know from our visits to schools and entries to our awards that there are many great examples of this going on in the region.
Childnet is inviting all schools and youth organisations in the UK to enter the challenge. Two separate projects are in place for primary and secondary aged children. The theme will be revealed to entrants on Tuesday 26th April 2011.
All shortlisted finalists will then be invited to a private screening of their film with a judging panel at a cinema in London and will be awarded some fantastic prizes!
For your information the dates for the competition are as follows:
Competition opens: Tuesday 26th April 2011 @ 9am
Competition closes: Monday 6th June 2011 @5pm
Finalists notified: Monday 13th June 2011
Screening & finalist event: Monday 11th July 2011
If you would like to register a group of young people for the challenge please do so atfilm@childnet.com
On March 27th 2011 the great census was taken and schools connected to the National Education Network are invited to join a project where they can compare the present with the census of 1911, undertaking their own research with online support and guidance. This is a great opportunity for schools to take advantage of broadband provision and join in this census based research project, that encourages schools to look not just at the census for 1911 but at their own communities in 2011. Free access for schools to the 1911 census online database is kindly provided by findmypast.co.uk until the 31st July, 2011.
The census 2011 project is a History / Literacy project where access to census data will enable pupils to explore changes linked to a range of topics including employment, transport, families and the role of women. It is an exciting opportunity for pupils to investigate and discover how their local area has changed over the past 100 years. It is also an opportunity for pupils to develop their literacy skills with a nationally recognized team of tutors and authors. Pupils taking part in the project are invited to use their local area to explore the characteristic features of Edwardian times. The children will be challenged to write effectively and make links between past and recent events. To support their written presentation, pupils will also have the opportunity to take part in “themed” web conferences and work with the famous author Stewart Ross.
Schools will be able to put together an online project researching not just the census for their locality, but also the broader history of the Edwardian years. Our other partners include, English Heritage, the British Film Institute (BFI) and The National Archives. The National Monuments Record at English Heritage is providing a collection of over 8,000 images for Edwardian England and also has made available photographs for the South East Region through Pastscape.org.uk. The British Film Institute is providing 80 selected films from the period around 1911 and this is complemented by resources from The National Archives too numerous to mention, such as, 'What was life like in Edwardian Britain?'
Download the census 2011 Training Guide for an introduction to the 1911 census and lots of ideas how to use the project within and outside the classroom.
The census 2011 website provides guidance, links and ideas about how to investigate this wealth of online historical material. Schools cannot only research, but also record, share and discuss their findings with others, using a selection of online tools including:
Northern Grid has been working with Rising Stars an educational publishing specialist and they have offered to give some schools in our region some of their resources free of charge. All you have to do in return is provide some feedback.
Shaping Learner Landscapes is a project set up by North Tyneside School Improvement Service to allow schools to explore enquiry based learning over an extended period of time supported by ICT.
This case study looks at one particular Shaping Learner Landscapes project with Norham Community Technology College’s Y7 history students.
Hypotheses explored included:
Enquiry based learning, supported by ICT over an extended period of time improves learner skills dramatically!
Free, easy to access 24/7 ICT tools aid understanding, creativity, communication and
engagement.
Student understanding and skills are deepened by utilising extended periods of time.
The students worked in groups of four to explore whether evacuation was successful by answering an open-ended question. They used a range of online tools to help them research and collaborate to produce a presentation as their response to the question. Students then assessed each other's presentations.
This is the latest in the very popular Young Science Investigatorsseries (see the other resources in the series here:www.bp.com/bpes/ysi) of free teachingresources for 7-11 year olds/KS2
YSI: Cool Creations is an online set ofmaterials to teach Science through exciting Design and Technologyprojects such as Paper Spinners and Electric Helicopters. The materialsinclude skill-builder videos, animations, worksheets, photos anddetailed teacher guidance and curriculum links
This is a highly interactive free teaching resource for 11-16 year olds / Key Stages 3 and 4 to develop science skills such as making predictions, planning investigations, working with variables etc.
Students are presented with six real-life science challenges from BP's business. Video briefings, interactive experiment labs and information sheets help them to answer questions and ultimately solve the challenges. Each challenge is based around a core topic from the Key Stage 3 (KS3) and 4 (KS4) curricula and the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, such as harnessing wind power or speeding up a chemical reaction. Teachers' notes are included and all teachers we've shown the resource to so far seem delighted with what it offers.
THINK! Education is a Department for Transport programme created to raise awareness of road safety for children and young people aged 3 to 16. The resources include lesson plans with strong links to the PSHE, Citizenship, English, Drama and Science curricula. The interactive activities and films are particularly engaging – students investigate incident scenes and consider the consequences of their own actions, and learn how they can stay safer on the roads.
These free resources were originally created to match the key issues that emerged from The Good Childhood® Inquiry and provide teachers with lesson plans, guidance and interactive child friendly activities to handle topics such as friends, family, trouble at home, staying healthy etc. Teacher guidance, assembly ideas, activity sheets are all included .
Choices is an e-safety film for young people, which forms part of a comprehensive e-safety pack. Following the on-line exploits of Chloe and her mum, the film centres around the activities and choices that many of our teenagers make and deal with on an everyday basis. Written, acted and directed by industry professionals, the whole process has involved the young people from Darlington secondary schools throughout.
After months of planning, doing and polishing, Choices is now a "wrap!"
The film package, including a framework of teaching and learning materials with over 60 lessons for students from EYFS to KS4/5 sourced from best practice providers, is priced at £45, inc VAT
Discounts are available as follows:
1-10 film packs £45 each
11-25 film packs £39 each
26-50 film packs £30 each
50+ film packs £20 each
These can be obtained by sending a Purchase Order or Cheque* to:
Matthew Hargraves, Learning Technologies Team. The Studios, Lingfield Point, Darlington, DL1 1RW
* Please make cheques payable to ' Darlington Borough Council' * Please note this offer is based upon a 'not for profit' model, and all funds received will be re-invested in future productions.
The Met Office is hosting a series of free video conferences for schools and colleges in England. Offering a unique and interactive aid to learning in the classroom, each 45 minute presentation is bespoke, having been tailored around the questions your students want to put us and is delivered by our own weather and climate experts.
Find out more about the Met Office VC sessions and how to book here: Met Office VC
Also labeled: 
More about ebeat
The Museum of London offers sessions for Primary, Secondary and SEN groups. Each session allows pupils to interact with characters or educators from the Museum and investigate objects from the museum collections via a television screen or interactive whiteboard.
Parliament's Education Service works with schools and Members of both houses of parliament to support pupils to develop their understanding of Parliament and democracy.
Oddizzi is a new, primary school focused, multimedia website. We wanted to find out more so we asked the creators to tell us a bit more about it.
Northern Grid has been working with Rising Stars an educational publishing specialist and they have offered to give some schools in our region some of their resources free of charge. All you have to do in return is provide some feedback.
Shaping Learner Landscapes is a project set up by North Tyneside School Improvement Service to allow schools to explore enquiry based learning over an extended period of time supported by ICT.
Download Case Study
