Northern Grid for Learning - School Broadband, eSafety, Learning Resources and More
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Northern Grid Leading Schools Launch Event19 December 2011
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 the freedom this gives schools can be welcome many schools don't feel that they have the knowledge they need and they are already strengthening relationships with their local schools so they can work together and learn from each other's successes and challenges. Providing schools with links, contacts that they can call on is the first purpose of the Leading Schools Network.
Northern Grid Annual Report 201008 October 2010.
 The Northern Grid Annual Report 2010 gives an overview of the services Northern Grid provides to schools and Local Authorities. It includes reports from the chair of the board, the Northern Grid manager and the learning manager. A summary of achievements in 2010 and priorites for 2011 are also included. Learning Platform Network05 October 2010
The Learning Platform Network is an ambitious initiative to connect and support schools in their use of learning platforms.Schools improve when they effectively use their learning platform to support leadership, innovative and appropriate teaching and learning, assessment, data management and communication with all members of the learning community. The Becta Learning Platform Model was developed by a national group who represent schools, LAs and RBCs and the members are Sally Elding – Cambridgeshire Senior Adviser for ICT (Primary), Stephen Schwartz – Croydon ICT Strategy Manager Department for Children, Young People and Learners, Ian Usher – Buckinghamshire eLearning Co-ordinator, School Improvement Service, Alex Rees – Redbridge School Improvement Adviser, Dennis Wyatt – Dudley DGFL Portal Project Manager, Robin Sutton – Peterborough Senior Adviser 21st Century Development Manager, Alexander Findlay – Stockport VLE Development Consultant, Simon Finch – Northern Grid for learning e-learning officer and Dave Whyley – Wolverhampton Headteacher Consultant Learning Technologies, In addition to the interactive PDF there is also a range of audio, video and text resources and provide further evidence and case studies of school's implementation of their learning platform to support transformational teaching and learning. Northern Grid is a founder member of the Learning Platform Network, and will support and nurture a regional learning platform network which will integrate with the wider national and international learning platform networks. It is here on the Northern Grid website that... 
Also labeled: Becta, Case Studies, Case Study - Curriculum Policy & Practice, Documentation, Governors, Guidance, Head Teachers, ICT, Innovation, Learning Platform, News, NG Services, Publications, Teachers NAACE - Annual Strategic Conference 2010 Report13 April 2010
By far the most hotly debated topics post NAACE were the response to David Anstead’s OFSTED session, Global problems and the use of the ‘Twitterfall’. Two of these aspects are looked at in more detail towards the end of this report. If you want to skip the blurb you could go straight to the Useful References / Blogs etc at the end of this document or the links included throughout. Full conference videos and presentations can be viewed at www.naace.co.uk/conference2010videos (requires a NAACE membership login).
KeynoteRace Online for 2010 – An ambition to end digital exclusion in the UKMartha Lane Fox, Digital Inclusion Champion Martha’s session was well received as it would be considering no one could disagree with the sentiments of her presentation in working to end digital exclusion in the UK. It is apparent that she has influence when it comes to lobbying parliament re: Digital Inclusion but is finding the process frustrating as far as ‘pushing’ initiatives through in her aim to create better education, health, governmental and social opportunities for the most socially excluded people in the UK. Martha explained that Race Online 2012 aims to bring people and organisations together to improve the life chances of those 4 million people who have never been... |
Teaching & Learning |
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.
The following is an overview of the Keynote and breakout sessions attended at 
