This resource comtains useful eSafety guidance, with checklists for Further Education & Skills Providers & learners

This eSafety guidance and toolkit for FE and Skills with associated documents and activities was commissioned by Becta as a follow on to the eSafety guidance for 14-19. 

We gratefully acknowledge Becta’s support, advice and their written permission to publish.

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This doesn’t mean that ICT is no longer important or that schools now have all the equipment and support they need. Northern Grid is in regular contact with schools across the North East and knows the value head teachers, teachers and pupils place on using technology to support teaching, learning and other school activity.

Keith Cotgrave, Head Teacher of Longfield School in Darlington said technology, and

"the broadband connection and services provided by Northern Grid for Learning are essential to the effective management of learning,”

and the government agrees.

In October 2010 Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools’ said that

“schools which make use of broadband connectivity are found to have improved academic results and increased learner motivation compared to those which do not make use of this technology.”

In the current economic climate schools will value good support more than ever as they look for ways of getting the most out of equipment they already have and best value for future purchases.

In his article 'ICT in a Supporting Role' in the TES Magazine on March 18th Jack Kenny outlines the options for schools.

He quotes Mel Philipson, Manager of Northern Grid for Learning talking about the role the regional grids can play:

“Their depth and breadth of experience are freely available to schools and colleges …If anyone needs assistance, and it is not available in their own area, using the network we can find people to provide it. Schools can get resources, advice on broadband and provision of wireless networks."

The full article is available on the TES website. For information about the services provided by Northern Grid see our service guide http://www.northerngrid.org/services

(Nick Gibb quote can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101004/text/101004w0002.htm)

Northern Grid's accreditation from Becta has been renewed.

The Becta Accreditation of Internet Services enables schools and other establishments to make an informed choice of a managed internet service provider or web content filtering solution. Accredited products and services must meet and maintain specific standards in web content filtering and service performance.

The standards of assessment have been developed in consultation with partners in education and industry to ensure the provision of reliable and relevant information. The scheme re-launched during Safer Internet Week in February 2009, following a review. The scope of the accreditation has been extended to include a wider range of standalone products designed to protect internet users not just in the school environment, but which can also be employed in other environments where children and young people have access to the internet.

A managed internet service provider is a provider to education that can supply a range of internet safety services. An individual web content filtering product or service supplies specific solutions to internet services providers.

For the full list of accredited service providers visit the Becta site

Congratulations to the schools recognised in the Becta 2010 ICT Excellence Awards. The ICT Excellence Awards is an awards scheme for schools, local authorities and other organisations supporting schools which aim to identify and reward whole school excellence in ICT and reward those organisations who support school improvement with ICT.

The schools are:

Best whole school UK Secondary and Best Whole school North East

Winner: Egglescliffe School, Stockton-on-Tees

Leadership, management and collaboration Secondary

Highly Commended: Longfield School, Darlington

Information about the awards

Link to list of winners

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 teachers and local authorities will share their experiences and challenges for the wider benefit of the regional and national learning community.

The LPN is platform agnostic and materials and support offered will be appropriate for all schools, irrespective of the commercial or home-grown services they use.

Add Yourself to the LPN Map

This map will be useful for all schools and teachers who want to share ideas and experiences with others accross the UK and beyond.

Feel free to add your own location to the map so that others may benefit. You will need to be signed in to a Google Account to add your own location.

View The Learning Platform Network in a larger map

Resources

Research

Institute of Education - School use of learning platforms and associated technologies
Case Study: Primary School 1	Case Study: Secondary School 1
Case Study: Primary School 2	Case Study: Secondary School 2
Case Study: Primary School 3	Case Study: Secondary School 3
Case Study: Primary School 4	Case Study: Secondary School 4 ;
Case Study: Primary School 5	Case Study: Secondary School 5
Case Study: Primary School 6	Case Study: Secondary School 6

Issues - Videos

How do I get started?	What about staff training?
Doesn't it increase staff workload?	What are the main benefits?
How do you afford it?	What challenges might I face?
What about children who don't have home access?	Why should I bother to develop the learning platform?
What about e-safety?

Themes - Videos

Assessment	Personalisation
Collaboration	Pupil Voice
Communication	Transformation
Engaging Parents	Transition
Organisation and Development

Publications

Exploiting ICT to improve parental engagement, moving towards online reporting	Parents as Partners in Learning
Extended Learning Opportunities	Schools and Parents - A New Partnership
"I'm Stuck Can You Help Me?" - A report into parents' involvement in school work at home	Supporting Your Child's Learning

New Resources

20 December 2010

From North Tyneside LA

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.

Was Evacuation Successful?

From London Grid for Learning

The school Couldn't Run without the MLE

A video recording of the of visionary Headteacher Mark Ducker at Gonville Primary school in Croydon has been made into an LGfL film showing how through strong and clear Leadership Gonville primary school has been transformed by the London MLE.

(A note on copyright and appropriate use of the Becta resources. These materials have been provided on a non-exclusive basis under the new Open Government License and the UK Government Licensing Framework to enable and encourage the free use of government information covered by Crown copyright and database rights. All existing Becta copyright statements are superseded by this provision.)

For further information see:

http://reference.data.gov.uk/id/open-government-licence.

The one exception is any photography or video contained in the material, whilst this can be reproduced in its existing format and for the purpose for which it was designed, it cannot be repurposed in any format or medium.

If you publish/make available any Becta documents you must ensure you include the Open Government Licence attribution with the Becta exception on photography. Details on the attribution are here.)

Questions & Queries?

email Simon Finch at simon.finch@northerngrid.org or on Twitter at @simfin

The Learning Platform Network is on Twitter at @the_lpn

Post a comment below

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The learning platform adoption model has been published by Becta. The model shows how best to utilise your learning platform.

Go to the web version

Download the PDF version

How do you use your learning platform? Comment below!

Next Generation Learning has published a report investigating parents' involvement in school work at home.

Key Findings

• 83% of parents struggle to support their child with homework.
• Over half of children are confused by their parents when they try to help with school work.
• 81% of parents welcome guidance on how to support their child’s learning better.

View the Full Report

Are you a parent? How do you get involved with your children's school work? Post a comment below!

Over 380 schools

Over 7200 pupils

Over 670 teams participated in the 2010 National School Quiz!

And we are pleased to announce the winners were:

Those that have registered codes can still continue to play the quiz. If players didn’t get a chance to print their certificate we will be emailing all registered teachers with their players’ certificates late next week.

The quiz will become open access for anyone to test their knowledge soon, please check back regularly for updates.

Find out more at The Next Generation Learning website

Schools across the UK are invited to become #BectaX Regional Nodes and to be part of the development process and the event. The will be asked to feed their thoughts, ideas and suggestions into the auditorium. If you are a teacher and want your school to take part in this world first educational experiment, let us know.

Go to the #BectaX Site

Becta have released a tool to gauge how commited your school is to ICT. See below for more information and the link:

This tool gauges your school’s strength in ICT, prior to a full analysis on the self-review framework. It also indicates your likely position on the Next Generation Learning Charter, demonstrating commitment and progress in using ICT.

How should the survey be used?

The results propose a plan to discuss the impact of ICT in your school. Your approach should involve senior decision makers if you wish to develop this further with the self-review framework.

How long will it take?

It takes no longer than 30 minutes and aims to quickly assess your current position. The self-review framework offers a more in-depth evaluation, you may choose to use at a later stage.

Go to the Survey Page

Pupils from Lingfield Primary School in Marton, Middlesbrough are starring in a film to help develop ICT teaching across the country. The film is being made by Becta who are the Government agency responsible for ensuring the effective and innovative use of technology learning.

A film crew has recently visited the school to shoot scenes for the film and it will be shown to teachers and officials in education authorities across the country to improve the way information technology is used in education.

For more information please visit this page

Digital literacy is a combination of functional ICT skills, critical thinking, collaboration skills and social awareness. Developing young people’s digital literacy in schools is a vital step in enabling them to become e-mature and safe participants in an increasingly dense landscape of technology and media developments.

The importance of digital literacy is recognised in the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum and in reforms to the secondary curriculum. Developing digital literacy is also a key aim of the Government’s Digital Britain strategy, aiming to increase young people’s ability to engage effectively with the world through technology.

Digital literacy relates to skills associated with:

1. Defining the task
2. Accessing information
3. Evaluating and understanding information
4. Creating and
5. Communicating

Commissioned by Becta, NWLG has developed a Key Stage 3 resource focusing on the knowledge and skills related to accessing, understanding and evaluating digital information.

Learners can navigate their own way intuitively around the resource and make independent choices based upon personal preference and interests. They are then encouraged to question their knowledge, understanding and behaviours through the use of magazine style quizzes providing them with feedback on their internet ‘personality’. Learners then select areas for further investigation. Each area provides them with information that challenges their assumptions and then allows the learner to test and practice their understanding through a game.

The resource is not intended to be a complete digital literacy course but serves as an introduction to encourage the learner to reflect on and question their current practices.

One of the problems with being a SENCO or a SEN co-ordinator is that you are somewhat isolated in your own institution. If you need to ask someone about a specific ICT problem which relates to SEN it can be difficult to find an expert locally. One of the best ways to get round this problem is to subscribe to one of the Internet email forums. This may sound daunting and it also sounds like it will cost you something. The good news is that joining the groups is easy and it is also free.

BECTA Schools - Information from BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) for schools. Click Continue for more information.

Link: E-Safety Responsibilities

Link: Information for schools