Linaker Primary School & Children’s Centre ~ Day 1

The first, of three, full on days at Linaker Primary School and Children’s Centres, a superb two, form entry, Primary School, Nursery and Children’s Centre in the heart of Southport, the seaside town in the north of the Borough of Sefton. The school provides for around 500 children aged between 3 and 11 and the centre is considered as one of the most successful in the north of England.

This three day project is taking place during the school’s annual Arts Week and the theme this year is “Discovery”. This topic also lends itself to looking at challenges. The children, and staff, at the the school are no strangers to exploration and challenge*.

The travels, today, happened in the company of two classes of adventurous Year 6 children for a long morning of discovery in some virtual worlds, followed by another trek in in the world of digits with two classes of Year 5 explorers.

Well done, all, for some powerful, brave, and inventive wandering in the world of words, and beyond!

Linaker is proud of its international links. At present they have links with schools in China, Canada and Ghana. The school is also a proud recipient of the International Schools Award, issued by the British Council in recognition of their commitment to global education. The school also welcomes, annually, Foreign Language Assistants from all over the world – recently from Sweden, Spain and China.

Linaker has had links with Long Menhao Primary School in Chongqing, China, since March 2008. Long Menhao is a primary school in Nan’an District and serves over 1000 students aged between 5 and 11 years of age. In 2008 both schools undertook a project on the theme of ‘Olympics’ and in November 2008 Linaker returned to China to share their achievements.

In November 2009 ten children from Linaker visited Long Menhao as part of the on-going programme of exchanges.

Linaker has had a link with Ekwaso Presby School, in Ghana, for nearly four years now. Over that time they have been involved in curriculum exchanges between children in both schools.

In 2008 the school undertook to help re-build the Primary School in the village. You can find out more about the village and the re-building of the school by visiting the website.

*That “up-for-a-challenge-ness-nicity” isn’t stopping soon either: six members of staff will be embarking on a trek to the North Pole next year!

A massive thank you to Colin Coleman, head teacher, and Nick Dempster, ICT Co-ordinator, for organising this visit.

In terms of ICT resources, the school are pretty well stocked too. Some of the technology they have at their disposal includes Year 5 and 6 all having their own iPads; there is also a class set of iPads for the other Year groups; The ICT suite is Apple Macs, there are 30 in the suite; a portable green screen; a radio room which can be operated by two or three children at a time; all classrooms have large (60″+) touch screen televisions; laptops throughout the school – enough for 1 between 2 in most classes and more cameras, flip cam recorders etc than you can shake a stick at!

Hampshire District 2 Headteachers’ Conference, Sandbanks

Together, we explored the progression that can be taken using artifacts and images, then we had a VERY hands-on, have-a-go-day with 22 headteachers, from the Hampshire District 2 Headteachers’ group, in the incredible setting of Sandbanks, near Poole. We had a fun filled investigation of how images, living texts and sound effects, can bring story (re-)telling alive. In groups, we set off in to the picturesque setting of Sandbanks in Poole, capturing scenes to support the telling of a tale, then returned to do some wizardry.

We were joined by colleagues from Barncroft Primary, Denmead School, Emsworth School, Fairfield Infant, Hartplain Infant, Horndean Infant School, Horndean Junior School, Mengham Infant, Mengham Junior, Mill Rythe Infant, Moreland Primary, Petersgate Infant, Purbrook Junior, Sharps Copse Primary, Springwood Infant, Springwood Junior,  St. Peters School, and Riders Infants, Queens Inclosure Primary School, St. James C of E Primary and The Federation of Millhill and Woodcroft.

Thank you to Sarah Court, headteacher of Mill Rythe Infant,

Tools explored today included;

Tiltshift Maker bringing miniature characters into life within the locality, or focusing on a significant portion within a landscape, or portrait.

Psykopaint, whisking photographs into paintings. Great artists styles can be stolen borrowed to enhance aspects of the photos. By darkening, hardlighting, multiplying, overlaying, and manipulating, different feelings, and messages, can be accentuated.

Tagxedo, playing with words, picking them up and juggling them. When used in its full screen (“player only”) mode, it means you can explore your carefully chosen collection of vocabulary, bringing it alive, as you speak.

Music can breathe life in to a story too. Chosen, and crafted carefully, an arrangement of sounds, and instruments, can bring out just the right sensations, and emotions, in a yarn. Soundation was the tool of choice for generating some stunning soundtracks which really enhanced the performances of the sagas.

CleVR creates still, and moving panoramas, from your photos… and a LOT more…

Mill Rythe Infant School, Hampshire ~ Day 2

Our second day with Mill Rythe Infant School on Hayling Island and what a lovely time we had. The children and staff of the school are responsive and ready to take on ideas and challenges. We stood and contemplated, but also explored the world of words, at some speed, sharing and saving suggestions, making decisions, having balanced arguments and recording thoughts.

We started the day with 50+ Mill Rythe Y2 pupils and some Y3 pupils from Mengham Junior School, and visitng teachers from neighbouring schools.

Then in the afternoon we had the pleasure of the Year 1 pupils and some of the Reception Class children.

A huge THANK YOU to Charlotte Tighe, Literacy/KS1 leader for travelling with us today, and yesterday, and recording her thoughts for us here:

Tim and Sarah – Mill Rythe Infants 29^th and 30^th April 2013 

It is always an exciting day when award winning teacher comes to teach you some of his tricks but no-one expected yesterday’s training! As a staff, we had been eagerly anticipating Tim’s visit for a while – we knew that he was an excellent teacher who had won awards, we knew that he was coming to show us ICT techniques to use in the classroom and (those of us who enjoy the trappings of social media) knew he had a twitter! However – although all those things are true, that was not what struck us most.

Put simply – the enthusiasm that he and Sarah showed was infectious! Being a teacher still in the first 5 years of my career, I felt confident that my ICT knowledge was at the very least recent. I knew a few handy websites to help with specific subjects and am a whizz at using a visualizer… but Tim does not visit to show you specific websites for particular subjects or sell you the latest expensive gadget (which will make you choose between buying shiny electronic things or buying yet more whiteboard pens).

From a teacher’s point of view the session Tim and Sarah led was invaluable – the sheer amount of resources they showed us was amazing yet we were not prompted to use this ‘as a science lesson’ or ‘use it in Numeracy to teach this concept’. No. they showed us the technology and let us go on the wondrous journey of ‘wittering about it’! Because we were not prompted to link what they showed us purely to Literacy or Numeracy,  we generated cross-curricular ideas that are simple, free and would enthuse our children (possibly to the point of explosion but oh well)!

From a Key Stage Leader viewpoint it was easy to see why Tim is so in demand! The resources and advice he gives applies to all key stages, abilities, type and size of school. However…the main reason that I loved the session is because Tim is not afraid to go out on a limb and do it himself! He is definitely a presenter who practices what he preaches and shows you using video clips of his class, nose picking children and everything.

Although he is well known for his use of the Myst series of video games, it is HOW he has used them that is the true showing of the excellent teacher that he is – linking to fantasy stories, fact sheets, directional movements and more! He further develops this by modelling the strategies with your children, so you can follow this through back in your own classroom.

The time that the staff were given to explore the resources in Myst and the Locked page were invaluable and gave us an opportunity to plan for when we are back in the classroom. I look forward to using the suggestions and resources Tim and Sarah have shown us – especially because they explained how to do everything very clearly and gave us time to practice!

The second day of Tim’s visit was even better – most teachers like to see people using the resources, teaching using the strategies and I am no exception! Tim’s session with Year 2 (and a few Year 3′s we picked up along the way) was brilliant. Exploring the terrain of Myst, speculating about the possibilities of spiral staircases, the wind and the creatures we might find on this mysterious island was truly eye-opening.

Every school has children who have Special Needs or have a speech and language issue – this usually results in the children retreating into their shell and hiding their true selves away – Tim’s session allowed (more than that, encouraged) these children to speak freely and not worry about spellings or handwriting-  just to say their ideas, no matter how silly!

The change in the children was amazing to see and their confidence grew as they realized that Tim wanted to hear their ideas and know why they thought that. The methods that Tim used to encourage less teacher talk and more children talking definitely  helped children to develop their ideas (and showed the teachers a few tricks to develop this)!

By the end of the session the children were buzzing with ideas, determined to finish their work and to send it off into the ether to be read by someone…this is hard to replicate but Tim has given us a good starting point to develop this within our school.

Although Tim has given us a lot of valuable information and resources there are 3 things that will stick in my mind:

1. Always think outside the box…(the x box in particular…or the PC…or the Wii….)
2. The locked page is an excellent tool – you will go home and have a play!
3. Don’t panic!

Thank you Charlotte, for your very thoughtful reflections on the two days.

We look forward to keeping in touch, with all at the school, to see how you’re getting on, with whatever you try.

Thanks again go to Sarah Court, Mill Rythe Infant School’s headteacher, for inviting us to her delightful school to spend time with her colleagues, pupils …and ducks – THANK YOU!

Mill Rythe Infant School, Hampshire ~ Day 1

The first of two days a Mill Rythe Infant School on Hayling Island, and the first of three days with its headteacher, Sarah Court. On Wednesday, we will be at the Hampshire District 2 Headteachers’ Conference together in Poole looking at some fun, practical ways pf extending ideas, with heads from across the area. But first… some joyous explorations with children, and staff, from this lovely learning space.

Today’s INSET looked at some of the visual literacy ideas that can get classrooms bubbling. We were joined by neighbouring schools : Purbrook Infant School, Riverside School, Lee-on-the-Solent Infants, Hale Primary, Catherington Infants, Freegrounds Infant School, Springwood Infant School, Netley Marsh Infant School and Cherrywood Primary School.

We had a good look at how we can use a huge variety of resources as a stimulus for creativity across the curriculum. When using computer games as the springboard for writing, there are so many different genres that can flow from the images and experiences. With many immersive games, descriptive narrative is perhaps the most natural, due to the engaging nature of the landscapes, then recounts, letters, emails, postcards, reports, blogs, wikis, explanations and more. We explored together the use of still image, panoramas, mini worlds created from panoramas, moving panoramas and manipulating images in interesting ways to spark ideas and conversations. Then going further we ventured into the worlds in the Myst series Wii games and online tools.

We are looking forward to working with the children of the school tomorrow, and our focus will be investigating the power that digital games have in developing confidence in many forms of analog writing.