News
The latest educational news from Northern Grid and around the world. The latest news items are at the top.
Check out our Twitter updates on the side menu.
13 August 2010 Are you about to start a PGCE course? Want to know what to expect? Newly qualified primary teacher Tim Handley has produced a book with lots of hints. Tips and advice from recent PGCE graduates and more experienced teachers. This book is available to download free or you can buy the paperback. Find out how at http://classroomtales.com/pgce-survival-guide-pgcetips/
09 August 2010
9 August - 11 September
If you have a story to tell and want to do it digitally then head to Culture Shop! This temporary cinema-style area is running free one-day digital storytelling workshops throughout August as part of Culture Shock. These workshops are the last chance to create your own digital story inspired by museums and galleries and have it added to museum archives. You'll work with the Culture Shock team to script, record and edit a digital story using Apple Macbooks. Lunch will also be provided. Click here for dates and booking information.
If you don’t want to make a story then just...
02 August 2010
Developing Student Improvement Leaders is one of our Schools Innovation Projects and it aims to make use of new technologies to impact on teaching and learning.
All Saints VA CE School in Stockton will be developing a Moodle VLE with areas for curriculum, care and guidance, student leadership, governors, parents and community.
GCSEPod has an important role in this project regarding the investigation of the use of new technologies and how they integrate and work alongside the All Saints VLE.
The ‘Student Improvement Leaders’ will be developing their own podcasts for embedding the use of assessment for learning.
About GCSEPod
The largest resource of audio-visual podcasts for GCSE learning and revision.
- Over 2,000 curriculum-relevant podcasts
- Over 150 hours of learning
- Covers 8 subjects (inc.English,Maths and Science)
- Fantastic VLE content
- Mapped to forthcoming exams
- Use in school, at home or on the move
- New: Students can put...
02 August 2010 Many teachers find innovative ways of teaching and learning based on new technologies, but often their work is not known outside a small circle. The eLearning Awards help teachers to have their creativity and technical skills recognised, and at the same time show a wider audience how ICT helps to improve their methodology, enriches their work in the classroom and positively impacts on children’s learning.
The closing date is September 28th
More details can be found at: http://www.elearningawards.eun.org/ww/en/pub/elearningawards/homepage.htm
28 July 2010 IT Schools Africa is a fully WEEE-compliant, UK registered charity that collects old computer equipment and distributes it to schools in Africa.
Appeal for computers for re-use in African schools
Also labeled: ICT
28 July 2010
Another update from the Beacon Hill Film Project:
 Dear Friends
After reaching the finals of the National Lottery Awards, thanks entirely to YOUR votes, we need your support one last time as we enter the final round of voting!
Beacon Hill Film Project is a group of young people with learning disabilities who make their own films from script to screen with mentoring and support. They write, film and edit their work as well as make the props, the costumes and compose the music.
We have now reached the TOP 3 Lottery-funded arts projects in the country and the winner is decided entirely by public votes.
In the autumn, the young filmmakers are travelling down to London to take part in a special live BBC 1 show, where the final result will be announced.
PLEASE VOTE FOR US
http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/shortlistitem.cfm?id_category=1&id_entry=92
and clicking the “vote now” button (just two clicks of the mouse!)
or by...
26 July 2010 Many of you will have seen the news headlines, but here is some additional info from CEOP about their new app in collaboration with Facebook.......
CEOP and Facebook have developed a new free application that will make young people safer within Facebook. ClickCEOP is a new app which links the young user and parent directly from their Facebook home page to help, advice and reporting facilities of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
The 'CLickCEOP' app is a three stage application that asks young people to:
- Add the app - and the ClickCEOP tab will appear at the top of your profile page
- Share the badge - and you can share the app with your friends via their newsfeeds
- Bookmark the app - and an icon will appear on your profile page making it easy for you to access the help and advice from the ClickCEOP app
By adding the app, young people and parents can get support from CEOP on a range of issues - viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and they can report someone who is acting inappropriately towards them online.
The app is t...
26 July 2010 The latest results of Youthworks Cybersurvey are now available online at www.youthworksconsulting.co.uk/cybersurvey.html
This simple online survey has been planned to find out the extent of cyberbullying and cyber abuse experienced by young people aged 10 -16 and 16+ and their use of e-safety advice.
To date 7321 children and young people have responded to the Youthworks Cybersurvey. This is the first step towards building a knowledge bank on cyberbullying, and e-safety education. Five local authorities have participated. They now have a picture of local patterns of abusive behaviour online and on mobiles in the youth population. They can plan their e-safety programme and have a benchmark to refer to in future when they want to check that their efforts are effective.
The first survey was undertaken in the autumn term of 2009 in Birmingham,Solihull, Dudley and Oxfordshire and the latest figures are now available for the Spring term of 2010 in Essex.
22 July 2010 Northern Grid wishes to engage consultants to support the next procurement of their regional broadband network.
Documents below detail the consultancies for the required technical and legal services.
15 July 2010
The Northern Grid for Learning Annual Conference 2010, held on the 25th June 2010 at Newcastle, was a great day for all!
Over 140 great delegates, over 30 exciting exhibitors, over 20 amazing sponsors, 10 enthralling workshops and 2 incredible keynote sessions all packed into 1 day!
Mark Hickson wrote an extremely positive summary of the event over at MerlinJohnOnline which highlighted that the conference helping to lift the current feeling of uncertainty in ICT and education by showcasing the amazing use of technology throughout the curriculum.
For those of you who couldn't make it, or for those who want more information about the other workshops that were on during the day, we've compiled a list of presentations and notes from the workshops.
Also labeled: Conference 2010, eSafety, Head Teachers, History, ICT, Innovation, KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, Learning Platform, NG Services, Northern Grid Created, SEN, Social Networking, Teachers
15 July 2010
 Constitution Day Student Summit
September 17, 2010 9 AM – 1 PM EST
The project will support a day-long “Constitution Day Student Summit” for students in 15 southwest regional school districts. The students will apply the principles of the US Constitution to the regulation of the Internet by creating a “Bill of Rights for the Internet”. Students at Cornell High School for the event will work with students in (four) other countries through videoconference. Participating students will share ideas prior to the event through a webpage modelled after the “Letters to the Next President” site (http://www.letters2president.org/).
Outcomes:
- Students will analyze the relationship between national and international laws.
- Students will assess how other countries view and interpret fundamental freedoms.
- Students will draft an international agreement defining what rights individuals should have on the Internet.
Schedule of Events:
- 9:00 – 9:15 Welcome
- 9:15 – 10:00 Panelist Discussion forum on Fundamental Freedoms and the Internet (Students will have the...
14 July 2010
Northern Grid will soon be looking into developing interactive education apps for Apple's iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad.
In the meantime, we thought we'd collect together some useful information about using and developing for them.
13 July 2010
 Download as PDF
Press Release
National Award recognises Northern Grid for Learning’s best practice in getting people online
 Northern Grid’s achievements in providing safe and secure internet connections for schools and local authorities across the north east were recognised at the prestigious 2010 Nominet Internet Awards evening in London on July 7th.
The award was presented to Mick Young, Christine Jack (members of Northern Grid’s E learning team) and Easynet’s (Northern Grid’s Internet Service Provider) Phil Paddon by the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP and Graham Walker from Race Online 2012.
On Monday 12th July Race Online 2012 launched their campaign to get millions of people online by 2012. The campaign has the support of Prime Minister David Cameron yet no government funding has been identified to support the scheme.
The Nominet Internet...
07 July 2010
 For those that weren't at the Easynet, Northern Grid Technical Seminar on the 6th of July 2010, here are the presentations and documents from the event.
02 July 2010
Mark Hickson has wrote an extremely positive summary of our Annual Conference over at Merlin John Online.
...
Mel Philipson, Northern Grid manager, reminded us of the value delivered to schools and local authorities across the region. Approved methods of calculation indicate that the savings and efficiencies amount to more than £7 million. It is important that we recognise this kind of benefit to schools, most especially at a time when funding for ICT is under so much threat. Regional broadband consortia, particularly working together as the National Education Network, are among a now-decreased number of bodies in a position to have a clear-sighted overview of current issues around ICT in education – they should be valued.
...
Read the full article here
01 July 2010
29 June 2010
 Letters to The Secretary of State for Education and to Local MPs. - Please download these draft template letters, amend them to suit your circumstances and send to the Secretary of State and your local MP.
An excel file is available with names and contact details of your MP
Documents
 Exemplar Letter for Schools to send to The Education Secretary of State
Exemplar Letter for Schools to send to Local MPs
28 June 2010
 Wondering what to do with your Summer Holidays? Want to head to a festival but don’t have the cash? Well look no further as Rob da Bank and his team have joined forces with BRIT Class Act to offer you the ultimate summer holiday music prize.
Enter BRIT Class Act's video competition and you could be playing on stage at Camp Bestival this summer. Not only that, but you’ll also win weekend passes to the festival for yourselves and your family!
Check out the Camp Bestival website and look at all the acts you could be performing alongside. Then it’s time to get cracking and enter your music video into the competition. All you need to do to enter is head to www.britclassact.co.uk and follow a few simple steps.
Good Luck!
28 June 2010
Student Ashleigh Hall was raped and murdered by a man she met on a social networking site. John Steel, lead improvement officer for children's services at Darlington Borough Council, explains the efforts being made to prevent similar incidents. (From PublicService.co.uk).
Read the full article here
28 June 2010
An update from the Beacon Hill Film Project:
Dear Friends
Thanks to your votes, the Beacon Hill Film Project, which enables young people with learning difficulties to make their own films from script to screen, has reached the finals of the National Lottery Awards.
Thank you so much for all your support. Without your vote, we wouldn’t be where we are. We have heard so many stories of people and organisations who forwarded our email, tweeted, regularly updated their “Facebook” status, encouraged their friends, family and in some cases - entire workplace – to vote for us – it is quite humbling and we can’t thank you enough for your support.
We now go to a final round of voting which will run between 26th July and 13th August to decide the winner. Beacon Hill Film Project, along with the other finalists, will be showcased on a special star-studded Saturday night BBC 1 programme in the autumn, where the final result will be announced.
We hope that when the time comes in July and August, you will be able to vote for us again and encourage others to do the same!
In the meantime, if you haven’t done already, please do take five minutes to look at some...
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Yorkshire & Humber Grid for Learning
