What is the most effective way of developing the delivery of dance, swimming and gymnastics in your school?

The requirement to teach dance, swimming and gymnastics is perhaps one of the most troublesome parts of the National Curriculum, for each is a specialist subject requiring both knowledge and confidence to deliver.

And yet strangely, although each of these subject areas does have a very particular agenda of its own, it is possible to deliver quality teaching and learning, even without a specialist teacher.

What’s more such teaching can be delivered without your colleagues having to go on an expensive course and without having previous experience of the subject area.

This is because all three areas – dance, swimming and gymnastics – have very clear and particular issues within them, that can be taught step-by-step, even by a non-specialist.

Once one knows the step-by-step approach, then the teaching can progress towards the most positive of outcomes that will enthral the children and impress both parents and inspectors.

This unique approach, aimed specifically at the non-specialist teacher with little or no experience of teaching the topic, is covered in three separate teacher manuals, each of which reveals a complete methodology for teaching the specific discipline.

The three volumes “The Complete Guide to Primary Dance,” “Primary Swimming” and “Primary Gymnastics” can be purchased separately or as one selection (in which case the price is significantly reduced.

You can order the volumes:

● On our website (where there are more details of the contents of the manuals) via the links above
● By phone on: 0113 255 5665
● By fax to: 0113 255 5885
● By post to: Human Kinetics, 107 Bradford Road, Stanningley, Leeds LS28 6AT
● By email to: hk@hkeurope.com

All volumes come with a 30-day guarantee and can be returned for a full refund if you are not completely satisfied.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please do call me on 0113 255 5665 or email me at hk@hkeurope.com if you have any questions about these three unique volumes.

Claire Davey

Cover Teacher who thinks a primary source is something you put on your chips?

According to figures from the Dept for Education, the average secondary school teacher has about four working days off a year due to illness. Of course this incorporates teachers who have a long time out with a serious illness as well as the 44% of teachers who are fortunate enough to go a whole year not getting ill at all.

These numbers show why the need for ready-made materials for supply teachers who cover History classes is as vital as ever. For even when something has been left from the previous lesson, there are always going to be those who finish the work rapidly, and need something else to do.

Which is why the Absent History Teacher volume of worksheets was developed.

The worksheets within the volume cover a wide range of topics and range of ability – and are all designed so that they can be used as a one-off in an emergency, or as a series of highly varied tasks over a number of days, should the absence be unexpectedly protracted.

Activities range from a study of a discussion on the difference between the work of historians and archaeologists (and the issue of evidence) to an analysis of how the Cold War began.

Each article is followed by a wide range of questions, an extension task through which (for example) the students have to explain an archaeological dig which reveals artefacts from different eras, and a homework in which the students have to write a letter from a Soviet general in 1945 explaining the likely reaction of the Americans to a Soviet occupation of eastern Europe.

The volume covers such topics as evidence, anachronisms, The Romans, The Normans, Elizabethan England, diaries, letters, documents, crime and punishment etc etc.

Each lesson in the volume is printed on a single page and is simple to photocopy instantly for any class that suddenly requires the lesson.

The Absent History Teacher Worksheets collection is available from Hamilton House priced at £30.00 plus £2.95 delivery.

You can order the Absent History Teacher worksheets collection by filling in the order form and sending it by fax, email, or post (see contact details below). Alternatively, if you have a school order number, you can order by phone.

First and Best in Education, Earlstrees Court, Earlstrees Road, Corby, Northants, NN17 4HH
Telephone: 01536 399 011 Fax: 01536 399 01 Email: sales@firstandbest.co.uk

Tell them once, tell them again

How to reduce parental anxiety

Imagine this scenario. An extremely agitated parent marches into school with her son or daughter trailing behind, on a day when the school is closed to students.

With the teaching staff involved in a training session the parent finds you and demands to know why she was not told that children should not be in the school this day.

Patiently you explain that she was sent a letter, but she claims she didn’t receive it. You tell her that the dates of school closures are on the website but she claims she doesn’t have internet connection.

You apologise, but she says that’s not good enough. So what next?

It’s a tough one because you know that the parent is quite possibly not giving you the full facts, but you can’t actually say so.

Although such confrontations are thankfully rare, and quite possibly you’ve never faced one at all, it can be worth creating a way around such a problem – not just because it deals with this particular parent but also because it has associated benefits.

Imagine that in this situation you were able to walk with the lady and her embarrassed son or daughter back to her car, parked at the school entrance – where you could indicate the notice on school closure dates on the entry point notice board.

Indeed, where installed such a board can have lists of all the forthcoming events of relevance to parents – sports matches, trips, visits, parent’s evenings, etc.

Not only is this an additional way of getting information to parents, but it also has other benefits. It actually can bring parents together as they gather around to read the notice. And it can reduce the number of parents who seem to find a regular excuse to pop into the school office.

Although the number of entry-point notice boards declined at the end of the 20th century, they are now very much in use again with around two thirds of schools now having at least one – with most of them recently installed.

The major supplier behind this re-discovery of external notice boards is my company: Greenbarnes. And you can find more information on our website at: http://www.greenbarnes.co.uk/product-type/notice-boards/

Alternatively you can call us on 01280 701 093.

Michael Barnes