Daily Archives: 26/04/2017

School News

“A problem shared is a problem halved”…

 …but how exactly does this relate to your school’s minibus?

The school minibus poses something of a problem: for your Finance Manager in respect of cashflow forecasting and bureaucracy and for the person in charge of keeping it operational in respect of organising its MOTs, services and repairs.

Fortunately, we have a solution to cut the problems associated with the school’s minibus by half. The answer is to share the minibus with another school in the same cluster, trust or council as you are – resulting in half the costs, half the work, and half the problems.

Better still, if you lease a minibus with Benchmark Leasing, there is the added benefit of improved cashflow (as you pay a set fee each month – no more, no less) and it often works out to be much cheaper than buying a minibus outright (especially if one considers the re-sale value), or indeed hiring a coach each time.

Furthermore, a full maintenance programme is included, so no matter the outcome of the vehicle’s services and MOTs, the cost of repairs won’t affect the lease price.

If you haven’t leased a minibus or thought about sharing one, please do give me a call on 01753 859944 and I can talk you through how it all works.

And if you want to take a look at who we are and what we do before you call, you’ll find more information about leasing at  www.minibusleasing.co.uk

PSHE, Special Needs

What does it mean to an autistic student to be a teen?

The word “teen” originally meant (in the 17th century) injury, harm, suffering or grief.  Later it came to mean irritation, annoyance, anger or rage.

By the 18th century it came to have the current meaning of being the period of life between being 13 and 19 – a handy mix of the end of each number (fifteen etc) and the perceived behaviour of young people of that age range.

It was not until the 1920s that the word “teenager” was added to the lexicon, but the combination of meanings remained – being between 13 and 19, and expressing undue amounts of irriTation, annoyance, anger, etc.

The teens can of course be difficult years for many school students, but for those who suffer from autism spectrum disorder the period can be especially troubling as information and advice for teenagers generally doesn’t cater for those who view the world in a wholly different way.

Which is why SEN Press has produced the Teen Issue Value Pack, suitable for students aged between 14 and 19 with autism or other special educational needs and a reading age of around seven.

The Teen Issues Value Pack consists of six story books, each exploring a different teen issue, with relevance to the ASDAN award programmes ‘Transition Challenge’ and ‘Towards Independence’.   Also included is a CD-ROM providing digital versions of the above titles, which are ideal for interactive whiteboard presentations and for students who would also benefit from listening to the text.

It is possible to edit and save the text to make your own differentiated texts, and there is also an extensive range of activity worksheets and interactive activities that encourage reading comprehension, including page-by-page notes for all the stories and assessment resources (feedback sheets and student record sheets).

The complete set of resources containing two copies of each of the six readers, the complete teacher book, and the CD Rom is available for £139 plus VAT.  Individual elements from the pack are also available separately.

You can see more details and sample pages from the readers, and details for ordering individual items as well as the full pack on our “Teen Issues” web page.

For further information, please email info@senpress.co.uk or call 01582 833205.

Primary

Assessment ‘without levels’

Another review of Primary assessment? Maybe it’s time to devise your own system?

Last year, like most schools, you were probably feeling your way into the new curriculum and assessment without levels.

Now you probably have enough experience to set up an assessment system which will meet your school’s precise needs.

With support from our Primary Progress toolkit it’s perfectly possible. Here’s what you will probably need to do.

Adopt a manageable set of statements, which will help your teachers to know what their pupils need to know and be able to do.

Devise a set of grades, which define pupils’ steps on the way to mastering the curriculum.

Have a quick and easy way for teachers to record their assessments.

Agree Age Related expectations for each term.

Analyse which pupils are making expected progress and which need support to get them on track.

When Ofsted come won’t they be impressed when you show them how you are managing all this?

Our Online Primary Progress toolkit has been built with flexibility as its main aim. We believe it can support any school’s assessment needs.  It’s also a modern online database system, professionally programmed, so you don’t have to worry about maintaining it.

So, if you aren´t 100% satisfied with your current assessment tracking system, why not check out our Online Primary Progress toolkit at primaryprogresstoolkit.co.uk?

If you need more information, or would like to discuss your specific needs, email me at statsed@gmail.com or ring me on 01279 652183.

We can also give you free access to a demo site, where you can try out the toolkit for yourself.

Roger Watson

Statistics for Education, 5 Bridge Street, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, CM23 2JU
Tel: 01279 652183; Email: statsed@gmail.com

Literacy

When students are most likely to slip back in terms of literacy – what can be done about it?

It is something that can often be observed: pupils and students who are already struggling somewhat in terms of literacy can slip back even further during the school holidays.

Unfortunately this “slippage” can have an even greater impact on some students when it occurs during the Easter break, as the arrival of better weather in the summer term can encourage more time to be spent outdoors, leaving less time for doing any literacy support work at home.

In such cases the best solution is one that is totally geared around each individual student’s specific needs; an approach which can be utilised both at home and at school.

Being an approach based totally around the student’s current literacy level, our solution means that the gaining of literacy changes from being a struggle into something that is enjoyable.  Enjoyable both because of the nature of the materials and because the progress can be witnessed by the student every day.

In a study conducted between March and summer 2016, at-risk pupils and students across nearly 3,000 schools made substantial progress using our approach. During this time, the percentage of young people working two or more years below their expected level was reduced by almost half (54% to 28%).

To achieve such success, our approach starts with a highly accurate and rapid system of placing pupils and students according to their current literacy ability, and which precisely notes the progress they are making day to day.

This auto-placement approach analyses individual ability levels and reveals exactly what each student needs to be focussing on in order to ensure progress is achieved.

Then, if the student can have one-to-one tuition in a way that is utterly engaging and responsive to her or his immediate literacy needs and within the school’s budget, the issue is resolved.

All of this can be done using Strategies from Lexia.  The analysis, the comparisons with other pupils and students, the progress, the remedial work – each and every element of a student’s learning journey is tracked and evaluated by Strategies.

If you would like to read the case studies involving UK schools which are already using the system please click here. You will then also find on the right of the page the route to having access to the full program for 30 days without any payment or commitment.

If you want to know more about the program, we have all the information you’ll need available here. Alternatively, if you would like to talk first, call 0191 482 1939, or email info@lexiauk.co.uk.

Primary

Is your school ready for the General Election on 8th June?

Lets vote on it front cover

Introduce your pupils to the ideas of democracy with these products from Gresham Books

Let’s Vote On It! book – written for KS2 Let’s Vote On It! is an introduction to democracy and the workings of Parliament explaining how citizens can influence decision making through the democratic process.

Democracy in Britain class poster – a bright and lively British Values poster for your classroom. The poster picks out the key elements of our British democracy.

Aiming High book – a critical thinking guide written for parents and teachers explaining how the techniques of critical thinking can help pupils learn to evaluate evidence and make up their own minds.

For more details visit our WEBSITE

Nursery

A great start to learning their tables

Times Table Plates image

Give your little children a great start to learning their tables with these charming Plates, Bowls and Beakers.

The children get really involved with the characters and this generates a very strong interest within them to learn the tables, meaning they go off to their next school with a great head start.

Please look at our website www.timestableplates.co.uk  and email or telephone us to ask questions, or seek a sample.

With best regards

Bob Norfolk
Times Table Plates

01273 960950

rnorfolk@hotmail.com