A wide range of Primary classroom activities, reviews and resources has been developed and published over the years originally by MAPE and, more recently since the merger in 2004, by Naace.

An ICT resource for teaching mental maths

The 'hotseat' guest for December is Sarah Peacock who works at one of Sheffield's City Learning Centres. I met Sarah as part of the successful Visual Learning Course which I attended earlier this year which Naace, MirandaNet based at the Institute of Education and Bath Spa University won the TDA bid to run as a CPD programme.

Sarah will be live in the 'hotseat' on Monday 15th December between 4-5pm. Please post questions before, during and after the live sessions.

Paul Williamson has spent a great deal of time empowering teachers in different subjects to use their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) effectively. The successes have become increasingly apparent with every area of the school moving forward rapidly.

Broadgreen are one of the few high schools across the country that run a baccalaureate programme. The programme is highly successful one for their students and are Becta's ICT Excellence Awards 2008 - joint runner-up award winners for the Best whole school in the North West category.

In this article we are looking at a piece of software that has the potential to support Lego-related activities at Key Stage 1 and beyond: BlockCAD, available from: http://web.telia.com/~u16122508/proglego.htm

Crossley Heath have used their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in so many ways to improve teaching, the delivery of the curriculum as well as the enjoyment of learning taking place. The following description highlights the way the schools secure email system is being used to help students make dramatic improvements in the quantity and quality of assignments set.

Naace have been successful in securing a TDA bid won by Steven Coombes based at Bath Spa University and being delivered as a 'Visual Learning Course' by Christina Preston and John Cuthell at MirandaNet (based at The Institute of Education, London).

Focus: ICT Coordinator

In this jam-packed issue, the lead article looks at the use of Windows Movie maker to develop ICT and geography skills and on page 3 Jackie Lester offers advice on preparing for an Ofsted inspection. On page 4 Rhona Dick introduces two pieces of software for exploring moral dilemmas and finally we have a Top Tip for maths teaching.
For comment or contributions please contact me at h.govier@btopenworld.com

This article gives some ideas for teaching young children about fruit. In particular it utilises the Find the Pairs game on the Naace website. This is not a whole scheme of work on fruit. It focuses on one particular aspect and suggests possible extensions. There are further resources listed at the end of the article.