The Naace Annual Strategic Conference and Exhibition opened in Torquay in early March 2008. This is the definitive ICT Conference in the UK for all those involved in advancing education through the use of modern technologies in learning and teaching.

Naace will be responding in due course to the Byron Review following consultation with Members. At this stage we are pleased to relay the Association's views in response to questions in Chapter 3 of Staying Safe. While we recognise that vulnerable children and young people need to be protected and need to learn how they can protect themselves, it is our view that good practice in the safe use of communication technologies should apply to all children in all educational settings.

Naace has introduced a 'hot-seat' where invited colleagues field questions over a four week period. Our guest in the 'hot-seat' will either answer online at specific times, or at pre-arranged regular intervals. We look forward to hearing from you!

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.

This short article aims to highlight the background, key features and current vision of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) project at Ranvilles Infant School. The full version of this research project is available through the University of Winchester library: Aubrey-Smith, F.S., (2007) 'How the implementation of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) can affect the strategic development of a whole school. MA(Ed) Dissertation. University of Winchester.'

'Sharing Success' is a monthly e-magazine that focuses on schools' and teachers' use of ICT to contribute to successful achievements. Features freqently focus on recent issues, with the opportunity for Members to post comments directly onto each Article.

The Direct2U service was a weekly email service produced by Becta in partnership with Naace. The service was for primary teachers and offered lesson plans featuring ICT in activities based on six subject strands. The service is discontinued but you can view the lesson plans in this archive.

Anyone who works with pupils who have additional or special educational needs will understand when I say how difficult it has been to try to cover the range of needs that this encompasses. I am delighted to have such a diverse and talented group together in one publication and between them have created a magazine that should have something for everyone and lots more to make you think and consider how your classroom practice could benefit from their experience. I hope you enjoy reading the articles and that you are inspired to try out some new ideas in your classroom.

Sandra O'Neill
Guest editor

Within these pages you'll find many ways in which you can deliver a rich curriculum through a range of topics. We have chosen to focus on just five. For younger children there are some exciting ways to learn about Food. Margaret Allen highlights the versatility of IWBs and Susie Arnott and Marie Hindmarch suggest ways of using stories as a starting point. Andy Pierson brings inspiration and help when teaching music in a Seaside topic. Photographs of beach huts, taken by Roger Keeling, provide a stimulus for mathematical activities.

Welcome to the first edition of Primary Focus in 2008, published to coincide with the BETT Exhibition at Olympia in London (9-12 January 2008). The major positive change to the Primary Focus journal is that, similar to other Naace publications, we are now encouraging Members to contribute and interact with Articles, myself as editor, and other Members - with the idea of stimulating points of view within a continuing professional dialogue.