Primary education

In the UK children begin school at 5 years old. Primary school lasts 7 years, after which pupils go on to secondary school at the age of 11.

Secondary education

Secondary school is compulsory from 11 to 16 years old. At the end of this period, pupils take their GCSE (General Certifiate of Education) examinations, which generally take 2 years to prepare. After this, pupils can stay on for another 2 years and then sit their A Levels, which are necessary to continue to university level.

KEY STAGES

British school education up to the age of 16 is divided into Key Stages:

key stage 1: up to 7 years old

key stage 2: 7-11 years old

key stage 3: 11-14 years old (pre-GCSE)

key stage 4: 14-16 years old (preparation for GCSEs)

Glen Thrush of Politico has picked up the story on the Harold Ford vs Kirsten Gillibrand poll sampling….And that’s all it is now folks….

But Thrush and several of the people who comment on the story on his post correctly point out the Ford ran in Tennessee as a conservative democrat(well, he was running as a black democrat in the South)…and that may not go too well in New York…..

But I will also point out that New York State has had a republican Governor for 12 years until Spitzer, and Paterson showed up….aAlsoNew York City has had a republican Mayor for the last 20 years…….

Stay tuned for more…….

Neighbourhood schools have proved their mettle in the Primary School Leaving Exams (PSLE) this year. If you’re worried about the quality of education in the heartlands, then the fact that they produced 7 out of the 13 top pupils should put your mind at ease. Those schools are:

3040715    กระบวนการจัดการเพื่อพัฒนาสาธารณสุขมูลฐาน    Managerial Process for Primary Health Care Development

แนวคิดและบทบาทสำคัญของการสาธารณสุขมูลฐานที่มีต่อการพัฒนาชุมชนและกระบวนการจัดการเพื่อพัฒนา การใช้การสาธารณสุขมูลฐานเป็นกลวิธีในการแก้ปัญหาสุขภาพ และการสาธารณสุขมูลฐาน

(The concept and key role of primary health care in community development and its managerial process; all aspects of the primary health care approach to health problems; important issues on primary health care; the managerial process; wider coverage and community involvement, strengthened intersectoral action, resource distribution, managerial support-systems and information transfer, logistic, maintenance and supplier manpower development and essential drugs.)

(3040715 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Carta de Clare Oxberry, Directora de Primaria

Apreciados padres,

Estamos llegando al final del trimestre y, por eso, me gustaría recordarles las fechas, horarios e información de los acontecimientos de la última semana de colegio:

Martes, 15 de diciembre 2009

02:00 PM Concierto de Navidad de Years 3 a 6

Miércoles, 16 de diccembre 2009

02:00 PM Concierto de Navidad de Early Years y Years 1 y 2

Martes, 22 de diciembre 2009

el colegio cerrará a las 13:00 horas. Habrá comida para los alumnos como habitualmente.

Por favor, tomen nota: No habrá servicio de Guardería ese día.

Estarán de acuerdo conmigo que ha sido un trimestre muy largo para sus hijos, han trabajado mucho y ahora se merecen un descanso! Quiero agradecer a los profesores de cada departamento su entrega y dedicación hacia nuestros alumnos y al departamento de administración, su continua ayuda.

Finalmente, quiero aprovechar esta oportunidad para agradecerles su apoyo este trimestre. Espero que pasen unas buenas navidades y nos vemos el próximo trimestre, que empezará el viernes, 8 de enero de 2010.

Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo

Letter from Clare Oxberry, Primary Headteacher

Dear parents,

As we are fast approaching the end of the term, I would like to remind you of all the dates, times and information you need for the last week of school.

Tuesday, 15th December 2009

02:00 PM Years 3-6 Christmas Concert

Wednesday, 16th December 2009

02:00 PM Early Years and Years 1-2 Christmas Concert

Tuesday, 22nd December 2009

School closes at 01:00 PM. A cooked lunch will still be provided for your children as normal.

Please note: The Guardería will not be open on this date.

I am sure you will agree that it has been a very busy and long term for your children, they have worked hard and now deserve a well-earned break! I would like to thank all the teaching staff within each department for their commitment and dedication to our pupils and to the administration department for their continued assistance.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you the parents for your support to the school this term. We hope you have a hapy and restful Christmas break and we look forward to seeing you all next term, which begins on Friday, 8th January 2010.

Merry Christmas and a Hapy new Year

I have The Beatles’  ’Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ rattling through my head right now, but, of course, they were only going for ‘It was 20 years ago today…’

What am I wittering on about, I can (quite justifiably) hear you cry?

It’s 24th November as I write this and I spent the morning with the wonderful year 6 class at St James CE Primary in Rusholme (the very same school who worked with us on the amazing “Museum of Me” project).

Image, the Museum's Darwin Extravaganza poster

In preparation for a visit to the Museum next week to explore the Charles Darwin: Evolution of a Scientist exhibition (more on this in a later post!), we were looking through the newspaper produced by the Museum to support the exhibition. It contains some fascinating information about Darwin’s life (and world events happening at the same time).

I was delighted when one of the class spotted that ‘On the Origin of Species’ was published exactly 150 years ago today.

See? We work with observant children here!

Seems a guy in New York got polled about Harold Ford Jr. running against Kristen Gilibrand  in the primary for the democratic New York Senate seat…..yea!…how about that??

Last time I heard Harold Ford Jr. was doing his thing in Tennesse…..

Here’s the link to thealbanyproject.com story…….

I wonder if someone is putting these guys on?……

Ah….I’ve done some checking around…..it might interest everyone to know two things …First of all, Ford’s wife is a New York public relations person for Carolina Herrara…Second, Ford is currently a visiting professor at New York University these days…..now I’d be willing to bet, he and his wife have diggs in New York City…making him a New Yorker these days…..well I’be darned…..now that would be a hell of race, huh?

Note: Carolyn McCarthy has come for Gilibrand …ONLY  IF SHE WINS THE DEMOCARTIC PRIMARY FOR SENATOR……does McCarthy know something we all don’t?

El martes 1 de diciembre, los alumnos de Year 2, irán de excursión a “Can Foix”, en L’Arboç (Cubelles), donde participarán en el taller “La Natura a la Taula”.

El Colegio proporcionará bocadillos ese día a los niños que, normalmente, se quedan a media pensión.

El precio de esta excursión es de 25 €.

La autorización debe ser entregada al / a la tutor / a de su hijo / a antes del viernes 27 de Noviembre.

On Tuestay 1st December, pupils of Year 2 will be going to “Can Foix” in L’Arboç (Cubelles) where they will take part in a workshop.

Children who eat school lunch will be provided with a packed lunch on that day.

The cost of this excursion is 25.00 €.

The autorisation slip should be given to your child’s tutor by Friday 27th November.

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Yesterday our Primary classes celebrated their Thanksgiving Luncheon! Families of all students were invited to join their students at noon for a musical performance and meal.

Starting the hour off with a bang, Mr. C led the three classes in song. For video footage of the performance, please click here!

Afterwards, parents, siblings, grandparents, and guardians took their seats. How did they decide where to sit? By locating the special placemats and nametags prepared for them by their children.

Everyone was in good spirits and demonstrating the words keenly posted on the gym walls: Give thanks with a grateful heart. Classes shared in desserts, stories, laughter, and more.

We invite you to visit the photo gallery by clicking here.

Stay tuned for the Intermediate Luncheon!

I’m curious what most of my resto druid brethren out there do with their dual specs.  I currently run with my primary PvE spec and a more PvP oriented spec that I don’t really use very often.

Do most of you run with 2 resto specs?  Do you use a Boomkin or tank spec?  I would love to hear suggestions.  Any suggestions to my main spec is also welcome.

Currently working with the Primary Teaching Students, they have chosen their animation ideas and are now developing those ideas into something concrete. Ms Beattie is working on the idea of a growing tree that gets destroyed through harmful human acts. The tree is a symbol for world harmony. Ms Beattie’s ideas were great, though may be too large to complete in the short time that she has. I took a little time out to animate an example of how I would tackle her animation to let her and others see that ideas can be laid down quickly and effectively. Stop animation does not necessarily have to take a long time for it to be attractive and successful.

Whenever I think of an engaging, humorous character for young children, I think of David. David means well, but he just can’t seem to follow the rules. He has an adventurous spirit that kids can’t help but love. Shannon purposely made the art work and printing look like the work of a child since he actually wrote the story originally when he was a young lad!

No, David! was one of the most sought after books in my first grade class. They read it alone or with classmates, and it was requested when we had parent volunteers read to the class. Luckily David Shannon wrote other books about David: David Goes to School and David Gets in Trouble. With further discussion, kids can learn what not to do through these books. 

This book is recommended for K – 2nd grade.

I’ve got an embarassing confession to make.

I’ve a crush over a lady 7 years my senior.

Ever since mom has made me come along with her morning shopping trips. And you know, MOTHERS and their shopping trips tend to stray off course very often. Because of this, ever since i stopped going to school i have been helping mother with the groceries and whatnot which means i miss out my breakfast. And you know TEENAGE BOYS eat breakfast at around 11-12 AM.

Which means that i had to go around LOOKING FOR FOOD! Could you believe it? Neither could I.

Anyway, ive made a habit of going to the Sushi shop at the corner of Chester Square, whereupon a family of Koreans have made it their livelihood. At this Sushi shop, i met this really pretty lady who has hair as black as coal and skin as white as snow.

REALLY PRETTY.

And if you are one of those people who have once had a silly little crush over older and mature people such as that hot primary school teacher or that Sexy science teacher [if youre into that sort of thing] Then you probably know where im getting at.

Thing is, i dont know her name, or anything personal like that.

Its like a mutual aquaintance, a sophisticated relationship, a blossoming love.

Something like that.

Tories hold a US-style ‘primary’ in Gosport – the home of the duck island claim – where four potential MP candidates debate with voters…. From BBC News. Full story

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On Tuesday I was lucky enough to attend the #140 conference in London which was launched under the banner of Exploring the state of Now.
There have already been two excellent blog postings by Terry Freedman and Chris from BrainPop but I want to record some of my thoughts around the event.

I won my ticket after responding to a tweet by organiser Jeff Pulver @jeffpulver explaining why I wanted to attend. My hope was that I would see how people working in other businesses and areas of public sector are using twitter. This was to see if I could gain ideas for in-school work, my personal use of Twitter and also in my role working for the National Strategies.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britt_w

I arrived early at the O2 arena and made my way to Indigo not sure whether, other than @digitalmaverick, I would know anyone. Within minutes the power of twitter became clear as I found that @neiladam was actually sat two seats to my right and @terryfreedmanwas on the other side of the room with @billgibbon.

The day was launched by @jeffpulver who set the tone for the day with the key message for the day of “Listen connect share and engage”. The first hour was a very upbeat and touchy-feely presentation of presentation of the benefits of Twitter with ’twillionaire’ @stephenfry following later.

@jeffpulver started with a comparison of the present use of Twitter to the development of the ham radio community in the 70s and 80s – “There is no need to be lonely anymore.”

It is also, he opined, the future of communications enabling us to live in the state of now – this is the fact that there is so much more immediacy to the sharing of facts, news, information and opinion. He then introduced the issue of authenticity for the first time during the day arfuing that we could see the rise of consumer to consumer marketing (as people trust the views of a friend significantly more than those of a corporate). This did spark a thought in my mind as to whether there were any implications for education on a local scale from this comment.  He stressed how Twitter users recognise authentic and phoney users from politicians, multinationals etc. This is a theme which I will return to later in the post.

He talked about the opportunities provided to develop serendipity through developed engagement and also links. The example he gave was of the  fans and stars of a TV show being able to communicate without the control or interference of PR consultants.

Before Stephen Fry came on we saw a discussion between Babs Rangaiah Vice President, Global Comms Planning, Unilever and his colleague Laura Klauberg Vice President, Global Media, Unilever comparing the attitude of a Twitter addict and someone who doesn’t necessarily see its point. It is very to be cynical but part of me wondered why two extremely highly paid executives would give up their time to speak for ten minutes at such a conference if there wasn’t some cross benefit for them. This jarred with the idea of authenticity of which Jeff Pulver had been talking so enthusiastically. Babs Rangaiah made some  pertinent points which may have implications for education. He accepted that Twitter would be transient and was not necessarily here to stay but “real time recording of the present is here to stay”  this is something which not enough  school leadership team see; too many remain caught up in previous approaches or ignoring new developments as they will simply be a phase.
He also commented that Unilever marketers are encouraged to live the space which again struck a chord with primary education in terms of understanding children’s use of technology.

Stephen Fry was then welcomed to the stage to talk about the the cult of the celebrity twitterer. A year ago virtually no-one knew about Twitter and shows the massive change that comes through the internet. He said that the the point which is missed by too many is the emotional relationship of users with their technology. Brands are in danger of forgetting they need to talk to people as people, not as a business. So again we returned to the authenticity argument. He was interesting when talking about the ‘deadwood press’ citing how journalists have changed their view of twitter a year ago – especially the commentating class of journalist. They have undertaken a complete volte face starting their own stream, having initially initially derided any fatuous celebrity who dared to have a twitter account.

In a period of discussion of the press (in particular trafigura and Charlie Brooker’s use of twitter to attack Jan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britt_w

Moir’s article about Stephen Gately) he warned of lazy journalists regularly quote participants of tweet streams as the pr

omoters of a thread and used twitter as their source of information.

I did like his analogy of Twitter as a city with churches, red light zones, slums, beautiful areas etc and is influenced by its citizens. These things are human shaped don’t deny the internet your voice.

Andrew Keen Author, Cult of The Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture then took to the stage to give the dissenting voice. He was excellent in his attempt to politely pop the balloon of loveliness and potentially naivety.

Keen’s arguments were that the illusion of the state of now is that the world is flattened and we are rediscovering humanity whereas what we are actually rediscovering is power. The real word to discuss is authenticity – the human quality of being able to intimately engage. The more authentic one appears on Twitter the more power you have and the more you can connect. We are looking at a profound historical shift from the power of the press (based upon old structures) to a more authentic approach. The danger of this that we haven’t explored is what happens when someone who appears to be authentic is a charlatan. Stephen Fry has the power to rubbish papers, writers etc through his following.
As the world is one in economic crisis we have a state of now which could lead to catastrophe- this depends on who is peddling the truth as we have now done away with fact checkers, editors etc.

His analogy was that we now approach ‘digital vertigo’. Those of us in the know in the state of now cannot allow ourselves to be deluded that this is going to be a state of utopia.

We then moved into a more corporate section of the day started by event sponsor Kodak who had a stall advertising their new video camera the Zi8 which looks brilliant. He was introduced by Jeff Pulver who assured the delegates that we are disrupting the world by being real. @Jeffrey Hayzlett CMO, Kodak talked about the company’s social media approach.  He descrived this as the 4 Es of Kodak

• Engagement
• Educate
• Excite
• Evangelize

The key message I took from his session with implications for my role was that one third of people get Twitter right away, one third people get it eventually and one third won’t ever. He argued that this was the same for companies. The questions I posed myself were What would this be for Primary education? and What would this be for other applications around web 2.0?

I won’t repeat the detailed descriptions of the day repeated elsewhere especially as we then saw a range of speakers who showed how Twitter could be used to support their work. This included corporates looking at how they could exploit it – this seemed to run counter to the arugument that Twitter is an authentic medium. There seemed to be a great dichotomy between the first hour and then corporate nature of this part including the discussion of Twitter and music.  I also felt very old when Eminem (who first made it big in the US in 1999) was described coming from an age when…!

The Police who tweet session allowed senior police officers to describe how they use twitter to engage with the population and see it as business-critical for police. “Twitter is like a freight train – you either get on or get run over”
I was taken by the description of their policing of the EDL march in Birmingham and how they used Twitter to get information out on to the streets with great immediacy. One example was countering rumours spreading around one event.

The final session of great interest to me was the education session which was chaired by @daveowhite who admitted that he was not used to being at event with such lack of cynicism around technology. The discussion group was made up of @digitalmaverick, @jamesclay, @shirleyearley and (@Dr_Black) It was an iInteresting discussion about the use of twitter in education which James Clay sought to mix it up by arguing that it was inaccessble to schools and that Twitter is going to die within a year. Whilst amusing and thought provoking his assertion that 99.999999% of all schools blocked twitter was being quoted as truth by some twitterers by the end of the evening as a result of multiple retweets! (The retweeter didn’t consider that this mean that there would only be one school in the whole of England able to use it)
Ultimately James Clay is correct in arguing that too many institutions were blocking social media and that twitter was the present favourite toy but I also felt that was missing the point that in education the medium is often irrelevant – those schools which are using Twitter will not stick it with ad infinitum but the change in  their practice is what will remain and what is more significant.  The examples I think of are classes like @globalrams, @classroomtweets and @giraffeclass who are communicating with each other and other classes. They are also infant classes which are using the immediacy as a motivational tool for encouraging children to apply their phonic knowledge. The teachers are tackling the thorny issue of e-safety sensilby rather than over-emotively or through a paranoid lens. They will move on from Twitter maybe to applications we haven’t thought of or to something which other classes are using but the experience will change the way that those teachers operate.

So to echo other blog posts – was attending #140conf worthwhile?
Yes, definitely because it allowed me to do what I had stated in my original tweet to Jeff Pulver. I had a day considering how educationalists could develop their use of social media. I have revisited my thoughts on the use of Thomas Guskey’s model of evaluation of CPD (See previous blog post) and have started building models around the implementation of twitter and other applications.
There were some other benefits in meeting people who I had ‘met’ on Twitter and also to meet people from other walks of like. Any time for pondering and musing grabbed whenever and whereever is useful but it was enhanced by discussions with @neiladam, @billgibbon, @terryfreedman, @davidowhite and @digitalmaverick

“The Natonal Education Network (NEN)  is the UK collaborative network for education, providing schools with a safe, secure and reliable learning environment and direct access to a growing range of online services and content.“

Their website is well thought out and it is simple to find the information you are looking for. It provides links to a large number of web-based resources for all subject areas from KS1-KS4+, plus resources on E-Safety. In addition it links to the websites of all the regional NEN providers, for example the Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning (YHGfL) which provides the broadband connection for schools in our area. Each regional provider has their own bank of resources which are well worth investigating.

A charity chief executive is elected as a Conservative Party parliamentary candidate in a US-style primary vote in Brighton…. From BBC News. Full story

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Sometimes we get the sort of feedback from teachers that we just have to boast about and share.

This was a recent comment from a teacher whose year 3 class had taken part in our half-day Tall Tales session:

“The experience so fired the children’s imaginations that half a day was too short. It was like opening a limitless treasure box.”

Very gratifying (and I’ll try not to have a smug grin!), but this also points to why we’ve made a change to our Tall Tales session for this year. The session now runs for a full day (Mondays only) to allow time for children to collect and develop their ideas for a new myth.

The session already included observational drawing of ancient Greek pots, drama and visiting parts of the Museum to discover what their character is hunting on their quest and the monsters they may encounter en route.

It  now also includes handling objects and elements of Talk for Writing to support children in beginning to craft their stories.

It’s a lovely session which links elements of the History curriculum and Literacy framework tightly – and I look forward to seeing many more schools joining us for this amazing experience of “opening a limitless treasure box”.

Contact our bookings administrator, Nora, to book a session.

Image, Odysseus and sirens - The Manchester Museum helps children create their own myths with heroes and monsters

Sólo un pequeño recordatorio sobre el uniforme escolar

Los niños no deben venir al colegio vestidos con la camiseta blanca de gimnasia.

Deben traerla al colegio, ponérsela antes de su clase de gimnasia y volver a ponerse el uniforme después.

Por favor, asegúrese también que los niños vienen al colegio con zapatos de color negro o azul marino o calzado deportivo de color negro.

Gracias por su apoyo.

Just a little reminder about school uniform

Children should not come to school in their white PE tee-shirt.

Your child needs to bring it to school and change into it before their PE class and then change back into uniform after the class.

Also please ensure children come to school in black or navy shoes or black trainers.

Thank you for you support.