UKEd Magazine February 2016

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February 2016

Issue 26

The School

Playground Where Two

Worlds

Collide

8

22

14 An Education for Life Break Down the Walls

Going Paperless

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Issue 26: February 2016

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From the Editor

4 Parental Involvement

Jackie McKay discusses whether parental involvement is desired and how to use it - if it is.

6 A School on a Mission

Martin Burrett writes about a school that has put school communication at its core with by using the latest technology.

7 5 Tips for Improving Engagement

Piota Apps share strategies for ensuring that communication between school and home is effective and engagement with 5 tip to try.

8 Break Down the Walls

Ben Hall discusses the value of schools using Twitter to communicate with their community and give a guide to how this can be done.

10 History Teaching & Learning ideas

Kate Jones shares her top learning ideas for her history class, but are valuable in all subjects.

13 ICTmagic EdTech Resources 14 SEN: An Education for Life Beyond School

Joe White shares his insight into his first encounter and his continuing career of teaching pupils with additional needs.

16 The Best of BETT 2016

We share our favourite products and the most innovative teaching technology from the BETT Show.

18 Powering Up with TechFuture Girls

Martin Burrett explores the TechFuture Girls online resource platform, designed to educate and inspire the next generation of digital leaders.

20 Book Shelf

Thinking About Thinking by Stephen Lockyer

21 Mentoring - a way to build relationships

Aaliya Khan discusses how her school has deployed pupil mentors to improve standards and develop closer relationships between the pupils.

22 Go Paperless

Gail Abbitt describes how she has gone paperless in her own classroom and offers digital alternatives.

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It’s too late. Years late in fact, and now you can only pick up the pieces.

Research shows time and again that learning before formal school age is the most vital and that the ethos to learning in the household remains crucial. Pupils spend much more time at home (even if it doesn’t feel like it) and any school not serious about forging close ties with their community and showing a united front with parents will be missing out on an important asset.

In this issue of UKED Magazine we are exploring how to foster a closer relationship with parents and the wider community, with articles about communication issues and solutions, as well as opening the school doors to the outside world.

Get ready to break down the classroom walls... metaphorically speaking.

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Contributors Jackie McKay @JMcKay1972 Piota Apps @PiotaApps Ben Hall @hengehall Kate Jones @87history Joe White @jw_teach Aaliya Khan @Miss_Khan868 Scott Tucker @Biologyteach73 Gary Henderson @garyhenderson18 Gail Abbitt @gailabbitt Rachel Kidson @mrskidson14

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Many images have been source under a Commercial Creative Commons License. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Cover Photo Credit: flickr.com/photos/keoni101/8084689965 by Keoni Cabral used under Commercial Creative Commons 4.0 License.

Parental Involvement

Does it contribute positively?

By Jackie McKay

Having participated in many valuable discussions and academic literacies regarding the significant effects on home school collaboration, I consider that active involvement is a key factor in sustaining behaviour development and social competency skills, but more importantly, providing the motivation to encourage children to learn.

Understanding the process and dynamics of the education system may feel daunting to some parents and involvement can be defined through two relevant pathways. Firstly, how powerful and important is parental involvement? And secondly, how do we as educators repress the barriers that restrict involvement?

curriculum workshops and fundraising events. Opening doorways through teacher presence and promoting methods of communication and building relationships in a less formal capacity was another venture to be tackled.

In the work of Hartas, D (2011), research was conducted to access the relationship between home learning and parents’ status and how this was represented in educational achievement. Parents’ own experiences of education and qualifications were seen to be the dominant factor in influencing competences of children’s learning. This research indicated that the power of parental involvement can be undermined not only by parental qualification but significantly their income. In the study there was a strong connection with ‘long-term cognitive and language rather than with their social-emotional outcomes’.

Breaking down the barriers and encouraging children to adopt positive mind-sets to overcome perceived failures will, without question, result in consistent expectations and underpins the parents’ role as being morally In reflection, I do understand the effects of some responsible in helping to achieve the maximum learning disadvantages faced by parents and the long term effects opportunities for learners, hence playing their part in non-engagement may have in later life, but would also closing the attainment gap. like to probe further and ask does engagement actually In May 2006, the Scottish Parliament introduced the benefit and have a life-long effect on children’s learning Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act (bit.ly/ or is it merely enrichment of lives? While I believe that uked16feb01), which encouraged parental views and the effects of parental involvement will never eradicate supported parents into school life. The introduction of the these disadvantages, I do feel that it can motivate and put act emphasised that children’s learning was at its core. value in meaningful life experiences regardless of socioParticipation outside of school, in areas such as homework, economic status. Driessen, G et al. (2007) paper examines has always been a taboo subject, where arguments sway Parental involvement as a strategy to expand the social to the relevance and benefit of undertaking homework and cognitive capacities of pupils looking specifically with parent support. Many argue that time should be at low-educated and ethnic minority parents. Various spent in other ways in activities such as outdoor play, forms of both parental and school-initiated involvement which as educators we fully endorse. Many factors need were examined, but the study reveals that the schools in to be taken into account with regards to homework and question only viewed engagement for their own benefit. an understanding of socio-economic backgrounds and They provided a framework that allows greater autonomy family structure is paramount to be able to fully justify any and strengthened vital parent links with aims of reducing the attainment gap and increasing prospects for future benefits gained. careers in those children within the disadvantaged groups.

At Bannockburn Primary School (@bannps), Stirling ‘Family Time’ has been introduced and has been very In my opinion, parental involvement promotes the social successful in welcoming parents and extended family and emotional wellbeing of children whose parents are members to visit the classes during teaching time involved in their education have many advantages and showcasing a ‘chunk’ of their child’s learning within a minimise the social constraints that influence the child’s real environment. This programme initially started within attitude and behaviour. This can be conveyed positively the nursery setting, but was quickly opened across the when parental involvement in an education establishment wider school due to positive feedback and responses portrays a significant message that learning is crucial. from parents. The purpose and aims of family time was Key factors including background, parents’ educational to increase parent involvement to above 85% across the attainment, family structure, ethnicity and parental whole school, not only through family time, but during engagement are strongly connected to achievement and parent consultations, homework support, sports days, attainment. Further research shows that the impact of 04 UKED Magazine

parental engagement arises from parental values and educational aspirations continuously demonstrated through enthusiasm from their own experiences of education. Effectively promoting parental engagement can positively reinforce the relationships between educational establishments, practitioners and parents by transcribing any existing educational inequalities.

In their work, Ho Sui-Chu and Willms (1996) stated that ‘the school has little effect on individual attainment unless there are direct and explicit connections to learning and it is what parents do to support learning in the school and in the home that makes the difference to achievement’.

Parental involvement faces many barriers and the most I believe that home-school collaboration is essential. common being work commitments, lack of time and Working hand-in-hand to share responsibility and make childcare. Evidence also highlights that certain parents an impact on children’s education will result in increased face considerable difficulties in their exchanges with self-esteem and positive attitudes. professionals while there is a broadly held desire among most parents for more engagement in schooling, but are aware that there can be certain psychological barriers Links & References attributing to their involvement.

Driessen, G et al. (2007) Parental Involvement and As a reflective practitioner I welcome parental Educational Achievement, British Educational Research engagement and believe that it does makes a significant Journal, 31(4), p.509- 532. difference to achievement and how positive responses from learners can be executed in raising attainment. Hartas, D. (2011) Families’ social backgrounds matter: Involving parents and conversing in a non-judgemental socio-economic factors, home learning and young way can help to break down barriers and create a platform children’s language, literacy and social outcomes, British in creating opportunities for better outcomes. Parent’s Educational Research Journal, 37(6), p.893-914 bit.ly/ involvement can contribute and influence academic uked16feb02 achievements, social and emotional growth and a child’s Ho Sui-Chu and Willms (1996) cited: Dreistadt, J,R. (2009) ability to learn raising many questions arise regarding Impact of Parental Involvement bit.ly/uked16feb03 the ‘purpose of engaging parents’ such as, are schools diverting responsibility of learning onto parents? Would Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. enhanced programmes of engagement reflect the purpose Available: bit.ly/uked16feb04 of parental roles and experiences in schools? Parents are viewed upon as the main educators in their children’s lives Jackie McKay, Primary Teacher at Bannockburn so in the case of engagement where is parental influence Primary School, Stirling. Studying at Masters Level and expertise represented and who would have the say in in Professional Education and Leadership. Active classifying important distinctions in parental involvement? and very reflective practitioner who thrives on Image credits: pixabay.com/en/child-girl-young-caucasian-1073638 pixabay.com/en/family-children-female-happy-male-155562

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innovation and creativity in making a difference to learning. Find her on Twitter at @JMcKay1972.

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A

School

On A

Mission By Martin Burrett The launch morning began with school staff introducing the app to parents from the school community. They spoke about how the app would make home/school communication easier for parents, as messages could can never get lost as with a paper newsletter, the posts can include as much information, links and images as needed unlike text messages, and the app brings new content directly to the reader, unlike a school website.

The community was shown how they could download the app from Apple App store or Google’s Play Store. By the end of the session the app had been downloaded over 200 times.

Each of the sections of the app where explained to the parents. The calendar shows key dates of events at the school and it can be synced to draw items directly from the school website.

As a primary school teacher, it is wonderful to experience those moments within a school when the pupils, staff and community are excitedly working on a project together. Mission Grove in Walthamstow have recently embarked on one such project, and I was invited to see excitement as the school launched their new Piota App. While the presentation with the parents was happening, the children, lead by the school council, were busily capturing photos from around the school on tablet devices to add to the app as a celebration of the learning at Mission Grove and providing a ‘day in the life’ look at the school.

The best images were selected by the school council and uploaded to the web-based app management system, which has a similar feel as composing an email, with attached images and adding writing to a text box.

The school council discussed how having the app would impact on the school. They said that as well as making things easier for the school staff, the app would improve communication between the school and the community.

They also mentioned that the app is not just available to parents, but also grandparents and other family members can stay up to date with news from the school. Many of the children admitted that they had also downloaded the app to their own phones and wanted the teachers to include content and notes from class.

Lastly, I sat in on the staff training session about how to use the web-based management system. Staff were shown how to use their individual logins and were given a tour of the sections on the website. Collectively on the classroom whiteboard, the staff composed a news post about an upcoming event with text, images and links in under two minutes and added it instantly to the app with a single click.

They were also shown how to design forms and surveys by selecting the type of question and adding the text.

The latest articles are published to the ‘news’ feed and the school can push out mobile notifications to alert parents to the most important items, and newly published articles from the school website will be automatically published to the ‘timeline’ section of the app.

The parents were shown the ‘contacts’ and ‘information‘ sections where the schools vital details are easily accessable on the go, and a phone call can even be started from within the app.

Finally, the ‘surveys’ and ‘forms’ sections were explained and tried by the parents. These allow schools to gather feedback and information from the app users, such as absence reports, parent consultation appointments, opinion polls and nonurgent messages to the school office - each saving time for the school and making it easy for parents to engage with the school directly from their mobile phone.

The parents were also shown how to set their filter settings within the app so they only receive content which is relative to them.

06 UKED Magazine

Engaging the school community so that everyone is supporting the learning of the children in a unified manner is vital to raising achievement and effective communication is the key component. The Piota app will give parents and the wider community insight into the life of the school and allow easy communication and feedback like never before.

But more importantly, as Jemima and Asha told me, “The App is Cool.” I can’t argue with that!

5 Tips for Improving Engagement with

21st Century Parents

A number of challenges stand between schools and effective, valuable engagement with parents Schools can improve parental engagement by revolutionising the way they communicate with families via a cost effective app.

Tip 1 - Accessibility: Communicate with parents directly news, messages and information when it arrives. What’s more, our data shows that when alerted to a new bulletin on their most trusted device 95% of parents own a smartphone and have it to hand or article on the app the average parent then reads six other pages immediately afterwards. throughout the entire day. Why not reach them directly on the device they favour for Tip 4 - Evidence: Build engagement by all other communications? learning from your impact Mobile apps have been developed Apps allow schools to monitor in real time specifically for the mobile world, email what their parents are reading. So you can and the internet were not. Communication see what’s successfully building engagement through apps is faster, richer and easier to and what’s not. manage. The school has full control over the Form the app management system, peaks app so content remains a trusted source of on the graph are usually days when the school focused information. No clogging up school has sent out messages with push with junk or other peoples adverts. notifications attached. This information allows school to see how many page views Tip 2 - Relevant: Keep information fun, each article gets and tailor future content interesting and relevant! and frequency of messaging accordingly.

Parents become disengaged when swamped by large volumes of information not relevant Tip 5 - Participation: Make parents feel to them or their child. With an app, parents special: ask them their opinions... can opt into pre-defined groups such as year If you want to truly engage someone in groups, classes, clubs and school trips to conversation, ask them questions about themselves. It’s view only what they truly value.

Likewise, if you want to encourage parents to discuss flattering for them and who knows, the answers might curriculum topics or school life at home, send them bite- even be enlightening! sized pieces of information as conversation starters with On an app you can conduct quick but extensive surveys their child. By sending these on the app, you can include of parents’ opinions with very little time and hassle. Want pictures, diagrams and links to videos, which will help to know how well the new joiners to school have settled parents engage their children much more easily. Here are in? Or how Blue Class rated the trip to the museum today?

Or how confident Year 6 are feeling about Maths six weeks two recent examples. ahead of KS2? Or what the whole school thinks of the new Tip 3 - Modern: Don’t be afraid to push... notifications catering supplier?

How often have you published great material on the school website only to find it was hardly viewed because Any survey message such as these takes five minutes parents didn’t know it was there? Or sent emails which to set up and send and responses are collected into a got stuck unread in bulging inboxes? As for texts, they are spreadsheet for you by the app. more likely to get through but are limited by their format Extra tip: to make the parents feel really valued, follow to a brief functional message only.

Apps offer a much richer experience with versatile text up with a message summarising the survey results formats and easy-to-add pictures, videos, PDF’s and links, and explaining what you are doing in response to their and push notification capability that alerts parents to feedback. Now that’s engagement...

www.piota.co.uk 01702 780051 @piotaapps

ukedchat.com/magazine 07

Break Down the Walls of your Classroom

by Ben Hall

Why are we prepared to accept poor quality communication between school and parents? It’s time schools ditched the traditional methods and embraced the technology of today to break down the barriers between home and school.

It continues to surprise me that the vast majority of communication from schools to parents still comprises of a badly photocopied letter thrust into the hand of a child desperate to exit the classroom at the earliest possible opportunity. From this point the letter embarks on a perilous journey (you need the theme from Mission Impossible in you head for the next few sentences). The first hurdle is immediate – will it get from hand to bag, or be cast aside on the table. If it does reach the temporary sanctuary of the bag, it then risks being crushed, torn, soaked or, worst of all, neglected. How many parents actually check the child’s bags every evening? If it does, by some minor miracle reach the parent, there is the very real possibility that it could be lost in the pile of junk mail and never be seen again. And for all this, the school has forked out time and money to print and photocopy the letter.

For more spontaneous, instant communication nothing can beat Twitter. Many schools are using one central Twitter account, but I am urging schools to go further. All classes should have their own Twitter account so teachers can capture the moment and share it on the spot. One of the best buzzes I’ve had when teaching was when Jamie Oliver retweeted one of our single tweet recipes to his 3.5 million followers – how else could you reach an audience like that? I’ve also interacted with Directors at Virgin Galactic during a space project, David Walliams and several other authors. If one of your children has a question about a book they’re reading, get them to tweet the author. Before you know it, you’ll have a truly global classroom.

You don’t need to stop there; encourage your subject leaders to set up curriculum accounts, which are great for CPD and sharing of ideas.

At least, however, the conventional letter is an attempt to Twitter is also a great platform to give other media a communicate with the home – how much goes on in our wider audience. Do you have a class blog? If not, why not? classrooms that parents would love to know about, which For the vast majority of children most of their written communication will be online, so we have a responsibility is lost almost as soon as the moment has passed? to make sure we are teaching them how to do this It is time for schools to embrace the technology which responsibly, and blogging is a safe, controlled way to do drives our everyday lives. Many schools are beginning to this. When your children produce great work on the blog, contact parents using SMS. This is a start, everyone has a use twitter to share the link with your followers, instantly mobile phone, but numbers change frequently and a flat widening your audience. You get the twin benefits of an text can only get across so much. They are also relatively audience for your writers, and the opportunity to easily expensive, and usually only office staff are authorised to share work with parents. send them.

So embrace the 21st Century and teach your children skills they will use for the rest of their life. Abandon the photocopier, get your class blogging and use twitter as widely as you can across your whole school – you’ll find the benefits are enormous.

Ben Hall @hengehall is a Computing Teacher and Subject Leader at a large urban primary school in the North West of England. He has led the development of twitter and blogs at his school, helping raise attainment in writing. If he’s not teaching you’ll usually find him on his bike.

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History Teaching & Learning ideas by Kate Jones

The network of History teachers on Twitter is fantastic! I have been very grateful for other teachers sharing their ideas, resources and suggestions for teaching History. I also enjoy sharing my own resources for other teachers to adapt and use with their students. For teachers who use Twitter, you will probably be familiar with the hashtag #PedagooFriday, where teachers share their highlight of the week. Here are some of the resources/ideas that I have previously shared but now I am not limited to 140 characters!

Positive/Negative Timelines Timelines are commonly used by History teachers because they are an excellent and effective method to help students gain a historical overview, remember key dates, events and individuals and see how progress, developments and changes have occurred over time. A positive/negative timeline also works well. I let students decide on which part of the timeline they would plot the event: positive or negative. Students also then have to justify their explanation - some events being rather easy to justify whilst others being more complex or controversial.

I have used this activity with KS3, KS4 and KS5. For example, in Year 9 we have a unit that focuses on key events of the 20th Century. Students create a timeline of that century. Above the line events are labelled as positive and below the timeline as negative (or vice versa). Students then have to plot the events in correct chronological order then decide to place on the positive or negative side. This was very interesting when I paired students together and they didn’t always agree if an event was positive or not. This encouraged a healthy debate!

For example, Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister was a key event we looked at during the 20th Century. One student was adamant that this was positive because she was the first ever (and only) female Prime Minister, therefore a significant achievement for women. However, the partner student strongly disagreed and gave several reasons why they believed Margaret Thatcher belonged on the negative line! For the GCSE specification my students sit, there is an exam question which asks if German people benefitted at all from Nazi rule from 1933-39. Clearly the hostile treatment of the Jews would come under the negative side but students recognised that employment increased and many so-called Aryans did benefit from that. They were surprised to see some people did benefit despite their initial reaction to assume not. This also helped them structure their exam answer as it did when this task was done with A-level students. At A-level students were looking at Tudor Poverty and Vagrancy. They created a timeline as a class, using a roll of wall paper. All the acts of legislation passed from Henry VII- Elizabeth I were placed on the timeline under the correct date. Then students had to discuss and decide whether the act helped the poor or provided relief - making it positive or was it more punitive and harsh and therefore negative. This is a good revision activity to help revise key dates, events and encourage students to think critically and promote debate.

10 UKED Magazine

Games As teachers we try our best to engage learners and get the balance right. We are focusing on the learning but also trying to promote a love of learning and our subject. I use a variety of games to help recall and consolidate understanding of key words and terminology used in History. It was actually one of my GCSE students who commented that students in KS3 get to do all the fun stuff and it wasn’t fair so I listened and responded to their feedback! There have been a lot of changes to GCSE specifications (and more to come) and with so much content and exam technique to get through it can seem like there’s no time for games! However, it is important still to engage learners at GCSE and ensure they enjoy the course and I firmly believe revision games can be really effective at aiding learning. Here are some examples I use. I recently tweeted a key word board game, simple and quick to make, which can be used as a short starter, plenary or revision activity. The board consists of different squares with each square having a key word connected to the topic. This game can be used for any topic or year group. Students roll the dice, they have counters (this can be any small object or scrap paper) and if they land on a yellow square (any colour can be used obviously!) they have to use that key word correctly in a sentence, showing students can put the word into context. If students land on a red square they have to give a definition of that word, to show they understand the meaning or come up with a key fact connected to that word. Another idea would be to give students a blank template of the board game and let them write on the key words connected to the topic!

Another game students enjoy is ‘two truths and a lie’. I call it ‘Would I lie to you’ based on the TV show. I give the students three statements, two correct and one being false. Then they have to solve which is the incorrect answer - that is a lie. This is also a good homework task to get students to carry out research then come up with two facts they have found and

create one of their own lies for other pupils to solve. Here is an example based on WW1 in the trenches that one of my students came up with, one of the statements being a lie!

1. Soldiers put newspapers inside their clothing and rubbed whale fat on them to help keep them warm. 2. Scottish soldiers wore ladies tights underneath their kilts to keep them warm and so they wouldn’t have bare legs. 3. Soldiers were known for cuddling together and wearing the same jacket to help keep the heat in. A memorable way to remember interesting historical facts.

There are lots of different versions of bingo that can be played. Walkabout bingo is a favourite with my classes and this game encourages students to interact with each other and use their subject knowledge. To play this game there needs to be a worksheet with a series of boxes. In each box there will be a question written, focusing on the topic or lesson. In the same box a space to write the answer and underneath, still in the same box, it will say ‘name’. The aim of the game is to have all the boxes filled with correct answers but students must get their answers from other members of the class. They cannot answer the question on their sheet themselves: they can only answer for other people. Also, they can only ask someone a question once - hence the name in the box. So a student will go up to someone in their class, ask them the question, write down their answer and write down the name of the person who told them the answer then find someone else to answer their next question. This game can be adapted for any subject.

I would suggest doing it at the end of a lesson as it can get a little noisy with students walking around the class and they do get quite excited and competitive! Great fun to revise and consolidate subject knowledge.

Learning grids Learning grids work by rolling two dice, or one dice twice, and then the students use the two numbers - one for horizontal and one vertical - to reach a box. With this game there were 36 boxes all connected to WW1. Students had to roll the dice twice; so, for example, 2 across and 3 down, then find that box. They then had to explain the connection between that key word to WW1. Then they would do the same again, roll two numbers to land on another box but then with that word they had to link it to the previous word. For example, if the first box they landed on was Kaiser Wilhelm, a student would say he was the leader of Germany in 1914 when war broke out. Then after rolling the dice twice and having a new key word they would link that word back to the Kaiser, if they can, as some links are simple but others more of a challenge. So if the second was ‘militarism’ then that links to Kaiser Wilhelm because he was involved in an arms race that eventually led to WW1. It can be complicated to explain to students but I modelled the game and did two examples for them and then they quickly grasped it and made some excellent connections and links between factors.

#PoundlandPedagogy Last year on Twitter I came across the hashtag #PoundlandPedagogy and here are some Poundland inspired ideas that I have used in my History lessons. Using a roll of plain white wallpaper purchased from a pound shop my Year 7 class created their own Bayeux Tapestry to retell the events of the Battle of Hastings. Using paper plates my classes created a historical diet plate, showing what a typical medieval peasant would eat and drink. Paper hand templates work well in History: I use these to help students answer the 5 w’s; Who? What? Where? When? Why? I purchased Danger tape in the pound shop around Halloween time, but this can be bought cheaply online and I put this tape on display outside my classroom when I was teaching the Black Death unit. The tape got students curious before the lesson even began and I found other students from different year groups were intrigued and asking questions! I used the danger tape once again when my students were studying the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as well as fake blood to set the scene of a murder (my students did point out that it was totally inaccurate because he was shot in Sarajevo not Wales, but it was a good starting point for the lesson and discussion!).

Hula hoop Venn diagrams are a fun twist on Venn diagrams, and allow students to create Venn diagrams working in groups. Venn diagrams work very well in History, comparing and contrasting historical individuals or to draw comparisons between then and now. Another bargain I found was an Etch a Sketch post it note pad. I used this for a short activity where students had to create an etch a sketch drawing, linked to what they had been learning about in the lesson. Students also had to write a caption too, illustrating what they had found out/ learnt. As you can see below a washing line timeline is another idea that worked well. There are so many ways to be creative!

So thank you History teachers for sharing and please continue to do so! I hope some of my suggested ideas work for you in your classroom with your students. #Historyteacher

Kate Jones is Head of Department and subject teacher of History and Religious Education. Kate currently teaches in North Wales and is aspiring Head of Humanities. To see more of her ideas you can follow her on Twitter @87history. ukedchat.com/magazine 11

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Quizizz bit.ly/uked16feb14

Rugged Rovers bit.ly/uked16feb15

Splice bit.ly/uked16feb16 ukedchat.com/magazine 13

SEN:

An Education for Life Beyond School

By Joe White

It was my first PGCE placement, a large comprehensive school in a coastal town. The time had come to meet the class for the first time. A date with destiny, well actually a date with the bottom set year 8 geography class. One that would begin my journey into education for those who didn’t quite fit into the mainstream schooling model. I walked in worksheets in hand to find one student was staring at the ceiling vent. Why? “I can hear rats up there, loads of ‘em.”

His TA, the first I had encountered in my placement was encouraging him back to the desk, but to no avail he didn’t move all lesson. My limited experience with additional needs led to the assumption that this must be an act, some cunning plan to avoid the demands of plate tectonics, an attempt to undermine the authority of the teacher. If it was an act he never once broke character.

As the weeks progressed I got to know the children as individuals and the strategies that would work to engage them. This came with a caveat, for any classroom management strategy to work you must build up a rapport based on trust and mutual respect. Many children just want to know they are liked and valued.

Discovering this and building relationships with the group was the most fun I had on any of my placements, it was the time I felt most connected to the students and felt I had made the most difference. In general the top reasons people become teachers is to work with children, to make a difference, and for the variety it brings. Having fun is in a respectable sixth according to ATL. bit.ly/uked16feb17 If teaching is a vocation then working in the field of special needs is a calling. That may sound clichéd, but I truly believe that teachers, especially teachers of SEN, must be passionate and willing to strive with the odds stacked against both them and their students. Whether you work in a PRU, special school or inclusion unit, with children diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, PMLD, SLD, or EBD you will be bombarded with a range of acronyms.

PECS, EHCPs IEPs etc. Everything is labelled and neatly allocated. On paper that is. In reality these serve as an aside to the unique young person you have chosen to dedicate your time to. You have taken responsibility for ensuring they have the best education you can provide them with. This will not be an easy task. Assessment data doesn’t fit, teaching strategies taught during initial training will be ineffective, the curriculum must be adapted at every point, no resources downloaded from the internet will be particularly useful, and so on.

It is essential that we have the highest and most aspirational of expectations of the children we are responsible for educating. Many children will have had a negative experience of education, failed placements, bullying, being labelled. The very school environment can be a hostile place for those who process the world

in a different way. More than the label it can be the lack of confidence in the child’s ability to develop and learn new skills that can be most damaging for their future prospects, and therefore their future wellbeing. It may be months before you see the extent of the progress the child is capable of, but when that moment comes, and it will, the rewards of choosing a career teaching SEN become palpable.

Whether you teach in a specialist provision or supporting children within a mainstream school you need to ensure learning is functional, encourages participation and provides the skills we all need as the basis for our learning and development through life.

Working with some of the most vulnerable children in the country we must ensure that we teach self awareness, identity and decision making. We need our children to leave the school system confident, with high self esteem and as independent as possible.

There is common myth that the education of children diagnosed with neurological or physical disorders should not include academic skills. That their education should focus purely on life skills. I don’t agree with the simplicity of that statement. That notion suggests that academic skills are irrelevant and hold no value, that the child will never need to apply these. It devalues those skills and will limit the future prospects of that child. I have seen the impact a successful placement can have on the life of a child. How they can leave as confident young adults having achieved so much. They would not be leaving with the capacity to learn more if we had not provided the opportunity to experience all elements of education. We should not deny our students the opportunity to experience a curriculum that encompasses all aspects of learning. As a teacher it is our role to make the teaching of these academic skills as relevant, motivating and engaging as possible.

We must identify the child’s unique abilities and adapt the curriculum to ensure it fits and works for the child, through sensory input, interaction, communication systems or exploring their communities. Literacy and maths may not be the top priority or even delivered as a discrete subject but it is vital they are included.

Every child is entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum. When we choose to work in SEN we must ensure that is also relevant and accessible. With the child and the highest of expectations at the centre. An education for life beyond school.

Joe is Assistant Headteacher of a residential special school for autism and communication difficulties in Kent. He tweets at @jw_teach and blogs about SEN, technology and leadership at teachsen.wordpress.com.

Image credits: pixabay.com/en/hands-background-black-colorful-565603 ukedchat.com/magazine 15

The Best of BETT 2016 Once again, we’ve sent our team of educational technologists to search to the LED lit corners of the BETT show to find the most interesting digital resources and most innovative products for your classroom.

Soundbeam

@SoundbeamUK soundbeam.co.uk

Foldr

@FoldrHQ freeyourfiles.co.uk

I’m a storage geek. I like my files to be accessible at all times from all my devices. While there are many cloud storage platforms available, there are not many designed for education and offers self hosting on your school server. Foldr allows you to access your school server files from any web-enabled device quickly and easily, making collaboration much easier at a distant.

Use your mobile devices to upload your photos and This is an innovative musical product designed primarily videos to Foldr on the go and allow your pupils to have a for pupils with additional needs who may not have the place on your server which they can access and upload dexterity to use traditional instruments. The music to anywhere. can be played be waving one’s hand over the coloured panels which can be programmed to play a particular Parrot Mini Drones @parrot note or instrument. parrot.com/uk

Showbie

@showbie showbie.com It seems that finally someone has a tool for the paperless classroom right. The Showbie app and site allows teachers to add assignments to their classes which appear in a Twitter-like feed for the pupils and other adults to view. The platform syncs to most major cloud storage platforms so teachers and pupils can grab their files on the go. You can use photos and videos from the camera roll to include in the stimulus for the lesson and it is easy for both teachers and pupils to record audio notes and feedback, which builds up an evidenced dialogue of improvement. Pupils can complete the activities within the app itself with an interface which feels like a e-notepad. You can sign up to a ‘free forever’ account or pay monthly for an upgrade.

16 UKED Magazine

Drones are still finding a place in education. This rover drone and it’s Ariel counterpart both have cameras with internal storage capacity from taking photos and recording video. Each have a good coding interface allowing users the program them to preform tasks, meaning that they are ideal for meeting the ‘command and control’ part of the Computing curriculum.

Pi Top

@GetPiTop pi-top.com

Pi top currently comes in two models and allows your pupils to put together their very own computer from a kits of components. The computers run on Raspberry Pi boards, which are ultra cheap mini computers in their own right. Software bundled with the kit currently includes a version of Minecraft, Scratch coding, and Libre office suite.

Ohbot

@OhbotRobot ohbot.weebly.com

Night Zoo Keeper

@NightZooKeeper nightzookeeper.com

It’s been wonderful to watch this product grow from a basic website to an amazing literacy platform and creative writing worldwide phenomenon. There is so much to this platform that primary teachers could probably do all their literacy activities inside it. The teacher can set writing tasks for their pupils, include a vocabulary bank and bespoke instructions. This could be a story, formal letters, biographies, whatever you wish. The site and app also encourages independent writing with a huge community of fellow writers and competitions. Other class members and parents can comment on the piece of writing, giving the pupils a real audience to encourage them to improve.

Lumio

@LumioEducation lumioeducation.com

Break coding out of the computer with Ohbot, a vaguely human robot which is coded using similar software to Scratch. The unit comes with a camera so users can ‘see’ what the robot can see. Program a sequence of facial and head movements and even make it talk. It is a truly creative and innovative attempt to bring classroom coding into the real world.

Lumo is a superb site/app for learning maths and it is aligned to the national curriculum. Teachers can assign one of the beautifully designed activities to learn or practise a particular skill. The teacher can see analytics of the pupils’ performance. What separates this perform from similar offering is the usability for both the pupils and the teacher, which brings the maths to the fore. ukedchat.com/magazine 17

+20%

+300

POWERING UP with

TechFuture Girls

by Martin Burrett

Anti Virus Update

Great news everybody - the number of students choosing computing GCSEs doubled in 2015. However, only 16% of these students were girls – bad news. It’s essential to close the gap and for girls to develop the confidence to thrive in a digital future, so what can be done? TechFuture Girls is one organisation working hard to super-charge girls’ digital skills, and with sponsorship from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, have created a free, out-ofthe-box online resource for students aged 9-14 years old.

As a teacher it can be difficult to find suitable cyber security and e-safety material for girls which are both fun and informative. Protect the Island and other learning games available at TechFuture Girls provide a superb platform covering every aspect of the computing curriculum in an engaging way and for girls to discover and prepare to venture out into the digital space in a fun, visual, and age appropriate way. The sponsorship from Hewlett Packard Enterprise now means that all teachers in the UK can use the resource for free, you can sign up at TechFutureGirls.com.

At every stage the site reinforces the idea that digital skills can lead to great careers for girls in tech in the future. Many of the stimulus videos on the site consist of short clips of real designers, software engineers and developers offering case studies using female role models showing possible routes into digital industries.

+500

cyber Forensics

Whether one uses TechFuture Girls in class, part of a lunchtime, after school club or even as a homework task, the site provides an inspirational platform for girls to learn about the tricky subject of cyber security in a fun and engaging way.

Security experts often say that the weakest point in digital security is the user them self.

The platform is divided into a series of easy to navigate zones, represented by islands. Each island houses a collection of tasks, games and information. In the Protect the Island zone your class must out-fox the cyber baddies in a series of four progressively more difficult challenges.

Each task is wonderfully illustrated and designed to include animated videos and storylines. The narrative is that the team are developing a social media app and the players must defend its secrets while it is being completed. The challenges include playing ‘guess who’ choosing which members of company staff are a security risk because of their slapdash digital practices, discovering poor cyber security practices around the office, discovering the members of the team with details about what they do and how they started in their careers, which encourages girls to think about their own options.

Other island zones include setting up an online fashion shop, a sports section with opportunities to practise digital publishing skills, computer-aided architecture and interior design, building audio/video skills as a music producer, and practising communicate and promotional skills as a charity campaigner.

Setting up your class or girls computing club is simple and can be achieve via the teacher’s facilitator account. Firstly, sign up for free at TechFutureGirls.com. Once in your account you can simply add pupil information and set passwords in the ‘manage members’ area, by typing manually, or uploading the data using a spreadsheet. From the facilitator’s dashboard the teacher can see the progress of the students, award them bonus credits and manage their accounts. There is also a wealth of downloadable materials and further information for teachers to use in their teaching and to develop further activities.

By completing the activities on this superb site girls will develop the essential habits to keep themselves and others safe when using digital technology and may be inspired along the way to consider the fantastic career potential girls in tech have.

Curriculum for KS2/3 • Ensure that all pupils are competent, confident and creative information and communication

responsible, users of technology.

• Pupils should understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy; recognise inappropriate content, contact and conduct, and know how to report concerns.

Visit:

TechFutureGirls.com

Connect: @TechFutureGirls

facebook.com/techpartnership

Book Shelf Thinking About Thinking

by Stephen Lockyer @MrLockyer Few UK educators are more thought provoking than Stephen. Prolific author and speaker - he oozes with ideas and enthusiasm.

In his latest book Thinking About Thinking Stephen explores and explains aspects of metacognition, together with a host of ideas and strategies to use in your own teaching. At each stage the book looks at current academic thinking and research into metacognition and then encourages the reader to try a range of practical activities and questions to ask yourself and your pupils.

View on Amazon at

www.bit.ly/thinkingthinking Priced at £11.99 (paperback) and £8.49 (Kindle)

The book also addresses memory skills with ideas at time of publishing and techniques for boosting memory through The final section details the idea of ‘self-thinking’ Mnemonics, word and visual association and much which is the self regulation of metacognition, memory more. and study skills, and this is aimed at both the student In the ‘Study thinking’ section there are some and the teacher to become a better learner. wonderfully innovative lesson ideas, such as active This book provides a superb introduction into participation with a text to boost recall and ‘Cubing thinking about thinking and explains many of the strategy’, where association learning is developed by issues we see in class when we do not step back and introducing a random element. Stephen also explores examining what and why we do the things we do. a range of note-taking techniques to help with revision This book will surely get you thinking... and refreshing their knowledge.

Write for a future edition of the magazine on the theme topic or something else that interests you.

Go to

ukedchat.com/magazine/submit to tell us your idea.

March 2016 Careers and Development Deadline: 10th February 2016 April 2016 Revision & Testing Deadline: 26th February 2016

July 2016 Sport & PE (Olympics) Deadline: 20th May 2016 August 2016 Well Being (For teachers & pupils (PSHE)) Deadline: 17th June 2016 September 2016 Classroom Management Deadline: 22th July 2016

May 2016 Assessment & Feedback Deadline: 25th March 2016

October 2016 STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering & Maths) Deadline: 19th August 2016

June 2016 Transition & Moving On Deadline: 22th April 2016

November 2016 Reading & Books Deadline: 26th August 2016

20 UKED Magazine

MENTORING

a way to build relationships

by Aaliya Khan Building a strong school community is key for building It amazes me how much work and talent goes into better pupil relationships and also a sense of pride. This preparing one of these short 20 minute sessions, the girls can be difficult for students in different years. Some schools think of everything from the delivery to the powerpoint have tried vertical form time, where members of the form to worksheets, with very little teacher input. The topic come from the different year groups. This can work, but areas are designed not only to challenge the girls working makes assemblies and targeted information difficult to deliver the sessions but also the year 7s to whom the to coordinate at times. Other ways may include whole sessions will be delivered. For example, in science they school activities such as introducing competition through have had a session on Variables and planning and will do various house groups or sporting activities, various clubs data analysis and graph interpretation, skills in which not and activities. These are all great ideas, but sometimes only ks3 struggle with but even up to ks5. In P.E they have does always actively encourage cross year group or cross looked at Netball skills and teamwork. curricular participation.

Not only does the mentoring build a community, and

It is a way of challenging the most able students, who are so keen, and also because they work with pupils in other year groups it builds relationships and gives them a sense of achievement too. So far this seems to be working well, with the girls that are being mentored in year 7, giving good feedback from the sessions and the girls running the sessions really enjoying the responsibility it gives them.

Earning the Grade I often find that once students receive their grade in an assessment they do one of two things. If their grade is higher than their target they don’t see the need to look at areas where they could still improve. On the other hand, those who fail to meet their target can sometimes become despondent and switch off. After marking assessments I now refuse to give students their grades until they have identified all their lost marks They then use mark schemes and each other to improve their answers. I then insist they create a revision resource such as a flash card or mind map for the concept they struggled with the most. Then and only then do they receive their grade. Initially this was met with apoplexy and some complaints from parents. However, after explaining my reasoning all agreed that grades are not as important as a mindset that always strives to do better. @Biologyteach73 Science teacher - Wiltshire

help the new year 7s settle in better, but also teaches our girls valuable lessons such as responsibility, teamwork and meeting deadlines. The information is then shared through the larger school and public community via twitter and the school website; further promoting good practise in our school and bridging that school/parent gap.

Aaliya Khan is a science teacher at St Anne’s Catholic School for Girls, after graduating from Imperial College London, she embarked into a teaching career. She loves bringing fresh ideas into the classroom and has presented at #TMEnfield. @Miss_Khan868 follow on Twitter and read her blog at staffrm.io/@misskhan.

Do You Experiment?

In Brief

A great way to forge relationships is to foster a community that cares for each other. A positive way to do this is to introduce mentoring. As part of a large project I am running this year, I aim to do just this. Hopefully bringing students from different years together (ks3 to begin with), working together to then deliver sessions to year 7 in some key subject areas such as Science, P.E, Maths, ICT and History.

There are a large number of apps available which can be used to create new learning experiences for students or to enhance existing learning experiences. There are also lots of teachers sharing ideas via Twitter, blogs and other online sources yet I continue to be of the opinion that we, as a collective of teachers, could do more.

The issue as far as I see it is not one of technology failing to provide but relates to mindset. Teaching is a social activity and as such is subject to a myriad of changing variables. As such to continue to deliver the best learning experiences for our ever changing students we must continually be looking to improve, change and evolve. I believe that experimentation is a part of this in trying new things including new apps and technology solutions.

For every teacher engaging online with new ideas and then taking these back to try in their class, there are many more who are not engaged. If we are seeking to improve the learning experience through technology then we all need to adopt a continual improvement mindset and continually experiment and engage in finding the best solutions for learning. @garyhenderson18 Director of IT - Somerset

ukedchat.com/magazine 21

Make 2016 By Gail Abbitt

Paperless

Students can also create their own folder (which they can share with you) and add any work that they do into that folder for you to access and mark. If they use Google docs or slides, you can easily add feedback (using comments or the Kaizena add-on, see below), which provides instant feedback to your students. The great thing about this is that there is no more ‘lost homework’ excuses or worksheets left behind in class.

For the last two years I have been completely ‘paper- Again, this can be equally beneficial for teachers who free,’ in part due to working in schools that have 1:1 want to collaborate on curriculum planning documents; technology provision. With the plethora of tools that schemes of work, lesson plans or resources. are available in 2016, there really is no excuse to, at the very least, reduce the amount of paper used in OneDrive onedrive.live.com (originally SkyDrive) is the Microsoft equivalent to Google Drive. your classroom.

Google Classroom (classroom.google.com) provides If you have always wanted to create a paperless teachers with an app where they can create, assign, classroom but do not know where to start, below are and collect student’s classwork and homework a number of mostly free tools you can use. paperlessly! Being a Google product it allows for the Virtual Classrooms: seamlessly integration of Google Docs, Google Drive, and Gmail to create assignments, provide feedback LMS platform and communicate with students.

When used effectively, a Learning Management System (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Showbie such as Moodle, can be used to create a paperless Showbie (showbie.com) markets itself as ‘the heart classroom. You can share handouts, worksheets, digital of your paperless classroom.’ It is a really user-friendly books, articles etc.., which students can read online or app where you can assign tasks, students can complete download. You can create quizzes and surveys, create and submit assignments, and the teacher can easily online glossaries for key terms, have students take part view the work and provide feedback. in an online discussions via a class forum, students can Notetaking and more... submit their work and you can easily grade/provide feedback online. Students submit work using the Evernote (evernote.com) is an ubiquitous tool, Turnitin app (turnitin.com) and have it checked for which can be useful in creating a paperless classroom. plagiarised content. You can store students grades in Evernote is basically a note-taking app, which can be the grade-book, collect feedback from students about used to create and organize lesson plans, manage modules/courses and provide instant feedback using workflow, clip web content etc…It is fairly intuitive to use, free, and compatible with mobile devices and the chat tool. laptops. Like Google Drive, Evernote automatically Google Drive (drive.google.com) syncs across platforms, which means you can share When it comes to organising, sharing, and information with students and vice-versa. If students collaborating on documents, Google Drive is an need to make notes whilst watching a video (Youtube) excellent paperless classroom tool. Why not create a they can use a Chrome app called videonot.es, which shared folder in Google Drive, where you can place allows them to watch a video, pause it and take notes (the notes are automatically saved into a folder in notes, worksheets, articles, videos etc… for students Google Drive). to access. All you need to do is drag and drop the documents into the folder and share the folder with Handwritten Notes your students (remember you can set the folder to Noteshelf (IOS - bit.ly/uked16feb18) and Squid view or edit). This works equally well for work you may (android - bit.ly/uked16feb19) are apps that enable want to share within your department (unit plans, you to write handwritten notes on a mobile device minutes from meeting, schedules etc…) (phone or tablet.)

Just over five years ago I made the decision to try and substantially reduce the amount of paper I used in my teaching. This was a result of seeing crumbled up worksheets left behind at the end of a class, witnessing students throw away their books at the end of the year and pragmatically, to save money from my ever decreasing budget!

22 UKED Magazine

Annotating/Marking PDFs

Classroom Management:

iAnnotate bit.ly/uked16feb20 is a iOS app. It comes There are a range of tools but the one I most use in at a cost (£7.99). However, it is really useful for my classroom is Classdojo.com, which is perfect for highlighting, marking, making notes on PDFs. Providing Primary through to the start of KS3. For older students, feedback doesn’t get easier than this - Kaizena.com!

I keep track of their grades, behaviour and any other relevant information in a Google Sheet (part of Google Quizzes, Discussions and Polls Drive), a great tool for keeping all of your information Socrative.com, Google Forms (part of Google Drive) and GetKahoot.com are tools which you can use to in one place! create games, quizzes and other learning materials.

With Socrative you can also offer feedback to your class, and both Socrative and Kahoot allow you to take polls and have class discussions. Today’s Meet (todaysmeet.com) provides teachers with an easy solution for asking basic questions and for providing instant feedback. Whilst padlet.com, is a great online collaborative noticeboard!

Online textbooks/novels Textbooks are often large and heavy. Students take multiple classes and having to carry around a number of heavy books. E-textbooks provide students with the option of having all of their textbooks compressed into a mobile device. Purchasing e-textbooks online is often a much cheaper option than buying hard copies. They can also be easily updated, which means that you do not have to reorder new textbooks when the content becomes outdated. There is also the added bonus that the ebooks do not become worn and shabby over time!

For a large selection of e-textbooks (International, UK and US) go to coursesmart.co.uk/search.

In 2016, there really is no excuse not to reduce the amount of paper we use in schools. And, if saving trees does not convince you to go paperless, living in a world where lost planners, carrying class loads of heavy books and grading quizzes is a thing of past, just might!

Gail is a Technology Integration Specialist and Computing teacher based at a British School in Portugal. Throughout her teaching career Gail has been involved in running CPD, predominantly tech focussed. She has presented at a number of international conferences and is a Google Certified Innovator/Trainer.

Gail blogs at techieeangel.blogspot.pt and is on Twitter at @gailabbitt

To Do Lists Both Wunderlist.com and keep.google.com help you to create online ‘to-do’ lists, which can be shared with others. You can also create ‘alerts’ to remind you when a task needs to be done, or, is overdue!

Journal Writing Blogger.com can be used by students for writing exercises of any description (reflective, formal, creative etc...) You can choose to make their work private (only them) semi-private (they can add their teacher,peers, parents) or public (anyone can view).

Resource Curation There are a range of tools that will help store and organise the links you find online. Diigo.com, Pearltrees.com, Evernote.com, Pinterest.com and edu.symbaloo.com are five great and different options (all with their own benefits) for connecting students with the right resources. ukedchat.com/magazine 27

Do you find lesson plan templates restricting? This checklist includes all the important aspects of an Outstanding Lesson Plan Template, but in a checklist format so that you can make sure every aspect is covered, but write your plan in your own format, e.g. chronological.

Download at ukedchat.com/WSR00036

LightBulb Checklist by @mrskidson14 - mrskslightbulbmoments.wordpress.com

www.uked.directory @UKEdResources