UKED Magazine Mar 2015

March 2015

Issue 15

Supporting the Educational Community

e at lin ch on ed ew at /uk Vi m .co uu iss

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Mapping

The Future of Education

p4 Reigniting the

Geographical Detective In Us

Giving Conflict Poetry a Modern Spin p20

p14 Enhancing English Across the Curriculum

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12

A Whole lot of Geography Tech

Success Boosted

by Play

25

Flipping Literacy

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Issue 15: March 2015

Subscribe by email for free at ukedchat.com/emails Subscribe to the print edition at ukedchat.com/magazine 4 Geography Teachers as Place Explorers

David Rogers discusses the unique position and freedom that geography teachers have to support the wider curriculum and further cultural understanding.

6 Six Words - One Photo

Jane Hewitt explores how photos may be used to support literacy and creative writing, and how language feeds back into photography.

9 New Year, New Tech?

Simon Pridham argues the case for every teacher to be tech savvy and explores how tech is changing the learning experience for our children.

10 Nurturing The Next Generation

Sarah Kennedy examines the impact that attachment difficulties can have on children, both in and out of school, and what teachers can do.

12 A whole lot of Geography Tech

Steve Bambury shares ideas from his innovative geography technology project and offers ideas for us all to try in our own classrooms.

14 Enhancing English Across the Curriculum

Amy Kingsley writes about ways to augment English learning and the wider curriculum with technology.

16 How Play Boosts Success and Happiness

Sam Flatman discusses research which finds that play is crucial to development, academic success and well-being.

From the Editor Looking out in to the big wide world is more important today than ever. As adults, world events are complex and difficult to comprehend - let alone for the pupils we teach. Each one of us is interconnected in unprecedented ways, and places which once took days or weeks to get to are beamed on to our television and computer screens in real-time 24 hours a day.

Who can bring some clarity and background to world events? Ask your friendly neighbourhood geographer.

In this issue of UKED Magazine we are taking a look at people and places through the prism of geography from using photos to discover our world, to the latest web tools and apps to help your students explore the Earth beyond their classroom.

Martin Burrett - Editor

18 Christ Church Primary’s Food Revolution

@ICTmagic @UKEdMag editor@ukedchat.com

20 Giving Conflict Poetry a Modern Spin

ADVERTISE WITH US If you are interested in advertising in the magazine, please contact

Sarah Wordlaw showcases her inner primary school, which is renowned for its approach to heathy living and food education.

Carol Webb delves into conflict poetry and attempts to bring a balanced view, with the help and input of active soldiers.

22 Subject Knowledge: Love, Learn, Teach

Andy Lewis shares his enthusiasm for his subject and explores ways to share your own love of teaching.

25 Flipping Literacy

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Follow @UKED_Directory for commercial updates

Nicola Snelling shares her experience of flipping learning in her class.

The students watch videos at home and come to class ready to work.

28 Book Shelf

Physics calculations for GCSE & IGCSE by Brain Mills Space Invaders – An Intergalactic Adventure! by D.J. McGhee

Contact & Social Media

Email ukedchat.com/contact or editor@ukedchat.com Twitter @UKEdMag @UKEdChat @UKEdSch @UKEdResources Website ukedchat.com Facebook facebook.com/ukedchat Pinterest pinterest.com/ukedchat Scoop It scoop.it/ukedchat Google+ plus.google.com/+Ukedchat FlipBoard bit.ly/ukedflip Issuu issuu.com/ukedchat Weibo weibo.com/3743315975

The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

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/ksyz/5062499236 by Zložený minulý čas used under a Commercial Creative Commons license.

Contributors David Rogers @davidErogers Jane Hewitt @Janeh271 Simon Pridham @Simonpridham123 Sarah Kennedy Mahayla Clayton @food_teacher Kirstin Whitney @kirstin_whitney Mary Meredith @marymered Steve Bambury @iPadEducatorsAE @steve_bambury Amy Kingsley @MissKingsley85 Sam Flatman Sarah Wordlaw @christchurchsw9 Carol Webb @CazzWebbo Meridith Ebbs @iMerinet The London RE Hub @TheLondonREHub Chris Pyle @christopherpyle Becky Hamilton @hrh_rjhamilton Rachel Wellfair @theSpanishist Andy Lewis @iTeachRE Nicola Snelling @snelling321 Mark Griffiths @GriffermansMark

Reigniting the Geographical Detective In Us

By David Rogers

Geography Teachers as Place Explorers

‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.’

Key Stage 3 National Curriculum for England for geography ‘Purpose of Study’ statement.

The statement above sends goose bumps racing up my arms.

Geography is all about the interaction between people and places. The new national curriculum for England provides us with the opportunity to explore places of global significance in any way we choose and this is an exciting opportunity.

Teachers can learn with young people. The return to Capes and Bays geography didn’t materialise and the fears around a resurgence of regional geography have proven unfounded.

Without the straight jacket of prescribed content, the depth and scale studied is up to departments and there is a genuine chance to explore places in a holistic way, freed from the silos created by a topic based approach. Geographers are 04 UKED Magazine

entirely equipped for an ever changing curriculum, not least because it is a dynamic subject. Geography should be in a constant state of flux, even without the unprecedented rate of Government driven change. Geography is outside and all around us, and our responsibility to help children understand the world around them is clear.

Here are why geographers are perfectly poised to develop the intellectual curiosity and promote the love of learning mentioned in Teaching Standard 4. Here are five interconnected reasons why geography should embrace the change.

Geographical enquiry allows us to explore anywhere Geographers have the perfect tool for exploring places: enquiry. This is well established in many departments across the UK. Done right, geography teachers can model the learning process with young people.

Being forced to explore new places is an opportunity.

Good geographers are nosy and ask questions. Great geographers pursue the answer to those questions with unknown destinations.

Our curriculum is full of JONK That’s the Joy Of Not Knowing. This is exciting for a geographer and we should be excited, not scared, about the chance of finding out about new places.

I wonder how much time we spend planning how to make children stuck? More importantly, have we given them the tools to get unstuck? Does our feedback allow them to move forward, or just tell them what they got wrong? Do we use feedback from young people to judge whether our lessons challenge them or are just covering the same old fluff over and over again? I spoke recently to a primary colleague who was covering the main features of river system and basic geomorphology. The lesson mirrored a Year 10 lesson that is a stalwart across the land. These kids are doing it in Year 6.

Geography provides the link between people and places It’s time to re-examine how we approach the teaching of our subject. It’s time to move away from the silos and use a more holistic approach. The current curriculum changes are an opportunity to do just that. Here is an example of the thinking in progress in my department now:

a

Geography is happening right here, right now The use of current events as case studies is well developed in geography. Floating Topicality is a phrase I first came across whilst working with Jeff Stansfield, the Hampshire Geography Advisor. It is used to encompass the use of current events within the geography classroom. Whilst we are free to select any event and topic, here are some recent events that also tie in to the regions specified: • Immigration from Syria. Many of those laying siege to Calais and attempting to cross the English Channel into the UK have fled Syria.

• There are always newsworthy events that cover Mount Everest each April / May. Last year this was the tragic avalanche in the Kumbu Icefall and in 2013 it was a high altitude fight. Here are opportunities to explore the characteristics of an Asian country, and links to the Monsoon, Glaciation, Tourism and environmental impact are all to be found.

• We have a responsibility to ensure our young people don’t think that Africa has Ebola. In recent months my classes have used maps and other resources to understand the scale and diversity in the continent.

Also a chance to explore hot deserts.

Geography has opportunities to develop Maths and English in order to support our colleagues. High quality geography should be the aim of every secondary geography department right from the first lesson.

Successful geographers have to be masters of all kind of maps and be able to crunch data to understand and identify the underlying trends and patterns. Then, vitally, learners need to be able to communicate this in concise, persuasive and analytical prose. Geographers write and do maths.

So, the new national curriculum presents an opportunity to geographers to explore places. To become place explorers with our classes, utilising the full wealth of our tool sheds of pedagogical tools. Some feared that the curriculum changes would be the end of geography as we knew it. I’m pleased to report that they were right.

Image credit: flickr.com/photos/34547181@N00/15693123815 by Steve Johnson used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.

Other images provided by David Rogers.

David Rogers is a multi-award winning teacher, author and wannabe ultra-marathon runner. As an Assistant Headteacher in Brighton he helps lead Teaching and Learning across the school. David doesn’t like desks, but has sat behind one for long enough to write textbooks and Floating topicality is not a gimmick, it’s essential for high educational resources, becoming a Microsoft Innovative quality geography education, because: Fellow and Google Certified Teacher and Mentor along the a. What is the point of school if it doesn’t help you way. David is most proud of being a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and winning its coveted ‘Excellence in understand the world around you? b. Teachers are in the ideal position to challenge media bias Geography Teaching Award’ in 2013. This year, his challenge is to learn to ride a unicycle. Find him @davidErogers and and editorial decisions. read his ramblings at davidrogers.org.uk c. Topical issues are an opportunity to reinforce and help revisit prior learning. ukedchat.com/magazine 05

By Jane Hewitt

Hemmingway is credited with writing the story - ‘For sale. Baby shoes never worn.’

Legend has it that this was in response to a bet to write a six word story that could actually make people cry.

Whether he actually did or not is not important here. What is important is the brevity of narrative used to sum up a whole story. This is an exercise that works well in class with pupils of all ages.

SEE INFER FEEL TECHNIQUE = SIFT

It would be a good idea to ‘model’ this with pupils as a whole class exercise. Use this image (or any image of barbed wire) as an example. If you use the acronym ‘SIFT’ it will help pupils to analyse photographs:

Then use words that describe feelings or situations that this may make them think about.

freedom, harm, pain, escape, confined, prisoner, sad, scared, barbs, fear, hope, alone, no entry

The next stage is to actually think about where this could be. Who is looking at it? Who is narrating the story. It is important to stress that there is no wrong answer here.

Words can be written on ‘post its’ or pieces of paper and physically moved around to see what stories emerge. Place the words on paper around the room so pupils can go and choose words after walking round and looking at a whole range of ideas that have been generated collectively.

Barred entry, alone. Blue sky blocked.

Confined, imprisoned, no escape, no hope.

Freedom barred, no hope of escape.

If we are told something of the context of the image, does this alter our viewpoint?

In actual fact the barbed wire in this image was on top of an amusement arcade in Cleethorpes! Does this change our view of the story?

Ask pupils to work in groups and generate words from this image. Begin with ‘concrete words’ – i.e. what can they SEE.

sky, blue, barbed wire, spikes, curls, clouds What can we infer from this image? This isn’t to generate words but to help us understand the context.

That it is a dangerous situation – we are stopping something or someone either getting in or getting out – there is tension here. Is it to protect or limit?

06 UKED Magazine

Vandals again, barbed wire - no thefts!

Ideas to develop the use of images to create six word stories • Give the image to the whole class, but only tell half of them where it was taken.

• Get pupils to compare their stories.

• How much are we influenced by what other people tell us about images and stories?

• How much do we infer from images?

Jane Hewitt is a freelance photographer and educator.

Look beyond the obvious - there is beauty in everything.

Author of ‘learning Through a Lens’ & Author associate ITL. Find her on Twitter @Janeh271 and read her blog at janehewitt.blogspot.co.uk

The photograph left is an image taken at a light show at a local stately home. The six word stories are examples from a year 6 class in Barnsley. These could be used as part of your modelling exercise and for pupils to discuss their responses to the actual stories as well as to the image.

Villagers startled and amazed by vision.

Drawn as moths to a flame.

Bright light quickens the villagers’ heartbeats.

Bright light quickens the villagers’ footsteps.

In a lightening flash, all was revealed.

In order to extend this, ask pupils them to create an image which could be used for a six word story.

Discussion of guidelines could include: • It is important to Include some element of mystery or ambiguity – how could you do this?

• Take your image from an unusual angle so that the viewer has to really think.

• Only take part of your subject – the section that is missing could lead to mystery and questions.

• Think about ambiguity of setting, place an object somewhere you would not expect to find it.

• Use the same image but edited in different ways – does this make a difference to the story that is produced.

Give a different edit of the same photo to different groups. Does colour help us determine the mood of an image? Do we automatically assume one image is older than the other? Does a black and white image make us look at the subject matter in a different way? Can we be manipulated into looking at an image in a certain way.

This covers the ‘T’ techniques section in the acronym ‘SIFT’.

What six word story would you write about this image?

Share your ideas on Twitter using the #UKEdChat hashtag

View Jane’s book on Amazon at

bit.ly/ukedlearninglens

ukedchat.com/magazine 07

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New Year, New Tech ?

By Simon Pridham

In 2010, the primary school I was Headteacher at, gained 7 grade ones in an ESTYN inspection.

Additionally, several sector leading examples of practice at the school were highlighted after that inspection

by ESTYN and the Welsh Government. Shortly after, I reflected on the previous twelve months (which had been hectic to say the least) and challenged myself to take the school to the next level. But how?

After talking to a group of eleven year old pupils something became very clear, very quickly. These pupils, using technology, peer support, networks of collaboration and mobile online resources were able to build an education for themselves anywhere and at anytime. A decade ago, outside the classroom walls, information for your average eleven year old was scarce.

In 2015, this information can be found in abundance.

Google, YouTube, online blogs, Google Hangouts, social media, the list goes on and on. Therefore, pupils need to see their teachers as modellers of learning, master learners, risk takers, facilitators, collaborators, creators and to top it off those teachers have to be tech savvy. We have to change as educators and you should be excited by that, embrace the challenge and reap the rewards.

In my opinion you need to have a love of learning, be able to model effective learning systems, to be brave enough to take risks, to be innovative, and most importantly, become a facilitator of learning.

The 21st century classroom, where technology is as accessible as paper and pen, allows you to personalise the learning like never before, to develop independent and creative thinkers and allows your pupils to drive their educational journey with you as co-pilots, rather than passengers.

So a little while ago, when my young daughter wanted to make a paper aeroplane, she handed me my tablet device and asked me for help. Her instinct was such that she knew what to do when she didn’t know what to do. We ventured straight to YouTube where we had several videos to choose from on the first page of results, and she soon found one which she liked the look of. Within minutes she was pressing pause on the video, as we built the aeroplane together step by step. I taught her how to rewind or play the video as we progressed and an hour or so later we were testing her prototypes outside. Welcome to the world of the 21st century learner. The point I am trying to make here is that technology is allowing educators and learners to deliver pedagogy and ways of learning like never before! However, without the brilliance of the teacher allowing the right opportunity and in the right context within our classrooms, the magic never materialises.

In March 2014 I stepped aside from my Executive Headship, my Welsh Government Advisory roles and as manager of the international award winning LIFE Programme, which delivered transformational change across Wales, to set up an EdTech company called Aspire 2Be. The last ten months have been unbelievable and as a company we are now working with schools, local authorities and governments in helping with the vision, strategic planning and implementation of transformational technologies in learning environments.

The key component which is consistent with all the successful schools I have worked with and continue to work with is outstanding teachers and leaders. So when we ask the question, “New Year, New Tech?” for me it’s all about outstanding teachers and leaders having the vision and bravery to embrace 21st century learning.

Key stage three pupils today have access to more information through their smartphones than I did in my entire library in university as a student. Yet, a high percentage of secondary educators still ban pupils using smartphones in their classrooms. Talk about missing a trick, alienating a generation and turning pupils off school! What society needs today are people who can ask good questions, come up with creative solutions, critically examine those possibilities and then work out which creative solution is most likely to be effective before communicating their solution effectively enough to motivate others to action. As far back as the 1900s, wise old owls like Albert Einstein said - ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’

Learning institutions that are thriving in the 21st century have classrooms that embrace the social, physical and emotional aspects of learning. Always remember that technology is simply one part of this effective environment. A creative curriculum, highly effective pedagogy and mobile technology together create the surroundings where pupils like my daughter feel valued, challenged and effective. We need to realise that some of the best teachers my daughter will ever experience will be virtual and online or sitting the other side of the world.

Prepare yourself for the 21st century learner who now enters your school folks!

Simon Pridham @Simonpridham123 is an ex-Naace and international e-learning award winning Headteacher who has also spent time as part of Welsh Government digital task forces and as the WG Professional Digital Advisor. Twelve months ago he formed Aspire 2Be - aspire2b.eu. His book Freaked Out is the first interactive paperback on the market and has been short-listed in the Education Resource Awards with the winners announced in late March.

View Simon’s book on Amazon at

www.bit.ly/digitalfreak ukedchat.com/magazine 09

Nurturing The Next Generation

By Sarah Kennedy

Since the addition of a mental health category in the new SEN code of practice, we have all become psychologists and counsellors, right? Wrong. The expectations are that teachers are to be able to spot a vast myriad of potential mental health issues, then strategise and differentiate in order to effectively manage them within our classrooms. It is at this point we are all thankful for the block of study empowering us to do the latter in our teacher training. Did you miss out on that too? We need to look for robust strategies, practical support and develop the confidence to meet the needs of children with mental health issues. I strongly recommend looking at ways to manage attachment difficulties as a first wave approach to creating a genuine sense of inclusion in the school system. Attachment difficulty of some form or another appears in approximately 60% of the UK classroom.

There will be children in your class who have experienced some form of harm, inconsistent parenting or those that have been or who are at risk. Attachment theory is a topic worthy of a series of books and some excellent ones exist to shine a light on this area, but for the purposes of this article we will seek to highlight attachment theory and evidence based interventions which can have high impact in addressing some of these issues.

Children with one of the forms of insecure attachment often present with an inability to cope with or engage with their learning environment, tuning out or lack of progression.

They may have relationship problems, establishing trust can be a challenge, along with social communication difficulties.

Children with insecure attachment difficulty also have a poor sense of self. They can lack self awareness and even present as disruptive with tendencies to be over excited, fidgety and jumpy. By recognising these factors you can prepare your classroom environment, routine and self to be better equipped to promote inclusion and well being. Awareness of these difficulties allows the practitioner to differentiate, not only the tasks and expectations set, but also the language used to deliver and engage and also the way you relate to your class. Positive and reciprocal relationships are key to success with almost all mental health strategies, along with outstanding teaching.

There are many interventions that help to promote holistic and secure relationships and also engage the hardest to reach children. These could be varying forms of therapy; to include cognitive behavioural therapy, either conducted independently or in small groups. Circle time, activities to reduce anxiety, SEAL or solution focused approaches. One intervention with high impact results, with robust research and evidence to reinforce its usage, is Nurture. Nurture groups

Sarah Kennedy is an inclusion manager, primary deputy, CBT therapist, and primary teacher with 13 years experience of teaching 0-11 year olds.

are increasing in number and although early intervention is always considered to be more effective, they are becoming more and more popular in secondary schools. A nurture group is a short term, focused intervention where the child keeps a continuous relationship with their class, but have withdrawal time with nurture trained practitioners. Nurture should happen at both home and school, and include soft furnishings and a strict routine, including meal preparation for either breakfast or lunch. Activities including arts and crafts, emotional literacy sessions, curriculum tasks and circle time which take place in a well structured setting with a usual ratio of two adults to between six and eight children.

Nurture in action A nurture suite, revamped and under new leadership since September 2014 at a larger then average primary school in Kidderminster, is seeing high impact results. Nurture leader, Mrs Jeanette Alderton, who trained with the Nurture Group Network, has taken groups of key stage one children.

Following a robust screening process, where teachers are active participants in the profiling process, a highly tailored and unique, individualised curriculum is put together for the children. Planning for the promotion of activities to address ‘the gaps’ are then specifically set to enable full participation for the children.

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10 UKED Magazine

Children only know what running looks like because someone has shown them how to run, how to smile, how to tie their shoe laces etc. So, why had I been telling my (only just) secondary students what to do, but not explaining what it would look like? This epiphany has stuck with me and had a massive impact on my classes.

I seem to have those phrases that I find myself saying day in, day out; one (there are many many more!) of them being ‘listen up!’ My students hear the instruction, but I’d never explained what exactly ‘listening up’ looked like. Until now...

In their first week of school, I started to train my tutor group to respond in a particular way to the phrase ‘show me that you’re listening’. I explained that listening looks quiet, it looks still, it looks interested. I explained what I, and other staff would expect to happen when they said that phrase. That students would stop talking, they’d put their pens down and they’d look in the direction of the speaker.

I explained that listening, looked like this.

Now, whenever I use this phrase my tutor group model this instruction. They instantly (some quicker than others) stop talking, put their pens down and look at me. They know what it looks like...

They know how to show me they are listening.

I have recently shared this information with other teachers that come across my tutees. Many have used the phrase, and have reported back that my team understand the command.

But more amazingly (and unexpectedly) my tutees positive and consistent response to the phrase has impacted on the other students, from other forms who are now also starting to model this behaviour. How did I overlook something so simple?! @food_teacher Lincoln - Food Teacher

A Year in the Outdoors

In Brief

Show Me That You’re Listening

Dramatic changes have been made to the Primary Curriculum. The need for children to be desk bound is far higher due to increased academic pressures. My role this year as an Outdoor Learning Teacher seems even more important.

So far this year we have discussed, questioned, shared, invented, developed and changed ideas whilst making dens, orienteering, planting bulbs, testing air resistance, measuring tree heights and building bee hotels. We have got cold, wet and muddy in the school grounds and over in the park and sought inspiration from Darwin and Bear Ghrylls.

We know that in the future these children will need to give anything a go, change job with ease, cope with global changes and value their community. It seems unlikely that they will be prepared for this if solely sat at a desk from 4 to 18 years old.

Outdoor Learning does not need a forest; it needs a patch of land and some creativity. In the outdoors, children have an increased chance to develop into healthy, strong, confident, questioning, happy adults and complimenting their academic abilities from the class room. @kirstin_whitney Bristol - Outdoor Learning Teacher

Struggling Readers Slip Through the Net in Secondary Schools Having just read the UK’s ‘Vision for Literacy, 2025’ I feel compelled to share a thought about why struggling readers are not being adequately supported during the secondary phase. A couple of years ago, Margaret Snowling’s team at York University published a study which highlights the scale of this problem: The Rate and Identification of Reading Difficulties in Secondary School Pupils in England (bit.ly/uked15mar01) The research demonstrates that less than half of ‘poor readers’ (reading age under 8) are identified on secondary SEN registers – with the result that they fall further behind and leave school functionally illiterate, having received no help.

I have a theory about the reason for this under-identification of reading difficulty, supported by six years of data collected at my school. What our data shows us is that the SAT reading level is in reality no reliable indicator of reading ability. In other words, transferring to secondary school with the expected level 4b does not mean that you are a competent reader.

At Thomas Cowley, where we screen reading ages every year, less than 10% of the Year 7 cohort comes to us with a reading level 3 or below, yet this year – which is typical – 48% of students are currently following a reading intervention, meaning their reading age is below 9 (the point at which we intervene). By the time they reach Year 9, only a small proportion of these students will remain on the SEN register, because most respond to intervention and do catch up, but this is not without much more support than is generally available for struggling readers within the secondary phase: in a school of just 650 students, we currently have 16 TAs – all trained in delivering a range of reading interventions to groups and individuals.

I am very happy to discuss the range of programmes we use, with evidence of their impact. This post, though, aims merely to flag up what I feel is a major issue – that achieving the ‘expected level 4b’ does not mean that reading age and chronological age are close, necessarily – the discrepancy can be very significant indeed and this, I am suggesting, has contributed to the alarming findings highlighted in Snowling’s study. @marymered Lincolnshire - Assistant Headteacher

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Interactive Pictures, Virtual Reality and a

By Steve Bambury

... whole lot of Geography

When the Year 2 teachers at JESS told me that they would be covering a World Explorers topic this term, I knew straight away what I would use with them – Thinglink.com. An app and site I’d been dying to use for some time, Thinglink essentially allows you to create interactive images by tagging multimedia hotspots on to a base image. I’d steered away from it in the past as it used an email signup system, but the launch of their teacher accounts meant I could allow younger students to access the app and maintain control of how the content was shared.

My basic idea was simple – give them a blank world map and have them locate places around the world, then tag the content to correct place on the map. As the project developed, it evolved a great deal. This is the break down of the full sequence: Session 1: Setting the Stage In the first session we focused on the use of Dropbox to share files - a crucial skill that I needed the students to develop for later projects too. I created a folder and populated it with different blank world maps. In pairs, they then downloaded one, as well as a Google Map screen grab of the UAE. This then became the first thing that they tagged on to their map, which acted like a beacon to help them in the following session.

Session 2: The Atlas Explorers This session was an absolute barnstormer. They used the National Geographic World Atlas app to locate places of their choice, and then saved screen grabs. In order to tag these in the right place on their Thinglink map, some serious crossreferencing had to take place and they really impressed me here. When they had located three places of their choice, I started setting challenges like Japan, Alaska and Denmark for the pairs to race to locate and tag in the correct place.

Engagement levels were through the roof and I can genuinely say that this session improved my own geography too!

end I produced three differentiated fact sheets, colour coded for reading level, about Nigeria, Sweden and Peru, which were three countries that no-one had covered yet. After a brief discussion about presentation skills, they spread out to record their clips before diving back into World Atlas for some more cross-referencing in order to tag the videos in the right place on Thinglink.

Session 4: The Virtual Trips It was the final session and I wanted to bring our little project to a close with something really special. I decided that the 360 Cities panorama viewer (360cities.net) could provide us with the perfect final touch. We started the session with a recap of what we had done so far, and then I talked about how it would have been great to visit all these places for real, as that’s the best way to learn about a country. Having discussed the fact that this would have been too expensive and would take too long, we had one of those genuine ‘wow’ moments which us educators live for. I explained that we were going to visit Iran without leaving the room by using a form of virtual reality. It was at this point that I proclaimed “Welcome to Iran” and told them to pick up their iPads. Of course, prior to the lesson, I had set the devices up with a panorama from Iran, so as soon as they picked them up and looked around; they were immersed in the actual sights of the location. As virtual tourists I had them take a snap a quick screen grab, then follow the now standard route of World Atlas into Thinglink. Then it was off to Nepal Sharing the Adventure At the end of the project, I took a screen grab from the Thinglink website of each pairs’ maps and generated a QR code link to them for their physical project book. As I handed these out, I reminded them that there was nothing to stop them adding even more to their interactive maps when they got access to the iPads during free flow time. Only a week later and several of them already have.

Session 3: The Video Presentations Part of the awesomeness of Thinglink is that you can tag videos onto your photo. This was something we hadn’t done before, so I was eager to incorporate them into the project.

I decided that it would be great to give the kids a chance to speak directly to the camera and present some facts about a country. I knew that the time limitations of the session would make researching, presenting, and finally locating each place impossible, so I needed to tweak the idea. In the Steve Bambury has been a teacher for 14 years and currently works at Jumeirah English Speaking School in Dubai where he is the Curriculum Innovation Leader and Head of Computing.

In 2013 he founded ipadeducators.com and has presented internationally on educational uses of mobile technology. In 2014 he won Best Use of ICT at the GESS Awards for his work with iPad Educators. Follow on Twitter at @iPadEducatorsAE and @steve_bambury.

Image credit: flickr.com/photos/garethjmsaunders/7054759185/ by Gareth Saunders used under Commercial Creative Commons.

12 UKED Magazine

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Enhancing English Across the Curriculum

By Amy Kingsley

The new national curriculum for England states: Teachers should develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the whole curriculum. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects.

Providing pupils with opportunities for reading, writing, and speaking is, therefore, a non-negotiable for teachers.

In this article I will share how, using technology as a tool to engage and enthuse, I take a cross-curricular approach to teaching English.

Reading I regularly prepare ‘reading trails’ for my pupils to complete in lessons. They are essentially reading comprehensions, where texts are displayed around the classroom, hall or outside area. Children move around, reading the information, answering comprehension questions. In KS1, independent reading of the texts provides suitable challenge for more able pupils. QR codes can be used to support less able readers to access the text. I often record myself reading the texts aloud using the free app Audioboom (audioboom.com), and create a QR code linking to the recording. This way, pupils can listen to the text wearing headphones.

The following pictures show a Year One reading trail on the roles of animals in WW1.

For KS2 pupils, I provide QR codes linking directly to appropriate websites from which they read and answer questions. This photo shows QR codes I made for Year 5 to research different types of animals as part of a science lesson.

Explain Everything (morriscooke.com) is the perfect app for children to apply their reading skills across the curriculum. In a ‘flipped classroom’ approach, resources can be made for children to access on their own iPads prior to or during the lesson, making them active participants in their own learning.

Providing independent reading opportunities across the curriculum allows children to lead their own learning. I made the board game (page 15 top left) to teach Year 5 about the events before, during and after the Battle of Hastings. Pupils had to read the instructions then pick up and sequence cards containing facts about the battle as they played.

All foreground images provide by Amy Kingsley 14 UKED Magazine

So enthused by his learning, one pupil made this trailer for ‘The Battle of Hastings: The Movie’ at home! View it on YouTube at bit.ly/uked15mar02.

Opportunities for writing across the curriculum Thinglink.com, which is a free site and app, is a fantastic tool for bringing an image to life by adding text and video. As part of a Year 3 geography topic on New Orleans, my pupils tracked the journey of Hurricane Katrina by adding text to a map of Katrina’s path.

The amusing outcome of the lesson was to plan and write an alternative lonely hearts advert for the infamous emperor.

Opportunities for speaking & listening across the curriculum The iPad is ideal for supporting KS1 pupils to develop their speaking and listening skills. During the 2014 World Cup, I introduced a Year 1 theme day on Brazil with the following video, made using the Tellagami app (tellagami.com) - bit.ly/ uked15mar05.

Pupils began by reading simple texts about the geography of Brazil and discussed the landmarks they’d most like to visit. They collected data on pupils’ favourite landmarks and used Explain Everything to create a pictogram to show their results. Examples of pupils’ work can be found in the blog post at bit.ly/uked15mar06.

Book Creator app (redjumper.net/bookcreator) is ideal for speaking and listening in KS1, due to its ease of use. Pupils can add photos, text, audio recordings and videos to a book and the finished product can be saved as an iBook, or exported as a video for publishing to YouTube, Twitter and/or class blogs.

Year 1 worked in talk partners to create iBooks about Brazil.

Here’s a brilliant example - bit.ly/uked15mar07.

In an opportunity to consolidate their work on embedded clauses and simultaneously apply their history learning, Year 3 used Thinglink to generate sentences to describe Hadrian’s Wall. Pupils’ finished work can be published to thinglink.com and embedded into class blogs or shared via Twitter. See their Thinglink at bit.ly/uked15mar03.

Undeniably, one of my favourite apps, iMovie, is the perfect tool for creating professional movie trailers to entertain, captivate and enthuse pupils at the start of a lesson. For a Year 3 history lesson on the turbulent love life of the Roman Emperor Nero, I introduced my lesson with this iMovie trailer bit.ly/uked15mar04.

A similar approach worked well during a Year 1 topic on the Tudors. My pupils were fascinated by Henry VIII and enjoyed advertising for his seventh wife!

The new curriculum states teachers should, ‘develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.’ Therefore providing children with exciting opportunities to apply their literacy skills across all areas of the curriculum should be at the forefront of our practice.

Since qualifying in 2009, Amy has have taught at three schools in Manchester. After studying English and Hispanic Studies at Sheffield, she went on to complete her PGCE Primary at MMU. She is passionate about enhancing English using technology. For more examples, follow her on Twitter at @MissKingsley85, visit the class blog at 2014year1.russellscottblogs.net and her literacy blog at misskingsley1314.russellscottblogs.net. ukedchat.com/magazine 15

How Play Boosts Success and Happiness in Children

By Sam Flatman

Success and happiness are what every parent wants for their child and every teacher for their students. How can we achieve this on a daily basis? New research has revealed what many parents and teachers have long suspected: you can boost children’s skill development and boost their well-being and happiness through play time.

How Does Play Help?

Play enhances children’s physical, mental, emotional and social success and well-being, says the report by Tim Gill ( b i t . l y / u ke d 1 5 m a r 0 8 ) .

Active play is essential in the development of locomotor skills (walking, running, jumping) and manipulative skills (throwing, catching, rolling) which support brain and nerve function.

Ofsted noted that developing these skills during outdoor play can help young learners to combat a sense of underachievement and boost their confidence. Not only are children having a good time when they’re playing, but they’re also developing their skills and gaining a sense of well-being.

How Much Play Time Do Children Need?

Health experts recommend that children have 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, though unfortunately only a third of children currently achieve this.

For school children, it’s vital that play time is included during the school day. Just 20 minutes of outside play in green space improves children’s concentration inside the classroom. For children under the age of five who can walk on their own, it’s important that they are physically active for 3 hours each day.

While PE lessons can be an excellent way to engage children in active play, studies have suggested that children are more physically active during free play than in their PE lessons. It’s therefore a good idea to have a combination of structured and free play.

Outside of school, it is recommended that children have access to three or four afternoon/evening play opportunities during the week.

16 UKED Magazine

Successful Development Unstructured play in the outdoors boosts problem-solving skills, focus and selfdiscipline. Practising these skills enable children to better contend with real life problems. On the social side of things, play time improves children’s cooperation, flexibility, and self-awareness.

Playing with their peers is vital for the development of basic social skills and social competencies, whether it’s pushing each other on the swing or negotiating the position of a sandcastle.

Play time also provides opportunities for dramatic social play, which is good practice for the real world. A playhouse, for instance, might serve as a family home, a supermarket, or a doctor’s office. Practising these skills early on can provide a strong basis for successful interactions and relationships as children grow up.

Play is Beneficial for the Whole Family The study further revealed that play time was beneficial not just for the child, but for the whole family. Families who visit local playgrounds are more likely to report higher levels of family happiness.

Parents also considered playgrounds and play initiatives in their area a good way to improve community spirit. Looks like it’s time that we all took our families out to play in the park!

The full version of Tim Gill’s ‘The Play Return,’ commissioned by the Children’s Play Policy Forum (CPPF) can be found on his website rethinkingchildhood.com.

Sam Flatman has been working in the education and play sector for the past 10 years and has a passion for outdoor education. He is an Educational Consultant for Pentagon Sport. Sam believes that outdoor learning is an essential part of child development, which can be integrated into the school curriculum. Sam is currently based in Bristol with his two sons.

Image credit: ‘Boy in the sand’ image by Martin Burrett

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Christ Church Primary’s Food Revolution

By Sarah Wordlaw

growing, cultivating and harvesting. Children, their families and the local community are inspired by all that goes on inside this inner city primary as staff aim to increase understanding of how diet impacts on health. Where many have been defeated by the limitations of an urban setting, Christ Church has thrived. Over the past year, the children and staff have been creative with space; they brainstormed and worked together to enhance the facilities to produce the dynamic and inspiring environment that greets those who enter.

Picture this on a brisk spring morning. As you walk upstairs towards the staff room for a well-deserved cup of tea and healthy breakfast bar, you hear the quacking of ducks coming from the roof. The ducks, recently hatched on site and roaming freely on the rooftop, have proudly left a clutch of eggs. In addition to the ducks, the school boasts a beautiful rooftop garden, where herbs and fruits are cultivated and brought through to the Food Lab for preparation and cooking. The ‘Food Lab’ is where the real magic happens. At its busiest, the space resembles a professional kitchen, only with smaller chefs. Children and adults work together to chop, grate, dice, and steam their way to healthier lives. They learn how to prepare and put together healthy recipes and snacks and develop a love and passion for food. At first glance this all appears a well planned exercise, but as a member of Jamie’s Oliver’s Kitchen Garden Project, the school are lucky enough to have a wealth resources and recipes to work from, and it provides great cross-curricular links for children; reading recipes, measuring ingredients, developing dexterity.

At Christ Church SW9 teachers are sharing Jamie Oliver’s vision to revolutionise young peoples knowledge of food and cooking, and they join him on a mission to “create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity”. Far from a new discussion, the need for schools to adopt a strong food curriculum has gained speed in recent years. The introduction of the Food Plan in 2013 saw the announcement of Boris’s two flagship boroughs, which named the school as a flagship school, and has placed Christ Church at the forefront of change.

The school staff are keen to tackle the challenges children and families face in a modern society; 1 in 5 children in the UK are already overweight or obese by the age of 5 and 1 in 3 children are affected by child obesity by the age of 11.

Food education is just as valuable as the traditionally more important maths, reading and writing. The school believes without a sound understanding of how to supplement our bodies in the right way, we cannot expect to lead healthy lives.

Christ Church does this is many ways with a vibrant and rewarding curriculum; exciting projects, cooking lessons, 18 UKED Magazine

The children at Christ Church understand the journey of food; how to grow it, cook it and make healthy food choices.

Children who learn to cook and understand healthy eating are confident in the kitchen and are enabled to make better food choices. Classes of children take charge of planting and nurturing produce, once ready the children harvest and are able to prepare, cook, eat and share what they’ve made.

On Friday afternoons the school has both a gardening and cooking club, where children practice their skills and learn in a mixed-age group setting. Food education doesn’t stop with the children though; the school also provide cooking skill classes for both parents and the community.

A school providing such a purposeful and creative approach to food education leaves visitors feeling inspired and hopeful about the future, but they are not the only people paying attention. Most recently, Jamie Oliver visited Christ Church ahead of his Food Revolution Day on May 15th. He met with staff and head teachers to discuss children’s nutrition and the need for all schools to follow this primary’s lead. Through its strong commitment to sharing great practice and training schools around Lambeth, we can all be assured that this smaller than average primary is taking big steps in the fight against childhood obesity.

Sarah Wordlaw is a Year 4/5 teacher at Christ Church Primary SW9, we are located in Brixton. Our school twitter account is @christchurchsw9. See more of what we do on our website at christchurchschool.cc Image credit: flickr.com/photos/42787780@N04/7130593189 by Fried Dough used under Commercial Creative Commons.

All other images provide by Sarah Wordlaw

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Giving GCSE English Conflict Poetry a Modern Spin

By Carol Webb “War! What is it good for? Absolutely, nothing!” Recognise the song lyrics? I’m sure you do. If not, search for it on YouTube.

I’m teaching GCSE English ELH conflict poetry this half term, focusing on the assessment question, ‘What do the poems you have studied tell you about the lives of soldiers?’ The specific poems we are focusing on include, ‘Charge of the Light Brigade,’ ‘Bayonet Charge’ and ‘Futility’.

They’re all great poems, of course. But after talking to a real soldier this week about this, it struck me how it’s too easy to have a depressing view of the life of a soldier if all we consider are these poems. We would have a view addled by death and misery and suffering. But not all soldiers die, do they? Not all battles are lost, are they? In fact, I’d go so far as to say that some soldiers have some amazing adventures: jungle survival training in Belize, Arctic and ski training in Norway, field training in Canada, and not forgetting P Company training for Para’s and the like.

So although these GCSE poems give students a tiny historical insight of what a few soldiers experienced in the past, and although we should give respect to those who lost their lives as a soldier, I don’t think we should be satisfied with leaving students with a jaundiced view of what the life of a soldier is like for all soldiers. We need to shed a tad more positivity on the matter than that, surely?

I teach GCSE English to Public Services students on Wednesday mornings (they are on entry to the armed forces type courses). They are the most lively bunch of kids you’ll ever meet, full of vitality and bursting with enthusiasm for getting into their chosen vocational area. How will I be helping them to engage with GCSE English poetry? I won’t be leaving them with a dark and dismal interpretation of the life of a soldier at all if I can possibly help it.

The soldier, from bomb disposal in Colchester, who I talked to earlier this week, said, “In modern times there is obviously no national service, so it’s an individuals choice to enlist.

After you take the oath of allegiance you are officially sworn in as a soldier of HM Armed Forces, you are then given a start date for basic training, which is usually a few weeks away, so you have several weeks to prepare yourself physically and mentally for what lies ahead! This is a very important period for a soldier, during this time a soldier will say his first goodbyes to his family and friends, and as basic training draws closer the more nervous you become. Mixed emotions of excitement and sadness - the excitement of setting off on a new adventure and the sadness of leaving loved ones behind.”

I shared this with one of my classes last week after doing work on Charge of the Light Brigade. They were a group of Childhood Studies students.

Their response? “Do they use sniffer dogs in bomb disposal? And how long is the training?” The soldier replied: “We do EOD dogs, and my basic training lasted 10 weeks followed by phase two trade training of 12 weeks”. We then watched a little YouTube video highlighting the P Company training the soldier had done.

My students were totally enthralled and had many more questions besides. In addition, I’ve since sourced an excellent blog entry written by an army reservist who recently did a stint in the Jordanian desert, which you can find on the British Army blog (bit.ly/uked15mar18) - Desert soldiering: Exercise Jebel Dagger in Jordan.

I think this will be a great way to round off the poetry topic focusing on the lives of soldiers. It’s up to date and nothing to do with dying; just a well written piece on one lad’s experience.

What value will this add to GCSE English ELH conflict poetry? Hopefully a more balanced and less depressing perspective.

Carol Webb teaches GCSE English and HND Business & Management within FE. You can read her blog at Carol’s Learning Curve - carolslearningcurve.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @CazzWebbo

Image credit: flickr.com/photos/dvids/6151109634 by DVIDSHUB used under Commercial Creative Commons.

Computational Thinking is linked to problem solving and logic.

Traditionally considered a skill in computer science, I have created a program to teach year 3-4 students Computational Thinking without technology. Students are motivated and excited to be participating in these activities. Using three pieces of paper and three pieces of tape, create the highest, or most stable structure. Students were challenged to create the most stable 3D shape they can with newspaper and tape. Following this we examined the properties of the most stable shapes.

This was followed by designing structures with toothpicks and bluetac that support a book. This process creates problem solving scenarios that students work through in groups and addresses maths and personal development outcomes. @iMerinet New South Wales, Australia - eLearning Integrator

Boarding - the other half of school?

Organise Your Own Subject Conference

Using the internet professionally has enabled teachers to network and collaborate like never before. Eight RE teachers from Essex and East London met in a pub to discuss our subject and how we could make it better; The London RE Hub was born. We found there was some funding to organise a project to help improve RE and in March we run our first conference. This is grassroots, bottom-up determination to drive improvement in our subject. In the increasingly disjointed world of education, in life post-LEAs, if you don’t do something, who will? If you are an RE teacher, or know an RE teacher, who lives anywhere near London, please tell them about The London RE Hub: TheLondonREHub.com @TheLondonREHub London - RE Teacher & Hub Lead

“This place is great,” a colleague used to tell me, “but it is only half a school.” He had been a boarder at an independent school in Sussex.

His school is most famous for its Tudor uniform, and he had stories of exploring underground tunnels by night – but more importantly of friendships and role models that shaped him.

I didn’t quite see his point of view, but I sometimes thought about that phrase: Semi-skimmed? Only half a school?

Fast forward several years and I became Head of one of England’s forty or so state boarding schools. Lancaster Royal Grammar School has about 170 boarders aged 11 to 18, in a school of 1000 pupils.

Two-thirds of our boarders come from within an hour’s radius. Another third are from all corners of the UK, and across the world, although you must hold an EU passport to attend a state boarding school. Boarding is also a haven for a small number of local pupils whose family situation is difficult.

And gradually, I understand what he meant. The other half is in the friendships and the shared experience that many of our boarders come to see as a defining privilege of their teenage years. @christopherpyle Lancaster - Head What about my strengths?

It is clear that pupil enjoyment of school is important. One of the key aims of the Every Child Matters green paper clearly states that all pupils should ‘enjoy’ school (DfES, 2003), levels of school enjoyment for KS2 pupils are directly linked to levels of school engagement for KS2 and KS3 pupils suggesting that enjoyment in KS2 can lead to engagement at a later time and in KS2 enjoyment of school has been linked to academic achievement (Gutman & Vorhaus, 2012).

As a teacher of fifteen years experience it seems common sense that if a teacher is taking pleasure in his or her work it follows that this positivity will be transmitted to his or her pupils. Teacher enjoyment and pupil enjoyment in classrooms are interconnected (Frenzel, Goetz, Ludtke, Pekrun & Sutton, 2009). Therefore it stands to reason that if I increase my own enjoyment of lessons the pupil’s enjoyment will also increase.

As professionals we should also be mindful of the inverse, negative effects of teacher not enjoying their work. Wellbeing and enjoyment of school clearly acts as a barrier to burnout (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2009) and demotivated teachers demotivate students through what Hatfiled, Cacioppo and Rapson call ‘emotional contagion.’

I believe I can increase my own enjoyment of teaching by playing to my key character strengths when planning and delivering lessons. Why wouldn’t I? @GriffermansMark Teesside - Assistant Head

In Brief

Computational Thinking

Google in the Classroom

Our science classes have group Gmail accounts set up, which have been excellent to access collaborative work through Google documents, where contributors would be recognised. Group work might include group posters or results tables, and would allow students to contribute even when absent.

The accounts can also be used to create online accounts, instead of using personal emails, or to contribute to blogs for the group. Google Forms can be used to collect information about the group, which might be used for the group profile, and the calendar can include all deadlines, equality and diversity dates and any other important times, which could be synced with personal accounts and devices. The accounts might also be used to share useful links, RSS feeds, presentations and videos. @hrh_rjhamilton North East England - Trainee Science and Maths FE Tutor

Spanter: Spontaneous Speaking in Spanish Boosting spontaneous language use is top of every MFL teacher’s agenda. Yet the dream of having your 33 ‘lively’ Year 8’s chatting away independently to each other in the target language whilst you look on in admiration can seem a little like mission impossible. But there is an answer: ‘Spanter’. Spanter is, of course, ‘Spanish banter’.

I put together a list of annoying things that students would typically say to each other in class and found their Spanish equivalents. Students have these in their books and are invited to use them at every opportunity.

This transforms what would usually be an off-topic and unproductive provocation such as “you wish, mate!” into a glowing example of pupil-pupil target language interaction. Without them even realizing it, pupils start to hold entire conversations in Spanish, even when they haven’t been asked to. They beg you to tell them how to respond to their classmate’s comment in Spanish, showing a real thirst for language learning. If this is built up over time consistently, it really does change the whole ‘culture’ of your language lessons and boosts your pupils’ confidence, creating independent linguists who can respond to a variety of situations in the target language. ¡Toma! @theSpanishist Oxfordshire - MFL Teacher ukedchat.com/magazine 21

Subject Knowledge: Love, Learn, Teach

By Andy Lewis

bit.ly/uked15mar19 I am able to confess that I am absolutely obsessed with my subject. I really love RE and I hope in some small ways this is infectious to my students: • “Sir, why are you getting so excited about the Great Schism of 1054?” Because it is SO monumentus in the history of Christianity. Why are you not as excited?

• “Mr Lewis, is Thomas Aquinas really this interesting?”

Yes. • “Do you need to jump up and down / stand on a chair / shout for no reason about Gandhi?” Absolutely.

It is pleasing that my enthusiasm is evident and noted in lessons. I’d hate for students to not realise that I passionately believe that RE is one of the most important lessons they study. After all, it’s where we discuss and attempt to answer the big questions such as ‘Where do we come from?’ and ‘Why are we here?’. It’s where we can challenge Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, and where we can discuss death and the suffering of friends and family. We study literature, history, politics, culture, music, film. We address moral and ethical issues such as abortion and euthanasia. We learn about the things that matter to a huge number of people are the world, and ask why people will die for these beliefs. We explore spirituality and that whole ‘other dimension’ to human nature.

So how do people know I love my subject?

Blogging I blog about religious issues at TalkingDonkeyRE.co.uk. This is primarily geared to my own students; I want to pick out a variety of stories that will be useful to their study, but also go beyond it. I provide questions for reflection and often focus homework tasks on a news story that I have recently written about. RE is not the only subject that works well with the news, however rarely is religion out of the news! I am also trying to get my 6th form students to share in this interest by writing their own blog posts: shomrs.blogspot.co.uk.

Tweets This goes hand in hand with the blog. My @TalkingDonkeyRE account is for students and links to the blog. Once a story is published, I will tweet about it so students will view. I also carefully select articles to retweet, if characters allow, with a 22 UKED Magazine

personal comment to encourage them to view. It’s amazing what students do pick up and often students will say, “I saw you tweet about…”. It is great for picking up news too and often a lesson will begin or end with something I have seen on Twitter. We also sometimes use in lessons… students tweeting Richard Dawkins was a highlight!

Organising Events Having helped organise a number of TeachMeets, I wanted to do something specifically for the subject community. RE teachers can be quite isolated, sometimes in one person departments. Sometimes they are keen and willing nonspecialists. It is also clear that the biggest area of concern is a lack of subject knowledge, or a lack of confidence. As a result The London RE Hub was born (TheLondonREHub. com) and I am leading this first event in March. We will have over a 100 delegates and it has been organised from scratch by a number of teachers. The internet (particularly Save RE on Facebook and #rechatuk on Twitter) has enabled this to happen. A whole day, not of pedagogy, but of members of the faith community talking about their faith. I literally couldn’t be more excited.

Share Resources There are now a variety of ways to do this. Many teachers have moved away from the original sites which dominated the resource sharing market. It is now possible to set up or join various cloud storage facilities such as DropBox or GoogleDrive. Many teachers share via these, and then share links via their own blogs or through sites such as UKEd Resources. I have set up an A-Level RS Dropbox (bit. ly/uked15mar20) and a RC Dropbox (bit.ly/uked15mar21), there is a Save RE GoogleDrive which is often filled via discussion on the Facebook group. I’ve even gone as far as to set up a website to try and bring together and share more resources, CatholicREsource.co.uk.

National Involvement There are ways to get involved with your subject nationally through subject associations and national bodies. For RE teachers, NATRE (natre.org.uk) is very active but there are also local SACREs who help promote and support the subject.

As a Catholic RE teacher, I am also in regular dialogue with the CES who are easily accessible via Twitter and email.

Fight Your Corner!

RE is always in the news for the right or wrong reasons.

Some people share my belief that it is vital, other people would quite happily get rid of it. I believe the best way to promote RE is by it being GOOD. It is vital to be part of the promotion of good RE. Share what you do; shout about it to anyone who will listen. If you blog or tweet professionally, don’t be afraid to talk about your subject!

What about primary?

In Y6 , my teacher loved sport and in particular hockey. I still play hockey every week and captain a youth development team. I joined the team she recommended and I still play for them 20 years on.

In Y5, my teacher loved history. Despite the ‘specialists’ at secondary school, she was the best history teacher I ever had. As a result I didn’t do it at GCSE as the new ones weren’t up to scratch; they didn’t care as much and didn’t enjoy it as much. I still love history.

Taken by Laura Lewis There are often conferences where you can meet other likeminded obsessives and continue to work on projects with them long after returning home. There are also charities and other organisations who are often looking for teachers to help them with their work and you can input into national programmes and help shape resources; recently I’ve worked with CAFOD and the Apostleship of the Sea. There are also obviously exam boards, who in RE are currently looking for people to help write new specifications.

Study and Read Three years ago, I completed my MA in Catholic School Leadership from St Mary’s University. I love the challenge of returning to studying and since then have completed my CCRS (Catholic Certificate in Religious Studies). I am looking for my next academic challenge, but do not have the funding, nor time for my PhD at this time. One day…

Much of my ‘reading for pleasure’ consists of subject specific books. Recently I have finished, “God and the Philosophers: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason” by Thomas Morris.

It’s nice to have a break from school (and reading education books), but if you are interested in your subject, it does not feel like a chore. I also then often go into school and begin with, “I’ve just read…”

Holidays I cannot walk past a church, or any place of worship for that matter, when on holiday; Rome was a bit of a nightmare.

There are lots of pictures of places of worship, and me in places of worship. These often find their way into lessons or the classroom wall. Often there will be a tweet or two.

Students love them.

Andy Lewis is Head of Year 10 and Assistant Subject Leader in RE at an all girls Catholic school in the London Borough of Havering. He tweets as @TalkingDonkeyRE and @iteachRE and blogs at MrLewisRE.co.uk.

I think it is vital to ask “What’s your passion?” and “What will your students remember you for?” Maybe you can’t be passionate about everything, but there must be things that you are passionate about.

There are obviously plenty more questions.

• How can we keep this passion alive? I’ve only been teaching 10 years, how about in another 10? Will I still be as keen?

• What happens if we are not in the classroom as much? Becoming a member of SLT means less time in the classroom and sometimes ‘filling the gaps’ in the timetable. Can you be passionate about all 3 subjects you teach, none of which you were trained in?

• Can you find the time to do this? Workload, workload, workload. Family. A social life?

• Does it improve results? Is there any way of telling?

I hope I keep my passion. I love RE and I love learning more about RE. This is a key part of who I am and what my lessons are about. Perhaps this article may give you some ideas about how you can let your students know that you love your subject too?

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Flipping Literacy!

Using the Flipped Classroom Model to Access and Develop Literacy Skills

By Nicola Snelling One of my colleagues, @sarahjpe, introduced me to the Flipped Classroom Model at a teaching and learning INSET and I was unsure how it would work initially, yet I was excited by its potential and decided to explore how I could use this to support the teaching of literacy and grammar skills. So, last term I set about establishing all the material I wanted my high ability Year 10 pupils to be able to access for a creative writing piece on Edmodo. Using the AQA mark scheme for creative writing controlled assessments, I established a few key aspects of writing that I wanted my pupils to be able to explore and manipulate: • • • • • • • •

imagination and originality; sentence variety; imagery; punctuation variety; accuracy of SPaG; variation in vocabulary; understanding of tone; awareness of structure for effect, linked to paragraphing skills.

The BIG Question I then introduced my class to our BIG QUESTION as a focus for the project, designed using key words from the assessment objectives and mark scheme: what makes a sophisticated and engaging piece of creative writing? The aim of the game being that pupils should work towards the higher band skills in their writing whilst focusing on technical accuracy and its manipulation.

To start with, we began with a class discussion and I asked pupils to identify key aspects in response to the big question and ideas consisted mainly of: a clear beginning, middle and end; an exciting/interesting plot; good characters; it makes you want to read on. These responses were shared via postit notes on our learning wall so we could track our learning journey, see image top right.

Whilst these ideas were perfectly valid, they failed to address the intricacies of how we might achieve these goals and were lacking the focus required if pupils were to understand exactly how to fulfil the assessment objectives.

Edmodo With this in mind, each week, there was a homework task attributed to one of the skills mentioned earlier (sentence variety etc.) and, with thanks to resources from @MrBruff and @literacylender, I uploaded videos and resources to inspire pupils’ thinking and to deliver the ‘teacher led’ aspect of pupils’ learning at home. Admittedly, this took some time, planning and preparation, but this was to be beneficial to the project and would save me a great deal of time later on.

So, for homework, pupils watched videos and responded to my questions and to each other using the online sharing site Edmodo, @edmodo.

For example, for the first homework task pupils had to watch a video all about different sentence types and another about how to vary sentence openings for effect. The following lesson, I gave pupils a series of images to choose from and, in groups, pupils had to produce two creative and descriptive paragraphs about their chosen images, some of the results of this process can be seen on page 26.

Immediately, with very little input from me, I could see pupils engaging with the crux of how to develop and craft an engaging piece of writing through sentence variation; using simple and compound sentences, adverbial clauses, minor sentences and so on. I was impressed!

ukedchat.com/magazine 05

Proof-Reading, Peer Assessment & Purple Pens for Progress!

Once the lead learners had delivered their lessons and we had ensured a consistency of understanding as a class, this then allowed chance for the groups to work on the vital skills of proof-reading, editing and revising and their original paragraphs were peer assessed using green pens and improvements were then made using purple pens for progress. The process of writing and improving our writing was then clearly highlighted, below.

Lead Learners This was then followed up with lead learners in the classroom delivering a session to their peers about what they had learnt on Edmodo so I could ensure clarity of understanding amongst pupils and resolve any issues or uncertainties. Below, was a task designed by pupils to support understanding of simple, compound and complex sentences. The lead learners placed different types of sentences onto different coloured postit notes and asked the class to categorise them. They then showed the class how a piece of writing was most effective when these sentence types were varied by moving the postit notes around – this was all their own idea!

Model Examples This then allowed groups to produce best examples of creative writing, which in turn provided inspiration for their controlled assessment pieces.

The Review Following this process pupils were asked once again to focus on the BIG QUESTION: what makes a sophisticated and engaging piece of creative writing? However, this time, pupils’ responses showed much more awareness of the technicalities of writing and how to craft writing to achieve the desired effect: use minor sentences to create tension, include a semi-colon to elaborate; vary sentence openings etc.

My Verdict on Flipping Literacy!

Whilst this was only one experience with one high ability class, I have also tried this with a mixed ability Year 11 group for exam preparation and have found it useful. Flipped learning saves time and allows the teacher to work as a facilitator, which minimises teacher talk during lessons and encourages pupils’ independence. My advice: give Flipped Learning a try! As with anything, it may be something that works for you or it may not, but I can certainly say that my pupils learnt from the experience; most pupils achieved their target grade and some even exceeded it in this controlled assessment piece.

Nicola Snelling has been teaching for six years and is currently Assistant Curriculum Leader of English with responsibility for KS4 and literacy across the curriculum at a Catholic secondary school in the North West of England. Follow her on Twitter at @snelling321.

Image credit: flickr.com/photos/glasgowamateur/7025960033 by Charles Clegg used under Commercial Creative Commons. flickr.com/photos/augustbrill/3387315147 by August Brill used under Commercial Creative Commons.

26 UKED Magazine

All other images provide by Nicola Snelling

Book Shelf Physics calculations for GCSE & IGCSE by Brian Mills Physics is one of those technical subjects that can be quite bewildering to students, especially as the prospect of examinations loom on the horizon. Many seem to view the subject as an adversary - full of equations and mathematics that, quite frankly, can make your brain hurt. Others enjoy the process and start thinking of themselves as physicists, excited at the prospects and opportunities the subject holds.

With so many equations and formulas to contend with, any sort of revision book is always going to be helpful for those facing exams in the subject, and a new book from Brian Mills is well placed to help students gain a thorough understanding of the demands expected from them.

“Physics Calculations, for GCSE & iGCSE” is filled with scary calculations and explanations, probably aimed at students who have established a sound understanding of the subject. How do we know this? We asked a 15 year old to look at the book, as he prepares for his exams in the coming months, with his predicted grade at an A* level.

He told us, “It's a really in depth overview of GCSE style formulas, and the diagrams and explanations are really helpful. It would be helpful to have exam style questions, and I have friends who would be overwhelmed by the detail and serious nature of the book.”

View on Amazon at

www.bit.ly/physicscalc

Remember, this book is written by a teacher and physicist, who clearly has a passion for the subject and a desire to support students working towards their GCSEs. The book does suggest that the first 6 sections are read in order to help explain some of the basics, such as power of 10, prefixes, significant figures and tips for answering Physics calculation problems. Beyond this, the book features a fantastic mix of questions and problems, which can support pupils as they get closer to their final examinations.

Physics Calculations for GCSE & iGCSE written by Brian Mills and published by Physics Education Limited is available from Amazon in paperback priced £7.99*.

For many more book reviews, go to

http://ukedchat.com/category/book Space Invaders – An Intergalactic Adventure! by D.J. McGhee Working with reluctant readers, Teaching Assistant Dean McGhee has seen the challenge that a considerable number of children face with reading. Sharing his passion for comics, graphic novels and picture book, his new book ‘Space Invaders – An Intergalactic Adventure!” has taken into consideration pace, language and visual content that reluctant readers crave.

With recognisable characters, the book provides comedy, challenge and great visual content to provide discussion points in a bid to engage the reader throughout the story. Aimed at pupils aged 9+, the features of the text are sprinkled with literacy aspects worthy of discussion with children, such as poetry, alliteration, and plenty of engaging descriptive language that draw the reader into the story.

The illustrations, also created by Dean, are filled with visual cues, adding value to the overall book.

This is a short story, so reluctant readers won’t be over-whelmed with the text, but offers a engaging read through an interesting space adventure.

View on Amazon at

www.bit.ly/spaceinva *Correct at the time of publishing

Space Invaders – An Intergalactic Adventure! Written by Dean McGhee is published by iWonder Publications is priced £6.99* available from Amazon.

ukedchat.com/magazine 27

The amount of time you should look directly at the eclipse.

The best ways to view are: a) Make a pinhole viewer, b) Eclipse Glasses (if used correctly), c) Television (especially if it’s cloudy!)

seconds This is the date when a Total Solar Eclipse will occur across Northern Europe and the Arctic. The UK will experience a Partial Eclipse. The Faroe Islands will experience a total eclipse.

March 2015 The Faroe Islands will experience a total eclipse for 2 minutes and 12 seconds, The maximum eclipse occurs approximately 200 miles north of the Faroe Islands at 09.44 GMT.

seconds

km

The next total solar eclipse in Europe will be in 11 years time, on 12 August 2026.

The average distance from the Earth to the moon.

The mean distance from the Sun to the Earth (NASA)

Age of the sun

km

years Information Sources: http://solareclipse2015.org.uk/; NASA; http://space-facts.com/solar-eclipse/ Compiled February 2015

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