ICTeachers  - The Interesting and Independent Voice of Teachers

ICTeachers Magazine June 2003 

Probably the best and least monthly educational newsletter in the world!
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Message from the Editor

Has anyone told you lately that you're special?

You are you know, you may not feel like it, you may feel like complete crud and that the world is against you but you ARE special!

Think of one child on whose life you have had a major impact.  Just one, forget the other few hundred, just focus on one particular child.  Think about what the child was like when you first met them and what they became.  You did that, you made a difference in a child's life.  

There is that poem about it not mattering about the car you drive or the clothes you wear as long as you've been important in the life of one child and I used to read and think how trite.  But I have to admit, nowadays, I think about it, and read it and say "Yes, yes.  There are children out there who are the better for having known me and for having been taught by me."  and you know what, they will carry with them the memory of that teacher and what they did for them, perhaps share it with their partners and children, about the teacher who made the difference in their life.  That in the world of crap they were living in at the time there was one person, one person, who thought that they actually meant something and that because of that one person, they had something to grasp hold of in this life for that moment in time.

You are so, so special colleague, and never, ever, ever let anyone, no matter how "high and mighty" they might be, ever tell you anything otherwise. What you do, teaching that class, running that school, what you do is much more than all the armies of the world, all the rich people, all the politicians and all the scientists can accomplish with their might, wealth, talk and knowledge.

Only one child?  Yes.  But how many lives will that one child touch as it grows older.

Addendum - a colleague of mine, a head, is leaving at 48 to look after his wife, another head who has gone out on a stress related illness.  While at a director's meeting where they all were saying goodbye, one of the senior council members came up to him and said, "You may not remember me, but you used to teach my son when you were at ********** primary school.  You made all the difference to him, he was having such a difficult time and had so many problems but that was the turning point with him.  Just to let you know how grateful we are and that he's now doing a law degree in ******* Uni".

Say no more.

Keep the faith, brothers and sisters.

The Editor
md@icteachers.co.uk

The comments of the Editor in no way reflect the views of ICTeachers Ltd and do not claim to be either well researched or even vaguely coherent.

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What's New on the Website

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KS1 SATS - Waste of Time? UPDATE

Dave Kitching
Headteacher
Shanklin CE Primary School
Albert Road
Shanklin
Isle of Wight
PO37 7LY

 Tel: 01983 862444
Fax: 01983 868810

NGFL School Development Plans no longer required

Here is  a record of correspondence between a colleague and the DfES.

Dear All,

I received this email from the DFES today. It adds another paragraph to what we knew already.

To: andrew.baxter@dfee.gov.uk
Subject: Development plans

Please could you confirm or deny the email that is circulating, that schools no longer have to submit development plans to their LEAs to gain 601 funding.

> Ma****,
> 
> We have announced it is no longer necessary for schools to have separate ICT Development Plans. These have served their purpose in recent years but it is now time to move on. We expect ICT to feature within other school plans, such as the school improvement plan, so that the emphasis is on what ICT is used for and how it can raise standards and improve efficiency, rather than the technology itself.
>
> We have therefore agreed that, with immediate effect, schools will no longer be required to agree their ICT development plan with LEAs as a condition of receipt for Grant 601. Any funds being held back on these grounds must now be released to schools.
>
> This Decision was actually taken to support the planning process. Currently there is a mixed response across the country in terms of LEAs and how they are monitoring the plans. Equally if we believe that ICT should be embedded then to ask for a separate plan to the one that deals with how the school is going to move forward in their 'real' business of teaching and learning seems inappropriate.
>
> We are not saying is that there is no need for schools to plan for the development of ICT. We are not saying that LEAs should not be involved in ensuring that their schools are able to integrate ICT effectively in their teaching and learning and are planning to do so. What we are saying is that we are taking away the bureaucratic burden that the current requirement imposes

Andrew Baxter
ICT in Schools Division
020 7273 5791

=============================================================================

And from another source: - 

“Colleagues

 We can now inform you of the funding to be made available through the ICT in Schools Standards Fund Grant (Grant 601) for the next two financial years. The following amounts - to include LEA matched funding - will be available:

 2004-2005: £325.3m

 2005-2006: £356.3m

 A Departmental review of the delivery of ICT in schools policies was carried out earlier this year and, as a result, we are developing a new delivery model in conjunction with the National Strategies and LEAs.  As part of this, we have decided it is no longer appropriate for schools to have separate ICT Development Plans. These have served their purpose in recent years but it is now time to move on.  We expect ICT to feature within other school plans, such as the school improvement plan, so that the emphasis is on what ICT is used for and how it can raise standards and improve efficiency, rather than the technology itself.

 We have therefore agreed that, with immediate effect, schools will no longer be required to agree their ICT development plan with LEAs as a condition of receipt for Grant 601. Any funds being held back on these grounds must now be released to schools.

 We will be writing to all Chief Education Officers to confirm this decision in due course. “

======================================================================

So....what do we say to LEA's who insist on us doing plans?

The Editor

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Independent Study to Examine the Effective Use of ICT to Aid the Teaching and Learning of Primary School Children

I am a student at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus coming to the end of a 2^nd year BA (Hons) degree in Business Management and Information Technology. 

As part of the degree programme we have to do a module which entails in a piece of independent study and for this I am doing some background research into my chosen area.  The area I wish to examine is 

"the effective use of ICT to aid the teaching and learning of primary school children”.  

This particular area concerns the interactivity behind different ICT resources in terms of how it is used by teachers to teach a variety of subjects and also how the pupils react to that resource.  I am not just the negatives of various resource but also the positives as different teachers will have a different perspective on the applications they use. 

As well as looking at existing resource, I want to examine holes in the market where software doesn’t exist for a particular curricular area or does not appear very successful in that context.  If so, I would like to know why you feel this way or if you think there is plenty of ICT resources for that curricular area then do you feel it is sufficient and why? 

If there is any other information or specific questions you would like to share with me on this area then let me know, as it would be gladly welcome.  

My e-mail is anthony1_uk@yahoo.com if you would like to contact me. 

Hopefully as part of this research I am collecting I will create a piece of software that aids in the teaching and learning of primary school children.

Thank you very much for reading this article and I look forward to reading your responses.

Yours faithfully

Anthony Orme
anthony1_uk@yahoo.com

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"Bob gives wonderful follow up service and uploads the stuff I send him without fail. He gives me tips and advice and I really feel that I am an honoured customer. Nothing is too much trouble and he never makes me feel dumb or ICT illiterate." Headteacher

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Daisy's Dream - Dealing with Children's Bereavement  

• telephone advice and support
• support in the home or at school for children
• residential weekends and follow up events
• advice and support for professionals working with bereaved children.

http://www.daisysdream.org.uk

BOOK LIST

Adults

Children - 6 - 8 Years

Children - 6 - 10 Years

Children - 9 - 12 Years

Children - 8+

Teenagers

Poems Suitable for Funerals

From " The Prophet" by K Gibran.

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day
Cannot unveil the mystery of life.
If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide to the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lie your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of Spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and melt into the sun?
And what is it to stop breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
When the earth claims your limbs, then you shall truly dance.

I am standing on the sea shore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze
And starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty
And I stand watching her
Until at last she fades on the horizon.
And someone at my side says
" She is gone".
Gone where?
Gone from my sight that is all
The total loss of sight is in me not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says
" She is gone"
There are others who are watching her coming
And other voices take up the glad shout
"Here she comes".
And that is dying.

Bishop Brent.

Death Is Nothing At All

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I. You are You. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the same easy way which you always used to, put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow, laugh as we always laughed at little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without trace of shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight, I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near just around the corner.

All is well.

Henry Scott Holland
Canon of St Pauls
1847 --- 1918

Remember 

Remember me when I am gone away.
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of the future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be too late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti

Also try..

http://www.uk-funerals.co.uk/funeral-poems.htm

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FREE IPAS SEMINARS TO EXPLAIN ICT PROCUREMENT PROCESS

The complex process of ICT procurement is to be explained to schools in a free national seminar programme, being held at 12 venues across England by Ipas (Independent ICT Procurement Advisory Service).

The seminars will cover a wide range of issues, including how to go about achieving good practice in ICT procurement, as well as where the process sits within the context of the whole school use of ICT in the delivery and management of education. 

Ipas is funded by the DfES (Department for Education and Skills) and run by Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency). It was established in September 2001 in response to a demand from schools for advice on the complex process of procuring ICT equipment.