Best Xmas Sale Deal

We all did it- wandered round the sales and probably bought at least 1 thing for the computer
What was it!? Don't keep the good deals to yourself

Mine...
A 320gb external hard drive for £79 from PC World and a 2gb USB pen from PC World for £24
A DIVX Player hardrive for £100

BETT!?

It's only a week away!
Who's going?
What days?
What are you looking for?

This year, we'll have the usual competition, whoever posts the best freebie they can pick up from a supplier at Bett (without having bought anything first!) will win a prize at the next Best Practice Forum/Network Meeting

Is your school ready for the QCA Onscreen ICT Test for Year Nine?

This year is the last year of piloting the Onscreen ICT test for Y9’s before it becomes statutory in 2008.

Based on feedback from last year’s pilots, while subject teachers were generally prepared for the test and started to deliver test preparation sessions, they did not plan themselves enough curriculum time to adequately prepare the pupils fully. We have been supporting subject leaders over the past year to develop this and will continue to do so through the next few months.

One of the other key areas that the pilot schools found an issue was the administrative and logistic preparation for the test in terms of exams procedures, rules and allocations of staff and invigilators.

The test must to be run under exam procedures, and will have an effect on the availability of the ICT suites and technical staff during the test period for the rest of the school

To support schools in preparing the logistics of the test, we have agreed with John Smyth from the NAA to deliver a half day briefing and Q&A session for every exams officer in secondary schools in the LA. This session will provide an opportunity for questions to be answered directly from the NAA on issues such as extra time, readers and adequate timings between sessions in a school

The session will be held for all secondary schools on Monday 15^th January at the City Learning Centre, Billet Road, from 9.30 to 12.30 and is offered to all schools free of charge (this session will be offered again by the NAA after this year at a cost to schools). To register your exams officer at this session, please contact Kathryn Ryan on 020 8496 5807 before January 12^th.

Primary 2007?

We had hoped to have a full time Primary consultant in January but this has not been possible.
Given that Christian and the CLC team will be offering training specificaly for Primary schools ijn ICT matters
What would you like to see on the schedule?

Subject Leader Day Agenda

As always, we provide these sessions because they are important. Please make every effort to attend. Even if you can’t make the whole day, at least come to part of it.

This is a whole day session and we hope that giving you this detailed agenda will further encourage you to attend.

Agenda

Network Updates. This session will bring you up to date with the latest developments, both Nationally and within Waltham Forest. Some of you will be aware that we have our own Blog and we would like you to contribute to it. We have also been doing a lot of work with Podcasting and it’s worth getting the latest information about how these can help you. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is very topical and there are several developments that you need to be aware of. There will also be some news on MLEs and how they impact on your work. Of course, there are also several Training Dates that need to be flagged up, as well as the latest information from the Strategy.

Tea Break. Short, but with an ample supply of biscuits.

Subject Leader Materials. In order to significantly raise standards it is sometimes necessary to address teaching within the department. The latest materials from DfES aim to do just that. Subject leaders will welcome these materials as they will help to improve pedagogy and thus raise standards.

Subject Leader Support Materials.

Yet another really important subject that you need to familiarise yourselves with now. We will be giving you some initial training, followed by some hands-on familiarisation and you’ll then be able to take the free DVD home with you to work through the materials.

Lunch. This will not be the usual curly lettuce sandwiches, but a good wholesome lunch. If you have any particular dietary requirements, please let one of us know.

Key Stage 3 ICT Test. No meeting would be complete without some updates on the test. In case you are in any doubt, every school should do the test in 2007. To be successful, you will need support. This is where support begins. We have the latest PowerPoint for delivery to pupils in Yr9 assembly and the Podcast that the pupils can download is also available to preview. But most important is that this session will be used to develop familiarisation materials for you to use with your classes. If you have any materials that you would like to share, please bring them along.

You will also need to bring with you any questions that you need answering.

Upcoming training

Just a quick reminder that this week (Friday 1st Dec) has the next Subject Leaders day (details on the next post!) which you are recommended to come along to
Next week (6th Dec) has a Ks3 test day, with a planning and assessment day focussing on Y9 from 9-30 to 3pm and a test network at 3.30-5pm
If you are doing the test this year, you would find the contend of either or both of these sessions massively useful

Conference - After the eveny

What was the best part of the conference?

We've now had Russell Prue and John Davitt, who might be good next year as a Keynote Speaker?