GENERAL

Becta ICT Excellence Award

Congratulations to St John the Evangelist Primary School in Carterton who have been shortlisted for Becta's ICT Excellence Award. St John is one of three primary schools across the country to have been shortlisted in the category Best Whole School, Primary which seeks to reward those schools which have achieved ICT excellence across their institution. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in November. A full list of the categories and shortlisted schools is at http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=18564

Well done to all who have been involved.

The Practical Support Pack - Learning and Teaching using ICT (MFL)

The Practical Support Pack is an online collection of resources designed to help primary and Key Stage 3 teachers use ICT to enhance learning effectively across the curriculum.

The aim of the materials is to encourage teachers to use ICT in their teaching, by highlighting how readily available and specialist software can be used to enhance learning. Examples are given of:

· Presentation software to enhance pupils' creativity
· Use of email to aid communication with people in other languages
· Use of the Internet to improve and extend knowledge of the language and culture of other countries

You can download a module resource pack containing lesson plans, resources, supplementary information and extension activities, for teaching French, German and Spanish using ICT.

Video case studies, including practical examples of teachers using ICT with their classes, also appear on the site and include the following topics:

· Creative writing skills in French
· Reviewing the perfect tense in French
· Expressing preferences and opinions in Spanish
· Preparing and delivering presentations in Spanish
· Reviewing present tense verbs in German
· Developing reading skills in German

To order a sample DVD and an accompanying leaflet, email: dfes@prolog.uk.com

International videoconferencing link?

Any school with videoconferencing facilities and looking to take part in an international project may be interested to know that schools in Torfaen are very keen on doing the same, so this could be an opportunity to initiate a link between two countries.

Contact me if you think this is something you might be interested in. If you are not sure exactly where in the world Torfaen is (I have to admit I wasn't), there's an opportunity for a bit of Internet research for you and your class as well.

Dave Headey

dave.headey@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Courses

There are still places available on the courses below:

Using Digital Blue Creators for Stop Animation - Friday 29 September, 9.30 - 3.30 (21/698)

Getting Started with Digitalbrain Courses - Thursday 5 October, 9.30 - 3.30 (21/701)

Also, Chris Scrivener, the Geography adviser, would like to let secondary geography teachers know that he is hosting a course on the use of InfoMapper on Friday 20 October from 9.30 to 3.30 in the ICT Training Suite at Cricket Road. The course will be delivered by Charles Worth from InfoMapper. Please let your geography colleagues know.

Interested colleagues should apply to the Inset section at Cricket Road or use the on-line booking form.

National Poetry Day Competition

To celebrate National Poetry Day the ICT Team will again be running the extremely successful annual poetry competition for pupils in Oxfordshire schools.

We are offering a fantastic prize of a Visualiser which retails at over £300, for the school of the winning entry in each of these categories: KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4. The closing date for receipt of entries is Friday 20 October. See the attached flyer for more details.

SECONDARY

DiDA Moderators' Report and Results Summary

DiDA moderators' report and results summary can be found on the website - follow the link:

http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/results/pm-reports.htm

Microsoft (and other) Software for Students

Ramesys are offering software for students e.g. Office Pro at £75 +VAT for them to put on their home computers. See the attached flyer for more information.

and finally….

The Hard Drive celebrated its fiftieth birthday on 13 September. Fifty years ago IBM introduced the first magnetic hard drive - the Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC) - which offered a whopping 5Mb of storage on a total of 50 disks measuring 24 inches in diameter.

The price? A mere $50,000.

Best wishes,

The ICT Advisory Team

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