GENERAL

Competitions

Don't forget that the ICT Team are running 3 fantastic competitions this term for the pupils in your school, which are detailed below. We really enjoy the challenging task of judging all the entries and viewing the high standard of ICT that is taking place across the county. We look forward to a record amount of entries again this year. Good Luck!

· National Poetry Day Competition - LAST WEEK so get your applications in as soon as possible!

Website link to flier: http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/poetryday06/index.html

· Foundation Stage Competition

Website link to flier: http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/christmascard/index.html

· GRAFTAs 2006

Website link to flier: http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/graftas2006/index.html

Courses

The following ICT courses still have places available:

· Creating Interactive Content with Digitalbrain - Tuesday 17 October, 9.30-3.30 (21/707)

Apply to the Inset section at Cricket Road or online at http://intranet.oxfordshire.gov.uk/links/intranet/oqsaapply

Area ICT Meetings

A reminder that the Area ICT Meetings will be held in the week after the October break. These meetings are for any teacher with an interest in ICT and are held in local areas. The agenda is varied but will include such items as the latest ICT competitions, the upcoming Maths Challenge, Digitalbrain issues including the launch of the Cricket Road School portal which is an exemplar school portal colleagues may find useful for ideas of ways their own school portal could be developed. The meetings will be held at the following venues from 4.00 to no later than 5.30:

Tuesday 31 October - The Blake Primary School, Witney

Wednesday 1 November - Cricket Road Centre ICT Suite

Wednesday 1 November - Harriers Ground Primary School, Banbury

Thursday 2 November - Sonning Common Primary School

Thursday 2 November - Bicester Community College

The meetings also provide an opportunity for teachers to raise matters of concern and, at the very least, to get together with like-minded colleagues interested in making the best use of ICT in learning and teaching. There is no fee for attending these meetings but please let us know if you will be coming for photocopying numbers.

ECO Quiet PC

ECO PCs have been developed by RM in direct response from schools wanting to be more eco friendly. This could be a winner for both schools and the environment! Schools will save on electricity bills and the environment will have less carbon emissions pumped into the atmosphere. The ECO PC solution can be based on RM One's, or the more traditional range of PCs & flat panel monitors. These PCs can save around 66% of electricity usage when compared with a regular desktop machine. For more information on the ECO PC please follow the link below.

http://www.rm.com/Primary/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD608213&SrcURL=/Primary/Default.asp

PRIMARY

Interactive Maths Challenge

The ICT Team, working in collaboration with the Maths Team, will be promoting an interactive Maths Challenge during early November. Aimed at pupils in Key Stage 2, the challenge will be accessed through a dedicated Digitalbrain community and will present pupils with a number of challenges over a one-week period. A major corporate sponsor has agreed to provide prizes for the winners of the challenge so mark the dates Thursday 9th November to Monday 20th November in your diary.

More details will follow in due course but if you think you would like to take part you will need to get your pupils logged in to Digitalbrain so that they can be added to the Maths Challenge Community in time for the competition.

I-Board

I-Board generate interactive resources for teachers to model concepts and for pupils to try out ideas and develop understanding. They believe that ICT is for more than just closed, "question and answer" activities and aim to make every activity creative, controllable or challenging.

Schools interested in accessing the latest topic:

· Subscribing schools - it's live now!
· Non-subscribers - http://www.iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree

For further information or to comment please e-mail at steve@iboard.co.uk or see the i-Board website http://www.iboard.co.uk

Study Skills

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/studyskills/index.asp Learning and Teaching Scotland has launched a new resource for students aged 5-18. The Study Skills website provides a range of interactive materials designed to help students improve their learning and acquire important skills that can be applied in a number of learning situations. It is arranged into three age groups - 5-9, 10-14 and 15-18, with activities to improve skills in reading, writing, remembering, revising, note-taking, and critical and analytical thinking.

SECONDARY

Reminder

Just a reminder to heads of department that our first inset for teachers new to ICT takes place on Wednesday18th October. This first session (there are three across the year in all) is aimed at informing new teachers to equip them with the understanding needed to confidently deliver ICT at KS3 (and KS4 if required)

· Teachers New to ICT - Wednesday 18 October, Tuesday 5th December, Thursday 22nd March (3days), 9.30-3.30 (21/708)

Best wishes,

The ICT Advisory Team

Back to Index