GENERAL

Competitions

· Foundation Stage Christmas Card Competition: This is the last week to get in Christmas cards designed by children in the Foundation Stage. We have had some lovely ones sent in to us so far and we look forward to receiving yours by Friday 17 November!

· Graftas 2006: Many children have been busy directing, filming and editing videos ready to submit to the GRAFTAs competition for this year. The closing date for this competition is Friday 8th December. Please remember to put the school name clearly on the CD. Should you want to see last years entries, please go to http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/graftas2005/index.html

· Poetry Competition 2006: Pupils had to use ICT to write a poem based on the theme of 'Identity'. Once again we were inundated with entries. Entries were masked so that the judges were unaware of the poem's origin.

The winners were as follows:

Courses

The following ICT courses still have places available:

Wed 15 Nov ICT in Music (21/723)

Wed 22 Nov AiDA - Preparing to teach the student brief (21/724)

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

Audio Network Schools License

We are delighted to inform you that an Audio Network Schools License for all Oxfordshire Schools through the National Education Network and Regional Broadband Consortia is now available to Oxfordshire schools through the OCN.

In simple terms you now have access to 3,587 high quality MP3 audio music files that can be used to enhance pupils' work and teachers' lessons. Take as just one simple example the game show clip, Countdown, the clip could be used as a timer on a teacher's quiz or as background to a piece of digital video.

A letter with further details has been sent out to Oxfordshire schools this week, which you should receive shortly. Full details of the license can be found at: http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/audio/ Website: http://audio.lgfl.org.uk/

ThinkQuest Competition (9-19 year olds)

The international ThinkQuest competition is open to teams of students aged between 9 and 19 working in and between schools, nationally and internationally. Each team's aim is to build an educational website which not only reaches the required standards of publication in the ThinkQuest Library, but which may win the team enviable hi-tech prizes and places at the ThinkQuest Live events.

ThinkQuest projects are totally student-led, providing a number of unique opportunities for deep learning and deep experience. Teams are mentored by serving teachers or other adults in a learning resource capacity.

The ThinkQuest UK website provides further information about the competition and enrolment procedures for coaches, teams of students and even would-be judges for the 2007 competition. Or you may prefer to contact the team directly: Glyn Barritt: glyn@ssatrust.org.uk or Althea Lawrence althea.lawrence@ssatrust.org.uk both available also on 020 7802 0750 Website: http://www.thinkquestuk.org.uk/

PRIMARY

Early Start - Talking Big Books CD-Roms MFL

Early Start are able to offer schools the opportunity to buy the first of their Talking Big Book CD-ROM series at a special price. The interactive versions of the "I Can Read" series are read by a native French speaker, and children can have fun joining in with the story. Games and activities can help children begin to read and pronounce new words with confidence, and even try writing their own story!

At the moment the four titles are only available in French, but the Spanish and German editions and six more titles coming soon. The stories are also available as books costing £6.99 each, and there are finger puppet sets to accompany "I want my banana" and "Puppy finds a friend". For more ideas and innovative MFL resources, or to request a catalogue or sample CD, have a look at our website: http://www.earlystart.co.uk

SECONDARY

A- level Music - web stream presentation

The London Symphony Orchestra is undertaking a web stream presentation of the A-level Edexcel syllabus. This is happening on Monday 20 Nov 2006, 2-4pm.

Schools will need to register for the event with the LSO at:

http://discovery.lso.co.uk/alevel/

DiDA Latest

Information about submitting sample e-portfolios for moderation can be found on:

http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/admin/sspm.pdf

Also be aware that the content for the D201 SPB on the website has been amended including the data file.

Best wishes,

The ICT Advisory Team

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