GENERAL

Welcome back

Welcome back to a new school year. As explained last term, this newsletter is now being emailed to all OCN email ICTC accounts. If you would like to register additional email addresses either for yourself or colleagues (home, webmail, other members of staff) please email the full name and email address to Nick Speller (nick.speller@oxfordshire.gov.uk). The newsletter is still being posted to the usual OCN forum as well so there is an archive of the newsletters available there.

Courses

A general reminder - increasingly our courses give you opportunities to create content that would be very easy for you to save onto a USB memory stick. If you have one, please remember to bring it along to your next course.

Courses for next term

The following courses (taken from the 'pin-me-up' sheet circulated in the latest copy of Ox-On-Line) have places available. If you would like to attend please apply to the Inset section at Cricket Road or online at: http://intranet.oxfordshire.gov.uk/links/intranet/oqsaapply

Tuesday 2 October (first of two days) New ICT Coordinators (KS 1/2) 21/779

Friday 5 October (one day) IWB for Beginners 21/781

Monday 8 October (morning of 1.5 days) Web Authoring with Digital Brain 21/782

Tuesday 9 October (first of three days) Teachers new to ICT (KS3/4) 21/783

Friday 12 October (one day) IWBs for TAs 21/785

Competitions

There are a number of exciting competitions coming up. Look out for the fliers in your school:

· You may want to register an interest in participating in the Lego league Competition - More details below

Looking further ahead:

· National Poetry Day Competition (theme DREAM) 17/09/07 - 12/10/07
· Foundation Stage Christmas Card Competition 29/10/07 - 23/11/07
· Maths Challenge - week beginning 12/11/07

Newsletter Update

Also keep an eye open for newsletter 300 (NEXT WEEK) - as there will be something special to mark number 300!

Caching Servers

A reminder that IF you switched off your school caching server over the summer holidays you will need to switch it back on again to use your internet connection.

PRIMARY

Traded Service

Contact your ICT Consultant if you wish to arrange any ICT traded services for the coming terms. Many of us have already taken bookings up to Christmas - so plan ahead (if it isn't too late) when organising staff training, etc. Also a reminder that some schools still haven't taken up their full entitlement to free Digitalbrain support - if you're in doubt please contact your ICT consultant or Christine Ruane (01865 428034).

Lego League

The time has come to check your mail for the flyer that will be inviting you to apply to take place in the Oxfordshire Lego League. This year's event is being coordinated by Nick Speller. If you would like to find out more about it please read on!

Schools apply to take part in the Lego league (deadline for applications is Friday 5th October). Twelve schools will be selected and invited to the launch (Tuesday 15th January 16:00-17:30) where they will find out more about this year's challenge. There is no cost to the school (apart from supply cover to the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED free training day which will be held on Tuesday 29th January and for the day of the competition itself). Schools are provided with all the parts they need to create a robot and, nearer the time, full kits to create the challenge models and a mat on which to practice. Although there will be plenty of support available from the whole ICT team this project DOES require a lot of hard work and commitment but it is well worth it! Last year's competition was a great success and pupils and staff found the whole competition highly motivating and challenging. The actual league competition will be held on Monday 31st March. Keep your eyes peeled for the mailing with more information!

SECONDARY

DiDA Results

DiDA results summary for Summer 2007, SPB0905 and SPB0906 can be found at:

http://alerts.edexcel.org.uk/go.axd/15593

Best wishes,

The ICT Advisory Team

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