What a week!
We are coming to the end of a two year project funded through the British Council. We are working with schools in Greece, Poland, Spain and Turkey on a project titled "Playground Games". So far children and teachers from Moorside have visited Spain, Poland and Turkey - last week was the time for all of our partners to descend on Manchester.
I inadvertently became the lead coordinator of the project when the original coordinator was forced to move schools due to restructuring in his host country. I had never participated in a Comenius project before, never mind led one. It has been a steep learning curve. Leading meetings which are being translated into multiple different languages, catering for several school timetables and expectations, writing a project which was accessible and relevant in each country, and ensuring that the project is catered for within our curriculum.
As part of the project application we collectively wrote a monthly timetable of activities. It has been my responsibility to ensure that the timetable is adhered to. My role over the last month or so has been to plan and prepare for our international visitors. It's been far more time consuming than I first anticipated.
The first step was to write a timetable for the week, booking activities which all can access and ensuring transport to and from for 21 visitors. This was then sent to the partners along with an invitation letter to support visas. We planned for our visitors to spend two days in school. Alongside that we planned for them to visit Manchester United, visit the Mayor of Tameside and go BMX cycling at the Manchester Velodrome indoor track. I also had to find several restaurants which could cater for such numbers whilst bearing in mind that all partners were working to a budget.
Arrival times can cause a logistical challenge. One group arrived a day earlier than our other partners. I booked train tickets for them to visit Liverpool for the day whilst our other partners were travelling. Another group flew into Liverpool, so I booked coach tickets for them to come to Manchester. We collected others from Manchester Airport using a minibus we hired for the week.
Our group had met before on several other visits, so already work together effectively. The most challenging thing for the week was managing a group with diverse interests as well as managing my class. Once I had ensured all was completed for the day and the following day was confirmed it was 10pm each evening - then I could check books and make final preparations for my class the next day. I have slept well this weekend! Added to this we supported our partners by home hosting children from Poland and Spain with a number of teachers.
We were able to take part in a Tesco Online Field Trip through the Eat Happy Project
http://www.eathappyproject.com/resource-hub/online-field-trips/magnificent-milk/
At our meeting we successfully shared the work we had done on the project so far, and discussed our final visit to Greece. It takes a lot out of you to run an international visit, but I am thoroughly enjoying the ride, and am already planning the next application.
Sunday, 25 January 2015
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
#Nurture 1415
Having read a few of the recent #nurture1415 posts I thought it about time I write my own. It has been an eventful year in a number of ways.
Last Year:
1. Last year I moved from Year 1 to Year 3. I have been out of Key Stage 2 for some time, and have thoroughly enjoyed my return. The change of year combined with a new year group partner, and the new curriculum have led me to consider my approaches over the year. I have had the opportunity to experience coaching from a neighbouring Headteacher as part of this process, which has enabled me to grow as a teacher.
2. January was a whirlwind. My husband was taken into hospital after an irregularity in a routine blood test. He spent 15 days in hospital having a wide range of tests, some more worrying than others. He was finally allowed home after no treatment - to this day we think he had had an extreme reaction to a virus. An unfortunate coincidence was that my horse was also ill at the same time. I had owned him for 24 years. For a week I spent my days visiting my husband, the horse three times a day, caring for our two children and working. I had to make the decision to have the horse put to sleep after a week of illness - he was 31 years old.
3. During the Summer term, our school had an Ofsted inspection. We had previously been graded an RI school, and as such approached the inspection with a mix of trepidation and fighting spirit. We were given a judgement of Good by the inspectors. Several factors were highlighted - one being the way our staff as a whole displayed great team work, another being our strong SMSC provision. I am proud to be a part of the staff at Moorside, and the way in which we all responded to the RI judgement from Ofsted. As a team we were determined to prove to the inspectors that we were better than that - to the extent that our HMI now asks us to coach other schools in an RI situation. A large part of the SMSC provision is through our International work, which I am coordinator for. I am glad that I was able to play a part in our positive outcome.
4. Our International work at Moorside has really taken off this year. We are part of an ongoing link with Youfu Primary School in Nanjing, China. This year has seen us host staff and children from Nanjing, and send a group of staff and children to China in February. I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of the trip this year. This was bittersweet as my husband was due to return to hospital for a lymph node biopsy during the trip. Up until the day before we flew I was still not certain I was doing the right thing.
We are also in the middle of a Comenius project funded by the British Council. My husband was due to visit Seville at the start of the year as part of the project but his illness prevented him from attending. However, staff and students from our school have visited partner schools in Spain, Poland and Turkey, with myself attending the Poland meeting.
Our first partnership was with Pelican Park Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa. This developed into a trilateral partnership last year with a new partner school in Namibia. We hosted two visiting teachers in our home in September - which was a delight. My husband and our Headteacher visited Cape Town at the end of October.
At the very end of the year we had two pieces of excellent news. We were awarded British Council/HSBC Link2Learn Primary School of the year for our International Work. The following week we had notification that our application for a new Connecting Classrooms grant with a school in Argentina had been successful.
5. I am also responsible for leading Science at Moorside, and have been through the Primary Science Quality Mark process this year. I have led Science now since September 2013 and was hoping to use the process to develop my understanding. Due in a large part to the commitment of our staff, we were able to achieve the Gold Award in one year. I would highly recommend PSQM as a way to drive Science and deepen understanding.
Goals for next year:
1. Develop our new link with Argentina. Part of my duties this year will be ensuring that our international links are embedded into the curriculum.
2. Delegate! Next year I will be handing over the responsibility for our African links to a colleague in Key Stage 1. After having sole responsibility for all of our grant applications and partnership projects for the last few years, I know I'll find this hard.
3. Be more organised. I'm a plate spinner. I tend to charge around trying to do everything at once (hence the previous point!). During an assembly a few weeks ago, I asked the children to give my desk a mark out of 10 whenever they come to my classroom. I'm going to try to get 10 as often as I can!
4. Prioritise. So that I can focus on my family in the evenings, I aim to get my head down at the end of the school day and take less home.
5. Walk more. My husband made the mistake of saying publicly in his #nurture1415 blog that he wanted to get fitter and get to know the area where we live better. I intend to make sure that he fulfills this aim so that we can both get fitter in 2015.
I haven't even mentioned the fact that I have started using Twitter this year! If you have got this far, thank you for indulging my reflections. My successes this year have been down to the people around me - many thanks to all of them. Roll on 2015 and the new challenges it will bring!
Happy New Year to you all.
Having read a few of the recent #nurture1415 posts I thought it about time I write my own. It has been an eventful year in a number of ways.
Last Year:
1. Last year I moved from Year 1 to Year 3. I have been out of Key Stage 2 for some time, and have thoroughly enjoyed my return. The change of year combined with a new year group partner, and the new curriculum have led me to consider my approaches over the year. I have had the opportunity to experience coaching from a neighbouring Headteacher as part of this process, which has enabled me to grow as a teacher.
2. January was a whirlwind. My husband was taken into hospital after an irregularity in a routine blood test. He spent 15 days in hospital having a wide range of tests, some more worrying than others. He was finally allowed home after no treatment - to this day we think he had had an extreme reaction to a virus. An unfortunate coincidence was that my horse was also ill at the same time. I had owned him for 24 years. For a week I spent my days visiting my husband, the horse three times a day, caring for our two children and working. I had to make the decision to have the horse put to sleep after a week of illness - he was 31 years old.
3. During the Summer term, our school had an Ofsted inspection. We had previously been graded an RI school, and as such approached the inspection with a mix of trepidation and fighting spirit. We were given a judgement of Good by the inspectors. Several factors were highlighted - one being the way our staff as a whole displayed great team work, another being our strong SMSC provision. I am proud to be a part of the staff at Moorside, and the way in which we all responded to the RI judgement from Ofsted. As a team we were determined to prove to the inspectors that we were better than that - to the extent that our HMI now asks us to coach other schools in an RI situation. A large part of the SMSC provision is through our International work, which I am coordinator for. I am glad that I was able to play a part in our positive outcome.
4. Our International work at Moorside has really taken off this year. We are part of an ongoing link with Youfu Primary School in Nanjing, China. This year has seen us host staff and children from Nanjing, and send a group of staff and children to China in February. I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of the trip this year. This was bittersweet as my husband was due to return to hospital for a lymph node biopsy during the trip. Up until the day before we flew I was still not certain I was doing the right thing.
We are also in the middle of a Comenius project funded by the British Council. My husband was due to visit Seville at the start of the year as part of the project but his illness prevented him from attending. However, staff and students from our school have visited partner schools in Spain, Poland and Turkey, with myself attending the Poland meeting.
Our first partnership was with Pelican Park Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa. This developed into a trilateral partnership last year with a new partner school in Namibia. We hosted two visiting teachers in our home in September - which was a delight. My husband and our Headteacher visited Cape Town at the end of October.
At the very end of the year we had two pieces of excellent news. We were awarded British Council/HSBC Link2Learn Primary School of the year for our International Work. The following week we had notification that our application for a new Connecting Classrooms grant with a school in Argentina had been successful.
5. I am also responsible for leading Science at Moorside, and have been through the Primary Science Quality Mark process this year. I have led Science now since September 2013 and was hoping to use the process to develop my understanding. Due in a large part to the commitment of our staff, we were able to achieve the Gold Award in one year. I would highly recommend PSQM as a way to drive Science and deepen understanding.
Goals for next year:
1. Develop our new link with Argentina. Part of my duties this year will be ensuring that our international links are embedded into the curriculum.
2. Delegate! Next year I will be handing over the responsibility for our African links to a colleague in Key Stage 1. After having sole responsibility for all of our grant applications and partnership projects for the last few years, I know I'll find this hard.
3. Be more organised. I'm a plate spinner. I tend to charge around trying to do everything at once (hence the previous point!). During an assembly a few weeks ago, I asked the children to give my desk a mark out of 10 whenever they come to my classroom. I'm going to try to get 10 as often as I can!
4. Prioritise. So that I can focus on my family in the evenings, I aim to get my head down at the end of the school day and take less home.
5. Walk more. My husband made the mistake of saying publicly in his #nurture1415 blog that he wanted to get fitter and get to know the area where we live better. I intend to make sure that he fulfills this aim so that we can both get fitter in 2015.
I haven't even mentioned the fact that I have started using Twitter this year! If you have got this far, thank you for indulging my reflections. My successes this year have been down to the people around me - many thanks to all of them. Roll on 2015 and the new challenges it will bring!
Happy New Year to you all.
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Tesco Eat Happy Project
This week was my first experience of a live connected classroom. We have connected with classrooms worldwide through work exchanges and pupil travel. I have also used Skype with small groups of children, but have never with a whole class.
Through the Tesco Eat Happy Project, we were able to take part in an Online Field Trip to a broccoli farm in Lincolnshire. The project has been developed to encourage children to be more aware of where their food comes from and the processes involved in getting it to their plates.
The first step was to ensure that I had all of the technical set-up required. The online element was run through Google Hangouts and required very little technical skill to operate. There were several dry runs during the run-up to the field trip, and I was expertly guided through the process by members of the Eat Happy team.
The Eat Happy website has lots of resources available for use both before and after the field trip, complete with curriculum links highlighted. The day before the field trip we received a delivery of a range of vegetables for the children to try, along with recipe suggestions. We chose to compare and rate the flavours when the vegetables were raw and cooked.
To prepare us for the field trip, we received a running order which indicated when my class would be required to interact. Children were able to ask Mark the farmer questions during the link. The field trip was presented in a way which would appeal to all Primary aged children.
I would highly recommend staff to sign up for the Tesco Eat Happy Project online field trips. Ours was informative, well-organised and accessible. A fantastic way to introduce class linking and develop children's awareness of food origins.
Go to the page below to sign up for future online field trips:
http://www.eathappyproject.com/
Through the Tesco Eat Happy Project, we were able to take part in an Online Field Trip to a broccoli farm in Lincolnshire. The project has been developed to encourage children to be more aware of where their food comes from and the processes involved in getting it to their plates.
The first step was to ensure that I had all of the technical set-up required. The online element was run through Google Hangouts and required very little technical skill to operate. There were several dry runs during the run-up to the field trip, and I was expertly guided through the process by members of the Eat Happy team.
The Eat Happy website has lots of resources available for use both before and after the field trip, complete with curriculum links highlighted. The day before the field trip we received a delivery of a range of vegetables for the children to try, along with recipe suggestions. We chose to compare and rate the flavours when the vegetables were raw and cooked.
To prepare us for the field trip, we received a running order which indicated when my class would be required to interact. Children were able to ask Mark the farmer questions during the link. The field trip was presented in a way which would appeal to all Primary aged children.
I would highly recommend staff to sign up for the Tesco Eat Happy Project online field trips. Ours was informative, well-organised and accessible. A fantastic way to introduce class linking and develop children's awareness of food origins.
Go to the page below to sign up for future online field trips:
http://www.eathappyproject.com/
Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Getting Global Partners: First Steps with Schools Online.
If you have decided to go ahead and build your school some International Links, the first step is to register with Schools Online, https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/
Once you have registered, you need to write a brief description of your school and the kind of partnerships you are looking for. This is how other schools will find you, so it's best not to make your description too wordy. Here is ours:
Hello from Moorside Primary School, Droylsden, Manchester! LOOKING FOR PARTNERS IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA!! We are an urban school on the outskirts of the City of Manchester, UK. We are a relatively large school and currently have 420 pupils from age 3-11. Moorside Primary is a very forward thinking, happy school where children enjoy and achieve. Over the past 2 years we have had to focus mainly on English and Maths. We now have a particular focus in developing the Art curriculum. We are also trying to get our Eco award, and have recently been awarded the International Schools Award. We are an experienced twinning school with links in Africa, Europe and Asia. We are very excited about learning about a different culture and about sharing ideas. We hope to find partner schools that will help us to bring our curriculum even more alive and share ideas and experiences with us. We are interested in developing ICT links (emailing, video conferencing, etc). We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Make sure you use an email address which you check daily for this, as often schools will send partnership requests to multiple schools. If you don't respond promptly, they will find someone else to work with.
It's also worth regularly re-saving your description, as this will then bump it to the top of the schools list.
When searching for partner schools, be aware that you may send emails to multiple schools and only get a few replies. Don't be disheartened by this - there are so many schools on there, you will find a partner.
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Mystery Skype
Thanks to @MrLTeachesU I have just signed up to Mystery Skype. Below are the instructions sent to me for how to get started. I'm looking forward to trying this with my class in September. I envisage it will encourage geographical discussion and problem solving. I'll update on here when we've tried it.
Almost all the connections were made througheducation.skype.com. Start by signing in with your Skype username, then click on the magnifying glass (do not enter anything in the search field). From there you can search for Skype in the Classroom lessons by subject, age group, etc.
Here are links to some of our favorite Skype in the Classroom lessons:
http://goo.gl/PLb56h (Amazon Rain Forest explorers. 2014 National Geographic Explorers of the Year)
http://goo.gl/DGHxzf (Live from Antarctica)
http://goo.gl/in7lNV (Has designed movie posters, packaging, etc. for Disney, WB, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Nickelodeon. Also designed the back of the California state quarter)
http://goo.gl/A3qiB7 (Teacher in Kibera Slums, Nairobi, Kenya. Largest slums in Africa. Due to the time difference we were only able to Skype with the teacher from his 12'x12' house, but it was live and still very impactful for my students.)
http://goo.gl/Uxf9Og ("Night Zoo Keeper." Story-teller from the UK)
http://goo.gl/IqKJp0 (Fun lesson (with music) on telling time)
Most of our connections were made through "Mystery Skype" sessions.
MYSTERY SKYPE:
In case you are unfamiliar... Mystery Skype is a game played between two classes where the objective is for each class to deduce the location of the other by asking a series of questions.
I've attached a document that pretty much spells out the way we like to run our Mystery Skype sessions when they are live. However, we do not always have the opportunity to do them live due to time zone differences. It's also a good idea to clear the guidelines ahead of time with the teacher so there's no confusion.
When we cannot do them live, we have used Skype's Video Messages (Free, just "right-click" on the person's username and select "Send Video Message"), YouTube using a private link (Called "Unlisted" in preferences), Vimeo, or just recording a video with a cell phone and emailing it directly. Technically this it is no longer a Mystery "Skype" if Skype is not involved, so some like to call them "Mystery Location." However, since we did use Skype for about 90% of ours, I just stuck with the Mystery Skype name.
When we do recordings we follow a different format. For these, we use "Clues." For the Clues format, we give clues about our country. These should not be too easy, but not too difficult either. They should require the person on the other end to do some research, but not extensive. Some examples are: Our country borders 2 oceans. We are the 3rd largest country in the world. We are in the North-Western hemisphere. The puma is a native of our country. Our national bird is the bald eagle. We have a separate list of clues for California as well.
I hope this helps get you started. I did this for the very first time this past school year and we ended up Skyping with people in all 7 continents, 45 different countries, and 18 different states!
Again, please let me know if you have any further questions. I'd be glad to help! And I look forward to Skyping with you and your students in the coming school year!
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Preparing for Autumn Activities.
This week I have been preparing for our visitors from South Africa. We have two teachers from Pelican Park Primary School in Cape Town visiting Moorside. This is a long-standing link for which there have been previous staff travels. In fact, one of the teachers visiting in September has been with us before.One thing to consider when setting up partnerships where travel will be included is hosting. On this occasion both teachers will be staying with me. This is partly because my husband, who also works at Moorside, will be travelling to Pelican Park in October. As a staff we have discussed the fact that hosting will be expected if you are selected to travel to a partner school.
As part of the preparation for hosting, I have this week sent a letter of invitation to support the visa applications. This needs to be done with plenty of notice. Details required are the hosts name and address as well as the purpose of the visit, presented on our school headed paper.
As our African link is a trilateral partnership, also involving a school in Namibia, there will be a number of people to host during the October visit to Cape Town. We have decided as a school to offer to stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation to ease hosting pressures on our partners.
Some grants obtained through the British Council to some countries allow for hotel fees. Some, however, leave little spare to do this. It does give a more real experience if you can stay with a host family. Be sure to take British gifts with you for your hosts.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Shared Experiences
I spent yesterday with another primary school who were hosting visitors from their partner school in China. This link came through a joint visit to China in February. We spent the day taking the 6 pupils and 6 staff to an open farm followed by a country walk and a barbecue. This got me thinking about the value of sharing experiences with neighbouring schools.
The China visit in February involved staff and pupils from 3 North West schools. Through that venture we have been able to build much stronger links with those schools. It has also meant that we can support each other when we are hosting. Possible projects can be discussed with people who know the demands of the UK curriculum, yet can offer a view from outside your own school setting.
Through a local cluster, I have been able to offer support for schools wanting to develop their global links. Over the coming year, my hope is that the Global Learning Programme can build this group of schools and develop a supportive cluster with global education at it's heart.
The China visit in February involved staff and pupils from 3 North West schools. Through that venture we have been able to build much stronger links with those schools. It has also meant that we can support each other when we are hosting. Possible projects can be discussed with people who know the demands of the UK curriculum, yet can offer a view from outside your own school setting.
Through a local cluster, I have been able to offer support for schools wanting to develop their global links. Over the coming year, my hope is that the Global Learning Programme can build this group of schools and develop a supportive cluster with global education at it's heart.
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