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Education
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Free Books For Schools!!
The Times and The Sunday Times popular Books for Schools campaign is back. It offers every school in the country, primary and secondary, the chance to increase the number of books in its library – absolutely free.
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Compulsory Learning Age Raised
Teenagers will continue in education or training until the age of 18 as part of a new law passed this week. The new Education and Skills Act will raise the education leaving age to 17 in 2013 and to 18 from 2015. |
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Whizz.Com
Whizz.com research shows children make their own minds up about their maths ability before they reach the age of nine. This is why placing the blame on weak assessment of pupils by their teachers fails to get to the crux of the problem of why our children are failing at maths early in their academic careers, says Richard Marett, CEO of Whizz.com.
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What's Cooking Kids?
What’s Cooking, Kids? develops the learning of children aged 8 to 11 around healthy food, diet and nutrition and is creating the first-ever network of Community and Young Food Leaders across the North East of England, this scheme offers endless possibilities to engage the local community and to learn skills that will be practical throughout the daily lives of children, while having fun! |
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UK students Overcharged By Tuition Agencies
Students in the UK are being overcharged for private tuition, according to research carried out by thetutorpages.com, a tutor comparison website based in London. ‘Although the private tuition industry is in fact unregulated by government, tuition agencies act as quasi-regulators, and convince parents and students to pay over the odds for their lessons,’ the website states.
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First Lego League comes to Northern Ireland
Secondary schools in Northern Ireland will be using teamwork, research and robots to tackle climate change problems in the First Lego League. The world's biggest interactive robotics challenge takes place in Belfast on 18 November. |
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Save Morrisons vouchers for Schools
Morrisons are arranging for thousands of packets of seeds to be sent to schools taking part in the ‘Let’s Grow’ scheme so that teachers can encourage pupils to have fun with food and start planting. That’s enough free seeds to grow around 1.5 million salad leaf plants for six million salad bowls! |
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Gordon Brown’s Computer Pledge Swaps The Textbook For Facebook
Gordon Brown’s announcement to spend £300 million on computers for low income families will be a waste of money unless they use them properly. That’s according to a leading expert who specialises in online tutoring and educational software currently being used in 3,000 schools across the UK. |
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10 Tips for a Successful School Year
Yes, with the start of another school year your child will be exposed to a new teacher, a new classroom and a whole load of new topics and subjects. After this fresh start, wouldn’t it be nice if there were no hiccups through the autumn and beyond. And as parents, we can reduce the number of stumbling blocks in a number of ways – so we’ve taken a look at a few of them here.
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National Peer Mentoring Anti Bullying Pilot
Primary, secondary and special schools have been selected to be part of a two-year pilot that will look at how peer mentoring can contribute to tackling bullying in schools. On 25th September, The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation who are managing the DCSF funded pilot, will launch the programme with the first of four regional training events for the participating schools.
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Yellow School Bus Report
David Blunkett (chairman of The Yellow School Bus Commission, initially announced in April 2007) takes the next step in a major review of the U.K.’s school transport system. The former Secretary of State for Education and Employment today announces the report with 10 months worth of findings highlighting the benefits and disadvantages of operating a Yellow School Bus transport system within the U.K. |
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PARENTS WANT SCHOOLS TO TEXT ABOUT CHILD'S PROGRESS
Parents would like more feedback from schools about how their children are performing in the classroom. According to a survey by Becta, the Government's education technology agency, over two-thirds of parents would like schools to use technologies such as text messaging and the internet to communicate with them more frequently. Currently, only eight per cent of parents surveyed are kept informed using these methods. |
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Rockford’s Rock Opera
Rockford’s Rock Opera is a unique free audio book – an ecological musical story with songs, clear narration, animated videos and FREE teaching resources. What’s more, it’s now being used by over 4,000 primary schools around the world and is gathering thousands evangelical fans. |
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Extended Schools & Extended Services
A free online guide for parents/carers, plus guidance for schools on producing information leaflets for parents/carers. Did you know that all schools will be extended schools by 2010? |
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Gredi Box
The Ingredients Box for Schools, affectionately nicknamed the ‘Gredi Box’, has been designed to help school children safely take the correct amounts of ingredients they need into cookery lessons, including eggs and fluids such as milk. |
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Dogs Trust
Meet the gang - Rex, Rosie, Zippy, Flick, Muffin and Digger - they all live in Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre, which takes care of them until they find a new home. There you can play ‘Pup Idol’ or create your own unique dog in ‘Muffin’s mix-up.’ And the fun doesn’t stop there! |
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Helping your child through exam time
Children aren’t known for coming forward about their problems. Sometimes it can feel as though they don’t want to talk to you about anything. There are lot of reasons why your child might be bottling things up but a new poll shows that the main reason young people don’t share their worries is embarrassment. |
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Children missing out on Practical Skills at School
British children could be missing out on practical skills they need to make it in the real world. 85% of Brits think kids should be taught more about cooking and baking at school rather than purely focusing on intellectual study |
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Letter Roads TM
5 years ago, Michele Carter-Buxton was fighting an uphill struggle trying to teach the alphabet to her 3 year
old son. One day, whilst he was playing with his cars at her feet, Michele drew him a large ‘S’ shaped “road”,
complete with dotted white lines on a big sheet of paper. Michele watched in amazement as he immediately
began to drive his toy car around the letter. |
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Making science fun
For centuries, Britain has dominated the world of science – particularly medical science. Some of the world’s greatest scientists have been British – think Issac Newton, Alexander Fleming, Joseph Lister, or James Watt. |
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KIDS WITH COLDS BEING SENT TO SCHOOL
Research commissioned by KLEENEX® reveals today that two thirds (66.9%) of mothers in Britain are not worried about sending their children to school with a cold. Worryingly, 35% also believe that it’s a good idea to be exposed to colds as it builds immunity, despite this being a fallacy. |
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THE CHILDREN OF THE PLAYGROUND REVOLUTION
Award winning artists Snug & Outdoor and Sutcliffe Play, one of the leading designers and manufacturers of children’s play equipment, have announced the arrival of ‘Snug’, a revolutionary new concept for school playgrounds. |
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White Ladder Press Book Offer
What every parent should know about Secondary Schools is a new book written by Jane Bidder, Primary Times are able to offer readers a chance to purchase this book at a reduce cost. Click on the link above to find out all the details.
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Kumon is a supplementary education programme, suitable for children of all ages and abilities. Many children start Kumon because they find their school work hard and Kumon provides them with the opportunity to practise and master the aspects they have found difficult at school and hence gain a new confidence in their ability in English and Maths |
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The humble British blackcurrant has been announced this summer as the number one Superfruit which can help fight cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, new findings show. Recent research by Dr Derek Stewart, of the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) has found the blackcurrant contains greater levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than 20 other fruits tested |
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What has made these poems especially useful to children and also to ESL students, is the fact that Josie has added her own clear English voice recording to each of the poems, as children pointed out how useful this was as a tool to help them with reading. |
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Some parent’s wonder why schools set homework – after all, the reason children go to school is to learn isn’t it? Yet, out-of-school-hours learning is considered to be an essential part of a good education. In fact, it’s now regarded as a vital ingredient for academic success |
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People are peering round the smart, ash-veneered door, wide-eyed and curious. In ones and twos they warily sidle into the large room to be greeted by the smartly dressed Caroline and Jane - the two bubbly representatives from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations |
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Helping your child succeed at school
For some children the start of a new school year gives a sense of familiarity and stability, however for others it can be a daunting time, which can bring anxiety. This is particularly true if it is the start of a year that culminates in important exams. Many pupils will feel nervous and pressurised as demands on them increase. |
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Out of School Clubs
With limited options, many parents opt to work part time or take shifts to accommodate the school calendar, but invariably this still means working some of the long school holidays or on the occasional teacher-training day that can throw the family's schedule off balance. Even with this finely tuned juggling act, many parents find that at some stage or other, childcare will need to be sought. |
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Tuition Tips
First, you need to look realistically at your child's potential. There may be a discrepancy between the effort that they put into their work and what they achieve. This may prove frustrating and at this point, they need your support and reassurance. Your efforts will not be in vain though, as with this sympathetic input your child will gain a set of skills and qualifications that they will take with them into adulthood. There are many ways to help your son or daughter focus more on that schoolwork. |
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Back to School
It may seem a little odd to discuss getting the children prepared
for school as soon as summer term comes to a close. After all
there’s six weeks to get everything sorted. But we all know what
it’s like. The summer holidays drift idly by, and suddenly it’s the
last few days of August and we’re battling with a hundred other
Mums and Dads, desperate to get our hands on fresh school uniform
and sourcing all important stationary items and lunch boxes for the
new school year.
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Making Maths Fun in the Home
The interpretation of fun varies enormously depending on age, sex and intelligence but generally speaking the term “Maths” sends many parents fleeing regardless of age, gender, class or race.
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Ireland-specific articles
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The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.
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CESI is Ireland's leading conference addressing ICT and learning. It has a long and proud tradition of highlighting good practice in ICT usage from primary, post-primary and third level teaching settings as well as engendering critical debate on key issues of interest to practitioners in all areas and levels of the Irish education system
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Ocean Adventure Schools Programme |
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The HB Ocean Adventure Schools Programme is a Galway Stopover Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 Legacy Initiative. It introduces teachers and students in primary and secondary schools throughout Ireland to the sport of sailing, the marine environment, Ireland and its history with the sea, a variety of geography lessons and marine careers. Schools Packs are now available for download from http://www.letsdoitschools.com/
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A progressive primary school which teaches all of its 600 pupils sign language as part of the daily curriculum says new technology it initially began using with its 20 deaf pupils two years ago has totally revolutionised the way the entire school learns. |
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RTÉ 1's science show "The Investigators" returns for a second series this Thursday, 7 November, at 11.05pm. The opening programme looks at how Irish scientists are marrying sensors, nanoscience, artificial intelligence and the computing power of the Internet. Find out more about the series here.
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Check out the latest science news, videos, quizzes, friends, polls, skins, calendar and other recent additions on our "I Love Science". Bebo page link.
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Do you have the talent and vision to design and build a model for the Formula 1 cars of the future? If so, you'll be interested in the new season of the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge. Sponsored in Ireland by Honda and supported by Discover Science & Engineering and the Irish Computer Society, F1 in Schools is a global competition in which secondary students design, build and race model CO2-powered Formula 1 cars. |
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The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has said official figures released on 8th September, show government failure to reduce class sizes in primary schools. John Carr, General Secretary of the primary teachers' union, said, “Almost one hundred thousand children remain in classes of thirty pupils or more despite year on year promises to tackle the issue.” Irish primary school classes are the second most over-crowded in the EU.
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In the beginning… there was blackboard and chalk. Then along came whiteboards with marker pens, same idea but neater, and without all that pesky chalk dust. These days, teachers can teach using interactive whiteboards, which as their name suggests, work interactively with a computer and multimedia projector |
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Newly founded Irish publishing house Special Stories Publishing has just released their exciting and unique collection of children’s books, The Special Stories Series. The series, launched in Temple St. Children’s Hospital, comprises 7 full colour picture books for children, parents, teachers and healthcare professionals that address a range of childhood health and social issues; namely Foster Care, Adoption, Limited Mobility/Wheelchair Users, Cleft Palate and Speech Difficulties, Diabetes, Asthma and Childhood Cancer. |
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The Government has admitted it is facing an unprecedented crisis in schools' accommodation as primary pupils numbers are set to top the half-million mark. An internal Department of Education document makes the startling admission that a high proportion of existing school buildings are now in "quite poor condition" after decades of neglect. |
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Whether teacher or parent, if you’re looking for some inspiration online for kids this summer and beyond, you can’t do better than logging onto the TOP 10 SCOILNET sites for the first week of June |
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The Back to School Clothing and Footwear allowance is a special support payment to help parents with meeting the cost of uniforms and footwear for children returning to school.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 scheme |
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A new survey of internet usage in Ireland has given a high rating to the Learning Ireland network – a national courses database featuring evening classes, postgraduate, third-level and corporate training courses available around the country.
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What started fifty years ago with a father’s simple desire to help his son with his maths homework, has today developed into a global network of students. Every hour worldwide, someone somewhere is studying Kumon. |
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Webwise has created practical demonstrations on how to use the web applications that our children our using. Recent additions to www.webwise.ie give demos and step-by-step guide-sheets showing how to configure Bebo and MSN profiles. For more information, visit http://www.webwise.ie/article.aspx?id=7902 |
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This site provides real learning activities for young children. Lessons include letter recognition and letter building, on upper and lower case letters. The number activities include matching both the number and the name of the number with objects. It provides activities not only in English, but also in Spanish, French and German which means it could be used with children beginning to study those languages. For more information, visit http://www.scoilnet.com/article.aspx?id=8385 |
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Through drama, students learn many things- to work in a group, to work alone, to listen, to follow instructions and to use their creativity and imagination, to communicate through thought, action and words. They learn to explore their feelings in a safe and controlled environment. |
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