SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Innovate My School has partnered with the Bett Show to back the third Bett Futures. Launched in 2015, Futures brings Bett delegates the most exciting and inspiring edtech startups from across the world. Innovate My School joins BESA, Naace, Edspace Hoxton, The EdTech Exchange and WORLDbytes in getting involved with the future of educational technology. The Bett Show will take place at ExCeL London on 25th-28th January 2017.

Like any self-respecting geeky English teacher, when posed with this question the first thing I did was Google it:

Learning environment specialists Hope Education have released Classroom of the Future, an interactive portal exploring the ways in which schools could embrace pupils’ keen adoption of technology for educational success. The platform guides users around 11 unique features, each one offering more information on the technology and a interesting fact once clicked upon.

Pupils are stressed. The Chief Medical Officer’s Report of 2012 found that:

  • Self-harm rates have increased sharply over the past decade.
  • Peak onset of mental ill health is 8 to 15 years.
  • 10% of children have a mental health issue.

Today’s classrooms are full of students who want to feel special. They want to have personalised interaction with teachers, they want instant access to information, and they want it in a way that is meaningful to them. It’s a millennial thing, a Generation Y thing; and to fully engage these millennials, it’s something schools need to be very mindful of.

Hannah and Sophie sat at the back of the class, heads on the desk, chatting. The rest of the class were working on the brief. Hannah and Sophie were whom I was interested in, labelled and presenting as described: disengaged, badly behaved, badly turned out, but attending school - today. A kind of plus as far as the school was concerned. Myself, by their age, I was not attending. At first they looked indignant and bored in equal measure. Who was this old guy interrupting their conversation? I endeavoured to engage them. They looked irritated. I changed track “Did you see Skins last night?” They engaged. “Who was with who?” “Hey, do you reckon that Cassie will get off with Thomas....?”

The White Rose Maths Hub announced on 29th April that it has licensed three Teaching School Alliances to deliver its popular Bar Modelling twilight training. This new alliance will meet the growing appetite for the Hub’s training, which helps teachers to deliver Maths education more effectively.

Often, after a public show, a kind member of the audience will come up and tell me that I could be a teacher. While to them this is a compliment, this runs headfirst into one of my pet peeves. No, I could not just be a teacher. Of course I perform for (and sometimes direct) children and young people, and my shows have an educational leaning, but that doesn’t mean that I could walk into a classroom tomorrow and be a teacher. It is a basic misunderstanding, and to my mind, slight lack of respect for, the amount of time, training and on the job learning that makes for a good teacher.

Saturday 21st May will see teachers, school leaders and education product developers head to Leicester’s De Montfort University to plan a research and development strategy. The MirandaNet iCatalyst workshop is an opportunity for teachers, leaders, researchers and MirandaNet associates to work together on professional development strategies to implement innovation in teaching and learning and improve achievement. It will be held at the University’s Innovation Centre from 10:30 - 17:00, with tickets priced at £57.90 per attendee.

Seven female STEM-studiers from Rushcliffe School in Nottinghamshire recently undertook a trip to a German eco village which generates 500% more energy than it requires. The two-week study trip to Wildpoldsried in Bavaria was organised by Sasie, a Nottingham-based renewable energy company, in a bid to promote female talent in engineering and science and get more young women into STEM-oriented careers.

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