Ensuring your branch library or department is running effectively and efficiently requires an understanding of the many varied aspects that defines a senior library / information assistant’s role.
This two-day advanced course will equip participants with the essential skills for running branch or departmental libraries.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme is of interest to staff who are running branch libraries / departments, who are supervising staff and have financial and stock selection responsibilities, as well as facilities management and those dealing with more complex enquiries.
Special note: this course is NOT suitable for those who have participated in the Essential Skills for Library and Information Staff programme.
Kathy Roddy
Kathy is a qualified librarian and information manager with considerable experience of working in public, academic and specialist libraries. For the past ten years she has been a freelance trainer and consultant specialising in the LIS field.
Sample programme
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
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The Ewart Room is our Members’ Lounge, located on the ground floor. It is mainly used for lunches and refreshments but also provides a great space for receptions and networking events.
If you would like to make a booking, discuss room or equipment hire please contact: roombookings@cilip.org.uk; telephone: 020 7255 0500.
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The Farradane Room is suitable for groups of between 16 and 32 depending on the room layout. It is situated on the second floor and is air-conditioned.
| Style | Capacity |
| Boardroom | 24 |
| U-shaped | 18 |
| Theatre/Lecture | 32 |
| Horseshoe | 20 |
| Workshop | 16 |
If you would like to make a booking, discuss room or equipment hire please contact: roombookings@cilip.org.uk; telephone: 020 7255 0500.
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Ideally suited for training purposes, the Lorna Paulin Room is equipped with 11 PCs. Named in honour of Lorna Paulin, the first woman President of the Library Association, this room is located on the 2nd floor and is air-conditioned and double glazed.
| Style | Capacity |
| Boardroom | 24 |
| U-Shaped | 18 |
| Theatre/Lecture | 28 |
| Horseshoe | 28 |
| Workshop | 24 |
If you would like to make a booking, discuss room or equipment hire please contact: roombookings@cilip.org.uk; telephone: 020 7255 0500.
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Located on the first floor, the Charter Suite is air-conditioned and double glazed. It is ideal for larger group events and can accommodate up to 100 people in a theatre/lecture style set-up. The Charter Suite can also be split into two smaller rooms - Charter East and Charter West.
| Style | Charter Suite | East | West |
| Boardroom | 58 | 36 | 26 |
| U-shaped | 52 | 28 | 20 |
| Theatre/Lecture | 100 | 55 | 32 |
| Horseshoe | 32 | 32 | 20 |
| Workshop | 24 | 24 | 16 |
If you would like to make a booking, discuss room or equipment hire please contact: roombookings@cilip.org.uk; telephone: 020 7255 0500.
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Welcome
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) has its London offices at 7 Ridgmount Street in Bloomsbury. Situated in a well-connected location off the newly refurbished Store Street, between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street, CILIP has a number of rooms providing space for meetings, training and larger scale events. The rooms are available for half or full day hire to our branches and groups, individual members and others.
Our Rooms
If you would like to make a booking, discuss room or equipment hire please contact: roombookings@cilip.org.uk; telephone: 020 7255 0500.
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This course is designed for anybody working in a school library who does not have a professional qualification in librarianship.
The course will give a general introduction to the role of library staff in a school context.
By the end of the course, participants will have:
This course is appropriate for library assistants, support staff, teachers and those considering undertaking a formal qualification in library and information management.
Kathy Roddy
Kathy Roddy is a qualified librarian with experience of working in public, academic and specialist libraries. She also worked for a time with the school library service in a London Authority. She has been delivering training through CILIP for over ten years
Sample programme
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
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This two-day programme covers the key skills needed when working in a library and information service
By the end of the course delegates will have:
This programme will be helpful for staff who are new to library or information work, or anyone returning to library and information work in the organisation after a career break who would benefit from a refresher course.
The course is also suitable for those who need to set up a library from scratch or who have information / library management as a part of a broader administrative role.
Please note that this course is NOT suitable for anyone with, or studying for, a professional library qualification.
Kathy Roddy
Kathy is a qualified librarian and information manager with considerable experience of working in public, academic and specialist libraries. For the past ten years she has been a freelance trainer and consultant specialising in the LIS field.
Sample programme
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
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In the week of the winter solstice the Guardian Teacher Network's resources will enable pupils to explore the science behind this festival and understand the movements of the sun, moon and Earth
The winter solstice on Wednesday marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, but do pupils understand why it happens? The Guardian Teacher Network has lots of useful resources to help you explore the science behind one of the oldest winter festivals in the world.
Earth, moon and sun is a whiteboard resource for KS2 that illustrates why sunrise and sunset times change throughout the year. Pupils can watch an animation of the Earth as it orbits the sun. This allows them to see how the tilt of the Earth on its axis has an effect on the hours of daylight. The resource includes an animation of how night and day occur, and another explaining the phases of the moon.
This week, a new moon occurs on 24 December, and KS3 pupils can explore this further with the interactive science lesson Phases of the moon. Diagrams are used to illustrate how the moon appears to change in shape as it orbits the Earth, and a drag and drop activity allows pupils to test their understanding of terms such as "waxing gibbous" and "last crescent". By the end of the activity, students should be able to recognise the phases of the moon and explain how each phase is formed. The lesson also covers the role of the moon in religions such as Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
There are lots more interesting facts about the moon in the Education Guardian article Sunshine and cheese (http://teachers.guardian.co.uk/teacher-resources/3188/Moon). The piece is useful for reading comprehension tasks, and pupils can find out about superstitions surrounding the moon and the origins of the word 'lunatic'. There are also instructions for how to play the Moon Game — a test of pupils' powers of observation — and details of how to make a moon-themed greetings card.
Earth, sun and moon is a science resource for KS2 with two main activities – one exploring how our hours of daylight change as the Earth orbits the sun, and the other explaining the phases of the moon. Pupils will learn that the Earth orbits the sun once each year, and that the moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. The resource pack includes teacher's notes and handy photographs of the Earth, sun and moon.
The phases of the moon are also covered in the KS2 resource pack All about planets . Animations and activities perfect for use on a whiteboard demonstrate how the moon orbits the Earth, how the Earth spins on its own axis, and how day and night are related to the Earth's rotation. The lesson pack includes a worksheet about the phases of the moon with illustrations that pupils have to cut out and place in the correct order.
The Guardian Teacher Network has nearly 100,000 pages of lesson plans and interactive materials. To see and share for yourself go to teachers.guardian.co.uk. There are also hundreds of jobs on the site and schools can advertise for free http://schoolsjobs.guardian.co.uk.
Schools around the country are facing enforced conversion to academy status – against the wishes of parents, staff and governors
On a sunny winter's afternoon, Downhills primary school looks like an advert for the inclusive possibilities of inner-city, multi-ethnic education.
Children of different races are running around together in the playground; inside the walls are covered with colourful artwork. The head, Leslie Church, talks about one of the school's strengths: giving each child in this deprived area of north London – just a few hundred yards from the starting point of August's riots – access to free violin, cello or guitar lessons in year 4.
The school, which has been through difficulties in the last year despite the overwhelmingly happy exterior, might in other times be cheering itself with news in September from inspectors that it is improving.
Instead, this 463-pupil institution in Tottenham is now seemingly on the front line of a struggle for the future of England's primary schools.
Downhills is facing being forced by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to become a privately sponsored academy, despite fierce opposition from parents, the governing body and staff.
Last Thursday, David Lammy, the local MP, who was a pupil here, accused Gove of an "undemocratic and aggressive" act, which threatened to erase 100 years of local democratic control at the school, founded in the late 19th century, at a stroke.
Lammy is now collecting signatures for a petition to present to the House of Commons against the plans, while the school is exploring its legal options.
Yet Downhills, which is in this position because the government says its English and maths test results are not good enough, is not alone.
Hundreds of primary schools seem to be facing the threat of mandatory conversion to academies under external sponsorship, with Downhills a high-profile test of the new and seemingly unfettered ability of the education secretary to enforce his vision of a new model of governance, even when all those closely connected to this school say they do not want it. Critics say Gove is simply forcing through an agenda of privatisation, in a trend with implications for many, if not all, of England's schools.
Although Downhills draws in some middle-class families attracted to its inclusive, creative ethos, it also has a very challenging intake. Some 46% of its children are eligible for free school meals, while for 73%, their first language is not English. Downhills is also said to have a large population of Gypsy Roma children, who nationally have the lowest results of any ethnic group.
When Ofsted visited in January, 92% of parents returning questionnaires agreed with the statement "I am happy with my child's experience at this school".
Despite this, since that inspection Downhills has been on a "notice to improve" from the inspectorate because of its test results. These had one particularly bad year in 2009, when only 40% of pupils achieved the expected level in English and maths.
In September, however, when inspectors returned, they reported that Downhills was improving. Schools are usually given 12 to 18 months to turn themselves around under this Ofsted process.
But now the school faces a different future. Downhills is particularly vulnerable because Gove has powers, under an act he hastened through parliament last year, to force into academy status any school that is said by Ofsted to need "special measures" or that has a notice to improve.
Academies are schools set up under a private contract between Gove and a sponsor: usually either another school or a privately run, though currently non-profit-making, academy chain.
Gove's officials and Haringey, the local authority, have been in discussions since July. Letters between the two show the Department for Education pushing for 10 of the borough's primaries to convert to sponsored academies.
Downhills' position became clear after a meeting two weeks ago between governors and two DfE representatives, including Jacky Griffin, a former council education director now working as a consultant. Education Guardian has heard a recording of the meeting.
Griffin told the group: "What I'd particularly like to focus on today is whether the course of action of becoming a sponsored academy is one that you would like to take with us … or whether we have to take back the message that that's not what you want to do, and see what happens as a consequence of that."
This was followed by a letter four days later from Lord Hill, schools minister, who said that Gove was "minded" to make an academy order – forcing academy status on Downhills – and to use powers granted to the government under Labour to appoint a new governing body.
He said the school had been "below the [KS2 results] floor standard" for five years, even though Downhills' latest figures, published three days after the letter was sent, see it just above floor target – with 61% of children reaching expected levels in English and maths – and faring better than the national average with disadvantaged children.
But Hill asked the governors to write back by 13 January setting out how they would pass a resolution to become an academy, "with a named sponsor agreed with the DfE". Griffin said the school was expected to become an academy in September.
The process was "brutal", says one source at the school. Church himself says he was in tears on first learning of the school's fate; governors were also said to be sobbing following Hill's letter. Gove, it is said, has never visited the school.
Other schools are in Downhills' position. In June it was revealed that 377 civil servants are working on promoting and implementing the academies policy, at a cost of £4.3m. Officials working for Gove and Liz Sidwell, the schools commissioner, have been touring England in recent weeks talking to local authorities and governing bodies about how schools with low Sats results must become academies by September.
Haringey is one of nine local authorities where these officials have been pushing hardest for more sponsored primary academies. The others are: Kent, Birmingham, Essex, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Leeds, Bristol and Durham.
In Haringey alone, at least three other schools have been given an ultimatum: agree to sponsored academy status by mid-January, or we will force it on you.
The National Association of Head Teachers says that, nationally, at least 200 primaries with low results – lower than Downhills' – are already being moved towards sponsored academy status. But the final number is likely to be much larger; the NAHT says most authorities are coming under pressure in some way, in both primary and secondary sectors.
One head of a secondary school that is in the process of converting to a sponsored academy says: "A senior local authority official came to see me a few months ago. He said: 'Are you thinking of becoming an academy? Because you need to. The DfE are looking at your results. You will become a converter [sponsored] academy.' We were given no option."
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, says: "This is a major political attack on state education. This is not schools opting for academy status; this is the government forcing schools away from local authority influence into the arms of external sponsors. It is hugely undemocratic.
"It is the forced privatisation of our schools. People have not woken up to what is happening to our education system."
Back at Downhills, what most enrages parents queuing up to speak to Education Guardian is the lack of say anyone connected to the school seems to have in its future. Several say they chose the school because of that creative, happy ethos and how wrong it was that this could change, if a sponsor came in, with a different, possibly more narrowly results-focused, approach.
Elsa Dechaux, a research scientist whose son Oscar, four, is in reception at the school, says: "I visited all the schools around here, and this is the one I chose, because of the teachers' enthusiasm. I want my children to be happy to learn. I don't want them to be little robots, doing only English and maths."
Sarah Williams, a musician with children aged eight and 10 at Downhills, says: "I only moved them here in September, specifically because I love it here; they don't just teach to the test.
"I thought the Conservative party was supposed to give parents choices. I have made my democratic choice, and now it is being taken away from me."
James Redwood, whose four-year-old son, Arthur, is in reception, says: "I'm a composer, and I visit a lot of schools. This is a fantastic, happy place. It is the end of state education if they can do what they are doing to a place like this."
Schools should be rewarded for getting the best out of all their pupils, argues Mike Baker, whatever grades they make
Have you adopted the brace position for next month's secondary school league tables? After last year's introduction of the controversial Ebacc measure, more change is on the way. So, more turbulence is likely.
But how helpful will the new tables be for parents as they choose between local schools? And, equally important in the current climate of concern over exam cheating, will the changes stop the game-playing that is encouraged by the current tables?
The 2011 tables will abandon the contextual value-added measure, which attempted to take account of social factors that shaped performance. The government says this was "difficult for the public to understand". Instead, there will be new measures showing the progress pupils have made and a "narrowing the gap" measure that compares the exam performance of pupils on free school meals with others.
Yet, for all the chopping and changing, the government will continue to headline what the education secretary, Michael Gove, says is the "key performance measure", namely the number of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades including maths and English.
Ministers appear to persist in prioritising this measure, despite recent criticism from the chairman of the education select committee, Tory MP Graham Stuart. He believes it has "contributed to gaming" as schools target pupils who are on the borderline of C/D grades, at the expense of the lowest-performing students.
Stuart has a point and, coming from that quarter, this criticism cannot be dismissed conveniently as defensiveness on the part of schools or teachers. Commenting on the recent allegations of exam board cheating, in which it was suggested teachers had been given undue guidance on future exams, Stuart said this showed how the current accountability system "will drive and distort behaviour and lead to unintended and unwished-for results".
He has urged the government to come up with "a better measure". But if contextual value added has been rejected as too complex, what might that "better measure" be? One interesting suggestion was offered by Rebecca Allen and Simon Burgess in a paper published last year entitled Can School League Tables Help Parents Choose Schools?
Allen and Burgess devised a measure that gives parents the "expected GCSE performance for a child of similar ability to theirs" for all schools in the local area. Because it is reported in terms of average GCSE grades, rather than points, they argue that it is "relatively simple" for parents to interpret.
An important advantage of their proposed measure is that it militates against schools focusing their efforts on pupils at the C/D threshold. It is based on the best eight GCSE subject grades for pupils at three different points in the ability distribution: those who scored at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles in their key stage 2 tests at the end of primary school.
A further advantage is that it should be more useful in helping parents to choose schools because it works better as a predictor of their own child's likely exam grades if they attend a particular school. This would help to dispense with the misleading idea that there is somehow a "best school" when it is much more a question of which is the "right school".
No doubt some will still regard this proposed measure as more complex than the current five A*-C measure. Certainly, it does not lend itself to a simple football-style league table. But maybe it is all the better for that, since the current measure is misleading if parents believe it will tell them what their own child is likely to achieve at a particular school.
Of course, there are some who argue that all league tables, however sophisticated, will distort the behaviour of schools so long as such high stakes are attached to them. I increasingly sympathise with this view. After all, we need to worry when heads are saying, as one told the select committee recently, that "examination has overtaken teaching".
But, for now, I see little prospect of the genie of school choice (however illusory) being put back into the bottle. So rather than just creating additional, but peripheral, accountability measures, the government should take the bold step of replacing the headline five A*-C measure with something that rewards schools for getting the best out of all pupils, wherever they are on the ability spectrum.
• www.mikebakereducation.co.uk
Why are sports personalities all men? Plus, a proposed free school hops boroughs, and a season of ill will at the London College of Communications
Stopwatch at the ready
The all-male shortlist for this year's BBC Sports Personality of The Year met with outrage earlier this month. But the news came as no surprise to one academic, who after studying the awards ceremony for a decade has become something of an anorak on the subject. Dr Elizabeth Pike settles down to watch the show each year with a stopwatch, totting up how much screen time is devoted to men and women and then logging her findings on to spreadsheets.
Pike, who is head of sport development and management at the University of Chichester, says women's sports get 10% of the screen time, and when the camera pans to the audience for close-ups, more than 70% of the shots are of men. "The year Andrew Flintoff got [the award] ahead of Ellen MacArthur was particularly galling," Pike recalls. "The English cricket team had won the Ashes, but Flintoff rolled around drunk afterwards. Meanwhile, MacArthur had sailed around the world single-handed."
Pike has written to the BBC to share her evidence and awaits a reply. When this year's show airs this week, she will be glued to the screen, stopwatch in hand. "I'll be interested to see whether there's any attempt to explain the all-male line-up. I'm not getting my hopes up."
Birbalsingh spreads her wings
In October, we brought news that ex-deputy headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh was struggling to find a site for her free school, due to open next September. Having found out that the building she had her eye on - the Lilian Baylis school - was due to be sold off to developers by Lambeth council, Birbalsingh had been trying to galvanise support from locals to find a site.
But now it emerges that Birbalsingh's school could be located in Tooting, in the borough of Wandsworth. And while parents in Wandsworth may be delighted, residents of Lambeth – which had around 400 more applications for school places than were available last year – may not be quite so thrilled.
The academy is one of 63 free schools recently approved by the government. As part of the application process, proposers must demonstrate local demand from parents.
So in moving her school to another borough, can Birbalsingh still claim to be meeting demand? A Department for Education spokesperson said local demand was one of several criteria, "not the top or only one". "The Michaela school drew on demand across a fairly wide area of south London. Although the initial site was in Lambeth this wasn't essential to the proposal. They will consult local parents and others should that prove to be the final site." Birbalsingh says: "The site is close to the boundaries of both Lambeth and Merton, which widens access. We hope the school will have a multicultural intake and a multi-borough intake."
Failure to communicate
Seasonal goodwill seems thin at the London College of Communication, and, um, communications seem to have broken down. The press office has been strangely incommunicado of late, with inquiries diverted to the head of college, Sandra Kemp. Now it has emerged that the head of communications, Gillian Radcliffe, has left, escorted from the building after an apparent bust-up with her boss.
In her leaked resignation letter, Radcliffe claims she was subjected to "irrational criticism" and questions about her integrity after she raised concerns to Kemp about her management style. "It has become clear that you now view me in the same negative light as you do countless other decent and dedicated colleagues," Radcliffe wrote.
A spokeswoman for the University of the Arts London, of which LCC is part, said it was "saddened by the tone and content" of the letter. The University and College Union says Radcliffe's departure brings to 19 the number of senior managers to have left since Kemp's appointment in 2008. It says five were sacked, nine resigned under duress and five left through redundancy. The university spokeswoman said restructuring had led to redundancies. The institution had "robust" grievance procedures. "It would be inappropriate to comment on individual members of staff," she added.
David Eastwood reflects on a very political year in higher education, and suggests which direction policy might take in 2012
Bismarck once remarked that there were two processes one shouldn't observe: the making of sausages and the making of laws. He meant, of course, that close observation would lead to disaffection, so both were best left to more-or-less skilful butchery behind closed doors.
Actually, good sausages are rather a good metaphor for good laws. Use plenty of high-quality policy meat, resist the temptation to throw in off-cuts from previous initiatives, avoid bulking up with indigestible technicalities, and use ideological seasoning to draw out flavour rather than obscure bad taste.
Higher education policy used to be developed off-stage, with university leaders, mandarins and ministers locked in serious, often fierce, but apparently seemly debate – a bit like a game of croquet, really. The process might be leavened by the odd white paper, occasionally simmered in a Royal Commission, and legislation would finally pass, on the rare occasion it was necessary, without parliamentary debate boiling over.
Contrast the last 12 months: some debate contrived, some real, some ideologically synthetic, some evanescent, but all searingly public.
Higher education policy has been mired in the deep fissures within the coalition, a victim of the opposition's veering between tactical point-scoring and strategic repositioning, and beset by an unusual distance between what is said freely, but confidentially, in private and what is deemed expedient to admit in public.
There has never been a more contested environment in which to make higher education policy. From the 1960s there had been a broad consensus that higher education should expand. This was there in reports by Robbins, Baker and Dearing. There has been a similar consensus over the last two decades, sometimes sotto voce, sometimes avowed, that students should contribute more and the taxpayer less to the cost of higher education.
That consensus held through Baker, Dearing, Blunkett, Clarke, the 2003 white paper, the 2004 Act, and into the establishment of the Browne review on higher education funding. Make no mistake, both political sides committed before the election to legislating Browne. The "Days of May" changed everything. Higher education was at the heart of a fiercely contested new politics.
With this, the verities of two generations were gone; higher education politics literally and metaphorically took to the streets. The coalition agreement, which specifically sought to address the issue of party differences on higher education, creaked, groaned (very loudly) and didn't deliver what was intended.
Many made noise, some made trouble, and a few, sometimes too few, sought to make workable policy – notably, and laudably, the minister for higher education, David Willetts, and, in more circumspect ways, some of his predecessors.
In one paradoxical sense, the Browne report didn't help. Many thought they knew what Browne would say, and built their reading of Browne on scraps of misrepresentation and half-truths, and then rushed to comment. Thus the debate on Browne was overlaid by a dissonant descant of misunderstanding.
Then, belatedly, people read Browne itself and were disconcerted by what they found. They found a coherent vision of a student-centred system: an ingenious balancing of the right to set fees and the obligation to share risk, which would have constrained fee levels far more effectively than a crude cap; and a system for financial aid that would have been much simpler and better-targeted than anything else on offer.
I have now lost count of the number of people who have told me, quietly, that "Of course, Browne was right" or that their policy prescriptions were designed "To get back to Browne".
Of course there are those who repudiate Browne, some because they want a wholly publicly-funded system, some because they believe that those who don't benefit from higher education should still bear a disproportionate cost in supporting those who do, some because they believe in social mobility and genuinely hold that this can only be achieved by wholly public means, some because they want a system where the interests of institutions win out when they come into tension with those of the students, and some because they are convinced that Browne wouldn't work.
Crucially, and sadly, the debate focused toxically on fees. Fees were never the real issue: financial aid was and is. Browne's initial proposals, and the government's subsequent legislation, has ensured mass higher education, and is affordable both to the public and to the student. There are no up-front fees, and repayments are proportionate to income, which is a proxy of sorts for personal benefit. This will balance access and public and private benefit. To make access real, financial aid (and please let's start using that term, not paternalistic English circumlocutions such as bursaries), is critical.
Sadly, the concentration on the fee issue has actually reduced financial aid and thus real support to poor students. Revision of access agreements has sought to reduce headline fees by diminishing financial aid. Liam Burns, the NUS president, has rightly expressed his reservations, and like many well-informed observers, now understands that financial aid is the key issue.
The "core/margin" idea, in which universities charging less than £7,500 can bid for 20,000 students, coupled with freedom for universities to recruit as many students as they like with AAB grades in their A-levels, has introduced rebarbative new jargon into our discourse. It, too, is an example of working towards Browne, but in a way that is much more clunky. It will enhance choice for some applicants, but not all, and has brought some discipline into pricing, but not yet enough. The only way forward is for a rapid move towards substantial further deregulation of numbers control.
Browne's emphasis on student choice and proportional regulation as drivers of quality is now partially accepted. Some still exaggerate fears of market failure to propose excessive interference by regulators. Hefce's emergence as the "principal regulator" is welcome, but there remains an increasingly outdated view that one-size-fits-all regulation is appropriate for a massively diversified sector.
As we look ahead to 2012, I propose a neo-Bismarckian solution. Let's attend again to sausage-making in higher education. The high-quality meat is an emphasis on appropriate financial aid, promoting access, properly linking quality and price, and getting the regulatory framework right. The discarded off-cuts will be outdated funding streams such as Hefce's widening participation premium, which should now be superseded by all institutions' financial aid commitments in their access agreements. The fund should be repurposed to support stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, which are teetering on a new crisis. And the seasoning should be left to those who really care about and understand higher education, rather than those who wish to use policy debates for other, generally transient, and often less noble purposes. Higher education is truly too important to be left to the ideologues.
• Professor David Eastwood is vice-chancellor of Birmingham University and former head of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Eastwood was a member of the panel that produced the Browne review on higher education funding.
• This article was amended on 20 December 2011 to clarify the explanation of the "core/margin" idea. This article was further amended on 22 December 2011 to clarify that Eastwood was a member of the panel who produced the Browne report, which was a review of higher education funding and student finance.
Demand is soaring for short courses, from drumming to shoe-making, among people seeking a portfolio career – and it's good news for colleges and universities
Sue Baughan spent a week of this summer decamped to London to learn how to shape patterns on leather. The summer before that, it was sandal-making, and the one prior to that was spent making boots. By day, the 39-year-old from Boddington in Northamptonshire works full-time as a team co-ordinator for an environmental organisation. But in her evenings, holidays and weekends, thanks to that bevy of short courses, Baughan works on shoe-making. She's part of the new breed of Britons aspiring for a portfolio career using different skills to earn money – either at the same time or across a working life – and the country's higher education institutions are reaping the benefits.
Demand for short courses in subjects ranging from African drumming to accountancy via French and family history is soaring.
"Initially, I enrolled on a short course because I wanted a pair of fitted knee-length boots and had difficulty finding any to fit, so I thought I would try making some," Baughan explains. "I enjoyed the boot-making course so much that I decided to carry on learning about shoe-making and working with leather. The more I'm learning, the more I think I would like to change my career in the long term."
Baughan believes the current economic climate means it's a "good idea to have a variety of skills in different areas – it should make you more employable". She's now making shoes for her friends and family, signing up to more London College of Fashion short courses and setting up a workshop at her home. "In the long term, I hope to have enough skills and experience to start my own bespoke shoe-making business," she says.
Baughan is not alone. The LCF reports a burst of interest in short courses from portfolio careerists: from the 400 it ran two years ago, there are now more than 450, on subjects ranging from bridalwear to PR. The number of enrolled students has grown about 6% in the same timeframe, to 5,300 students this year. "The current working environment means far more people are signing up for short courses to invest in themselves," explains Linda Roberts, senior business manager for short courses at LCF. "When the crunch hit a few years ago, students began telling tutors they wanted to take more control over their lives and didn't want to be at the mercy of their employers. They wanted extra skills and resources up their sleeve to help stay financially afloat. That sense has only grown since then."
That was the reason Natalie James, 33, spent £800 and nine weeks' worth of Wednesday evenings learning fashion and editorial makeup at LCF. She had a full-time job in advertising, but was keen to expand her career. "Thousands of people were losing their jobs every day, with many looking at ways to transfer their skills," James explains. Since completing the course she has built up a portfolio of makeup work and established contacts in the industry; she is now combining advertising with teaching her own makeup lessons, and planning to launch her own consultancy.
It's not just creative subjects that are growing in popularity: so, too, are marketing and commercial courses, as hobbyists look to commercialise their skills. "We've seen a surge in demand for business-related courses from people who are already working on crafts and who want to start selling their products online and running a business in the evenings and weekends," says Roberts. "Seminars in online retailing, e-commerce and social media marketing are really popular."
Meanwhile, tutors at Anglia Ruskin report strong interest in short courses in its publishing department, with lecturer Leah Tether explaining: "The take-up for our six-week courses on editing, marketing, magazines, publishing and design software and web design surpassed our wildest expectations. The evaluation surveys carried out at the end of each course revealed that students are increasingly aware of the need to make themselves desirable candidates for employment. These courses make it possible to show tangible experience of certain skillsets on a CV and, even better from the student's point of view, don't cost several thousand pounds."
Around the country, colleges are responding to higher demand with free taster sessions. Pitman Training in Luton is offering free accounting, secretarial, PA and IT taster courses; would-be sports reporters can sign up to news agency Sports Beat's free introduction to sports journalism workshops in London and Manchester, and Beecome is offering a free introductory course in bee-keeping over a weekend in May.
Tutors say this kind of short course is often as popular among those just looking for a hobby. That's the case for lawyer Sam Ross, 27, who has just spent £199 on a 10-week course in songwriting at the Institute of Contemporary Music in Kilburn, north London. "I have been working as a corporate lawyer for four years and wanted to find some constructive time to work on my hobby," he explains. He's not about to turn away from the law to become the next Elton John, but is enjoying involvement in both worlds. "The legal market is so competitive and the job requires a lot of time and attention," Ross adds. "But I still wanted to try and nurture a hobby that has fallen by the wayside with a course."
A special issue of the Guardian helped to win this year's Steve Sinnott award for young campaigners
How about these for a few headlines that nobody would complain about: "Malaria wiped out"; "World population levelling off"; "Last shanty towns demolished in Mumbai"; and even: "Everyone in the world now earns at least $5 a day". These were the stories in a special issue of the Guardian – dated 31 December 2025 – created by Eilidih Naismith and Billy Davidson, students at Hutchesons grammar school, Glasgow.
Their vision of how the future could look by 2025 if all children in the world were receiving a primary education by 2015 helped to win them the Steve Sinnott award for Young Global Education Campaigners of the year. They had identified universal primary education as the most important of the eight millennium development goals agreed by world leaders back in the year 2000 – and they were buzzing to spread the message.
"Education is the key to all the world's problems", said Billy, and his T-shirt backed him up. The judges were unanimously convinced by Eilidih and Billy, both 15, who showed that they had researched the issues meticulously, as well as demonstrating real passion for the cause.
The two students had also dreamed up some imaginative ways to spread the message in the UK about the importance of the millennium goals, including a schools advertising competition in which famous company slogans could be hijacked for the Send My Friend to School campaign: "Because we are worth it" and because "Every little helps".
"Eilidih and Billy were so passionate, innovative, enthusiastic and knowledgeable in making their presentation that they stood out in a very strong field," said Mary Sinnott, one of the judges. "I believe they will be tremendous ambassadors."
The award was set up in memory of Steve Sinnott, Mary's late husband, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, who died in 2008. He had been a passionate advocate of the Global Campaign for Education, which is supported by an umbrella body of charities including ActionAid, and by the NUT.
In February, the two students will travel to Malawi with ActionAid and the Global Campaign for Education to meet children who do not have a place at school, or who struggle to attend. When they arrive home, they will speak in the House of Commons and to the teaching unions, and create films and blogs, all as part of their new job as young ambassadors.
The runners-up were Tanisha Patel and Jasmin Sahota, of Soar Valley college, Leicester, Alexander Cotter and Bobo Kalungu-Banda, of Blessed George Napier school, Banbury, and Hannah Copeland and Reece Beale, from The King John school, Benfleet, Essex.
Next year, Send My Friend to School is inviting UK pupils to take part in a special Olympic-themed campaign. More information at sendmyfriend.org
Alice Woolley
• Alice Woolley, editor of Education Guardian, was on the judging panel for the Steve Sinnott award
Olympic swimmers have academics studying fluid dynamics to thank for their latest 'low-drag' gear
In 2009, an astonishing 168 swimming world records were smashed after the introduction of Speedo's full-body LZR racing suit. The sport's governing body decided to investigate, then banned the outfits, stopping manufacturers from using materials that aided "speed, buoyancy or endurance". As a result, swimming apparel-makers went under the radar for a while.
But it's all change for London 2012. In a new push for competitive swimming gear, "streamlined" has become the buzzword. And that was the message at Speedo's launch of its new FastSkin3 suit earlier this month. Michael Phelps of the US, who became the first swimmer to win eight medals, at the Athens Olympics in 2004, did so wearing FastSkin2 and has already signed up to wear the new suit at next summer's Olympics. So too has the home favourite, Rebecca Adlington.
What the athletes might not know, however, is that their swimwear was created with the help of a cohort of British academics. Speedo's bid to create a suit with the lowest possible level of fabric drag – the measure of how easily a material enables water to move over it – saw it sign up academics at the Sorby environmental fluid dynamics laboratory at Leeds University. The university's project leader, Jeff Peakall, a reader in process sedimentology, spends most of his time working on fluid dynamics in the deep-sea, in applications such as oil drilling, and on nuclear waste management. So working on an Olympic swimming outfit was a glamorous change. "Who wouldn't want to be involved in making the fastest racing system yet," he says. "Ultimately, of course, it's exceptional swimmers who break records, but the suits can help swimmers in finding those fine margins."
Measuring water flow
The work by the Leeds team – lab academics Dan Parsons, Gareth Keevil and Russ Dixon were also involved – centred on measuring the interaction of water with materials. Peakall explains: "Ideally you want water to move over a material smoothly, rather than in a chaotic manner where the water is mixing and generating swirls in the flow. We focused on developing a new technique for measuring this process accurately in conditions very close to those achieved by internationally competitive swimmers." The academics measured a range of very low-fabric-drag materials, before working out which of them had the lowest fabric drag and would allow the fastest movement under water.
The Leeds team used a flume machine with a powerful recirculating torrent that can move a large body of water at very high speeds and lasers that measured the flow around the pieces of fabric under test in great detail. "The equipment was all contained in a large black box because the laser beams are so dangerously powerful that a stray reflection from the surface could easily blind a person," says Peakall.
While there was no swimming involved for the academics – "I certainly didn't get in the flume at those speeds," he says – Speedo later put their kit under drag tests in the pool, measuring swimmers being dragged along underneath the water in a swimming position while wearing the FastSkin3's hat, goggles and swimsuit outfit.
Speedo claims its newest swimsuit's design reduces passive drag – the resistance produced by a swimmer's body while it is held in a streamlined position — by 16.6% compared with its earlier models. "It marks a very considerable technological advance in swimsuit fabrics," says Peakall. "And we now have a proven methodology to support the development of the next generation of fabrics – the 2016 development programme [for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics] will start very soon!"
Before then, Peakall will be tuning into the summer's Olympics to see how the swimmers he helped to dress perform. "It will be fascinating to see the kinds of performances and times they put in while competing in these suits," he says. He won't, however, be pool-side for the Games, despite his best efforts. "The swimming is just amazingly popular," he says. "I applied for lots of tickets, but have had to settle for water polo instead."
Still, there's a chance swimmers in FastSkin3s could be spotted in Britain's local pools: the new suits have to be made available to all teams, and are also on sale to the general public. Priced between £85 and £330, however, they're unlikely to be very common. Peakall himself reckons he'll stick to his swimming trunks. "I'd love to sport a FastSkin3 suit," the academic says, "but I fear I'd need to spend a lot less time in the lab and a lot more in the pool."
Researchers take a comprehensive look at the incidence of dandruff among Pakistani soldiers
Public knowledge about dandruff in Pakistan's army comes mainly from a study called Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Dandruff Among Soldiers, written by Naeem Raza, Amer Ejaz and Muhammad Khurram Ahmed, published in 2007 in the Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.
Raza, Ejaz and Ahmed surveyed 800 male soldiers of all ranks, ascertaining each soldier's knowledge about, and personal experience with, dandruff. The survey was "designed keeping in mind the general taboos of our region about dandruff, which included visits to doctors, homeopathic physicians or 'hakims', use of oils, any home-made remedies or commercial products".
If this sampling of soldiers was truly representative, we now know that approximately 65% of Pakistani soldiers have, or have had, dandruff "either permanently or periodically".
"Almost two thirds of the respondents stated to remain tense and embarrassed because of their dandruff." Noting that the "media has played an important role in making people think like that", the study concludes with a recommendation. Healthcare professionals should make a greater effort to educate the populace.
Both the numbers and the reactions are typical of the region and the world, according to a study published three years later in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, called Dandruff: The Most Commercially Exploited Skin Disease.
The Indian report sketches the underlying situation: "Dandruff is a common scalp disorder affecting almost half of the population at the pre-pubertal age and of any gender and ethnicity. No population in any geographical region would have passed through freely without being affected by dandruff at some stage in their life." It helpfully fills in the etymology. "The word dandruff (dandruff, dandriffe) is of Anglo-Saxon origin, a combination of 'tan' meaning 'tetter' and 'drof' meaning 'dirty'."
The Pakistan military report cites a 1990 monograph called The History of Dandruff and Dandruff in History. A Homage to Raymond Sabouraud. That homage was written by Didier Saint-Leger of l'Oréal in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, and published in the journal Annales de Dermatologie et de Vénéréologie.
Saint Leger explains that Raymond Jacques Adrien Sabouraud, 1864-1938, a French dermatologist, painter and sculptor, is the dominant figure in humanity's effort to understand dandruff.
Saint Leger explains how dandruff figured in Sabouraud's greatness: "In one of his books, written at the beginning of this century, Raymond Sabouraud devotes some 280 pages to the history of dandruff. Their reading illustrates how, from the Greeks to Sabouraud's era, this desquamative disease has been subjected to endless doctrinal and scientific conflicts."
A medical book written during Raymond Sabouraud's lifetime speaks admiringly of the man: "It is said that Sabouraud can tell your moral character, the amount of your yearly income and what you have eaten for breakfast by looking at the root of one of your hairs."
Thanks to Ernst Niebur for bringing this to my attention.
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Isaac Newton’s own annotated copies of his works, notebooks and manuscripts are being made available online by Cambridge University Library and the University of Sussex with JISC funding.
Digitised title page from
Newton’s own copy
of Principia
Researchers, students and the public can now zoom in to each page to explore texts like Principia Mathematica in incredible detail and make use of transcriptions to understand Newton’s mind – and handwriting.
Alastair Dunning, programme manager at JISC, said: “The end results of Newton’s work are world famous but his notebooks and annotations give a rather different insight into the process that he went through to get there. JISC looks to share insights like those with as wide an audience of possible and digitising this collection means that researchers and students now have online access wherever they are.”
However, while the two universities have received JISC funding to help expose Newton’s papers to the eyes of the world, a closer look at some of the pages from the newly digitised archive reveals that not all his peers thought his output should be shared so openly.
Several of the manuscripts in the collection contain the handwritten line ‘not fit to be printed’, scrawled by Thomas Pellet, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who went through Newton’s papers after his death to decide which ones should be published.
Project manager Rob Iliffe, Professor of Intellectual History and History of Science at the University of Sussex, said: “The publication of these foundational texts, thanks to funding from JISC, represents the result of a great deal of hard work put in by both the Cambridge and Sussex teams over the past year. It is a significant milestone in the work of the Newton Project, and with access to nearly five million words of Newton's personal, scientific and religious writings, readers can now look at Newton's creativity in its broadest contexts.
Cambridge University librarian Anne Jarvis said: “With great collections comes a responsibility to make these as accessible as we can. Now, through the use of new technologies and with vital support from the Polonsky Foundation and bodies such as the JISC, we are able to open up our collections in ways that would have been inconceivable a few years ago. Wherever possible we will seek to enhance our digital collections by aligning them with scholarly research.
“Our initial collection, the Newton Papers, is a good example. Through our collaboration with the Newton Project at the University of Sussex, we’ve been able to provide superb transcriptions alongside the images of many of Newton's manuscripts.”
Launching the website with more than 4,000 pages of its most important Newton material, Cambridge University Library will upload thousands of further pages over the next few months until almost all of its Newton collection is available to view and download anywhere in the world.
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Today the Public Administration Select Committee has published a report on the Big Society, which includes evidence from CILIP. The report says the Big Society programme is hampered by the lack of a coherent implementation plan and that smaller charities face barriers when contracting and commissioning policies.
In CILIP’s evidence to the Committee, we said that all kinds of libraries are both part of the Big Society and a key resource to enable it. They provide resources for new learning and skills, space for study, meetings and other activities. Libraries provide information that enables choice, civic engagement and decision-making. Libraries already have experience in community engagement that can be developed.
We reminded the Committee of the requirement for every English public library authority to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" service and that the statutory nature of the public library service must be recognised.
CILIP recognises the significant contribution volunteers make to public libraries but they are not a replacement for the skills and expertise of staff.
We believe that everyone is entitled to a high quality public library service.
Find out more about the report
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Hertfordshire Schools Library Services, one of England’s largest and most respected Schools Library Services, is set to close in the New Year.
A recent Hertfordshire County Council report recommended the service should close following declining buy-in from schools and uncertainty about the amount of funding the service would receive from central education budgets.
Schools Library Services provide professional support to schools to help manage their libraries. They provide books and resources to support teaching and help encourage reading for pleasure and develop a reading culture in schools.
Annie Mauger, CILIP Chief Executive, responded to the news:
“We are very shocked and saddened. This is a bitter blow to the hundreds of schools and thousands of children who benefit from the support of this service. The proposal to closure the service reflects the difficult decisions that both schools and local authorities have to make. The decline in numbers of schools buying into the service because of reductions in funding and the cuts to local authority library budgets means the service cannot subsidise losses. Vital support for literacy and learning will be lost.
The end result of this decision is pupils getting less support in a time where literacy levels and skills for life are more essential than ever. Hertfordshire County Council may feel that they have no choices as this is a traded service, but my concern is that this will create a domino effect across the country.”
Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust added:
“Schools Library Services are a vital ingredient in effective school library provision for children across the country. Hertfordshire’s Schools Library Service has an iconic status as a centre of excellence in this field. If a service that is one of the biggest and best in the country is set to close, this threatens every Schools Library Service in the country.”
The Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals and the National Literacy Trust asks that government responds to the Estelle Morris Report from the School Library Commission and that an investigation into sustainable models for future provision of Schools Library Services should be taken forward.
CILIP believes it is time to Shout About School Libraries and Schools Library Services, before we lose them.
-ends-
Press contacts:
Mark Taylor
Director of External Relations, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0654
Mobile: 07792 635 305
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
Jane Woodley
Media and Public Affairs Officer, National Literacy Trust
Tel: 020 78206256
Email: jane.woodley@literacytrust.org.uk
Notes to editors:
1. Hertfordshire Schools Library Service (SLS) provides professional support to schools in the county on a traded basis. In 2011/12 approximately two thirds of SLS income will come from direct buy in from schools. The current trend of buy in is declining, resulting in a fall in income and a predicted deficit for 2011/12 of £41,000[1].
Approximately a third of SLS income comes from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) centrally retained education budget. Proposed national changes to school funding has led to uncertainty regarding the amount of funding the SLS will receive from central education budgets in the future[2]. The preferred option is to delegate as much of possible of the budget that remains with local authorities to schools, and if this option is implemented there will be no prospect of further DSG funding for the SLS after 31 March 2013.
On October 19th 2011 The Schools Forum was asked to consider whether it would increase funding from centrally-retained budgets to keep the SLS going[3]. The Forum agreed to fund the service at the existing rate for 2012/13, but cannot provide additional funding to underwrite current or future deficits[4].
On December 7th 2011 a report written by Andrew Bignell, (Head of Libraries, Culture and Learning) and Michele Murphy, (Principal Librarian: Customers & Communities), was discussed at a meeting of the Hertfordshire Local and Libraries Cabinet Panel. The report stated that the combined effect of declining levels of buy-in and the unavailability of additional funds from the DSG would increase the SLS budget deficit further, making the service unviable. It recommended that the SLS should close on 31 March 2012[5].
2. CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. Visit www.cilip.org.uk for more information.
3. The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that transforms lives through literacy. We believe that society will only be fair when everyone has the literacy skills they need to communicate, to fulfil their potential and to contribute more to society. We campaign to improve public understanding of the vital importance of literacy, as well as delivering projects and working in partnership to reach those most in need of support.
To help us transform lives through literacy, you can make a donation. To find out how visit http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/About/donate.html
National Literacy Trust is a registered charity no. 1116260, and a company limited by guarantee, no. 5836486. Registered in England and Wales. Registered address: 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL. Tel: 020 7587 1842.
4. The Estelle Morris report was the final report of the School Library Commission, a joint initiative between the National Literacy Trust and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/policy/nlt_policy/school_library_commission for more information.
5. The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL), the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the School Library Association (SLA) are campaigning to Shout About School Libraries and Schools Library Services. The campaign aims are:
Visit www.cilip.org.uk/shoutabout for more information.
[1] Future Funding of the Schools Library Service. Report of the Director of Health and Community Services. Author Michele Murphy (Principal Librarian: Customers & Communities). 19 October 2011
[2] Consultation on school funding reform: proposals for a fairer system. Department for Education. July 2011 (consultation closed October 11th)
[3] Future Funding of the Schools Library Service. Report of the Director of Health and Community Services. Author Michele Murphy (Principal Librarian: Customers & Communities). 19 October 2011
[4] Future of the Schools Library Service. Report of the Director of Health and Community Services. Authors Andrew Bignell, (Head of Libraries, Culture and Learning) and Michele Murphy, (Principal Librarian: Customers & Communities), 7 December 2011
[5] Ibid
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Schoolchildren reveal what gifts they have in store for their teachers, from a turkey to a (very cheap) computer
Mary Buscombe, 15, is in year 11 at St Michael's small school in Truro
I live on a farm outside Newquay, and for the last few years I've always given the teachers a turkey at Christmas. We've got about 50 turkeys on the farm; most of them are killed in the runup to Christmas, although we always keep one alive for Easter.
People think you get attached to the turkeys, or that it's difficult to see them die, but it's not like that – when you live on a farm, you understand that's the point of it. Usually, I help kill the teachers' turkey the day before they're going to eat it – I might hold it while someone wrings its neck. They die quickly and easily, and then we'll hang it up and pluck its feathers.
My mum will cook the turkey here on the farm because they haven't got an oven big enough at school, and then we'll take it in one day next week. My school is tiny – there are only 31 pupils, and 10 teachers – so although the turkey is my present to the teachers, we'll all get some of it for our lunch that day because it's the sort of school where we're like one big family.
Everyone always says how delicious the turkey is – there's no comparison between a home-reared turkey and the sort you buy in the shops. It's a really nice treat before we break up for the Christmas holidays.
India Diment, nine, is in year 5 at Holy Ghost primary school in Balham, London
I'm giving my teacher, Miss Wood, some bath stuff. Last year I gave Miss Ruff, my year 4 teacher, the most brilliant present ever – a chocolate pizza! She really loves chocolate, so I thought it would be perfect for her. She opened all her presents in front of the class and when she saw the pizza box I think she thought it was a prank – and then when she saw the pizza she couldn't believe what a huge slab of chocolate it was! She took it off to try some in the staff room at break and said it was delicious.
Beth Frost, nine, is a year 4 pupil at Bamford primary in Brough, Derbyshire
I've done crochet club every Monday this term, and I've really enjoyed it. My grandma encouraged me to do it – she's brilliant at knitting, and she lives in the village and helps run the crochet club at my school. So when I thought about a present for my teacher, Mr Friend, I thought: why not crochet one? So I'm crocheting him a decoration for his Christmas tree. It's going to be a cute little animal with baubles attached. It's nearly finished.
Mr Friend is a brilliant teacher. He's really kind and helpful, and he loves computers – and computing is my favourite subject. I don't think he knows how good I am at crocheting, so I think he'll be surprised when he sees this. I hope he'll put it on his tree and have a wonderful Christmas holiday.
Matthew Pickering, Jamie Thrippleton and Tom Davies, all 17, year 13 pupils at Queen Elizabeth school, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
Matthew: Mr Davies, our computing teacher, has been going on and on about the Raspberry Pi. It's a new computer coming on the market very soon, and he says it's going to revolutionise the teaching of computing in schools. It's tiny and it will cost £15.
Jamie: We know he can't wait to get one, so we're clubbing together and trying to get him one for Christmas. It hasn't been released yet, but we've signed up on the supplier's website in the hope of getting one of the first batch.
Tom: We're all planning to do computing at university, and it's down to Mr Davies – his enthusiasm is infectious. Fingers crossed we'll be lucky and manage to get one before Christmas.
Molly Farrow, five, is in year 1 at Busbridge infant school in Godalming, Surrey
I'm making a big star for my teacher, Miss Browning, to hang from her window at home – it's a sun-catcher. She gives me lots of sticker stars for getting things right at school, so I thought I'd give her a big star for being such a good teacher all year round. My mum is very good at making things, and she's helped me. We made the frame out of willow and then decorated it with lots of coloured sequins. I found some little sequin robins in the box, and robins are Miss Browning's favourite bird, so I got lots of them out to stick on the star. I really hope she likes it.
The Guardian Teacher Network this week is full of festive resources to keep pupils engaged
Your lesson plans are likely to go out of the window this week as pre-Christmas excitement takes hold of your pupils.
But do not fear – the Guardian Teacher Network has lots of festive resources that will engage your class in the run-up to the holidays.
Younger pupils will love Kessie's Gift for Santa, a story about a little girl who suddenly feels that Santa should get a present. Suitable for KS1 and KS2, the story explores the themes of giving and receiving and provides a handy stimulus for Christmas-themed drama activities.
For KS2 and KS3, 'Twas the Fright Before Christmas is a humorous play that re-works Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Featuring three ungrateful children and a reformed Scrooge, the play has plenty of parts to get your whole class involved. A scene from the film A Muppet Christmas Carol is used in this English lesson to get pupils talking about Dickens's classic Christmas tale. The KS2-KS4 resource includes links to an edited and abridged version of the novel, particularly useful for Esol students and reluctant readers. Suggested activities include writing a diary entry for Christmas Eve. Scrooge writes his first Christmas card is a KS3 lesson in which students read an article and answer questions about the beginnings of the Christmas card in Britain. During the activity, pupils will discover what the first Christmas card looked like and why people complained about it.
Victorian attitudes to Christmas are explored in this KS3 lesson. Using extracts from A Christmas Carol, pupils examine how different characters felt about Christmas and why. The lesson links to a Guardian article about the effect that writing the novel had on Dickens, who completed the work in just two months and saw the first edition sell out in five days. An extract from an Observer review of the book is included in the KS3 lesson A Christmas Carol .
For a quick craft activity, the conservation organisation ARKive has produced a set of origami templates with a Christmassy theme. Pupils can use their paper-folding skills to create either a Christmas tree, turtle dove or arctic fox.
Each template includes an interesting fact – did you know an arctic fox has furry feet that help prevent it from freezing in the snow – and is accompanied by teacher's notes. The organisation has also produced a set of Christmas masks for pupils to cut out and wear. Choose from a penguin, polar bear or reindeer.
There are more craft ideas in this interactive advent calendar produced by the charity Cafod, including how to make stained-glass shortbread stars and how to use handprints to make a Christmas tree picture. The Guardian Teacher Network has nearly 100,000 pages of lesson plans and interactive materials. To see and share for yourself go to teachers.guardian.co.uk. There are also hundreds of jobs on the site and schools can advertise for free http://schoolsjobs.guardian.co.uk.