Are English and Maths Doomed In Schools Cut Back?

Maths and English, the two stalwarts in our educational programmes are the subject of further games being played between the DCFS, schools and examining boards. The chief executive of the Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR) awarding body says that without a vast injection of cash and teacher training schools will struggle to teach Math and English to the standard needed.

The comment from Greg Watson, chief executive of the Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR) awarding body, has ideal timing if maths and English are to escape the proposed cutbacks of £2bn in the schools budget. The bigger problem is rather than defending the current level of expenditure he is asking for an injection of cash above the current spending. If Ed Balls has to find savings as part of the government need to cut back will these vital teaching resources be found or become the sacrificial lamb? If so our current record of sub standard primary education is about to get a lot worse. Nicola Woolcote

Can't Read Can't Write TV Shocker Reveals Teaching Resources Opportunity

he new TV documentary highlights the dilemma. Accepting the inevitable slant TV puts on many programmes to add drama, last night’s docudrama featuring a group of nine mature and illiterate students was still shocking.

The reality of this staggering statistic is a body blow to the educational standards in the UK. We still fail to provide the very basics of education to all our children. The TV teacher chosen to lead the recovery demonstrated passion and commitment to the role. But worryingly he was at considerable odds with the teaching resources he was advised to use. If the reading support, including worksheets and procedures developed by the hierarchy were regarded by the teacher as complex, arduous and missing the point what hope is there it will work.

The slightly over emotional teacher, previously a musician, admitted he had never taught anybody to read in his life. Initially he seemed a strange appointment but his direct approach proved the skill of a good teacher can outweigh a multitude of ring binders of arduous theory. His novel approach using educational games supported his passion in the role that started to break through decades of frustration and neglect. Turning reading support into fun and providing one to one support has started to overcome the many reasons for the student’s illiteracy, epitomising what good teaching is all about. Once the inertia is overcome we can expect rapid progress.

Each of the nine students had been failed by the initial schooling process. They had suffered the law of averages, inevitably casting students operating at the bottom of the class into the inevitable realm of exclusion from the lesson. The point emphasized by the illiterate plumber set word search puzzles at school and sent home at midday.

Teachers facing the constant pressure of attaining academic targets are bound to focus on the average and brighter student to boost the score. In place of spending vast sums of money on complex procedures maybe we need to listen more closely to the operational experience of teachers. Investing in a policy where no student should leave primary school whilst failing in literacy or numeracy would deal with the problem at source. This perhaps brutal approach should receive vital direct funding where it will help give all children the best chance to thrive academically in secondary school. The “Every Child a Reader” literacy scheme introduced by the government has to be a prerequisite in any target judgement.

The sterling work completed by the reading support organisations such as the “Volunteer Reading Help” ( primary schools ) and “Reading Matters”(secondary schools) provide 1:1 support to struggling readers in school. Both are registered charities and reliant on volunteers. Should government funding be extended to develop the services offered by these groups? A greater number of trained volunteers to help teachers in more schools and perhaps adult classes can only help - provided they do not loose their independence.

The TV program’s refreshing angle showed the element of fun through reading games overcame many of the issues faced by the students, and that illiteracy is not down to a single cause. The musical introduction to reading skills introduced enjoyment to the process that seemed adequately to displace the complex procedures. But learning to read through English games involves teaching phonics - the sound of words - ironically where the “ph” of phonics is of course pronounced as “f” which is where we came in!

The Education A Bedtime Story Gave A Mother And Her Famous Son.

Paddington bear popped home yesterday, not to Peru but keen2learn. Bet you thought he was born in Peru and resides in Paddington. Well he does, but the bedrooms at Home Farm in Burghwallis, now the base for keen to learn, echo to bedtime stories read many years ago by Shirley and Eddie Clarkson. The kitchen table witnessed Shirley make the very first Paddington bear as a Christmas present for her children, Joanna and Jeremy, and brought the stories to life. Friends upon meeting the character in the flesh wanted one, and the rest is history.

Shirley has just launched her book “Bearely Believable” coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of the Paddington stories by Michael bond. It’s the amusing story of the fun they had living in Home Farm and the trials and tribulations surrounding the development of Paddington bear. The kitchen table was quickly outgrown, and production moved to the spare bedroom, then across the yard to a converted cowshed and finally to a local factory. Shirley revisited Home Farm recently - with the original Paddington - after a 21 year absence to record these events for the BBC.

Bedtime stories turned Paddington into a firm favourite in the Clarkson family. The imagination that bedtime stories trigger in a child’s mind develops their learning process. Parents reading stories and playing other educational games with their children throughout the schooling process helps stimulate learning. And the interaction between child and parent becomes mutually rewarding with obvious benefits back at school.

Our modern lifestyle leads to many parents being time poor. Coupled with a frequent reluctance to read aloud the essential bedtime story has taken a back seat with 54% of Dad’s. But modern technology has come to the aid of the busy parent. Subscriptions to on-line stories narrated by actors and including animation and highlighted script turn a PC or laptop into a world of imagination. An educational game, the service enhances reading and literacy skills in children, is easy for tired Dads to join in and learn how to read a story aloud.

In a world of TV, Internet, Wii, Nintendo and computers it is all too easy to assume children can amuse themselves. Encouraging developments in the Electronic Media to include educational games is a positive move. However, parents and grandparents still have a vital role to play. Help, encouragement, mutual involvement and interactive feedback can all inspire a child to learn more. They love to share their experience and show how they are doing.

Electronic Media has the advantage that it never tires of repetition, something the tired parent can be grateful of when the same story or game is played yet again! Predicting what happens next is an essential part of the learning curve, children love to be able to foretell and repetitive feedback is part of this process.

So how is Paddington doing after all these years? The stories are still popular and the Paddington bear figures are still in shops. Production has moved from the bedroom at Home Farm to China. Marmalade sandwiches are probably deep fried. If you want the full story read Shirley’s great book. And did those bedtime stories read by Shirley and Eddie Clarkson help the children? One of them is Jeremy Clarkson; author, journalist and broadcaster – with an innate ability to tell a great story.

The Ice Journey

The Ice Journey

This book is an interesting blend of fact and fiction, which could be used effectively in several different ways. One of the stated aims for the author is to encourage and enable grandparents to participate in their grandchildren’s education. Many grandparents have an active part in caring for grandchildren today and this book provides a story they can read to their grandchildren. The fact that the book is written as a grandmother reading the story to her grandchildren positively reinforces the idea of the grandparent having both interesting and even educational information. I feel one of the great advantages of this book are the activities listed at the back. These could be done in a classroom situation but equally could be done in the house with Grandma after reading the story. The idea of making a DNA sweet model struck me in particular as an activity which grandmas would be happy to organise. Grandmas love to give their grandchildren sweets but may be accused of spoiling the children. This they can show is an education activity in which sweets are essential!

I feel the bilingual edition will be of benefit to both learners and native speakers. As a Welsh learner I found the audio Welsh version easy to understand but it did not sound like ‘learner’ material which gave me a greater sense of achievement because I was able to understand it. There is a lack of Welsh language material for learners and native speakers. This bilingual work has the added advantage of providing an opportunity for non-Welsh speakers (parents and grandparents) to become involved in their children’s Welsh medium educational experiences. Non-Welsh speaking grandparents could play the audio version but use the English language text and activities to allow them to discuss the material with their Welsh-speaking grandchildren.

The illustrations blend well with the text, which must have required a great deal of work in the bilingual edition. Single pictures cover a double page with the text in both languages fitting round it. Other pages contain different yet appropriate images on the Welsh and English pages.

In an age where the ‘Google generation’ may shun the printed word, this book may provide a bridge between ‘grandma’s world’ of books as a source of information and the Internet where so many children would ‘google’ to find the information and its links to relevant websites.


Ellen Harris
Learning Resources Adviser
Learning Resources Centre, Trinity College Carmarthen

Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Are Just Coded Maths Games

Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Are Just Coded Maths Games

I always found math to be a difficult subject to learn at school. I put most of my failing down to the fact I sat too close to an old fashioned pot-bellied stove. This provided a great source of warmth but also destroyed my concentration. At least I learnt to spell soporific in a written defence during a subsequent detention, but the absence of maths sense slowed the learning curve for some years. Maths was always a struggle; the pot bellied stove inflicted collateral damage but I believe the real culprit was the boring way maths was taught.

Mathematics can be described as a series of fantastic codes. Once they are broken the maths games that can be played are endless and enjoyable. The modern technique of using educational games as the base makes life far more interesting and pays dividends in the attention paid by the average child. It also allows parents to repeat say a maths game at home

Like many things in life once a code is understood the task becomes far easier. This is the case when we come across a new computer program. Initially it is hard work and intuition fights with or against the operating manual. Once mastered a host of shortcuts and shortcomings are revealed and in no time our learning curve overtakes the computer and we start to identify areas where the program could be improved.

A recent example of breaking a mathematics code appeared in the form of the crop circle in the south of England. The intricate pattern that was pressed into a wheat field at first sight appeared as just another artistic pattern in a crop circle. In reality it was a complex diagram that an astrophysicist decoded to reveal its meaning as a fantastic way to represent the value of pi to the first 10 significant places. Guaranteed 99% of us who looked at the crop circle failed to understand that it was a mathematics code rather than a decorative pattern. Obviously the perpetrator knew what he was doing and set this elaborate game to challenge mathematicians. Once the code was broken the answer was obvious.

Leonardo Da Vinci was artist and a great mathematician who used codes to set out his theories. Used by subsequent generations of scholars even today they provide educational games that require ingenuity to crack the code. Some areas of maths have a number of different ways of expressing the same information. Fractions and percentages express similar information in slightly different form. This feature allows us to mask the details by expressing facts in a form of code.

Recently Ed balls, the schools Secretary in the UK, announced that two fifths of all secondary schools are underperforming. He could of course have said that 40 per cent of all schools are failing which conjures up a much bigger image. Expressing the number of schools as a fraction is code to mask the actual hard fact. He could have just also revealed the actual number, but to say that 638 schools are failing would come as quite a shock to parents of the children involved. More startling perhaps would be an announcement that there are around 1,215,000 children at these 638 schools many of whom are potentially failing at maths. That’s a much bigger number than we might associate with two fifths! Codes are designed to initially hide or abbreviate the facts. Mr Balls could be said to be masking the facts, but he has only been in the job for a few months. Let’s hope he can quickly crack the code to improve the educational performance of future generations of children in the UK.

Learning To Read Hidden In Educational Games

Learning to read; the essential foundation of all learning doesn’t come easy to all of us. But the onset of broadband technology has provided a fantastic new reading support opportunity that helps children to learn to read. Stories in the classroom and bedtime stores at home take on a wonderful extra dimension.

When I was a lad a few years ago, I won’t mention the year as I don’t want you to be able to work out that I’m 59 (doh!) I went to one of the first comprehensive schools in the UK. This leviathan, based in the exquisite surroundings of Holland Park in London caused considerable angst. Local residents were aghast at construction in their very nice backyard; parents were in awe that their children could be taught in what was considered to be a learning factory. Children were phased by it’s vast size. Educationalists oscillated between the boundaries of visionary and crazy. London County Council the education authority ( as it was then) stood firm, the Head teacher stood firm, the children quivered.

At 11 years old, fresh from a small and very personal primary school about 5 miles away, I crept through the gates into the bewildering new world that was Holland Park. Home to 3000 souls, four huge multi story teaching blocks, four gymnasiums, a swimming pool and a vast central auditorium that could hold the entire school. Class size ballooned to 48 pupils comprised of five ability steams from A to E with two classes per stream per year and a different teacher for every subject. The concept needed considerable adjustment to both pupils and staff. The battalion of teachers required, many lasting a term, some not, meant teaching continuity was fragmented. Our music teacher shot himself playing Russian Roulette, thankfully off the premises. His death did little to improve the averages.

Welcome to my baptism in secondary schooling and my excuse for being an initial struggling reader and academic pariah. Anyway it’s better then owing up to any possibility that it could just be me.

See the full article by Alistair Owens

Turn A Shower Into An Educational Game

They say education is a lifelong journey. Difficult to comprehend when you are at school slogging through lessons and exams but learning can be greater fun when turned into an educational game. Take a practical application and apply as many subjects that have been learned in the classroom.

This morning I took a shower, a frequent occurrence I hasten to add, but today I had one of those eureka moments – a tribute perhaps to that other rather more famous bather. Have you ever thought how much science is involved in the process of taking a shower?

To highlight the point I have used the following abbreviations as each topic appeared during my ablutions.

• Biology (B)
• Physics (P)
• Chemistry (C)
• Maths (M)
• Citizenship (City)
• Psychology (Psy)
• Geography (G)
• Geology (Geo)
• English Language (Eng)

The first question to loom up is why we take a shower? The experience is functional in removing body odours created by bacteria, (B) but also physiological as it induces endorphins that help wake you up and make you feel good (Psy) Removal of body odours also makes you a little less undesirable to others nearby ( City).

The water is fed from a header tank under gravity- thanks to Newton (P) – and as I’m a devout wuss, heated. Energy is consumed to heat the water by the conversion of electrical energy into heat P). This is measured in watts, the result of multiplying volts by amperes (M +P).

Responding to marketing persuasion I have been attracted to the delights of a power shower. The increased force (P) boosts the endorphins (B) but unfortunately uses 12 times the amount of water (Geo) than the gravity shower all of which has to be heated (P ) This is draining the natural resources, literally, of water and power causing environmental concerns (forgot to add the code for the environment – that’s an (E). The availability of water depends on geography (G) and the natural storage which locally are aquifers (Geo).

Being male I have a predilection to B.o.g.o.f offers ( buy one get one free) in supermarkets and anything in blue packaging (Psy) The resultant over purchase of needless stock (M) led to a ban by my wife (City)that means all shower products used have her stamp of approval and sensible supply level.

Today’s showering experience was a cornucopia of non blue ingredients. The shampoo promised a “Fruitful Infusion” to produce a “Dazzling Shine” (Eng) from the passion flower, patchouli and vetiver ingredients(B). The conditioner provided “Tangle free hair with uplifted volume” enhancing the dazzle effect by way of a “Citrus lift”(Eng) from tangerine, lemongrass and aloe vera (B) And the rest of the body below the head was in turn subjected to “Serious pampering”(Eng) from fennel (B) and sea mineral (C) based in a silky smooth shower gel (C).

The post shower application of talcum powder, contained talc mineral (C+Geo). The deodorant, promising to maintain a “desert – dry”(Eng) atmosphere under the arms (B +G) from aluminium zirconium trichlorohydrex (C). The aftershave contained alcohol ( C).

In the space of 5 minutes I had consumed 150 litres of water, 4 kilowatts of energy (P), half an alpine meadow of additives, and drained the lot away to the water treatment works where they will use bacteria (B) to break the ingredients free from the water, and off we go again.

Taking a simple shower will seem a lot busier from now on. My shower involved 34 applications of science and learning and a lot of fun to see just how many links with education can exist.

Alistair Owens operates an educational games web site and writes on educational matters for a wide range of publications.

Self Esteem Learning for Children

It’s off to school; hat, coat, school books, dinner money and a great slice of trepidation are ready. Our ability to learn may be linked to intelligence and concentration, but the greatest influence is the feeling of well-being. Self Esteem plays a critical role in commitment and our ability to excel.

So what influences our feeling of self esteem? Clearly as a significant function it needs careful analysis and nurturing to ensure the optimum condition prevails. We need to understand where we can support those who would benefit from this attention and in what form.

The annual performance appraisal in adult circumstances can be extremely rewarding for both parties if used properly. Equally it can be disruptive if misused as the opportunity to castigate and focus on the negatives elements of performance. I am a great believer in the need for continuous appraisal. It takes the sting out of a situation, provides immediate beneficial feedback allowing corrective or progressive actions to be taken promptly.

Storing problems merely to coincide with an appraisal is a total waste of the opportunity to encourage an individual to develop. Schoolchildren need a regular check more than ever up to reassure, encourage and provide positive corrective support. Yet this element is predominately overlooked. “How was it at school today” is hardly an approach that will reveal the full facts. A child with low self esteem may miss the opportunity to open up preferring anonymity than having to explain their feelings.

The skill is to overcome any reluctance for a child to open up. How often have we heard of incidents of a child being bullied at school that has gone unmentioned or a child struggling in lessons which only came to light in the end of term or annual report? Low self esteem has a self destruct element. Careful and progressive handling is required to nurture a positive response that can make the world of difference. Lessons become enjoyable personalities develop, general outlook and demeanour develops a positive theme and individuals become less of a target with bullies.

There a number of books and games developed to encourage positive self esteem. Possibly one of the best is the range developed by two sisters, both mothers who are passionate about children feeling good. With backgrounds in Psychology, complimentary therapy, counselling and Art and Design the sisters put their skills together to design and produce a fun, educational range of products including board games, books, relaxation CD’s and positive affirmation cards.

The range developed as educational games features four fun, funky, multi cultural characters called the Feel Good Friends who help children in different ways to gain confidence and self esteem. The range teaches children about feelings, emotions, empathy, kindness, sharing and caring and helps to change negative beliefs into positive beliefs. Most importantly children get to explore their feelings and emotions in a fun, safe way.

The products are popular with Parents, Teachers, Foster Carers, Social workers, play therapists, members of the Children and Family Court Service and other professionals working with children.

Since launching in 2006 Feel Good Friends have won business awards and a community Impact award. The Feel Good Faces board game was short listed for the UK TES and NASEN Inclusive Resource for Primary Classrooms Award as well as being highly recommended at the Toy Awards 2007

Parents Playing Truant At Parents Meetings

Traditional parents’ evenings are becoming less popular and schools should consider other ways to communicate with families, the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said today, 7th May 2008

Speaking at an event today on the government’s Parent Know How programme, which aims to develop new and innovative ways of helping parents access information and support, Balls said research shows parents prefer informal chats with schools staff instead of parents evenings and want to get information on their children’s progress on-line.

While evening meetings will continue to have a role, Balls urged schools to keep parents up to date in ways that better fit their busy lives.

A survey of 5,000 adults for the Department for Children, Schools and Families showed that since 2001 the proportion who saw parents’ evenings as the “most useful” way of communicating has dropped from 43% to just 19%.

Parents now see communicating with schools through “informal discussions with school staff” as the most useful way of finding out about their child’s progress.

Half of parents felt very involved in their child’s education in 2007, up from 29% in 2001. Two-thirds of parents (65%) wanted to be even more involved, the research found.

Balls said: “We know parents are increasingly involved in their child’s education - and want to do even more. See the full report in the Guardian

Are Parents, Children or Schools Responsible For Failing Exams?

The trepidation of waiting for the annual exam results does not just apply to school children. At the moment parents are discovering if they have been successful in their application for their child's place in a preferred school. Naturally we regard the performance of a school is entirely due to the skill of the teaching team, but one of the greatest influences in the teaching environment is the effect parents have in the performance.

Changes in the social environment, and the assumed responsibilities of families have evolved over the years. Many schools cite increasing pressure and workload from dealing with issues that have been abandoned by the family. Discipline seems to be the greatest concern, creating problems with the control of the classroom and a challenge to authority. Hardly conducive to a focus on learning and inevitably the prerequisite to a dysfunctional adult life for the child involved.

The schools best able to cope have retained a level of control and a teaching team that achieved good results for the children. No surprise that these schools are much sought after and strive to maintain their position in the league tables. But they suffer from their own success as a proportion of parents have been resorted to lie and cheat to meet the entrance criteria. Unbounded by any social responsibility this regrettable activity hardly sets the ideal role model for their children and wastes valuable resource in its detection.

Around 240,000 children fail to get into the school of their choice each year so it is easy to see the temptation to manipulate the application details and accept that some parents would feel they had failed if they did not. It’s a double edged sword. But now more grist to the mill; figures announced in May 08 reveal 24,000 teachers are classed as failing and should not be in the job, up from the 17,000 assessed as failing last year. At 5% they are a small percentage of the c.450,000 full time equivalent teachers in the UK but lets say the figures are still understated by 20% and really there are 28,800 failing teachers. The outcome is staggering as these failing teachers are involved in teaching children who are subsequently penalised. The average class size is 30 thus 720,000 children suffer as a consequent but this assumes the poor teachers only handle a single class. In reality they handle several classes at secondary level. Let’s assume five classes and the resultant number of children disadvantaged reaches a staggering 3,600,000. Doesn’t bear thinking about, but what are schools doing about it? The procedure to remove a poor teacher is so arduous that many schools have taken the alternative route to persuade them to move on to another school merely recycling the problem. So can we really criticize parents wanting to get their children into the better schools.

The ideal outcome would be the appearance of a greater number of good schools and the allocation of greater involvement of parents in the schooling process throughout their child’s attendance at school. This would swell the teaching numbers with an auxiliary team drawn from the 7.4 million households with school aged children. Suddenly the teaching capacity of the UK is swelled by a huge reserve that can only benefit our children. Parenting issues that clutter the school can be effectively redirected and schools allowed to focus on academic content. Modern teaching resources used in class to support lessons are predominately educational games. These are ideal to replicate the lesson content at home as practice. All we need now is the coordination of this massive resource, at least it will help compensate for a child failing to gain entry to a preferred school, being taught by a failing teacher, or a school cluttered by social burdens

You can see an example of the educational games and teaching resources used in school .

From Couch to Coach

From Couch to Coach

The biggest concern of most parents as their child goes to school is how are they are going to cope. Suddenly you are reliant on third parties to handle a crucial role that could influence the entire future for your child. The intimate bond with your child is interrupted; your omnipresence substituted for a class of around 30 children of mixed ability, and a school teacher who is frequently overworked, stressed, seeking alternative employment or early retirement. Hardly conducive to a relaxed state of mind, but there is an extremely practical role parents can take to support their child and teacher.

The teaching resources used at school are carefully selected as part of the lesson plans, mainly taking the form of educational games or educational toys they have the significant advantage of being equally valuable as learning resources for use at home.

A search of the web reveals the range of fun based interactive learning games available on-line. These can be used to support the early years as a primary classroom resource through to the finals in high school. Children being able to play for example a constructive maths game at home benefit significantly from the opportunity to practice the school lesson with their parents. This

family approach to learning maintains the involvement of parents in any number of lessons using educational games, toys, educational software and puzzles.

The link between home and school becomes dynamic rather than a once a term or an annual event, and playing the games at home reveals the progress being made in English, math, science, reading, history and geography far better than a couple of sentences in the end of term report. The regular content check by parents using a game provides a map where help is needed and a search of the web for educational games reveals the teaching tools available.

Practice helps learning retention, building the bedrock that provides encouragement, enthusiasm and knowledge back in the classroom. The additional teacher resource that emerges provides a multimedia approach to learning. This can positively modify the engagement towards their studies that can alter a child's perception of learning. Being regarded as fun generates a natural interest from children. Using educational toys and interactive games provides the chance for children to excel. The chance to beat parents, siblings and peers is far more enjoyable that the chore of conventional homework. Studies become more enjoyable and

progress at school benefits from the increased team strength of child, parent and teacher. Governments in many countries are concerned at the lack of material progress in schooling standards. Maths and literacy in the west display declining trends despite huge corrective investment over the past 10 to 20 years. Yet in the Far East educational standards are improving. The key is the different approach from parents; in the east they see it as their duty to maintain a level of active involvement. The outcome is a substantial improvement in exam results compared to the UK., and the USA.

Transformimg Maths From a Chore to a Challenge

A well proven fact states if you fire the imagination of children you also gain their attention – an essential ingredient towards efficient learning. A school in Nottingham in the UK has proven the point by adopting a central Harry Potter theme to lessons.

Maths has adopted a series of spells and codes to enthral and encourage. Science has included “Herbology” as a new theme, and teachers have been dressing up to set the scene. It proves that education can be fun, and fun can be highly educational. By turning lessons into games much of the resistance to learning is removed and the results prove the effort to be well rewarded. Pupils at the Robert Mellors school in Nottingham have moved from the bottom 25% to the top 25% of schools in England in just three years.

A clear case of “Learning in Disguise”; Dona Chambers, the Headteacher said “They don’t realise we are ticking boxes in the National Curriculum during the games. It has had a phenomenal impact on the whole school. Because learning is so much fun, pupils want to be engaged”.

Supporting this form of fun activity is a large range of educational games used in school. They are now available for use at home to turn that boring homework session into a fun entertaining and imaginative approach to learning. And as the saying goes Practice makes perfect, or more appropriately in learning - Practice make Permanent. Many parents ideally like to maintain a role in the schooling process but do not want to interfere in the teaching process. Developments in teaching techniques have benefited from advances in technology and the text book of yesterday has been supplemented by the interactive DVD.

A whole range of educational games and educational toys have emerged over the last decade. Designed to tie in with the school curriculum by educationalists and ex teachers, the key is the element of fun they induce to learning. Children look forward to the games and suddenly learning takes on a hidden dimension. But perhaps the real key is the opportunity for parents to join in.

Learning retention is a combination of different inputs. The classroom environment steers children through the lesson presentation, demonstration and discussion activity, a process proven by the National Training Laboratory (NTL) to achieve 50% retention in learning. The key activity derived by the NTL research is the practice function which a highest level in the retention in learning. This activity is sometime difficult to achieve in class due to lack of time or equipment or the spread of abilities in an average class. To overcome this gap in the learning process inevitably the practice function is transformed into homework exercises.

This single activity is seen to be dull, boring and regarded by children, parents and teachers alike as a necessary chore. But there is an alternative. The maths games referred to earlier are an ideal way for parents to play an interactive role with their child at home. Playing educational games as a form of homework generates the practice function which can be lacking in school and according to the NTL achieves a massive 75% retention in learning.

The Future World Leaders And Scientists Are In School Right Now.

The Future World Leaders And Scientists Are In School Right Now.

The world is a small place. Rapidly expanding and almost instantaneous transfer of information, we are reaching parts of the world that were, until a few years ago, impenetrable. Previously a dearth of knowledge led us to believe that such countries were different, alien and held disparate views on life. Perhaps the greatest surprise once a door is opened is the amazing similarity in the aspirations and fears held by parents for their children. Paramount, irrespective of race, creed and colour are concerns over the health and education of their children. Despite the development in technology, the removal of many barriers to freedom and the realisation of a global market, schooling of children remains an international and fundamental concern.

Learning starts early and involves parents playing educational games with their children. The element of fun is a fantastic stimulus that should be present throughout life’s learning journey, but is largely lost as children go to school.

Parents in Fairfax County USA have the same fears and aspirations as those in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the UK. Our knowledge base and influences are becoming international rather than parochial. Globalisation is instigating vast changes in our society, for example just flip over the nearest manufactured object and see if it is not made in China.

If parents view education as a global concern, expressing concerns with current schooling standards why are we unable to correct falling standards. The English language could achieve the status of a global first or second language within a generation thanks in no small part to the spread of the internet. Should we therefore consider a global curriculum with international investment? Vast sums are wasted in localised attempts. Britain as an example invested 22 billion of pounds Sterling over the last 10 years is witnessing falling standards in numeracy and literacy. Many children inadequately equipped to progress from primary to high school subsequently fail to thrive.

The world’s population is expanding yet the number of teachers is not. Stress, changing attitudes in society and pressure to achieve influence many to leave the profession early. So how do we overcome this mounting issue? Whilst computers have infinitely greater processing capacity than three years ago, and many life saving drugs have been developed, academic achievement fundamental to the progression of this cycle is not improving at the same speed. Educational experiments have failed and we are re-introducing teaching techniques contemporary during the lunar landings.

The scaling benefit of a global curriculum would reduce resource costs and widen the application. Perhaps it should also encourage parents to take an active part. Educational games are still fun, stimulate learning and play a crucial role as a teaching resource in school. But they can be used with additional impact at home to replicate the lesson at the pace of the child. The mobilisation of vast numbers of parents providing this additional focus can help overcome the fall in educational standards, and as the saying goes; many hands make light work.

Alistair Owens

Wales Chief Inspector For Schools Wants Parental Involvement

SCHOOLS must do more to involve parents in school life, according to Wales’ new chief inspector for schools. In just six months Dr. Bill Maxwell warned that Wales was in danger of losing its tradition of respecting and valuing education unless more was done to engage parents and carers.“Good schools are taking notice but some need to try harder,” Dr Maxwell said.

“A lot of countries, including Wales, talk about a dip in performance in the early secondary school stages. One of the ways to counter that is to keep that engagement strong between parents, kids and the school.

“Parents tend to get engaged again when their children do exams but in the early years of secondary things can drift.”

A positive role to be considered by parents is to reinforce the classroom lesson. Homework can take on a new dimension and to help are the range of maths games, literacy games, and teaching resources that follow the curriculium.

“Parents want to be involved if they are welcomed in, but that depends on the head. If you are not high up the educational ladder you may feel you don’t understand what the teacher says or be intimidated and more needs to be done to get these parents involved.”

Steven Bowden, head of Porth County Community School, in one of the most deprived parts of Wales, has upped parental involvement by getting them to help run activities and learn with their children.

Take a look at the full article in icWales

Should Teachers Set Homework

After 50 years the much questioned Learning Pyramid ( National Training Laboratories ) remains intact. It states that the second most significant element of learning retention is achieved through practice.

Many teachers accept the time available in class to practice the lesson content is limited and homework therefore has is a multi role objective. It provides an element of practice and also helps children to work on their own away from the teacher. This helps build test and exam skills.

The key way to learn is to also enjoy doing it. Children, parents or teachers who regard homework as a chore are missing the point. Most children who excel are largely influenced by enjoying the subject or project. Surely the key to effective homework is therefore to make it enjoyable. Turning it into a fun exercise using educational games would be far more productive.

Keen2learn.

All Is Not Lost When The Ideal School Is Full

The annual lottery is amongst us. 25% of children in the UK will not get into the secondary school of their choice. That's a staggering 100,000 disappointed families. The Minister for school's advice to appeal against the local decisions is well meant, but do schools with the pressure they are under to perform have the capacity to deal with 100,000 appeals from displaced parents?

If appeals are upheld the precedent could create even greater annual mayhem. The ideal outcome would be a dramatic rise in the number of good schools. In the meantime extra children being shoehorned into larger class sizes at existing preferred schools seems an undesirable outcome. A significant number of 11-13 years old's already fail to thrive in the secondary environment, which must surely increase as a result of either fighting for a place in a good school or having to attend an indifferent school in another area.

The interactive role of the parent is vital in either outcome. Educational authorities consistently promote the profound and continuing role parents can play in the schooling process. Despite the current surface trauma this activity can be real fun! The educational games used as a teaching resource in school are now available on-line to parents. www.keen2learn.com as an example offer a huge range of maths games, English games, and science games that follow the curriculum. Spending time with your child at home recapping on the lesson content is highly practical, enjoyable and can reap dividends.

Are We Looking More At Testing Than Teaching

The downside of the emphasis on testing is the tendency towards “teaching to test” rather than broadening the horizons. The redirection of time consumed in testing could allow the teacher to make a more rounded assessment of a child’s skills and make it more interesting for the child and teacher

If a child is falling behind teachers should enlist extra effort from parents. The range of educational games now matching the curriculum can make the recovery real fun for parents and child at home. This positive interaction would ensure parents maintain a dynamic involvement in schooling process rather than the sudden burst after the end of term or year reports are released.

Do Large Secondary Schools Impair Performance

Dr James Wetz, former headteacher of two large secondary schools and visiting fellow at Bristol University's graduate school of education, argued that large secondary schools are ill-equipped to support pupils and may even stifle their potential in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme.

A huge number of star pupils from primary education fail to thrive in secondary school. Wetz's research, published in 2006, showed that 40% of the young people who left secondary school without a single qualification at GCSE actually achieved average or above-average performance in English, maths or science in key stage two tests at the end of their primary schooling.The dramatic change in schooling procedures, building size and the number of teachers involved overwhelms many children. The drop off being most significant in the age group 11-13.

Dr Wetz suggests the pastoral approach in primary education where one teacher predominately takes all lessons for a class should be adopted at secondary level. The abrupt change to an environment where children will meet 11- 15 different teachers a week causes a disconnect that can be irreparable. The class tutor, gaining only a fleeting view of their charges can be unaware of issues which could be otherwise easily addressed.

Curriculum changes seek to achieve greater lesson integration, something that is difficult without significant liaison, and probably impractical.

The quest to introduce continuity can receive huge support with the parent taking an interactive role to mentor their child. With school class sizes over 30 the 1:1 ratio at home can provide vital encouragement and the active opportunity to go over lessons. With modern classroom resources being in the form of educational games this can also be great fun!

Teaching Resources

One of the keys to effective learning is to fire up the imagination. Children learn more when they are enjoying something rather than seeing it as a chore. There are many computer games that have a "hidden" education content as well as being fun - learning in disguise. The following web site is a good example of the extent of the opportunity for parents to enjoy games with their children.

Educational Toys

Keen2learn - award winning selection of Educational Games, educational games and toys induces fun to stimulate learning.

These three quotations best summarise the opportunity:

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own".
Ben Sweetland

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them".
James Baldwin

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre".
Gail Godwin

The Teaching Trauma

Have you ever considered the number of people who will teach your child during their schooling career? Primary school starts with one or two teachers per year over the three years means your child will be taught by six different teachers. The three years at junior school adds a further nine, but the real shock perhaps arrives at secondary school.

Subject speciality involves a dedicated teacher per subject per year. Allowing for seven subjects over the five years racks up a further 35 teachers. But this assumes that nobody leaves. In reality 50 % of newly qualified teachers quit the profession within three years. Add other changes due to staff movements, retirements, promotions etc. adds a further five changes.

In total the average child will be taught by an army of 65 different teachers during their schooling programme. The law of averages states some of the teachers will be brilliant, others average and unfortunately some will be poor. Add in changes to the curriculum, government policy, lifestyle, technology, social attitudes, and the pot-pourri becomes staggeringly complex.

Yet there is one constant in the equation. As a parent you are present throughout the entire process. And yes – you are a teacher. Who else taught then to walk, talk, ride a bike, understand hygiene health and safety, social etiquette and to stand up for themselves. So why do we let go when they go to school.?

A combination of external issues arises. To some parents it is a relief to get some free time back; work commitments re-emerge and many feel unwilling or possibly inadequate supporting the schooling process; not wishing to interfere. The reality is the opposite. Ask any teacher and they will say one of their biggest frustrations is the absence of parents’ effective involvement in the schooling process. This is not just the end of term report or attending parent’s night, this is the hands on approach throughout the term.

Learning is achieved in stages. The “see and hear” process at school achieves a 30% score in learning retention, whereas the “do” practice activity achieves 75%. Ironically it is this practice function that is the most difficult to achieve at school – timetable, equipment availability, differing learning speeds all conspire to disrupt the activity. Yet this is the one function that is ideal for parents to help at home.

Teachers use a host of educational games to practice the lesson content whenever they can. The further use of these games at home can have a huge befit. This is not the conventional text and exercise homework where parents can perhaps feel isolated. This is spending some fun time at home at the pace of the child enjoying games that significantly help their performance back in class. Like all games there are rules, challenges and the opportunity to become the winner! The key is the opportunity o repeat the exercise at the speed of the child. In effect it is “learning in disguise”

The educational games extend across the whole curriculum, and ideal where a child is perhaps struggling to keep up or wants that extra challenge ahead of the class. More importantly it keeps parents in touch with just how their child is performing and where a little help can have a dramatic effect. And you become the learning mentor, the one constant in a world of academic change!