News
Illuminating Class Changes at Chatham Special Needs Academy
Bradfields Academy, a leading centre of excellence in the Special Education sector based at Chatham, Kent, has just installed a new ‘child-friendly’ class change system to help the smooth running of the school. With a roll of 295 students ranging from 4 to 19 years of age, Bradfields
Academy is a large campus spread over 3 separate buildings. “Getting classes to change on time was a problem as one of our buildings had no class change system, and the other two had different systems which weren’t synchronised. They were also loud, harsh and not very child friendly, which can be quite disturbing for students with special needs.” said business manager Lesley Osborne. “We really needed a system that would alert the students throughout the academy that it was time to change class, mid- morning or lunch break, but one that would be more sympathetic to the student’s needs.” The new system installed by Bodet incorporates new clocks and melody
sounders which are synchronised by a programme on the academy’s central computer. At each class change or break, sounders play a gentle pre- recorded melody simultaneously throughout all buildings. During inclement weather, a rocker switch changes the melody to a pre-recorded voice announcement alerting the students that it’s a wet break so they know to stay inside. The programme is also easy to modify to a holiday mode so there are no
alerts on training days or during vacations. “Some of the students suffer with hearing difficulties, while others need to
wear ear defenders so they may not hear the melodies” added Osborne. “We therefore added lighting modules to the system so there is a visual alert as well as the sound melodies. They are a real help, not only for students with hearing impairment, but for those in IT classes who may be wearing headphones.” “The gentle sounds and lights are very different from the usual harsh bell-
type systems, but it works really well and now all class changes and breaks occur smoothly and efficiently. More importantly, we have had really positive feedback from the students since we installed the new system.”
Discovery Education Community offers summer institute for its school partners
UK educators are invited, by the Discovery Education Community, to become involved in their annual DEN Summer Institute (DENSI). The 2015 DENSI, held in Washington, D.C. (USA), is a weeklong professional development event for educators all over the world. Five educators from the UK will be chosen to attend the all-expenses paid trip to this teaching and learning event. DENSI boasts numerous hands-on learning experiences for
teachers to use the latest technologies to inspire their students to become digital citizens and empower them to become a part of a global community. Teachers learn how to use digital resources in the classroom with practical strategies that are ready to implement. Further, DENSI encourages educators in attendance to
network with one another, share techniques and lesson ideas, and build a global support system. “Discovery Education isn’t about promoting a certain
product, telling you how to do something, or giving you the latest technology, it’s really about connecting you with people who are passionate about learning and enabling you to learn from each other and to share your ideas. So the main things I came away with, as well as a whole host of exciting resources and apps to try out, was a connection and a real audience for the children to have, and a global one at that,” says a 2014 DENSI participant, Andrew Phoenix, the Head Teacher of Hampsthwaite CE Primary School in North Yorkshire. To be considered for DENSI, educators must share their
best practices and how they transform teaching and learning in their school in a written summary and a two- minute video. Submissions are due by 29 May 2015 via
DiscoveryEducation.co.uk/densi.
UK primary students win competition to send experiments into space
Students from Croydon and Esher Primary Schools will soon be sending their own experiments into space after winning the Astro Pi “Big Idea” competition. Blasting to the top amongst hundreds of entrants, their ideas will now be turned into reality and be run in space on the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2015 with Britain’s very own European Space Agency astronaut, Tim Peake. Nearly 200 teams from primary schools and
clubs all over the UK submitted ideas for experiments and games to be performed using the modified Raspberry Pi computer. This computer, dubbed the ‘Astro Pi’, will be operated by Tim Peake on-board the ISS. He will set the winning experiments running, collect the data generated and then download it to Earth where it will be distributed to the winning teams. Tim Peake announced the winners in a
video message from Star City, where he is currently training. Hannah Belshaw from Cumnor House Girl’s
May 2015
School in Croydon won top place with her idea to represent data from the Astro Pi in the world of Minecraft. The Cranmere Code Club team from Esher were also winners with their idea to investigate whether the Astro Pi can detect the presence of astronauts on the ISS using the temperature and humidity sensors. Both schools will now receive a class set of
Astro Pi kits, which will allow them to explore the Astro Pi further and get involved in the data logging activities once Tim starts his mission. “The standard of entries was tremendously high”, said SSTL’s Doug Liddle from the Astro Pi judging team. “Ultimately, the winning teams had to propose ideas that were creative, practical and useful to stand a chance of winning.
I hope that most of these
talented primary school teams also decide to get involved in the next stage of the competition and give the secondary schools a run for their money.”
uwww.astro-pi.org www.education-today.co.uk 5
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