CONTRIBUTORS
Summer looms large on the horizon
This month, regular Education Today contributor GRAHAM COOPER, head of education at Capita SIMS, offers some thoughts on the tasks which schools face as summer draws near and exams loom.
Spring has finally sprung in the UK, which means that the pressure is now on schools to complete the curriculum and prepare students for their summer exams. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done during this
phase of the year and schools I speak to are always looking for ways to make the most of their precious resource, both inside and outside the classroom. However, as the end of the year comes closer and closer, it can help to
create a focus on the most important tasks – and, more importantly, how to get them done with the minimal disruption.
Better late than never It’s long been known that involving and engaging parents in their children’s academic journey leads to greater progress. Now that we’re at the sharp end of the school year, there can be a tendency for previously unengaged parents to develop added interest in the academic performance of their offspring. Joining the party late in this way doesn’t need to be a bad thing and
schools can capitalise on that new-found interest by demonstrating just how good they are at showcasing success and sharing performance.
At a stretch Whilst time appears to be running out at this time of year, the same can be said in some cases for available budget. Schools who have a good hand on the financial tiller will have made sure they have just enough to keep sailing serenely on and no more – or not much more, at least. This can also bring challenges at this time of year, however, as there are
always unplanned events that eat into any financial contingencies. As a result, schools need to stretch their resources to the maximum, often finding new ways of completing tasks by making use of what they have. For example, does every communication home need to be printed, posted
and sent in hard copy? I know schools that save thousands of pounds by sending reports home electronically rather than printing many copies.
Change for the better Longer term, the end of one school year can be a great time to start thinking about the start of a new one. It can often seem a bit daunting to consider something new, but with the right planning, it needn’t be a drama and the outcome is usually positive, especially when it comes to changing ways of working where everyone can see the benefit of the switch. There are plenty of tasks and activities in schools that are done a certain
way because “that’s just the way they’re done”. However, living in a world underpinned by mobile technology and easy-to-use apps, there always seems to be a tech-driven solution designed for users from across the spectrum of abilities and experience levels. Take for instance our range of classroom and parental engagement apps –
instead of taking the full power of SIMS and making it fit a mobile interface, we’ve looked to take the key features and make them as intuitive and accessible as possible for the chosen user, whether that be parent, teacher or student. Whatever your role in the school is, there’s probably a tool designed to
make life easier and potentially reduce costs. As they used to say: there’s an app for that.
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www.education-today.co.uk Teaching with food!
This month, regular Education Today columnist KIRSTY BERTENSHAWoffers some ideas for teachers looking to spice up their science lessons – using food!
Often scientific concepts must be modelled as they cannot really be demonstrated within the time frame given in the classroom. Using food is a way to retain the interest of pupils in the classroom without spending much money! If possible, these ideas can be utilised in a food room, then the foods can be consumed safely at the end. Care should be taken to check for any allergies or food preferences before classes handle or taste foods. Tectonic plates are always difficult to model, and although the
movement of plates can be demonstrated using heated syrup and broken biscuits, it is hard to visualise the plates going around the earth. Easy peel oranges, usually marketed for children’s lunchboxes, can be peeled in one go, with a little care. This piece represents the Earth’s crust. This can then be torn into several large pieces and held back over the orange to show how the crust is made up of plates, but that the whole planet is still covered. It is also easy to see the plate boundaries. Density is often explored practically using oil and water.
Emulsions can be made using washing up liquid, or even using egg to make mayonnaise, although this is no longer part of some GCSE’s. It is hard to relate density to the everyday world of students, so have an Italian-inspired taste session! Balsamic vinegar is frequently served under a layer of olive oli in Italian restaurants, for dipping bread into. This is a real-world model of density – the oil prevents evaporation of the vinegar, limiting the smell of it, but allowing both to be absorbed by the bread when dipped. The oil remains on top, even when stirred with bread, due to it being less dense than the vinegar. Atomic structure is tricky and all theory-based work as we
cannot see the atomic structure with our own eyes. As an alternative to drawing the atomic structures, use strawberry laces to form the electron shells on paper plates. Then, separate out Skittles, M&M’s or other coloured sweets into coloured piles. Select a colour to represent protons, a different colour for neutrons and a third colour for electrons. Once students are confident with the smallest atoms such as hydrogen and helium, they can concentrate on just the electron arrangement for larger atoms up to and including calcium. This idea can be extended for modelling ionic bonding, especially if different coloured sweets are used for each atom’s electrons to illustrate when an electron is gained by an atom. The signs of chemical reactions can be shown in various
experiments in a laboratory, but a fun way is in the kitchen. Cooking an egg is an obvious and regularly used experiment to show a colour change from clear to white but doesn’t show a new product being formed – the usual response is that it is still an egg. Instead, make a simple cake mixture. Examine all the ingredients separately for colour and texture then mix together. At this stage, they are only mixed, and could be separated with a great deal of effort. After cooking, examine the cake. This is a new product, with a different colour and evidence of a gas being produced in the form of air holes in the cake where there were bubbles of carbon dioxide released by thermal decomposition of baking powder. That’s three signs of a chemical reaction and it’s edible!
May 2018
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