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VIEWS & OPINION


The solution that helps the education sector take control


of its tail spend Comment by SAMUEL TSE, BA (Hons), Assistant Category Manager - Document Management and Logistics (DML), Crown Commercial Services


In January 2022 Crown Commercial Services (CCS) launched a ‘first of its kind’ online tail spend solution to help the public sector get the best deal on the procurement of millions of low value, ad-hoc products. The solution was developed after extensive engagement with our public and third sector customers. Tail spend refers to low value, low volume,


ad hoc spend. These purchases are often made outside of an organisation's established procurement processes, and can generally account for approximately 20% of spend spread across a significant number of individual suppliers. Organisations usually purchase tail spend products to meet a specific,


short term need. For a school or college, tail spend products could include sports equipment such as gym mats and tennis bats, or drama and sports equipment. Spend like this is often invisible until it appears in an organisation's end of year accounts, and can cause significant budget pressures if not


controlled properly; this is worsened by the recent inflationary pressures.


Why manage tail spend and how CCS is helping By properly managing tail spend you can save time and money and ensure visibility throughout the supply chain. CCS plays an important role helping the UK public sector save money


when buying common goods and services. We are the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK. We have a vast amount of experience supporting the educational sector with its procurement needs. Our solution helps education providers to bring tail spend under control


by enabling buyers to spend less time and money on invoicing, increase visibility and control of 'hidden’ spend, and improve their spend data. It enables users to pull product searches together in one place, saving


you and your organisation time, whilst achieving an array of commercial benefits. The agreement also allows you to filter product searches based on social value criteria such as vendor locations and sustainable products. This is the first time a centralised tail spend solution with a single route


to market has been made available to the whole UK public and third sectors. Schools and other public sector and third sector organisations can purchase educational resources, musical instruments, camera equipment and other non-safety critical products through the free to use online platforms. This solution will give schools and colleges the ability to control their tail


spend by providing them with an end-to-end service, combining both efficiency gains during the sourcing of goods and financial savings delivered through consolidation.


To find out more about our Tail Spend Solution, visit the Crown Commercial Service website at https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/


Memorising information Comment by KIRSTY BERTENSHAW, founder of STEMtastic


The GCSE’s curriculum requires large amounts of information to membered, whether it be new vocabulary, dates and locations of battles, scientific or mathematical formulae or the reactivity series. Memorising this much information can be difficult, so here are a few methods to try.


Chunking Information is grouped together in small groups for memory, and then practiced in the small groups. This can then encompass other methods such as mnemonics. For example, for trigonometry, learning the equations for Sin, Cos and Tan, a mnemonic can help with this small chunk of information. The smaller the chunk, the easier it is to memorise.


Mnemonics These are popular in the science curriculum already, for example the mnemonic P.A.N.I.C – “positive anode, negative is cathode” for electrolysis. Some students prefer to make their own mnemonics up, but an example should be provided for those who prefer just to learn one they are given. Practise repeating the mnemonics, writing them out and the associated information lists. If students get stuck on questions, use the mnemonics as hints!


Flash cards Flash cards work best if they are in the style of question on one side, answer on the reverse. Students can make their own flash cards for a curriculum topic for use at home for revision but will need to see examples as a guide to making good flashcards with limited information on them. A premade set of flashcards with questions and answers on the same side can be produced for each topic area, and regularly used in class, for example as


24 www.education-today.co.uk


plenaries. The more they are used, perhaps in small groups with a set of flashcards each, the more students will recall the information through repetition. Add competitiveness to the plenary, for example, students might take it in turns to ask each other the question on the card. If their peer gets the question right, they ‘win’ the card. The one with the most cards ‘wins’ overall, perhaps earning a sticker. (Never underestimate the power of stickers, even at secondary school!).


Match up memory card games Whether learning circuit symbols, chemical formulas, new vocabulary in another language, or dates and events, match up card games are good fun but also reinforce learning. Even simpler versions include matching a sum to its answer. Premade card packs take time to produce, but once made can be reused regularly, again as plenaries or starter activities, reinforcing learning.


Visualisation Visual learners respond better to seeing information. Mind maps are great for this, from basic spider diagrams to cross-linked information. These can be turned into word-fill exercises which slowly increase in difficulty, requiring more and more information to be recalled until the students are making the mind map themselves. Diagrams are also useful, for example, drawing a picture of an animal cell then annotating the information about the organelles and adaptations, or having a diagram of a practical that has to be learned for chemistry, then writing the method based on the diagram.


Out loud learning Some students process auditory stimuli better than visual learning. For these students, poems, songs, and performances increase recall. For example, there is a song about circle properties that is rather memorable, and by becoming an ‘ear worm’ it also enables the learner to recall the equations for circles. This might be a task students prefer to do on their own, or on a purely voluntary basis. Students have mixed preferences so using a variety of techniques is best and repeating them regularly.


June 2022


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