With World Book day taking place on Thursday 3rd March this year, we spoke to some schools around the UK who did something special to raise awareness of the cause to their pupils.

World Book Day was chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to be a worldwide celebration of books and reading and is now celebrated in over 100 countries around the world.

As it has become more and more of a success every year, the day has now become a partnership between publishers, booksellers and other interested parties. All of these groups now work together to promote books and reading to encourage children to explore the pleasures of both.

There were lots of events taking place this year for World Book Day with many different people, schools and businesses getting involved. Some publishers who participated in the day’s events and offered their support include Oxford University Press, Pan Macmillan, Penguin and Scholastic.

We spoke to Priestlands School in Lymington which is a secondary school with approximately 1,200 pupils aged between 11 and 16. To celebrate World Book Day, they held a “Big Book Swap” in their school library. On the day, all pupils and teachers were asked to bring in a book that they no longer wanted and they could then swap that for a book somebody else had bought in. The school actively encouraged all their pupils to leave a little message inside the book they swapped to say what they thought of it.

As well as the Big Book Swap, the English department at the school ran a competition to see who could design the best bookmark to celebrate the day and even the teachers had their own book box of swaps.

Baines Endowed School in Lancashire also had plenty going on during the week of World Book Day. A range of authors including Tom Palmer and Michael Cox visited the pupils at the school, as well as poets John Row and John Siddique.

Other events taking place at the school included a play put on by year 5 pupils, the chance for students to dress up in their pyjamas and the winners of a speaking competition which was held at the school performed for the rest of the pupils and their parents and were then awarded their book prize.

Did you do anything for World Book Day or are you already planning something for next year? Let us know by leaving your comments below.

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Recently back from the Council of British International Schools’ (COBIS) conference for teachers and leaders in Prague, which included a session on the The International Primary Curriculum (IPC), Gerry Hillier-Manolas reflects upon the relevance of the curriculum for British schools in the UK as well as those abroad.

For anyone who did their teacher training prior to the introduction of the National Curriculum (NC) in 1989, the IPC – which is now being used in over 1,000 schools in 65 countries around the world – heralds a return to the best bits of cross curricular teaching. Even in ‘89 we knew that children learnt best when subjects were linked together in as many ways as possible. Now, with the development of research into the brain and how we learn, we can prove scientifically that children who are educated using this method generally remember more of what they learn.

The difference this time round is that rather than having some very tenuous links within topics, trying to ensure all curriculum areas are covered, with the IPC schools are encouraged to teach some things in isolation. PE and RE, PSHE and of course maths and English skills are some subjects that will need individual lessons.

Easy cross referencing

Another key benefit of using the IPC is that there are over 90 different units to select from, allowing each school the ability to choose units that reflect their children’s interests and the expertise of their staff.  To make sure that all aspects of knowledge, skills and understanding are covered thoroughly within the programme a school selects, it can be cross referenced using a computer programme. With a click of a mouse schools can identify areas they have missed out, enabling them to make changes or decide what needs to be taught separately; no lengthy inset days are required to cross reference every curriculum document with schemes of work.

More than festivals, flags and food days

What surprised and pleased me the most was to see how many UK schools had decided to take on the IPC within their schools as a better alternative to the NC. This curriculum, with its international focus filtered throughout all the themes is relevant in British schools in the UK as well as those abroad. We are in a world which, thanks to technology, is becoming smaller and smaller and our pupils need to be prepared to work in an international environment, and not just a British one. The IPC delivers this in all areas, something the NC only achieves in part and even then only if the school believes it’s important. A truly international education has to be more than festivals, flags and food days.

If you want to change your school curriculum and give children something to get really fired up about, I recommend you take a closer look. For the first time in 10 years I really wanted to get back in a classroom and teach: it just made so much sense and looked so much fun.

In a rapidly changing world, don’t your children deserve the best start to help them live and work within a truly international environment?

Contact Steven Mark and find out more at www.internationalprimarycurriculum.com

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Last night we attended the exhibitor’s dinner at the Holiday Inn at the Prague Conference Centre. The venue was stunning and we were more than impressed. The evening started with a champagne reception and then a year 11 and year 12 student from a local school provided us with some exceptional musical entertainment.

After this, a buffet dinner was served followed by an amazing array of desserts which were far too tempting to turn down. A great night was had by all as it provided an opportunity to talk to other exhibitors at the conference who we might not have had the chance to speak to otherwise.

This morning Gerry headed off to the English College of Prague who have been using Eteach to advertise their teaching posts for many years now. She had a very pleasant meeting with the head teacher of the school, Mark Waldron and the meeting enabled her to find out more about the school and some of the unique features that it offers to its students.

After lunch Gerry headed off to a talk called ‘Getting on the way to Mastering Level with the IPC’ and I went to a session all about blogs and wikis. As expected, we both thoroughly enjoyed the talks and were disappointed that this was now the end of the 2011 COBIS Conference for Teachers and Leaders.

With that, I headed off to the airport and Gerry excitedly awaited the arrival of her husband and son who flew out to Prague to join Gerry for a short break so they can explore the city some more.

All in all, a great time was had by everyone who attended the conference, whether as an exhibitor or a member of teaching staff. It provided great networking opportunities and the chance to learn more about the education sector through all the talks which were held over the two days. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we are already counting down the days until the 2012 conference.
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What is Ed Balls thinking?

Increased pressure is being placed upon those in senior roles within schools after Ed Balls made his recent announcement about cutbacks. While head teachers are very skilled professionals, it seems that they are the people likely to lose their jobs if the cuts go ahead.

The success of a good school is down to the skills of head teachers and their staff. Clearly, without good leaders our schools will suffer. But by “thinning out” good leaders – by asking them to manage larger schools or groups of schools – we would be stretching existing resources to their limits. Simply threatening teachers with cuts will have the effect of de-stabilizing many schools.

Serious questions need to be asked about spending within the government, rather than focusing on the people on the front line, who, day in day out, deliver the service to the ultimate end users: our children.

There are many other areas the government could look at before it cuts teachers jobs. One is the investment it’s putting in to the new Schools Recruitment Service.

The DCSF has awarded a contract estimated to be worth £12 million to build and operate the Schools Recruitment Service – ignoring the fact that there are already very viable and capable providers in this space, like Eteach, who can and who already do deliver this service without spending £12 million.

Eteach is committed to reducing the cost of recruitment – and is the only company that can guarantee that it will cut the cost of a school’s recruitment.

“Education – Education – Education” was the pledge from New Labour when they were first elected; now it’s “Education cuts – Education cuts – Education cuts.” What a shocking turnaround!

One thing we know for sure when it comes to cutting costs is that cutting teachers’ and school leaders’ jobs is not the answer.

I am very keen to understand your position on these cutbacks. If you were required to make the decision on where cutbacks should be made, where you would start?

Are we investing enough in Education?

ECIS Conference, Cascais, Portugal

Over 500 senior school leaders from across the world attended the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Conference in Cascais, Portugal. The conference held over April 16 – 19 focused on ‘Leading for Educational Excellence through the Economic Crisis’

Throughout the conference, Eteach International contributed to this vibrant discussion and extended it’s network with Directors, Headteachers and Business Managers representing International Schools from every continent.

With the world undergoing tremendous changes in finances and leadership, with birth rates falling and life expectancy increasing on a global scale the planning and development of future International Education are clearly hot topics…

What do you think? How do schools and professionals prepare students for…

• higher old age dependency rations and long life societies
• developing life course arrangements of working and learning
• an increased diversity of populations
• modern and future labour markets

As you know Eteach International leads recruitment innovation and we believe in the delivery of cost effective ways to connect schools, teachers, leaders and support staff. This is even more important during this current economic period…

The provision of quality education provision is essential for long term economic recovery and the stimulus of industry and political leaders of the future… what do you think?

Is Education in the UK and overseas investing enough in the education of children and young people? Add a comment in the post below.