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We are currently all getting used to partial school closures and many of you are having to juggle staff rotas, whilst also thinking about how to ensure children entitled to FSM are getting fed and keeping in touch with vulnerable pupils to check on their well-being. In addition, staff are trying their best to support parents with distance learning opportunities - we applaud you for your efforts and know you are doing a great job in these uncertain times. This newsletter includes some staff training opportunities from a number of our partners.
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To help students of all ages understand social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Discovery Education has launched a new application for iOS devices called the "Social Distancing Trainer". This new app, available at no cost in the Apple App store, brings important educational information about safe and healthy social distancing to students and teachers around the globe through the power of augmented reality.
Complete with timely information about the health crisis, the Social Distancing Trainer empowers classroom and home learning discussions with real-time tools and provides a virtual understanding of what safe distance looks by using augmented reality technology. While in the application, users can also access a wealth of resources about COVID-19 from trusted sources such as the World Health Organization, the Centres for Disease Control, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, and more.
Sadly, we are aware that more and more families and school communities have knowledge of a person who has died as a result of COVID-19. We have therefore ensured that key information is included on a bespoke page in support of schools to support you during the pandemic https://coronavirus.lgfl.net/bereavement.
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'The Social Distancing Trainer' - walkthrough resource video
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Nothing beats being part of a creative community. That’s why Adobe created Creative Jams - an event series where local Adobe experts share a behind-the-scene peek into their processes and projects; meanwhile, teams compete in a tournament that puts their creative skills to the test using Adobe Creative Cloud.
Following a hugely successful Creative Jam for the LGfL community in February, we have now released a Creative Challenge Kit that gives you the structure and assets to organise a Creative Jam with your students, either at the school or virtually.
Created in partnership with The Ocean Agency and #glowinggone campaign the project gives students the opportunity to respond to a design challenge and create a digital video using amazing footage and Adobe's Premiere Rush video-editing application. It uses a global campaign on our oceans and climate change as the background for the challenge.
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Whether your school routinely supports distance learning or is finding itself in a totally new situation with COVID-19, we've assembled resources and learning opportunities to help educators engage remote students through online learning. From the Adobe Distance Learning page you can find resources, blog posts, webinars, online training, wellbeing resources and much more both from Adobe and our partners. The page is updated daily! Adobe Live Master Classes brings amazing speakers and experts to your sofa everyday: maybe take part in a daily Photoshop Challenge, learn hand lettering basics or create your own colouring sheets.
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Book free live lessons with polar scientists and learn about life and science in the frozen north. Join #distancelearning on the world’s most northernly live education event, it’s free! Introduce STEM role models, learn about life in the Arctic and inspire curiosity with @AXA_XL #ArcticLive on @encounteredu 4-15 May. Bookings: http://bit.ly/37GBXxA
Remember that we also have LGfL's Polar Exploration resource. Visit the summary page for more information.
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We are delighted to announce we won the award for "Supplier of the Year - Not for Profit" at The Education Resources Awards 2020.
The judges commented, "Through their diverse portfolio of services this company supports the community in a wide range of initiatives and demonstrates great social responsibility. Their provision energises teaching and learning whilst tackling inequality and promoting pupil wellbeing."
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Given the wholesale shift to remote teaching, and the important role broadcast resources can play in keeping pupils engaged while studying at home, ERA are working hard to ensure schools have ready access to broadcast recordings and are developing a growing range of resources based around broadcast content that support remote teaching and learning.
They are keen to ensure that all schools understand that the ERA Licence permits educators to continue to use TV and radio broadcast materials for remote teaching and that pupils and parents are also able to access this content directly from home.
Their free online resources are still be available to educators and students outside of the classroom. They have made their popular Subject Collections available digitally - these provide a hand-picked selection of broadcast media clips related to the subject content that pupils would usually be covering at school, with a downloadable resource to help them record their learning. Over the coming weeks they will be producing collections for additional subjects and Key Stages.
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BusyThings are currently working hard to support schools with distance learning ideas. They are producing a series of suggested activities aimed at different Key Stages.
Find them at https://coronavirus.lgfl.net/schools/homelearning/BusyThings
There are also helpful tutorials on the BusyThings Channel on LGfL TV; these include Assigning Work to Pupils, Managing Content for Pupils Working at Home, Phonics and Maths Resource Makers and many more.
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We have had 186 schools release their data to allow home access to BusyThings in the last two weeks!
Therefore everyone who has released data was entered into a prize draw for some BusyThings goodies! The March winners were as follows:
De Bohun N14 4AD
La Fontaine BR1 2SQ
Perivale UB6 7AP
Beaumont CR8 4DN
Menorah NW11 9SP
Yardley E4 7PH
We only need 19 more to get to the next 50! Have you got USO access for BusyThings? If not, please contact sue@busythings.co.uk.
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Due to the Covid19 situation we have ramped up development of j2e to provide resources and apps to help teachers and students with distance teaching and learning. LGfL schools have been in contact to get advice on how to best to support their teachers to make use of j2e for distance teaching and learning and are particularly asking about video, audio and as many means of supporting children’s emotional well-being during this concerning time for everyone.
There are also helpful tutorials on the j2e Channel on LGfL TV; these include Creating and Sharing Work with Pupils, j2e Distance Teaching and Learning, j2e Video Capture and many more.
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To support the learning process we launched J2homework - a brand new app in the Toolsuite that lets teachers set homework or tasks, supported with files, documents, worksheets, activities or weblinks, and enables pupils and parents to keep track of the set homework, due dates, instructions and additional supporting material including audio or video messages from the teacher.
A quickstart guide to j2homework can be watched here.
To support LGfL teachers we have also released quick start guides to show the tools available to teachers. We have launched a 10 minute quick start video that provides essential information and ideas for teachers to be equipped with j2e knowledge and begin using it for distance teaching. The information pack for LGfL teachers can be found here. This is part of the home learning ideas guide here.
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For those LGfL schools that haven’t completed their data declaration for USO yet, we have launched a service which enables them to still access j2e by just using their school postcode: https://www.j2e.com/lgfl/schoolclosure.
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Here is a short video explaining logging in to j2e either with USO or with school postcode.
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A new animation and song for EYFS and KS1 has been launched by LGfL DigiSafe. The Undressed campaign helps schools teach the youngest children not to get undressed when they are using devices, which is a very important safeguarding message as many young children are tricked into doing just this. See undressed.lgfl.net to sing along and find out more.
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To support schools with their Prevent duty, we have developed new CPD materials for school staff – Counter-Extremism: Preventing Radicalisation in Schools. The new resource focuses on the threat of far-right extremism and a whole school approach to tackling the threat. It includes advice from DSLs and Prevent practitioners on referrals and thresholds, information for all staff on vulnerabilities and a young man radicalised by the far right who explains what his school did and did not do! Visit counterextremism.lgfl.net
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Upcoming Training and Events
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Due to school closures we are currently unable to deliver the training programme planned for summer term. We are considering the best way to support schools during school closure. Please do visit https://coronavirus.lgfl.net/ for the latest information and advice from LGfL.
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Google Training for LGfL Schools
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Our curriculum blog is updated weekly and showcases resources from LGfL to help support you in delivering the curriculum and we are also currently writing blogs aimed at parents and carers during the school closures.
Please let us know what future blog posts you would like to read or indeed if you would like to write a guest blog post about the use of LGfL resources in your school and the impact it is having, we would welcome such contributions! So that you never miss a post you can subscribe.
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Dates for Your Diary
W/B 22nd June 2020 - London Maths Week (LGfL are one of the partners).
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For information about dates and resources with Inclusion in mind, visit inclusioncalendar.lgfl.net.
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Regards,
Your Learning Resource Consultants
Laura Smith and Bradley Dardis
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Connect with us and join our growing community
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