Get Set Kids

Get Set Kids is a great new family magazines distributed to 10,000 famillies around County Durham and ran by Allison Mendleson and Emma Ord. Published 3 times a year it is full of information, offers and competitions. Great ideas to keep the children happy over the Easter Holiday and local places to visit from Raby Castle to Planet Kids Toddler group at the new Excel Centre in Newton Aycliffe.

We are running a competition in this issue to win a Jolly Phonics CD & Book, so make sure you get your copy. If you aren't luck enough to get your hands on a copy visit the website where you will find lots going on and the events calendar is packed full of great ideas from Alnwick Gardens to Bishop Auckland food Festival.

Fun Times Tables Flashcards

Children often find it tricky to learn their times tables. Keeping it simple and fun could be the answer. Our new range of Flashcards from The Green Board Company is ideal to play anywhere. At home for a family games night, in the garden on a nice Spring day or in a restaurant when you want to keep the children entertained. For older children Maths Wrap is also good on car journeys and gets children to learn their Times Tables by winding string round a hand held gadget, great for those reluctant ones that like doing and seeing rather than recitinging parrott fashion.

THE AIMS OF THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

The new curriculum becomes statutory in 2011.

The National Curriculum has three broad aims. It should enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

These aims should inform all aspects of teaching and learning and be the starting point for curriculum design.

The curriculum should reflect values in our society that promote personal development, equality of opportunity, economic wellbeing, a healthy and just democracy, and a sustainable future.
These values should relate to:

• ourselves, as individuals capable of spiritual, moral, social, intellectual and physical growth and development
• our relationships, as fundamental to the development and fulfilment of happy and healthy lives, and to the good of the community
• our society, which is shaped by the contributions of a diverse range of people, cultures and heritages
• our environment, as the basis of life and a source of wonder and inspiration that needs to be protected.

nebusiness.co.uk - News - Business News - Women doing it for themselves when it comes to networking

Networking aimed solely at businesswomen in the North East is continuing to thrive despite the huge number of mixed business networking events available. Karen Dent finds out more about one women-only networking group for entrepreneurs in County Durham.
More than 90 women working in and around Durham City are now members of FIND, which provides them with a central hub to access business information, education, support and guidance.
Although it has a central theme of friendship, the group’s main aim remains boosting female entrepreneurship and combating statistics which regularly suggest that women are half as likely to be involved in starting up a business as men.
Members range from women at the pre-start-up stage who are still finalising their business idea to businesswomen whose companies have been established for years and are seeking new clients or new ideas.
In addition to providing a network of contacts and the opportunity to share information, FIND organises regular seminars and workshops which are usually held at the Durham Marriott Hotel.
Ms Williams-Maughan says the group is an important outlet for local female entrepreneurs.
“The majority of members are people like me working from home who don’t have colleagues to bounce ideas off,” she says.
FIND was the first networking group that marketing and PR woman Sarah Weightman tried after starting up her own business.
Durham-based Ms Weightman says: “I was a little bit nervous going for the first time. I found it to be really welcoming and it gave me confidence to go along to other ones.”
She says that making the initial move to attend a session can be intimidating to start with.
But she reckons her main worry was her young age rather than the fact she was female.
“I started my business when I was 25. I was always one of the youngest there,” she said. “That in itself made it a little bit difficult. It’s perhaps more an experience thing.”
But discovering FIND gave her the confidence to learn more about networking and how valuable it can be to fledgling entrepreneurs.
“Since then I’ve gone along to other ones, maybe more traditional networking events,” said Ms Weightman.
“I’ve met some really valuable contacts – people I’ve started to work in partnership with and people where I have become their client, such as chartered accountants. It’s just really valuable and useful.”

More than 90 women working in and around Durham City are now members of FIND, which provides them with a central hub to access business information, education, support and guidance.
Although it has a central theme of friendship, the group’s main aim remains boosting female entrepreneurship and combating statistics which regularly suggest that women are half as likely to be involved in starting up a business as men.
Members range from women at the pre-start-up stage who are still finalising their business idea to businesswomen whose companies have been established for years and are seeking new clients or new ideas.
In addition to providing a network of contacts and the opportunity to share information, FIND organises regular seminars and workshops which are usually held at the Durham Marriott Hotel.
Ms Williams-Maughan says the group is an important outlet for local female entrepreneurs.
“The majority of members are people like me working from home who don’t have colleagues to bounce ideas off,” she says.
FIND was the first networking group that marketing and PR woman Sarah Weightman tried after starting up her own business.
Durham-based Ms Weightman says: “I was a little bit nervous going for the first time. I found it to be really welcoming and it gave me confidence to go along to other ones.”
She says that making the initial move to attend a session can be intimidating to start with.
But she reckons her main worry was her young age rather than the fact she was female.
“I started my business when I was 25. I was always one of the youngest there,” she said. “That in itself made it a little bit difficult. It’s perhaps more an experience thing.”
But discovering FIND gave her the confidence to learn more about networking and how valuable it can be to fledgling entrepreneurs.
“Since then I’ve gone along to other ones, maybe more traditional networking events,” said Ms Weightman.
“I’ve met some really valuable contacts – people I’ve started to work in partnership with and people where I have become their client, such as chartered accountants. It’s just really valuable and useful.”

Phoenix Trading UK Page for Ann Williams-Maughan

Phoenix Trading UK Page for Ann Williams-Maughan: "Phoenix Trading UK Page for Ann Williams-Maughan"

Teacher cutbacks 'short-sighted'

Scotland's largest teaching union has attacked "short-sighted" cuts in teacher training numbers.
The EIS predicted a third of Scotland's teachers were set to retire in the next few years.
It added that cutting back on training new teachers could create "a massive problem" in the future.
A Scottish government spokesman said it was working towards getting the right number of teachers for future generations of pupils.
Four out of five teachers who qualified this summer have not found full-time jobs.
The government has said it had cut the number of training places in response to that, falling school rolls and education authorities cutting the number of posts in schools by almost 2,500.
Reducing student numbers will create more jobs for those teachers already qualified
Scottish government spokesman
But it said there was no point in educating teachers for the dole queue and it planned to build up student numbers in future.
The union said schools may struggle to fill vacancies and training institutions may struggle to produce more new teachers because of job losses among those who teach the teachers.
EIS general secretary Ronnie Smith said cuts in the number of new teachers being trained was bad news for Scottish education, both at school and university level.
"These cuts are hitting the budgets of teacher education departments in universities, and forcing them to reduce their numbers of lecturing staff," he said.
"Cutting back on the number of trainee teachers and the number of university education lecturers is remarkably short-sighted, and runs the risk of creating a massive problem in a few years' time.
'Stimulating demand'
"The Scottish Government has adopted the easy answer to the problem of lack of job opportunities for new teachers by slashing the future student intakes.
"But their focus should be on stimulating demand for new teachers, not cutting the supply."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "We took the difficult decision to reduce student teacher intakes to deal with teacher unemployment.
"Reducing student numbers will create more jobs for those teachers already qualified.
"Furthermore, ministers have also asked Graham Donaldson to conduct a thorough review of teacher education in Scotland, from initial teacher education through induction and continuous professional development."

Young people's writing: Attitudes, behaviour and the role of technology

Writing is an important issue in the UK today. While children’s and young people’s writing standards steadily improved until 2006, levels have not increased in recent years. Writing is much more than just an educational issue – it is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today’s society and to contribute to the economy.
Relatively little is known about young people’s views about writing in the UK. The key objectives of this survey were therefore: to explore how much young people enjoy writing, what type of writing they engage in, how good at writing they think they are, what they think about writing and what the role of technology is in young people's writing.This report outlines the findings from 3001 pupils aged 8-16 from England and Scotland, who completed an online survey in May 2009. It explores gender and age differences, and examines the link between socio-economic background (in terms of free school meals) and writing. Furthermore, it explores young people's writing with respect to mobile phone ownership, having a blog and having a profile on a social networking site. It concludes with practical and policy implications.