Thursday, January 28, 2010

My School website.

"THE My School website  profiles almost 10,000 Australian schools - government, independent and catholic - which can be found by location, sector or name.
The site, compiled by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, gives basic information such as enrolments, teacher numbers and Year 12 completion rates. Visitors can compare numeracy and literacy results for each school with up to 60 schools nationwide with similar socioeconomic profiles." from:    My School site an eyeful.



Teacher unions and some parents are worried myschool.edu.au will be used to create simplistic league tables that could stigmatise poor-performing schools.


In this video  Michael Coutts-Trotter, the Director- General of the NSW Department of Education, explains how the My School website gives parents a snapshot of each school's performance, in comparison to similar schools.


 For further information and interviews about this website:

Julia Gillard answers questions about the new My School website. - Herald Sun

My School Website: Will it portray accurate information about schools? 18/01/2010

NSW

  Media Release my school website will it portray accurate information about schools 

This glossary provides an advanced explanation of some of the terms used on this website.
Click on the link for info about: My School website 





"Government schools urgently need not just more teachers, but more support staff.
Given the comparisons above, even if we doubled the number of support staff in most public schools tomorrow, they still would not come within cooee of many of their large private school neighbours."

"The MySchool website provides a clear and transparent direction about what needs to be done to maintain, support and improve Australia's education performance, particularly for the 70 per cent of students who attend public schools." fromThe great divide in school staff numbers  JANE CARO AND CHRIS BONNOR 1 Feb 2010

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  2010 school year
Information about the return to school for N.S.W. students is now available 


Kids' who read, succeed!!!
Cheers
:-)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Feed your kid's brain-increase their learning speed

brains!Image by cloois via Flickr

 








The brain is a part of the body that requires plenty of fuel and oxygen in order to work efficiently.
In the task of learning,everyone needs to be feeding and treating their body well to maximise this process.



Your children should:

  • Eat every few hours to keep their blood sugar levels up.
  • Exercise  daily
  • Try to relax a few minutes each day.
  • Sleep at least nine hours each night.
  • Drink plenty of water.
  • Eat a light lunch.

adapted from How to boost your brain power.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Parents need not fear the new technologies in the classroom

"It's not just high-school kids who are making good use of the fast-moving technology; Australia's primary school students are now being equipped with the skills needed for the digital age. says KEELI CAMBOURNE  
Learn the language
"Parents need not fear the new technologies", NSW Parents and Citizen Association president Dianne Giblin says.
These technologies also offer greater opportunities for families to learn together. I urge parents to learn the technology as well so they can teach their kids the appropriate use of them including mobile phone and social networking sites," she says.
“The new technologies offer a more engaging way to learn and it's important to remember that it doesn't take away from learning. Kids are still going to learn the basics, but textbooks stagnate.”

To read the rest of the article click here
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Saturday, January 16, 2010

We would love you to post a message on our wishwall.

 Our first wishwall is up and running. 
Wishwall is a new way to communicate.
It is an online Notice Board Maker.
View a demo wall @ Wallwisher demo

Please check it out and post a message. You could post your own message or work with your kids to post a family message @ Latest Happenings at Sandy Beach



Sunday, January 10, 2010

WordTalk

What is WordTalk?

WordTalk is a free utility developed by Rod Macaulay from TASSCC in Aberdeen to add speech output to text in Microsoft Word documents. It can also be used to listen to different suggestions offered by the spellchecker.

WordTalk is a free text-to-speech plugin developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97 upwards). It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes.

Children with Reading and writing difficulties often benefit from having text read aloud to them.
This could be a valuable resource for kids at home or at school.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Take care with your cables

"Here's a sad reminder that USB cables belong plugged into peripherals, not children. Toddler Trinity Anderson was playing with a USB cable plugged into a laptop and put it in her mouth, which shocked her and knocked her out."

By Richard Wheeler (Zephyris) 2007.Image via Wikipedia


 

"This was clearly a freak accident, but it's a good reminder
that while these cables and gadgets we use are now commonplace, everyday items, they still carry a current and should be treated with care." [Colorado Daily] Adam Frucci


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