TA Training

This week teaching staff from Wyndcliffe Primary School attended a CPD session for 'ICT in the classroom'.
The session in which T/A's explored a combination of online resources to support their year groups and curriculum areas. These included creating vodcasts, games and resources both online and portable. These resources could be used to support the creation of displays and build on pupils exsisting knowledge in subject areas.
The sesion was aimed at providing opportunities to support the Excellence and Enjoyment Initiatives. Feed back was excellent and follow up sessions will be done online to support this training.

Art Rage in Portraits

This week pupils from Calthorpe school visited the centre to take part in a Digital Portrait session using ArtRage. Each pupil went through steps using a graphic tablet and pen to create a portrait of themselves.
By inserting a photograph of the pupil as tracing paper each pupil went over the outline of their face and then added colour. They worked really hard and created some beautiful pieces.

Also this week pupils from Al-Hijrah Secondary School attending various ICT sessions learning different aspects of Photoshop, Spreadsheets and Access Databases.

Live Radio Show with Russell Prue!

Today the CLC was utilised to run a live radio show with Year 8 pupils from six different schools within the Central and Oaks Collegiate.

The live radio show is based in the year 2050 and will give a perspective of what the students world will be like. The pupils will give reports on the news, sports and advertising features for that year.

The rehearsals were organised and actioned in excellent form by the pupils who were praised by Russell himself.

The live show is due to go live around 1530 today and Russell will be giving twittering updates throughout the day.

Robin Hood and his Merry Dancers

For the past couple of weeks the CLC staff have been supporting Calthorpe School in creating a Video depicting the adventures of Robin Hood.

The script was written and rehearsed by the pupils in preparation for the CLC to film the show. Filming took place using various equipment including the Green Screen facility. Once filming was completed it was then edited to create a finished video.

All the participating pupils were enthusiastic and worked really hard.

Also the CLC ran several Science Space Days where various schools attended to learn how an astronaut lives in space by trying out various activities.

From Earth and Beyond!

The past couple of weeks have been all about Science, Geography and Dance.

Staff of the CLC visited Calthorpe School to help with a dance project they are doing. Initially pupils were filmed while playing out various dance routines to create a movie which will be edited at a later date. All pupils participated enthusiastically and gave brilliant performances.

Also St Edmunds Primary School attended two days of Astronaut Training sessions, where the pupils of years 5 and 6 ran through various activities to understand what life would be like living in space. They ran through both mental and physical challenges which included learning how to make rockets and space food tasting. Rockets where launched and the one which went furthest determined a winner who recieved a certificate. Pupils worked really hard and produced some good rockets.

Al-Hijrah Secondary school attended Geography sessions in which pupils of year 8 created powerpoint presentations on predicting the weather forecast for the week. Interpreting raw data from UK weather reports, the pupils completed various maps and charts which were then used in a Green Screen filming session. Pupils in pairs of two where filmed using their presentation to create a Weather account for TV. The pupils produced some excellent videos.

Next week the CLC will run more Space day sessions this time with Al-Hijrah years 7, 8, and 9 pupils and also continue collaborating with Calthorpe school on their dance project.

Parkview City Learning Centre

This week the CLC ran several sessions concentrating on the Maths curricullum; also, two CPD days concentrating on using ICT in the classroom for use in a wide range of subjects.

Pupils from Al-Hijrah visited on two days to attend Maths in Movement. These morning sessions enhanced pupils estimation skills for calculating distance . By obtaining the circumference of two different sized wheels, pupils had to manouvere around challenge boards accurately programming their robots to reach a specific destination.
Also Yardleys Secondary School attended a Maths in Motion session in which pupils had to program a virtual racing car to run laps round the Silverstone race track. Firstly by measuring all the straight lines and angles accurately, the pupils then had to calculate percentages using the information they had obtained. Finally allowing them to race their cars against each other to show a winner. All the pupils worked really hard and achieved their set objectives.
Also this week, the CLC ran two days for CPD sessions for using ICT in the classroom. One day was aimed at Teaching Assisstants and the other was for History teachers from various network schools. Both days attendees learnt how they could utilise various software in the their lessons. These days proved to be very successful.

Rockets Rock It!

Last week the City Learning Centre ran several INSET sessions for our Network school education providers. Different courses were run throughout the week ranging from TA resources to music and movie making sessions for teachers. Each session gave the attendees the opportunity to try out various software that could be used in the classroom to enhance teaching. Garageband CPD allowed music teachers to record, edit and create works of music which was burned to dvd for them.

After each session the teachers and TA's were awarded completion certificates for their keeping.
Also, Small Heath Secondary School attended some Maths in Movement and Maths in Motion sessions, in which the pupils of year 9 enjoyed completing various tasks and activities like programming NXT robots accurately using the circumference of a wheel; and tuning car engines to run fast around long straight roads or slow on tight bends using percetange and angle calculations. Each pupil worked well in their groups and produced some excellent work.
This week Calthorpe School, enjoyed the company of our staff to run sessions of Rocketry on site of their school. Calthorpe incorporated our sessions into their Space week theme in which several pupils designed and built their own rockets with the help of staff. These rockets were then launched both indoors and outside to see which rocket would go the farthest. Pupils participated with enthusiam and enjoyed taking their rockets home.

Also this week year 8 pupils of Waverley Secondary School attended a session on Movie making using istop cameras, green screen facilities and imovie software to create a news report based on the story of Romeo and Juliet.

Each pupil worked collaborately within their group to write scripts, roleplay act, record, add sound and edit their movie which was then burned on a DVD for their viewing. All the pupils participated with different ideas and produced some excellent work.