Pagabo the home educational revision system is seen as a real alternative to traditional print based revision guides. Stuffed full of educational games this on-line system learning platform provides children with a stimulating and challenging way to learn and revise. The single subscription fee of £29.99 allows access by the whole family for a year. Already used by over 700 schools to support children the comprehensive programme includes access to over 30,000 curricular questions and a multitude of games.
Pagabo operates on a reward interface whereby answering the questions correctly unlocks new games with results being displayed at the end of the session. It entices children to learn by having fun. Purchased by parents for the whole family, Pagabo will help families learn together and inspire learners’ performance.
The range of subjects is growing and is fully accessible to all using the system. The range of revision games cover key stage 1, Key stage 2, key stage 3, key stage 4 and Diploma
The school holidays create real quality time opportunities with the children. To help deal with the inevitable “Mum I’m bored” and “Are we there yet?” bursts of enthusiasm from the kids, keen2lean has a number of educational travel games ready to hand. Some are ideal for that glass case marked “break glass in an emergency.”
Those wet days or the long journeys we all love as parents can have their moments. You have run out enthusiasm for yet another round of I spy; the clues have become just too ridiculous! Ideally you want games that are fun easy to play and have educational content.
“No one really wants to think about school during the holidays so the best the travel games have a hidden content; learning in disguise as we call it” says Alistair Owens MD at keen2learn. The latest range just added to keen2learn are decks of cards called Fun Decks. Packed in flip top tin they can be played for minutes or hours; the rules are simple, based on the curriculum and they are used in schools to great effect. Now parents and grandparents can play these games knowing they are encouraging learning with the children. A wide range of literacy games are available covering everything from irregular verbs, understanding inferences to synonyms all as a decks of 56 cards.
For the kids who believe it’s impossible to have fun without ear phones the educational game Bunja is ideal. It uses MP3 technology to incorporate a range of maths games. Bunja has some very clever aspects; it learns how the child is performing and adjust the level of questions up or down in difficulty. It also lets parents and teachers check on a child’s performance with a summation feature. The game rewards the child with a chapter of an interactive story set in the jungle. Each time a set of questions is answered they can interact with the next chapter of the story.
Children understandably don’t like homework thrown in their face especially during holidays. But the benefits of practising what they are learning through educational games has a huge impact on their ongoing capacity to learn . Making it fun where all the family can join in helps loose the schoolwork stigma. Nothing new, teachers do this in the class and all the games on the keen2learn site are used extensively by teachers.
A vast reserve army of teaching resources lies largely untapped. Although our mainstream schools employ around 450,000 (full time equivalent) teachers there are 7.5 million parents of school-age children. The historic impasse towards capturing this huge additional educational resource lies in how best to mobilise parents. Playing educational games at home and school has helped . But the main chasm is about to be breached by groups of parents and teachers now considering running their own schools.
The New School’s Network is booming. Compared to last year the coalition governments’ new proposal to allow parents and teachers to run schools has met with a 70 per cent increase in interest. Around 750 applications have been filed by groups of parents and teachers wanting to take educational matters into their own hands and run their own schools. This quiet revolution signifies a huge change in the potential educational fortunes of the UK. There are around 33,000 state schools in the UK. The 750 initial applications for new schools may seem a small number on the transfer list but a tidal wave of conversions could ensue if the results of this vanguard movement are proven positive.
The success of the scheme, modelled on a successful programme in Sweden, could herald the greatest breakthrough in our teaching resources for decades. It could also reveal the travesty of how we have damaged many schools through a series of failed national initiatives. The application of the national curriculum promoted through state governed schools could be proven to have been a disaster for generations of children, parents and teachers. Our teaching standards and objectives, muddled by the application of educational objectives manipulated by the government and local educational authorities, have impacted on the quality and depth of education received by school children.
Research shows the overall standard of educational achievement has fallen. Critically, in a now global marketplace, competition for employment will be ever more intense as the commercial centre of gravity moves forever East. The macro approach; national policies, local education authorities, SAT’s ,GCSE, national curriculum and educational quangos appear to have failed. The New Schools initiative, steered by the lowest common denominator- the parents of school children, will focus on the opportunity to provide children with the depth of education they need and deserve. If these new primary and secondary schools are the long hidden answer they will be thanked by generations of children to come. And a few past secretaries of state for education may need to take long hard look in the mirror.
Getting children to think and develop their reasoning skills is sometimes like climbing a mountain – where do you start. Keen2learn have introduced a great new educational product designed as literacy games to help children, parents and teachers tackle new concepts in a range of subjects.
Thinking Dice is a brand new fun product to encourage pupils to develop higher order thinking and questioning skills. Research has shown teaching children effective thinking skills can make a world of difference in their effective learning.
Each set of the dice comprise six large 5cm cube colour coded foam dice that have a question structure printed on each face. They are specifically designed to promote questioning and higher order thinking at a specific level of Bloom’s revised taxonomy of thinking. In case these have slipped your mind they are: remembering and recalling information; understanding ideas and concepts; applying information; analysing information in order to explore and understand relationships; evaluating ideas, concepts, situations and creativity; and making something new with the knowledge. See it all floods back!
Thinking Dice can be easily adapted for a wide age range and can be applied to a huge selection of topics in many subject areas. They are a boon to a teacher who can use the application of the questions to help in the lesson plan.
The possibilities of developing children’s higher order thinking are endless!
Revising for a GCSE exam or SAT test is generally seen as a chore by school children. Swatting through textbooks and exercise books can be boring and tedious. Parents and teachers can do little but urge children along. But the process can now be turned into a series of fun educational games.
Keen2learn had just teamed up with the Pagabo range of on line educational games. Developed by educationalists to meet the full scope of the National curriculum, the subjects are portrayed in clever and entertaining revision games. The annual subscription gives a family of up to four children and both parents the opportunity to revise on-line using 100’s of entertaining games. Parents are also able to see records of their child’s progress online.
The revision exercises cover maths, literacy, English, Science, art and design, ICT, modern foreign languages and more. Designed for children in all key stages and GCSE the educational game approach removes the normal dislike of learning and swatting with text books and exercises. Turning revision into fun draws children into the system that helps them recap on facts and progress through the games.
Developed for use at home Pagabo is an incredibly practical gift for children from Aunts, Uncle and Grandparents. If you’re stuck for that ideal birthday or Christmas present send them a Pagabo subscription or some revision games from www.keen2learn.co.uk. They will have hours hours of fun, learn and revise at the same time.
The majority of parents want their children to have the best in education, believing children should be able to read and calculate pi to 22 significant places by the time they are three. But in reality children schooled early can often peak too soon and then fail to thrive in primary school. Children need to have fun and playing with educational games and toys can be a far more productive way of introducing the learning process.
Although formal schooling starts in England at five years old, in Wales children are allowed to play until they are seven. By no means the disaster you might think, this approach is generating positive feedback although too early to reveal any definite conclusion. But in Finland, much heralded as the benchmark in early year’s education, children don’t start school until they are seven years old and can boast high literacy rates, indicating a significant catch up.
Playing educational games in maths, English and science are a great way of learning in disguise helping children to associate the learning process with enjoyment. They like to repeat favourite games over and over again, a repetitive cycle that may seem boring to parents, but is an essential element of learning. Seventy five per cent of learning retention comes with practice.
Although there is a central department education in the UK there are several variants in the way the national curriculum is interpreted. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England have slightly different approaches. There are strong arguments for and against the schooling start age with leading educationalists, school Headteachers and research institutions arguing the toss. All agree learning to read is absolutely vital in any educational programme. “The fundamentals of literacy are caught not taught” says Sue Palmer, former primary school head teacher and literacy expert. “Crucial to the learning process is training people how to achieve this. We have to invest in training practitioners how to help children catch the principles.” She also said there is no rush to teach children to read and a staunch protagonist against the targets set in the early years learning curriculum.
One concern about changes in the educational process is the inherent time-scale to prove or disprove theory and practice. If proven wrong the change may have disrupted the potential for a generation of children. But one thing we can be sure of, childhood is designed to allow kids to learn through experimentation and fun. If you want your children to master the basics in phonics, literacy and maths before they start school be sure you consider educational games and toys to help.
Sit down, shut up and listen! One way to approach the learning process in school as the modern frustrated teacher juggles with the three “T’ s” rather than the three “R’s”.
Teaching, targets and tests haunt the average teacher. The quest for quantity outweighs quality leaving many children isolated because they fall outside the mean. The subject area, in say maths, is millennia old yet still highly relevant in our modern lives despite modern appliances which seek to change our opinion. Electronic devices such as calculators, computers and ATM still use basics mathematics but at very high speeds. What is emerging is how much can be learnt by children stimulated through playing educational games. This has led to a new approach in some primary schools where learning is supported through educational fun and games.
A “new” teaching system originally developed in the 1920’s is now re-emerging! Lev Vygotsky spent a lifetime developing his techniques in Russia where his use of psychological science is now being shown to be 90 years ahead of its time. Centring on the application of self control in learning he found children with strong self disciple and above average IQ are three times more likely to do well in school than children having a high IQ only.
The key is to develop self discipline by playing games aimed at learning self control. If teachers and parents motivate this process the results can be startling. Ironically Vygotsky teaching methods are at odds with a contemporary. Italian Maria Montessori proclaimed that the best way to learn was through intense work, and play should be kept to a minimum.
Evidence shows we are currently struggling in the UK, USA and Australia to achieve the needed educational standards in maths, numeracy and literacy. Our central teaching techniques may therefore benefit from retuning to introduce educational games and play as a central theme. This would seem a highly logical approach based on Vygotsky’s findings if a little late. After all you only have to watch children play a video game to notice how proficient they can become in understanding the rules and the execution of the game in a very short time.
The general election to be held tomorrow could, should and might move the UK forward. The pressure of the hustings is also a fight for a job for many current Members of Parliament and prospective candidates. Children can learn a lot from the exercise and will be either mesmerised or bored by the whole event. Ironically the Prime Minister has more to loose if he wins and Gordon Brown should be consoled by the following facts:
Gordon Brown inherited all the problems left behind by Tony Blair, who being replaced exploited his connections, completed lecture tours and went on to become a millionaire.
Tony Blair inherited all the problems left behind by John Major, who being replaced exploited his connections, completed lecture tours and went on to become a millionaire.
John Major inherited all the problems left behind by Margaret Thatcher, who being replaced exploited her connections, completed lecture tours, went on to become a millionaire and a Baroness.
The worst thing for Gordon is he is retained which could cost him a fortune.
Teachers, fed up with wasting teaching resources and valuable learning time to the national assessment tests have revolted by refusing to prepare kids specifically for the tests.
Interestingly this reaction from teachers is not in the UK but Australia. The National Assessment in literacy and numeracy programme (NAPLAN) is under threat from schools abject criticism of the precise intention of the scheme. The UK teacher unions have similarly managed to drag government educational departments to task, convincing them to scrap the equivalent UK Statutory Assessment Tests (SAT’s). The overwhelming opinion of Australian teachers believe the tests are no more than the government playing games with the educational programme and more designed to measure the teachers and school performance against targets. As a consequence the emphasis on passing the tests has been at the expense of new learning. Schools are regularly abandoning lessons expansion instead concentrating on drilling children to pass the tests. The “teach to test” process that can absorb nine precious weeks a year grooms children to answer questions parrot fashion rather than use reasoning.
Presumably children will be able to use their maths skill to calculate that 23 per cent of their schooling days will be used merely to provide a measure of the schools performance. But the real question to be answered is what further educational achievement could have been achieved had this time been used to further the learning programme of children.
The stance by Australian teachers has, however, angered many parents who are supporting the national assessment programme in literacy and numeracy tests for years 3, 5, 7 and 9. They see schools in the private sector and independent sector who maintain the tests will have an advantage. New South Wales teachers federation president Bob Lipscombe said his members would no undertake preparation for the tests because it would dominate a school’s work.
Lower performing schools could possibly allocate even more time to teach to test to improve their school results. Bob Lipscomb said “We support national testing but this assessment has become more about the school than the students.”
He rejected concerns from parents that blocking the national tests would disadvantage children. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard was adamant the tests would go ahead in May advising she has 3,000 trained and experienced examination supervisors ready to step in if the teachers refused to distribute the exams. An interesting concept and if nothing else children will learn about trade union activities. But this move begs the question where these trained supervisors will come from. If they are ready and waiting in the wings would they be better employed as active teachers to help reduce the teacher pupil ratio?
If children are to be at a disadvantage with independent schools is this based on exam results or breath of education? The child educated for an extra 45 weeks in their schooling journey instead of taking SAT’s and NAPLAN tests is surely the better option for the child in the long term.
One of the critical facets of learning is achieved through failure. Playing educational games allows us to learn from our mistakes with an element of fun. We gain greater depth of knowledge by learning to understand the rules and where we went wrong, the effect of the failure, and vitally important, how to correct the fault.
A vital element in the training an aircraft pilot is what to do when the engines fail, a component fails, what happens if they climb too steeply or bank too severely. None of this occurs every day and its rather comforting to know they know what not to do as much as what they should do to let us enjoy a smooth flight. Awareness of the consequences is a vital element of learning.
We live in a world where building up self esteem in children is very important and so making mistakes can be seen as damaging. Exposure to failure and learning to correct the fault is unfortunately often excluded in the learning programme for children. Parents and teachers can sometimes believe that a child should not be exposed to failure which could reveal a flaw in the teaching standards or ability of the child. Targets and emotions conspire to seek success and the essential character building and learning experience from failing is lost. A secret poll of parents would reveal that if they had access to just one piece of information on their child it would be where they stood in the class rank. This presents an illusion of learning that can lead to problems later in employment for the child.
Heath and safety, fear of litigation and the banks will present enough barriers to a successful career as it is. But it is predominately the people that are prepared to take calculated risks that succeed. Thinking outside the box maybe a hackneyed management cliché but in reality the process is only achieved by risk takers who have a perception of the potential for failure and can accept the threat. Many entrepreneurs will state they learnt a lot from failures, and had many more failures than successes. Rarely does a pure academic qualification score as an essential ingredient. James Dyson built thousands of prototypes that failed before he hit on the design for the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Richard Branson’s success in the Virgin brand has been almost an equal mix of success and failure with many of his enterprises receiving huge media attention on the launch only to disappear within a few years. The key is the ability to see what works, what does not and to spot a solution to a problem that nobody else has thought of.
Lessons in class and home should include activities that allow children to make mistakes without ridicule or negative consequences. The joy of learning the correct way to solve a maths problem or complete a science experiment must allow children to see what can happen if they get it wrong and enjoy the learning buzz from the sense of achievement.
If we mollycoddle children by shielding their feelings from the opportunity to fail at school we may inadvertently prevent them from aspiring to greatness as adults. Better they learn to fall off the bike occasionally to experience the consequences. They will gain far greater experience and ability than have them ride with stabilisers for the rest of their lives.
Comment:
Renee Heath :
“I totally agree, my sister worked at a private school in LA where they didn’t even give test because they said it was too “stressful” for the children – how crazy is that!”
An outstanding primary school can now add 20,000 pounds to the average home value in the latest review. So if you want buck the trend in house prices just make sure all the kids at your local school do well it in their SAT’s.
Sarah Beney should extend the scope of home improvements to also include school SAT’s exam results. The coordination starts with the foundations of the teaching resources of the school. Are they sound and able to support the schooling process? The old adage that many hands make light work can also be applied to the school project. Learning can benefit from additional support from tutors and parent’s playing the many educational games available that stimulate children and also practice the lesson content.
The educational project perhaps compares favourably to the cost and effort required to knock a wall down, rewire or re-plumb the house. At the moment which project would generate the greatest financial benefit? How much will the house improvements generate in a depressed house prices market compared to 20,000 pounds increase in house prices from being near a good school. The school catchment area is probably the best bet by far. And your kids get to do well in school, pass exams and get a great job. May be worth considering the priorities in the housing market. Sorry Sarah.
What is your Dads favourite hero and why, who is your Mums favourite author and what bugs you the most about….? A couple of new educational games in the form of discussion cards gets everyone talking like never before. Suddenly meal times take on a new look and everyone can open up the conversation.
These new ice breaker games in the form of discussion cards are ideal to get the conversation flowing and get everyone to open up and share their thoughts. As a PSHE educational games it gets even the reluctant talker to join in.
Regular mealtimes help families develop more than just good eating habits. As the conversation flows around the dining table, children learn to share views and ideas, develop listening skills and gain mutual respect.
As interesting discussions take place, there is an opportunity for the family to really get to know each other and to find out family traditions. Sharing love, laughter and fun brings a family closer and regular time together offers children a deep sense of security and stability.
We all know that mealtimes offer families an opportunity to come together, reconnect and share their day, but due to our busy lives dinner often becomes a “meal on the move”. To make life easier we end up with dinner on our laps, teenagers permanently plugged into their MP3 and six year olds glued to the TV. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was happy to come to the table without persuasion, and willingly stay there for the duration of the meal. Fink cards make mealtimes enjoyable for all the family.
The new Fink cards have had some rave reviews:
“ Lisa Warner’s Fink Cards are some of the most exciting and creative ideas I’ve ever seen to stimulate family conversation and connection. Any family would want them in their home as a key component to the harmony and understanding we are all looking for.” Lynne Franks
“If you’re having trouble persuading your taciturn children to do more than grunt at mealtimes, mother-of-four Lisa Warner’s new Fink™ Cards could be just what you need.” Raising Kids
“We have had so much fun with these cards and all learnt new stuff about each other. They have been a brilliant way of getting kids to want to sit and eat their tea. Sophie has taken to them so so much she wants to play them with her friends too. They have made all of us get involved in talking to each other – such a simple idea but works fantastic. I would recommend these for all ages most definitely. My mum asked if she can borrow them at Christmas as it would be brilliant fun with lots of us!”
Fink cards from keen2learn
“What a great idea” Chris Evans Radio 2 DJ
What is your Dads favourite hero and why, who is your Mums favourite author and what bugs you the most about….? A couple of new educational games in the form of discussion cards gets everyone talking like never before. Suddenly meal times take on a new look and everyone can open up the conversation.
These new ice breaker games in the form of discussion cards are ideal to get the conversation flowing and get everyone to open up and share their thoughts. As a PSHE educational games it gets even the reluctant talker to join in.
Regular mealtimes help families develop more than just good eating habits. As the conversation flows around the dining table, children learn to share views and ideas, develop listening skills and gain mutual respect.
As interesting discussions take place, there is an opportunity for the family to really get to know each other and to find out family traditions. Sharing love, laughter and fun brings a family closer and regular time together offers children a deep sense of security and stability.
We all know that mealtimes offer families an opportunity to come together, reconnect and share their day, but due to our busy lives dinner often becomes a “meal on the move”. To make life easier we end up with dinner on our laps, teenagers permanently plugged into their MP3 and six year olds glued to the TV. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was happy to come to the table without persuasion, and willingly stay there for the duration of the meal. Fink cards make mealtimes enjoyable for all the family.
The new Fink cards have had some rave reviews:
“ Lisa Warner’s Fink Cards are some of the most exciting and creative ideas I’ve ever seen to stimulate family conversation and connection. Any family would want them in their home as a key component to the harmony and understanding we are all looking for.” Lynne Franks
“If you’re having trouble persuading your taciturn children to do more than grunt at mealtimes, mother-of-four Lisa Warner’s new Fink™ Cards could be just what you need.” Raising Kids
“We have had so much fun with these cards and all learnt new stuff about each other. They have been a brilliant way of getting kids to want to sit and eat their tea. Sophie has taken to them so so much she wants to play them with her friends too. They have made all of us get involved in talking to each other – such a simple idea but works fantastic. I would recommend these for all ages most definitely. My mum asked if she can borrow them at Christmas as it would be brilliant fun with lots of us!” Sharon Mum of 3
Asking your child what they learnt in school is inevitably met with a curt answer “Oh nothing much.” Don’t feel alone, 82 percent of parents feel isolated from the reality of their child’s schooling. Yet research shows children’s performance improves significantly when parents talk to them about what they are learning in school.
Recent research conducted by BECTA, the educational technology association, revealed most parents don’t know what the child is learning at school. The only contact point being parent’s night or end of term reports. By then any benefit of parental involvement may have gone cold and the opportunity of their assistance in educational support lost forever. Yet the educational maths and science games used as teaching resources in school and great fun to play can create a huge learning bond when played at home between parents and children.
In the meantime a conundrum of lost opportunity exists. Teachers find it difficult to get in touch with parents, often geography and shift work conspiring to fragment contact. Parents in turn find it difficult to extract information from their children and lastly most children are reluctant to share information or find it difficult to speak to parents. BECTA see a huge opportunity in the combined teaching resources of parent and teacher. Their research shows parental support of learning in the home can account for 80 per cent of a child’s academic success back in class.
Many of the problems stem from homework. Children see it mostly as a boring chore. Often text and exercise book driven, it tends to exclude parent or peer support – apart from a copy quickly obtained on the bus to school! Parents see home work as a necessary exercise from school and see their role to ensure its completion rather than any interactive participation. Many claim they don’t want to interfere; the teaching resources have changed since they were at school, or they never understood the subject themselves. But there is a huge opportunity ahead driven by technology. Soon most schools will have on-line links to children and parents. Schoolwork and homework can be completed on-line.
Replacing the historic end of term reports with weekly or daily updates will allow timely parental involvement in the schooling process. Achievement, problems, help and homework tasks will be able to be seen dynamically by parents.
Children working on-line get greater enjoyment from the task reflected in their achievement in school. Parents, especially fathers can rediscover the joy of helping their children in educational games that support the National Curriculum. The school parent contact speed could even be increased with email updates sent to work addresses. Capturing parent’s thoughts before seeing their child at the school gate or home can allow some preparation for the quality time to support their children. Above all mutually supporting their progress with the learning practice involved in playing educational games could rekindle their own interest in learning.
The Home Access scheme launched by the DCSF in January 2010 will provide 270,000 poorer families with a free laptop and broadband access. This allows a huge additional tranche of parents to give their child a better opportunity in school. This alone could provide the learning breakthrough many schools and children richly deserve.
Is homework all its cracked up to be? Many educational institutions believe it is a fundamental part of the learning process providing essential practice at home. Yet research in Australia showed there is little evidence to prove this. Developments in technology in teaching resources have superseded the text book based homework and replaced it with fun based educational games in maths and ICT that can be played at home and also engage parents in the process.
The schooling process has incorporated some startling learning developments yet is often reluctant to adopt radical change. Homework was first introduced into the schooling process in the 1950’s. But we now live in a totally different world and with it a huge rate change of in technology, world economics, politics and population growth. Yet
conventional homework comprising of text and exercise book tasks still prevail despite little evidence this form of exercise has any short or long-term academic benefits.
Teachers advise that conventional homework is the principal way to get children to practise the lesson and learn how to work on their own. The critical objective is to master the curriculum, SAT tests and GCSE exams rather than develop the learning process. The majority of parents see it as an essential process to comply with the school rules. Children see it predominantly as a boring chore to be delayed until the very last moment as it is a huge interference with their recreational fine.
But positive change and technology lies ahead, The opportunity to practise the lesson content has taken on new forms. The ‘learning pyramid’ focusses on the critical benefits of practise in the retention of learning. But little time exists in the busy classroom for this activity. These teaching resources fight for position along with class registration, calming disruptive children and setting out homework. Precious little time is left to practice and perfect in the lesson especially if a child is struggling with the lesson content.
Setting conventional homework can therefore have reduced benefit. Parental support can be isolated with many parents feeling remote from what is going on in school and therefore where they can best help. But the practice function can be turned into an educational game that parents and children can join in. Virtually the whole National Curriculum has an educational game to support the lesson. Developed by educationalists , many of whom are ex teachers with years of experience of what works these same maths, science and English games can be played at home with parents, grandparents and with peer support. And as 80 per cent of a child’s academic achievement in school stems from support at home it is well worth the investment.
Over the last six years the cost to parents of a child’s education up to the age of 21 has risen by a staggering £20k to a total of £52k. There is some relief; in the last year the rate of increase has slowed to 1.6 per cent. But is this investment good value for money when we hear of failing schools and the huge number of children floundering in maths and numeracy?
Judging by this week’s Channel 4 TV “Dispatches” documentary “Kids don’t count,” the answer is probably not. Despite the huge cost increase to parents, and a government investment over the past 10 years costing billions, many of our primary schools are still failing to deliver in maths. Over 1500 schools are currently classed as failing. Twenty per cent of all children have inadequate competency in maths to cope with secondary school. In all, 30,000 children a year are failing in maths at primary school level. Worryingly the results in primacy school have been shown to reflect the probable performance at GCSE.
The government focus on numeracy was designed to give children 50 minutes of maths a day. Unfortunately this is largely taught by teachers without maths qualifications doing the best they can. Frequently the schedule is overridden, time tables are not learnt and fractions, which elude many teachers, are untouched. Consequently children drift. Practise exercises, the essential ingredient for learning retention are frugal. To cap it all new learning is suspended for 25% of the school year whilst children rehearse for the SAT’s test.
Whilst schools continue to be judged by target performance achievement they will understandably focus on this objective and defer new learning. The consequential gap that emerges is almost impossible to recover in school but this is an ideal opportunity for parents to step up to the plate. Playing maths educational games at home is a fun way to complete the lesson practice. They can lighten things up at home, allow parents to get practically involved and help a child to moving forwards throughout the year – especially during the SAT’s hiatus. Playing say maths games as a board game, bingo or CD-ROM revision quiz is fun, instructive and matched to the national curriculum. But watch out – you may get to enjoy them and learn a stack of maths yourself.
The Dispatches TV documentary focused on Barton Hill primary school in Bristol. The likeable Headteacher knew he had a problem with maths – both with his teaching staff and his personal ability. He called on a retired man specialist, Richard Dunn, to teach both children and teachers in how to get excited about maths. An objective achieved with impressive results in tests taken by the children. Unfortunately his efforts were curtailed during the SAT interregnum. His 16 weeks programme displaced for nine weeks whilst the SAT rehearsals took place. If only he was uninterrupted continue goodness knows what the final results could have been.
Richard summarised the national situation on maths saying “Parents should be worried about how maths is taught in school. Bringing maths alive will make all the difference to visualising maths.” The DCSF had already drafted specialist teachers to provide one to one maths support for struggling children but the revelation that 30,000 children needed assistance is a huge task. Without the support of these maths specialists and assuming they can be found, children failing in primary school can look forward to a similar fate in secondary school.
As adults, 25 per cent of us have maths and numeracy skills equivalent to an 11 year old. And 75 per cent of all adults have maths skills that are lower than GCSE. This is causing significant concern with employers who inherit the problem and find it essential to train new staff in maths. MacDonald’s and Sainsbury’s are part of a long list of retailers who run their own academies to teach maths to employees. A task they object to but have little alternative. The billions of pounds invested by the DCSF in maths education has predominantly been a waste of time and money. Notably only the UK makes maths compulsory up to the age of sixteen, most other countries extend maths on into higher education.
Children who failed numeracy in primary school will struggle significantly in secondary school unless there get a really strong maths teacher in the first year of secondary school. As secondary school teachers believe the problem should have been resolved in primary school the skills gap could fester. This could take some time to resolve so despite the increased educational cost to parents there is an essential need for them to step in the ring. And with the educational games and teaching resources now available they certainly have a very real and enjoyable chance to make a difference. After all 80 per cent of a child’s achievement in school is influenced by what they do at home.
The future of the UK lies significantly in developing its engineering ability. Not an easy task as interest in engineering and science in school and university has fallen significantly over the years. The STEM focus is designed to whet the appetite in children and there are a number of fantastic projects on the go. Keen2learn in particular are pleased to be associated with hydrogen fuel cell renewal energy teaching resources and the huge possibilities of how these will help reduce climate change.
Keen2learn’s link with educational games and renewable energy has resulted in their recent appointment as the UK distributor for the fantastic hydrogen fuel cell teaching resources from Heliocentris of Germany. Designed and built with schools, colleges and universities in mind the range of resources are supplied with comprehensive resources, worksheets and lesson plans. With over 30 experiments, these front of class learning resources and model hydrogen fuel cell car allow hands on experience for children. Alistair Owens MD at keen2learn explained “A real benefit of the range lies in the equipment design and documentation which allow non science teachers to also get involved in renewable energy and hydrogen fuel cells.”
The interest in renewable energy products from keen2learn is growing rapidly in schools. The combined focus in climate change from the Copenhagen summit and STEM cross curricular projects have elevated hydrogen fuel cells, solar and wind energy as lead applications to interest children in science and engineering. The Heliocentris equipment developed over the last 10 years is ideal to fire their enthusiasm in an energy source for the future.
English is one of the more complex languages to learn, and a significant reason given by some educationalists as why we struggle in primary and secondary school performance. Are they right?
I recall the word developed by William Ollier (born 1824), sometimes attributed to George Bernard Shaw that revealed the games that can be played with the perverse nature of English pronunciation. The word Mr Ollier compiled is ghoti and is pronounced “fish.” Here’s his reasoning:
The sound for the letter F are taken from the word cough
The I is stolen from women
The sound for the letters SH comes from the ti in the word station.
It doesn’t stop there. One of the best quips I recall is the sentence that demonstrates the English games that can be played with the letters “ough”
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough: after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed. Nine different ways to pronounce “ough” in one sentence. Ah what delights that can be played in English language educational games. Perhaps this is the true value of English.
If you missed last week’s “Dispatches” programme on channel 4 TV you would have been spared the shocking truth about our children’s maths performance in primary school. The second episode of “Kids don’t count” is being shown on 22nd of February, 2010 is an equal shocker.
A learning hiatus will occur before the failings in teaching resources revealed in the documentary can be resolved. But all is not lost as the teaching gap in our schools can be significantly filled with support from parents at home. Playing maths educational games now available for use at home along with other initiatives has been proven to help improve performance by up to two grades. These enjoyable games allow parents to see the value of this interaction throughout their child’s schooling whilst providing back up to the teaching issues at many schools
The root cause of the primary school failure stems from our teaching qualifications. It was evident from the first episode that if you do not have a qualified maths teacher in primary school it’s damn hard to teach maths. Equally it is almost impossible for kids to learn maths. Research proved if children do not grasp maths in primary school the links to science, design and technology subjects mean it is nye on impossible to succeed in secondary school. A lack of maths also severely hampers employment prospects.
A leading employer, Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s echoed similar comments from Sir Terence Leahy of Tesco and Sir Stuart Rose of Marks and Spencer’s critical of the standard of maths in children seeking employment. He believes the failure maths has almost become a badge of honour for the individual. The truth revealed in the previous “Despatches” programme is many teachers in school have inadequate qualifications to teach maths. Unfortunately the remedy could take years.
Akin to asking teachers who are tone deaf, can’t read music and do not play an instrument to teach music the critical nature of maths cannot be effectively taught by unqualified maths teachers. Recruiting and training the missing maths teachers is not going to happen overnight. But until there is a good qualified maths teaching resource at every primary school many children will reach the end of the conveyor belt unprepared for secondary school. There are around 26,000 primary schools in England and the clamour for maths teachers will be immense. The surprise is the maths teaching resources, the keystone to all learning, still remain outstanding by the DCSF in 2010.
The TV “Dispatches” documentary programme broadcast last night showed the alarming poor performance in maths learning in primary school. The recovery may lie in the recruitment of specialist maths teacher resources but this will take years to effect. In the meantime tens of thousands of children are moving up to secondary school each year with little hope of succeeding.
The teachers at the host school for the TV programme were honest and I expect highly typical of the hard working teams in our primary schools. But the revelation that none had any formal maths qualification was amazing. The correlation between the demands of the job content and a relevant qualification seemed to have slipped by the wayside. The introduction of a retired maths specialist by the headmaster served to equally enthral both children and teachers alike. But just as the momentum has commenced it came to an abrupt stop. The essential practice function promoted by the specialist as a key part of retention in learning abandoned! The reason; SAT’s were looming and of for the sake of the school target achievement the Headteacher understandably to keep his job, switched all teaching over to “Teach to Test.” Three months of valuable learning time forsaken, replaced by how to answer questions in SAT’s rather than understand them.
It made one wince. The efforts of the maths specialist teacher who brought educational maths games into the learning programme were inevitable to be lost. When the teachers were asked, along with a representative sample of teachers from other schools, to answer a past maths SAT paper only 47% gained a pass mark. An astonishing number failed to any answer questions on fractions and only one teacher completed the whole test paper.
Interestingly Ed Balls, the School Secretary, declined when asked to sit the same test. Evidence shows that a child’s performance in maths at primary level is indicative of their final performance at GCSE. The critical preparation in primary school is collapsing through the lack of qualified and trained maths teachers. This appalling situation leaves teachers trying to compensate in other areas, but results in children inadequately prepared for secondary school. The thought that what little maths is promoted is sidelined for a three months SAT -blast is ludicrous. The documentary highlighted the plight of one bright girl, who excelled during the teaching excellence of the expert, but subsequently drifted after the maths was switched off leaves me shuddering.
The solution lies in the education hierarchy. The recruitment of thousands of maths specialist teaching is under way. But it could take years to effect. In the meantime it is perhaps a golden opportunity for parents to take a lead. There are numerous maths games that can be played at home to boost performance in school. At least the fun element of learning maths can be enjoyed and help provide the essential bedrock currently missing from many of our primary schools.
Parent support is fundamental to improving the learning process through a greater awareness of their child’s progress in school . Using educational games, toys and the internet at home can help children learn in a way that suits them. Having parents alongside gives children constructive support and a great insight into their progress, ability and the details of the National Curriculum.
Becta, the original name for the British educational computerised training association, in case you’re ask, are behind the drive to engage parents in the schooling process. Children who use the internet at home do better in maths and reading tests, are more interested in their studies and have more fun learning. The Home Access scheme encourages children to go over schoolwork at home, do homework online, contact classmates and teachers, get information and work together on projects with parents.
Research shows that children achieve more highly when parents talk to them about their experiences of school and learning. However, a recent report showed 82 per cent of parents felt left in the dark when it comes to their s child’s schooling.
The online reporting to become available to parents will allow parents to see their child’s progress dynamically rather than end of term reports or parents night. Research also showed this level of parental involvement at home heightened their awareness of a child’s progress at school leads to a dramatic improvement in a child’s achievement. Playing educational games, board games or ICT games at home can replicate the teaching resources in class and bring enjoyment to revision in the form of CDROM literacy, numeracy, chemistry and physics quizzes that can lead to an improvement of two grades at school.
The recent scheme launched by the DCSF to fund 270,000 poorer families with a laptop computer and online access to schools will allow these children to catch up. Teacher advice in areas where help is needed will allow them to enlist parents help. Their interest and involvement in a child’s learning and education is more important than anything else in helping that child fulfil their potential.
Key benefits:
Home -school communication is improved considerably.
Communications of a very a positive nature is encouraged
Contact can be established with all parents, irrespective of the nature of the catchment area
Father’s become more involved in their children’s education
Parents give a significant amount of quality time to their children
Parents become more knowledgeable about the school curriculum
Parents become more involved in the assessment of children’s progress
Equality of educational opportunity is addressed
Esteem between parents, pupils and teachers is enhanced
Promote team promoting family learning activities
Underpinning home- school agreements
Raising standards of attainment.
Research by the PTA showed the effect of parents and what they do at home to support learning can account for 80 per cent of a child’s academic success.
Recent research shows that parents who play educational games with their child at home including educational video games can help increase the child’s performance in school by two grades.
The recent government programme to equip children from poorer families with a laptop computer is designed to allow children access to learning programmes and parent’s dynamic contact to see how their child is achieving at school. It will also allow teachers to advise parents on the extra help they can give to help the child.
Learning that is also fun has a huge opportunity to engage parents at home. Educational games played with their child lets parents see exactly what their child is learning in the National Curriculum and gives an immediate measure of achievement and performance. This proactive approach casts the end of term report and parents night into the scrap bin. Ongoing support and mutual fun can be vastly more effective than the isolated “do your homework” command from a parent.
One of the great ways to learn is through practise. This can be either a boring slog through a text book or a fun revision quiz. Physics, chemistry, literacy and maths can suddenly become enjoyable games the family can join in. You never know you could end up learning yourself.
“Warning, this toy can seriously improve your maths”. Although aimed at ages six to 11, my maths was in need of some polishing up, and Bunjawas more than happy to oblige. Bunja is a compact nugget of maths knowledge, its purple body housing five bright yellow buttons and a central speaker. A press of the power button and Bunja springs to life, a firm but fair male voice who sounds like he’s auditioning for the nest Tom Tom Sat Nav, asking the first maths conundrum. (A review of Bunja by Josh Welensky).
Things start off nice and easy, “What’s 1 + 3?” But Bunja’s 100 adaptive maths levels meant that I soon ran out of fingers to count on. Like a six-year-old -kid, I don’t have the longest attention span – so I was intrigued by the interactive adventure you’re treated to after answering five questions correctly. Your goal is to help Sam, a vividly narrated character who’s lost in the Borneo rainforest after a plane crash. I was genuinely gripped by Sam’s plight, determined to save him from the raging torrents, scary camp guards and fearsome guerrillas by pressing “A”, “B” or “C” to choose his next move.
Bunja is disguised learning at its very best. Supporting up to ten players, a built-in report card system, 80 interactive adventures and 100 adaptive maths levels, it’s going to keep your little one adding, subtracting and multiplying for many hours to come as well. At just over £20, that’s a lot of maths for your money. I was particularly improved by its simplicity and the rather addictive interactive story.
Bunja is available from keen2learn at a special 20 % off price while stocks last.
One of the greatest needs of our educational programme is the provision of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). But some issues covered in the curriculum need children to open up and talk about the subjects, which can be difficult. Keen2learn joined forces with a new company to launch a new range of PSHE games that tackle the subject area through a range of educational games.
The issues facing inner London typify the concern. Darren Johnson, the Chair of the London Assembly was highly impressed with the new EGAR’s teaching resources.
‘EGAR interactive educational games for young people are designed to stimulate structured discussion on vital topics for young people, such as knives, climate change and drugs. This excellent project deserves much wider recognition and I would love to see it made available to all London based Youth Services’ said Darren Johnson.
These new ‘talking toolkits’ learning resources are now in the keen2learn range. Developed to tackle Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) education they are ideal to assist teachers, youth workers, mentors, counsellors and parents. The games communicate effectively with children, teenagers and young people to enhance their lives by talking about the issues that matter (Primary SEAL Programmes)
Developed with the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) and the Every Child Matters (ECM) programmes in mind, the games benefit from EGAR’s Director’s extensive experience of working with Inner City children, teenagers and young people.
The current cold weather closed hundreds of schools robbing children of valuable lesson time. But in future this time at home could become highly constructive in a child’s learning programme . One of the key objective of the Government is get more parents engaged in the schooling programme of their children. A recent survey also showed 82 per cent of parents wanted to be better informed of their child’s progress and information of how they could help at home. The range of educational games played in school are idea to support the learning progress at home. The advent of on-line links to the school will open the door to more effective two way communication that will help children.
Schools are dropping the international GCSE as the Government does not recognise the qualification. What an indictment of the Government. Is it the word International that scares them? This new qualification had a lot going for it bringing new dimensions to maths and English, but it needs a chance to bed in. The educational values weres enhanced but we hear of games being played with the marking standards which appeared far from standard. Without the recognition from the government it is a dead duck. Targets will see to that as any school, academy or college taking the IGCSE wil score zero irrespective of the actual achievement. And in the game of targets this is a disaster for the school.
Whilst the world becomes ever smaller and we enter global employment opportunities the benefit of a International standard is blown out of the window before it had a chance to show its metal. Crazy times. Read more
Perhaps the biggest concern for parents and teachers is the continuing trend of the UK to be slipping down the world educational league table. We have a limited number of excellent schools and respected teaching resources in both the state and independent sectors, but these are denuded by the significant failure in the bulk of our primary and secondary schools.
Ed Balls’ educational policies seem to ebb and flow with the tide. Recently he asked schools to save energy costs of around £500m, and claw unspent cash back left in schools budgets. Whilst we all thought this was a sign of the times and cash was a little short in the government coffers, round three in Ed’s educational games is launched. Significant changes in the educational bill are proposed that would ram up costs for schools by £1bn. over ten years.
Already the critics are throwing cabbages at Ed with concerns being voiced from teachers parents and educationalists. We can’t afford to get it wrong. With Britain’s ailing schooling system there is too much at stake. Take a look at the Guardian
May seem a downbeat message for the end of last year, but do stop me if you feel relaxed about any of the following educational headlines that have appeared in “The Times” during December 2009. Maybe this year we will see a turn-around in our schooling standards as our teaching resources desperately need regrouping to meet the challenges of the new decade.
December 1st “There is a myth that students can’t be stretched”. Britain’s 16 year olds on average take just two academic subjects at GCSE. Children in Japan, France, Germany and Canada for example take five or six academic subjects. Is our predilection to hit school targets influencing children to take easier subjects that unfortunately have a lower ranking? How will British children subsequently fare in the global market?
December 2nd “The extra billions of pounds failed to raise school standards”. The £ billions that have been ploughed into increasing educational standards under the labour government have failed to produce a corresponding improvement. The spending has been increased by £30bn per year but the value for money from schools has fallen steadily and is no better now than the final year under the previous government.
December 2nd. “League tables show another dip in the top scores of English and science.” The number of pupils leaving primary school with high test scores in English and science has declined for the second successive year.
Only in maths did the result improve but this was due to the more able children. Performance overall in the National Curriculum has induced teachers and schools to improve the average score of a class. Investing their time and energy and time to get the greatest number of children through the tests is a great concern as schools are subsequently are failing to stretch the gifted and talented children.
A staggering total of 1,472 schools failed to meet the government’s basic performance target. It would seem the of the law of diminishing returns is now in place. Diana Johnson, junior schools minister, admitted her concern over the fall in results in English. Nick Gibbs the shadow schools minister said “There remains a huge problem with literacy in primary schools; one in ten 11 year old boys are not even getting a grade in this vital subject.”
December 11th. “Are safety laws a threat to exchange trips and work experience.” Head teachers from state and independent schools believe new safety laws could see the end of educational exchange trips and work experience placements. By the time safety checks are complete the opportunity, and enthusiasm, would have passed. At a time when the relevance of this vital experience is increasing we seem to be shutting the door.
The only way is up. Let’s hope education moves into a significantly higher gear this year. Maybe the real boost to performance lies with what parents can bring to the party. Help at home could be the hidden answer and the range of educational teaching resources now available to help parents could be the ammunition they need.
Scottish Minister Micheal Russel had thrown his hat into the educational games debate. Amidst the controversy that maths and English games etc are concerning some teachers, Michale Russel believes these teaching resources have been proved to have Real and tangible benefits”
He added: “Computer games are often perceived as solely a distraction to learning, however, alongside traditional learning aids, they can help make learning more engaging.”
“And parents and teachers across the country are starting to see the benefits they can have.”
We throughly agree, and the doubting brigade need only to watch how often the games are played to realize how this modern teaching resource is encouraging learning compared to, say, a boring text book!
Stem projects in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths have probably the greatest educational interest and employment potential for children. The UK is rapidly changing direction and over the next 20 years we will see a change in our culture comparable to the dynamics of the industrial revolution. The National Curriculum must keep pace with these evolving demands and associated educational needs of our children to capture the opportunity this presents.
Manufacturing has clearly migrated east notably to India and China. But this, however, does not completely exclude the UK. Our historic expertise in design and manufacturing engineering still has a marketable value to manufacturers based overseas. We can maintain a centre of engineering excellence. The benchmark is already set by BAE who having immense skill in the design of aircraft wings, manufactures them in the UK and ships them to France for assembly into Airbus aircraft. Rolls Royce aircraft engines go overseas to be incorporated into aeroplanes. Perhaps the best example is Dyson vacuum cleaners is designed and developed in the UK, manufactured in Malaysia and sold worldwide.
This pool of expertise will still be relevant as inevitably the UK manufacturing dries up. Undaunted despite a downturn in their own sales base MG sports car designers had a hand in the design of the Mazda MX5 and Lotus cars have a hand in numerous overseas car developments. British architects designed the fantastic Viaduct de Millau motorway bridge in the French massif Central built by French civil engineers. UK Ltd. still has a lot to offer.
James Dyson tried hundreds of prototypes before he perfected the model for his vacuum cleaner; a true example of our historical culture based on resilience, inventiveness and reluctance to give up. The number of significant British inventions is disproportionate to the size of our country but it is fair to say we lack the capitalisation of the invention. If our design ability is our real strength maybe this is where we should focus our curriculum efforts.
To do this we need to convince children that science and engineering are the fun games part of education and schooling with huge potential for employment globally. If you want adventure, employment and a real opportunity of a Eureka moment, science technology, engineering and maths is the educational route to take. Our educational authorities need to capitalise on the work achieved so far and then raise the bar. In 20 years’ time the potential for British engineers is vast. We need to recognise the potential of the opportunity, perhaps adopting the German approach where an Engineer with a capital “E” holds the same status as a Doctor, bearing the prefix Eng. before their name.
