This is the last update before Christmas and the schools are all busy with their Christmas activities. However, a couple of them have found time to send in an update.
Firstly, James Walker at Stockwell Juniors writes that they are sharing Christmas customs with the Dr FD Sinclair Elementary School in Surrey British Columbia, Canada. Also they have started to get replies from RM's NETPALS service - so far they have been contacted by some children in Germany.
Beth at Santley tells us that they have had two replies from the school in Canada that we mentioned last week.
I received an email last week from John Potter, and Advisory Teacher IT colleague. I hope he won't mind if I quote; 'Just a short note to let you know that I really enjoyed visiting the Brixton Connections site. I was researching some web sites for an in-service MA I'm doing at the Institute of Education and feeling very tired and jaded with it after an hour or so when Brixton Connections popped up. It really stands out.' Thanks John for those kind words - they are very much appreciated.
Also, Alexander Clark, a colleague in Croydon has been in touch. He is running a similar project involving nine schools in Croydon.
That's all for this week. Wishing you all the best for Christmas and the New Year and I'll be with you again somewhere around the 4th January.
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So it's goodbye to all the fish! Yes, feedback was suggesting that regulars were getting fed up with the fishy background, hence the change to something a bit festive to tide us over the holiday season. Perhaps, something different after Christmas!
I was visited today by Eta de Cicio and Julie Wright from NCET who are writing a report on Primary schools linking together over the Internet. We popped into one of the Project schools, Stockwell Juniors, where they chatted with James Walker for a while about his efforts last year to interact with local Secondary Schools via the Internet. James plans to try and get something going with that again next year, starting with it after Christmas. Of course, we'll give him all the support we can with this.
James also reports that they have now started sending email to a Year 5 class in British Columbia in Canada. The children are writing in their letters about the time difference, which provides a good link with the world wide project we are planning for the New Year.
Liz Mountford at Loughborough Juniors reports that they are now writing to Jef and his class in New Orleans. They are actually sending the messages to his personal computer at home so he is printing them out and bringing them to school to share with the students who will hand write letters back. Then, Jef will type them and send them via email. Thus, getting around their lack of technology at the Free School in New Orleans. Her class at Loughborough are really enjoying writing their letters to the kids in New Orleans and now anxiously awaiting replies.
Beth at Santley writes that she has had a catastrophe! All the letters that they wrote to the school in Thorpe Bay have been returned - saying that there is no such address. Perhaps if Bournes End School reads this week's update, they could get in touch with them again, with the right address. They have started writing to a school in Canada instead.
Anita and Cheryl at Hillmead Infants write that their travel buddy is a lion called Leo and he is having a weekend in Hastings at this time. Their Grenadier Guardsman travel buddy has written from Oz.He is sending photos soon.
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Last week I popped into Loughborough Juniors to try and sort out a couple of problems Liz was having with email. The children were busy typing out messages to children in Jef's class in New Orleans (see October 14). Jef has sent a message to all his colleagues in the Brixton Connections Project which has been passed on to them.
Meanwhile, in Loughborough Infants, Jan has added another page to her web site. She has added some pictures of their travel buddy, Bernie the St. Bernard, and her class.
More on travel buddies. Anita and Cheryl at Hillmead Infants say that travel buddy number two is on it's way from the States. Meanwhile, travel buddy number one, Mummy's little soldier i.e. the grenadier guard, has arrived and is safe and well holidaying with pre-primary children in Booragoon, Australia. He will write home soon.
Every week I spend some time scanning various mailing list resources looking for requests for project participation, requests for contacts and Keypals etc. I then forward any appropriate items along to the schools. In response to one of these mailings, James Walker of Stockwell Juniors emailed to say they are making contact with new Keypals in Australia and Canada. More on that when they receive a response. Staying with James, I will be visiting him along with a couple of colleagues from NCET next Monday to talk about the Internet and Primary Secondary links. Full details to follow . . .
Finally, Beth at Santley reports that they have written more letters to Bournes Green School in Thorpe Bay and are now waiting for their replies.
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We had our termly Primary IT Co-ordinator's Conference last Wednesday. It was attended by several colleagues involved in the project and, judging from the evaluations, a very good day was had by all. We had two machines set up in the afternoon for Web browsing and colleagues were able to have a look at the Microsoft Network.
Lambeth is very shortly to have it's own Internet Cafe. This will be housed in the Brixton Library and run by a company called Systems Express. It will be called the Computer Station and users will be able to browse the Internet via a leased line and undertake a wide range of other computing activities. Local schools will be able to hire the facilities and personnel for training at very attractive rates. We hope to be holding some of our Internet training there. It is hoped to be up and running by mid January, 1997.
Anita and Cheryl at Hillmead Infants report that they have a travel buddy on its way from the USA. Also, their Reception class is looking at an insulation project. They have a student teacher at the moment who is busy e-mailing schools on the postcard exchange scheme. (See previous reports).
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As I mentioned last week the Steering Committee met on Tuesday. There were three main areas discussed. Firstly, it is intended that Brixton Connections host a world wide Internet Project in the Spring. The subject hasn't been decided, but the general consensus was that it should involve data handling. We are keen to try something innovative, that hasn't been done too many times before. We plan to hold a discussion with Project members on Wednesday at our IT co-ordinator's conference. More details to follow shortly.
Secondly, we discussed our plans for upgrading the school's systems. It seems unlikely that we are going to get the bits we need free of charge, (well it was worth a try!). However, it does appear that the companies concerned are keen to help us so now it is a question of trying to raise some money. Any offers . . . . More news on this topic as it happens.
Thirdly, due to a lot of interest being shown in the Internet in Primary Schools, we plan to hold an introductory session for Heads and Governors early in the New Year. This event will probably take the form of an Internet Breakfast and be held at CyberZone in Croydon.
Now for the schools. James of Stockwell Juniors has written to say he is keen to get his school's homepage up. I hope to be able to get into his school shortly to give him some help with this. Also, he has got his AOL account sorted out. Unfortunately, he neglected to send his AOL email address - I'll give you that next week.
Beth at Santley found some links to resources on Ancient Greeks thanks to some help from Cheryl at Hillmead Infants. She also reports that they are going to write to a school in Thorpe Bay which has contacted them. As she was born near there it should be quite interesting, both for her and the children.
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The Steering Committee meet again tomorrow with a very busy agenda. A full report will appear next week.
Last week I attended a meeting of the Microsoft Primary Education Advisory Council and very interesting it was too. Microsoft UK have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for the future, both Internet and non Internet related. Unfortunately, we were sworn to secrecy over the full details of their plans, but I can say they plan a significant input into the educational arena in the very near future. Any schools that haven't applied for their free NetStart packs I advise to do so as soon as possible. I will be writing to all Lambeth Schools about this offer shortly.
Beth at Santley is now back after being away ill. She says that they have been trying to access information about Ancient Greeks or modern day Greece, without much success. If anyone has any ideas she would be grateful. Please email Beth.
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The Brixton Challenge board met on Thursday and one item on the agenda was the judging of the Christmas Card competition. To see the winning entries in all their glory, please visit the Winners page. Congratulations to the winners and to all the children who took part, and of course their teachers for all their hard work. All I can say is, I'm glad I wasn't a judge. The winning schools will each be getting Internet related material as a prize and both pictures will feature in the Brixton Challenge Christmas Card.
Jan at Loughborough Infants reports that now that the inspection is over she has got things to report. Lina Howard (of Research Machines) has been in touch about their involvement in the Cyber Clowns project from last term. She wants to use it as part of a presentation on Infants schools involvement in Internet projects etc. They have also heard from their Travel Buddies friends in America that their bear, Elijah, is ready to return to Brixton. The inspection went well and so far the feedback is that IT in the school is good. That's just as we expected Jan!
Cheryl at Hillmead Infants reports that they have become keypals with a Grade 2 class in Memphis, Tennessee. (Long distance information etc., or does that show my age?) Apparently, the children were sitting on the carpet (as infant children do) in Memphis waiting for email with Hillmead's message arrived. Thus, they got an almost instant reply.
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Well, here we are - refreshed and ready for another half-term! As we approach the project's second Christmas we hope to see some good use of the schools' Internet connections appropriate to this time. Talking about Christmas - the result of our Christmas Card design competition should be announced shortly. Next year, it has been suggested that the designs should be celebrating Festivals of Light so as to include other festivals as well as Christmas.This idea would be more appropriate for the pupils of Brixton schools.
Cheryl at Hillmead Infants phoned to say that they have now been inundated with postcards from the postcard exchange scheme.
Last week I mentioned the CyberZone Internet Cafe in Croydon. Gordon Dewar-McKay, from CyberZone has been in touch and confirmed that he is able to offer the same level of discount to other schools in the project. Please email him at: gordon@cyberzone.co.uk.
I got an email this morning from Nic at Stockwell Infants. He's not there at the moment - he's in Mexico! The subject of his message read; "Hi Phil, I'm in Mexico and you aren't!". Hopefully, he will be able to set up some email links between his school and one in Mexico.
Finally, I got a message last week from Lifestyle.UK saying; "Congratulations, your site is a quality resource and will shortly be featured @ Lifestyle.UK. We apply stringent criteria to our listings and it is indeed in recognition of your good work." Well, it is always nice to receive messages like this, so do pay a visit to Lifestyle.UK, "Europe's best crafted directory", and see what you think.
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Anita and Cheryl at Hillmead Infants report that they have had their first postcard from the exchange scheme and are looking forward to receiving more. Also, the Nursery have sent a knitted Grenadier Guardsman to visit Boolagoon Primary School in Western Australia. The children are really keen to find out more about the summer in Australia being at the same time as our winter.
James at Stockwell Juniors reports that Barrington Brown (see last term's update), is coming in to work with groups of children so he is hoping that a lot more Internet work will be going on there from now on.
I popped in to see Liz Mountford at Loughborough Juniors last week to welcome her to the project and see how she was getting on. Liz is from New Orleans on exchange and is finding things quite different here. Still, she appears to be settling in quite nicely. Jef Fox, who is the other half of the exchange, is finding things very different out there. He has sent a long and amusing letter to the staff detailing his experiences.
Caldecot school used one of their staff meetings to visit the Cyberzone Internet Cafe in Croydon. They report that they had the place to themselves for a couple of hours and by all accounts had an excellent session there. They had plenty of support both from persons and materials along with refreshments. They strongly recommend the cafe to other schools.
Next week is half-term so there will be no update. Have a good half-term if you are having one.
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Not a lot to report this week I'm afraid. I was hoping that my begging letters would have brought some response, but none so far. Several schools have been in touch though.
Nic at Stockwell Infants has uploaded some new pages to the Stockwell Infants site, so do take a look. James at Stockwell Juniors emailed to say that they are just recovering from their OFSTED inspection. However, he has moved classes and has just got a phone extension installed. So we should be hearing much more from them soon. Sharon, at Mostyn Gardens, has just set up their Internet System in their new IT room so if anybody would like to email her or her children, please do.
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In response to a 'begging letter' asking for help in upgrading the schools' equipment, Microsoft have offered to provide all of the project schools with Windows 95 and other programs. You can read all about this on our Can You Help Us page. Let's hope we get a positive response from elsewhere.
It's always nice to receive complimentary remarks about these pages. Linda Christie, an Educational Development Officer in Scotland e-mailed: "I have found your pages and your project most exciting and stimulating. As an officer in one of the new Scottish Councils it is my intention to alert all our schools to your pages and invite them to link as appropriate." Thanks for these kind word Linda, and if we can do anything to help, get in touch.
The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) has been in touch recently. They are intending to run an innovative pilot project involving three Primary schools to do with art lesson plans and other stuff on the World Wide Web. One of the three schools is to be our own St. Helen's school. I'll keep you all updated at how the project progresses.
Two more schools now have their Christmas Cards up on the Web. They are Mostyn Gardens and Hillmead Juniors. Although they are too late to be included in the competition, please do have a look at their efforts.Unfortunately, both schools were beset by technical problems preventing them from posting their entries earlier.
Some while ago I mentioned that the schools would be receiving copies of Cyber Patrol from Microsystems which is an Internet Access Management Utility. Well, the disks have finally arrived and will be posted out to the schools this week. We will keep you informed of how the schools find the software in future updates.
Finally, Anita and Cheryl of Hillmead Infants report that they have registered with the English Schools Partnership. They will let me know how they get on. They also mentioned the value of the Sainsburys site for classes working on food projects.
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News from a couple of the schools this week. Firstly, Anita and Cheryl of Hillmead Infants emailed to tell me that their reception classes and a year 1/2 class has joined the post card project from last week's links. (They are address number 237 so far. They seem to be the only UK school on the list.
Secondly, Jan of Loughborough Infants reports that so far this term Class 1 are making preparations to send Lincoln Lion back home to the States. Jan had intended to take him on a trip to Poland, but unfortunately he did not make it as he was lionnapped by her 2 yr. old niece and spent most of his time in Cornwall.
Jan's reception class are getting ready to send a travel buddy (Elijah Bear) to a school in Massachusetts , USA. They received their dog puppet called Bernie yesterday. This is Jan's classes first experience of using the Internet and they are very excited.
Philip Bennett contacted Jan through her Web page as he is doing research for a book about Key Stage 1 and using the Internet. He wants to use one of her pages.
Finally, they are online with AOL and their address is loughinfs@aol.com so do send them a message their. They have their OFSTED during the week beginning the 7th October so cross your fingers for them.
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The steering committee meeting mentioned last week took place and once again we had a very productive meeting. We agreed we would try and upgrade all the schools to Windows 95, Internet Explorer 3.0 and Microsoft Mail and News. As there is no money in the kitty we will be approaching the manufacturers for help on this. Also, we intend to organize a world wide project probably in the new year.
As regular readers will be aware, all Lambeth schools have been, or are about to be, inspected by OFSTED this year. Several project schools have already had this experience and the Internet project has been mentioned in one or two reports. In particular, I would like to quote the relevant part from the Hillmead Infant's report: 'There is an Internet link in the school which is used to good effect to access several facilities and also to communicate with other schools in various parts of the world. Links with a school in America are already established and others are planned to include European countries such as France and Spain and a college in Nigeria. Pupils appear to regard IT facilities as the norm but the Internet links create particular interest.'
We will be closing the voting on our Christmas Card competition soon so please visit the Christmas Card page and cast your vote.
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Well, here we are entering the second year of the project with, I hope several exciting new developments. Tomorrow, we have a meeting of the project Steering Committee, so I might have some news on this next week depending on who manages to attend.
At the end of last term I mentioned (probably several times) the Lambeth Country Show and our little Cyber Cafe we set up there. Well everything went extremely well despite AOL opting out at the last minute. Fortunately, Microsoft were able to help and sent David Martin, an MSN consultant, for the Saturday. RM lent a machine, so we had the Microsoft Network on Saturday and RMifl on Sunday. Many thanks to Microsoft and RM for their help. A lot of people came to visit and the machines were very busy all the time. Several colleagues from the project came along to help, and again, many thanks to them. The only problem was it got very hot in the tent, particularly on the Sunday.
Only one school report this week. Nic at Stockwell Infants reports that Diane, class 2A joins the ranks of the Netscape Navigators! Their topic this half term is The Olympics so they shall endeavour to have the children explore the 15000 or so relevant pages on the net. The Stockwell Infants Periodical will be updated and looking wonderful by this time next week.
Finally, a warm welcome to Liz Mountford from New Orleans who is at Loughborough Juniors on exchange this year.
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