Votes are coming in for the Christmas Cards. Do please take a look if you can and cast a vote. You will find the link in last week's update.
Last week's IT conference went very well. Hopefully, we will have made some links for next term with some of the teachers. There was a lot of interest in the project. Unfortunately, Microsoft was unable to deliver the NetStart CD. I understand they are still being cut. It looks unlikely that schools will receive them before the end of term.
This weekend is of course the Lambeth Country Show. Please do visit if you can. We are in the Brixton Challenge tent which is to the right if you come in the Herne Hill entrance. We will have an Internet link up from 11am to 6pm. AOL have confirmed their attendance. I am now waiting for Microsoft to do likewise. Of course, some of the teachers and children from the Connections schools will be there.
Finally, Nic Mitchell of Stockwell Infants has the latest issue of their jounal uploaded. Just point your browser at Nic's home page to read Volume 1 Issue 4.
That's all for this term. The next update will be in early September.
Have a good summer.
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The main news this week concerns the Christmas Card Competition. Several schools have got their cards published on the Web and there should be a couple more up today. Please do point your browser at the Christmas Card Home Page. From there you can follow the links to the schools' pages and then come back and vote for your favourite.
This week we have our termly IT Co-ordinator's conference. The main theme will be IT in Science with Roger Frost the keynote speaker. Sixteen colleagues from the USA will be visiting for the morning session. Also, Microsoft have promised to try and get a copy of their NetStart CD to us. So hopefully that will be on show.
Next week will be the last update until September. I'll bring you final details of the Country Show plus an update from the Conference and of course, updates from the schools.
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Last Tuesday we had a short workshop for colleagues entering the Brixton Challenge Christmas Card Competition. It's difficult thinking about Christmas when we haven't had summer yet but for some reason, the competition had to be run at this time. Anway, four of the eleven schools attended and the artwork looked very impressive indeed. The final date for publishing the cards on the Web is Friday 5th July. This will be followed by a page on this site showing a sample from each of the schools with links to the school's page. Readers will be able to vote via a form for their favourite card.
I promised an update on the Country Show this week. Well, it is on July 20th and 21st in Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, South London. We will be in the Brixton Challenge tent which will be next to the Lambeth Education tent around the middle of the Show. I think it will be opposite where most of the exotic food sites are. (At least I hope so). We will be running live Internet connections from about 11am to 6pm each day. Also attending will be Dave Gregory from Microsoft and a representative from AOL. If you are free that weekend, do pop along. There are many interesting things to do at the Country Show.
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Last week our schools began to receive the software enabling them to access the AOL network. Stockwell Infants are the first school to get online and their AOL address is stockinfs@aol.com. Mine is PRedman999@aol.com by the way. Why the 999? Well, somebody else had PRedman so the software suggested PRedman689. I thought 999 looked better. Anyway, I hope to bring you the school's views on the AOL service as they all get online.
Staying with Stockwell Infants. Nic reports that Volume 1 Issue 3 of The Stockwell Infants Periodical is up at their home page.
Jan at Loughborough Infants reports that the travel buddies project is still continuing. They have decided to keep Lincoln Lion until September and return him to Indianappolis then. This means he will be going to Poland with Jan on her holiday! (That little lion sure gets around!) Barrington Brown visited Liz and Jan to discuss Class 1's involvement and their internet work. He will be going back in a few weeks to do a survey with the children. Finally, the logo from their school's web page appears in an article about education and the internet in NetUser magazine!
Jef Fox is trying to get schools to join him in a local study project involving routes to school. These could be emailed or compiled or poems about Brixton. Jef is willing to do the collating. If anyone would like to participate please email Jef.
Our colleagues in the TVEI unit are heavily involved in the Lambeth European Awareness Festival this week. The final event of the festival is a reception and presentation event at the Purcell Room at the South Bank Centre on Friday. You can read all about the festival and all the activities taking place on their Web site.
Finally, I hope to have an update on arrangements for the Country Show next week.
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In the 20th May update I reported that Jef Fox of Loughborough Junior school is off to the States shortly on an exchange. Well, he is off to Louisiana and his exchange colleague is Liz Mountford. Liz is already online so if anybody would like to welcome her electronically, she can be reached at EMountford@aol.com.
Beth at Santley says that they have been trying to collect information via the great super highway for the extensive work on plants they are trying to do at the moment. If any one can help with exciting links then please contact Beth at santley@rmplc.co.uk.
Now and again I have been receiving emails from excited groups of children at Sudbourne school. Naturally, I try and reply to each and every one. Gilly says that she is trying to get through as many year 5 children as possible and teach them how to email and use the WWW. Quite a lot of them have learned how to do it now but she is hoping to have got through most of them by the end of term.
James Walker of Stockwell Juniors reports that they are doing lots now using the project computer. They have set up several pen pals at Quakers Hill in Australia and they have also sent about 12 different messages to other schools in the project from year 6 children about going to secondary school.
Finally, preparations for our presence at the Lambeth Country Show are well in hand. We will have 6 telephone lines installed so they should be plenty of opportunities for Net Surfing. I am still waiting for confirmation form the service providers as to exactly who is going to be there. What I do know is we should have up to four project machines available and probably a couple of others.
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Nic has been busy at Stockwell Infants again and has recently updated their home page. There you will find a picture of 'The Best Head in the World' (what's he after?) amongst other goodies. Do have a look and let him know what you think.
James at Stockwell Juniors reports that he has finally found time to do some work on the Internet. He writes that year 6 children from the school are sending messages to other schools in the project about going on to secondary school in September. Also, year 5 children are working on collecting weather information from the Net and they have emailed pen pals in Australia. We look forward to hearing more from James in the near future.
Last week I mentioned our Curriculum Links pages. I have now included a form that can be completed and sent over the Internet. I look forward to a rush of contributions both from project schools and the world beyond.
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Sorry, I forgot to mention in my last update that it was half-term last week. How could I forget? Anyway, that's why there was no update last Monday.
I have been doing a bit of work on our curriculum links section recently. You should soon be finding all sorts of practical ideas on using the Internet in the classroom. I am hoping for lots of contributions from project schools and form schools in the wider Internet community. Please visit these pages and see if you can help.
There is a bit more from the schools this week. Anita and Cheryl from Hillmead Infants report that after a long lonely time they have just received word again from Australia about sending a travel buddy from the nursery class. I believe that a much loved toy will soon be winging it's way to Oz.
Beth at Santley says she has still no reply from Hawaii. She is going to give up on that one. They hope to be getting in touch with a school in America after half term where a friend of their Chair of Governors teaches.
Finally, Nic at Stockwell Infants has recently updated the school's web pages. Point your browser here to visit them.
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Following on from last week's updates on the schools blitz, it seems that all systems are running happily except for one. St. John's Angell Town have been having modem problems and it has taken a lot of time to get the problem sorted. Their modem has been back to the manufacturer twice and a brand new one arrived on Tuesday. However, it still doesn't work properly. We are beginning to suspect that it is the computer at fault. Anyway, another technician is going in soon so hopefully they will be back on line in the not to distant future.
The main items discussed by our Steering Committee last week were the Christmas Card competition (see March 18th) and the Lambeth Country Show. Eleven of the project schools are participating an will shortly be getting their children to start designing their entries. Each school will choose their six best cards and display them on their web page. They will nominate one to appear on our main web page and a voting form will be in place for the wider Internet community to vote. The result of this vote will be taken into consideration when the board of Brixton Challenge decide the winner. The cards have to be displayed by 5th July.
The Lambeth Country Show takes place in Brockwell Park, Herne Hill on July 20th and 21st. Brixton Challenge will have a large marquee and the Connections project will be well represented. We hope to have phone lines installed and also have representatives from RMifl, AOL UK and Microsoft Network. There will be more updates on this as the time approaches.
The schools are all very busy at the moment with SATs and other matters so only one report. Jef Fox of Loughborough Juniors is going to the States on a year's exchange shortly and is looking for sponsorship to take Brixton Connections to Louisiana. If anybody can help with this or has any ideas, please email Jef .
Finally, a warm welcome to Simon Marks Jewish Primary School, Hackney, who have asked to become associate members of the project. If you wish to get in touch then please contact Nigel (smarks@rmplc.co.uk).
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Yesterday, we carried out our blitz visit. I haven't yet had full reports from my colleagues, but as far as I can tell it went quite well. The scanners all installed quite nicely and they are extremely simple to use. They all now have Netscape 2.01 installed. The only real problem was being unable to check the schools visited in the afternoon as we all had problems connecting.
Tomorrow, we have our steering committee meeting. A full report will appear here hopefully next week.
Not much from the schools next week. Only Beth at Santley sent in a report. She says that she is still waiting for a reply from Hawaii and that they have had problems all week connecting.
I hope I have more to report next week.
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First, a warm welcome to St. Stephen's CE School who have just connected to the Internet with RM and becoming honorary members of the project. They can be contacted at: ststephe@rmplc.co.uk and their contact is Peter Napthine.
Nic at Stockwell Infants forwarded a message from someone who had just discovered Nic's pages and took the trouble to email Nic congratulating him on the content. Do have a look at Nic's effort and see what you think.
Hillmead Infants Ofsted report is now public and I am pleased to tell you that they achieved a very positive report. The inspectors commented on their use of the internet as a good IT link in Geography.
Jan at Loughborough Infants follows on from last week Travel Buddies report. She writes that the children in Class 1 have sent replies to their Barney Bear in Indianapolis and their lion (called Lincoln) is being well looked after and being shown around the school.
Next Monday we are doing a blitz visit to all the project schools. Three of us are taking part and we shall be visiting five schools each. The main aim is to upgrade their version of Netscape to 2.01. We shall also being installing the Christmas Card competition scanners and software and checking that all the systems are functioning correctly. Thus, next weeks update will once again be on a Tuesday rather than the Monday.
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As reported last week our domain name is up and running at http://www.brixton-connections.org.uk/. Please update your bookmarks as necessary. Thanks once again to RM ifl for helping us with this.
Gilly at Sudbourne has recently uploaded her home page. Do have a look and let her know what you think. It is at: http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/sudbourn/.
Jan, of Loughborough Infants reports that she has not had much chance herself to do much on the internet as she started a new reception class this week. However, two of the other classes are continuing with some of their projects. The travel buddies scheme is well underway and Class 1's Barney Bear arrived safely in Indiana and has met some professional football players! They received their Lincoln Lion yesterday. Class 3 are still in contact with New Zealand.
Jan had a message from a school in Spain through their web page. The teacher was looking for Loughborough as that is where he was born and the search came up with us. She will try and start emailing Spain when the children are more settled.
More news next week (May 7th as Monday is a National Holiday.)
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As the project schools have only returned from their Easter vacation today, there is not a great deal to report. Not from the schools anyway. The main piece of news this week is that we are shortly to be getting our own Domain Name for the project. We will be known then as www.Brixton_Connections.org.uk. I'll let you know as soon as it's official. I'm told all the old links should work so don't worry about your bookmarks just yet.
You will probably have noticed that I've spent a bit of time re-organizing and re-designing our pages. I hope you all like the new look. There is a new area being constructed which will link some of the work done in our schools to the curriculum. If you would like to contribute to this area, please let me know (phil@rmplc.co.uk). We have now passed our 1000 visitor mark this year. Let's aim for 2000 by the end of this term.
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