RichardS

We saw some ace students and top class staff working hard. One group were working on animations using digital cameras and PC based software. Others were using design software to produce animated Christmas greetings - see below for both. The most impressive thing were 4 and 5 year olds with better mouse control than the Deputy Chief Exec of the Council and the Executive Director of Becta put together! Well done Castledyke!

See http://www.becta.org.uk and http://www.castledyke.n-lincs.sch.uk/  for more.

PS - Can you programme your video?

I had an interesting meeting this afternoon about school meals. The thing is that childhood obesity is a big issue and the choices children make at quite an early age tend to influence their thinking for many years so if we can get the food in school right it may well be that we will have a long lasting impact on the health of the nation. Sounds a bit grand, but it's true. We have a good and sustainable school meals service in North Lincolnshire but as the environment changes - things like new national standards and food and fuel costs rising are in my mind - and national and local prioroites around school food heighten we need to think about how we promote and develop the service over the next few years. We will be doing some work on this over the next few months I think.

PS - it's nearly dinner time.....

I have been in Stratford upon Avon for two days and seen nothing of it at all! But have come away having learned a lot, been stimulated in the thinking department, and having had the opportunity to catch up with my former boss from Education Leeds, Chris Edwards. Chris is one of the most respected education visionaries in the UK. The changes he has brought about in Leeds over the last 7 years are amazing, but no less than young people in that great city deserve. The event was a seminar sponsored by RM, the ADCS and Aspect looking at schools of the future, BSF etc. The most impressive thing - apart form the chairing by Sir Mike Tomlinson - was a presentation on the Kunskapsskolan education system from Sweden. As you will know by now I am keen on things Scandinavian. The model is based on goal setting and personal tutoring and allows students to use the teachers, teaching spaces, time, the online curriculum and ICT systems to develop ownership and responsibility for their school and their own learning. They even do the washing up after lunch. Student and teacher plan a personal timetable and agree how they will use time and resources to achieve agreed goals. Sounds good to me. The organisation is now involved in two academy schools in the UK with a willingness to run a few more should the opportunities arise. They think out of the box and get great results - perhaps those two things go together these days. Paraphrasing Churchill - give the learners the tools and they will finish the job.

I was also one of the presenters at the event and was able to talk about the NLC BSF scheme, our strategy for wider regeneration and transformation, and what a great place North Lincolnshire is. Never pass by the opportunity to tell our story - some of our story goes before us - Sir Mike knew a thing or two about us. Not bad for a Yorkshireman!

Everything is global these days. I am spending a day this week  - Wednesday - at a workshop organised by RM (the computer people) looking at the delivery of Building Schools for the Future (BSF). I am giving a presentation as part of the event on behalf of ADCS. I plan to major on global issues. North Lincolnshire as a global gateway, our aspiration to provide world class learning opportunities to our young people, and the proposition that global is good, not just the source of things that trouble us like the global credit crunch and global warming.

The opportunity to learn from afar has made a real difference to learning in North Lincolnshire, especially the now well developed China link with Dalian. A smaller scale engagement with things Swedish has also had a positive impact on our BSF planning in particular. One of the other presenters is Anders Hultin, a Swede who is one of movers and shakers in Kunskapskolan. This organisation runs schools in Sweden and has put a toe in UK waters via the Academies programme. Their model challenges traditional thinking about how you organise learning - and seems to work well. See http://www.kunskapsskolan.se/foretaget/inenglish.4.1d32e45f86b8ae04c7fff213.html for more. So the messages are? Think global and challenge traditional thinking.