Well the first week of spring term 2021 is completed; however it probably felt like a whole half term rather than just a week!
Thank you for all you are doing to ensure the pupils and the community are safe whilst continuing to learn. You are all fabulous and we really do appreciate the efforts you are making!
LGfL - Highlights
#BridgeTheDivide - the largest and most ambitious mobile data and device procurements ever to help schools and vulnerable children. For information about the delivery of devices and details of who to contact in any event - devicesupport.lgfl.net
Free Resilience - Resilient services are available through LGfL; these services are available both over copper VDSL or fibre lines dependent on the level required. For further information please contact enquiries@lgfl.net
HomeProtect - is for managed Windows devices, Chromebooks or iPads and is nothing like the simple ‘family settings’ available from consumer ISPs. Find out more and sign up for our FREE 6-month trial at homeprotect.lgfl.net
LGfL Training - all sessions are now delivered online. See below for more details and examples of sessions. Note: LGfL Learning Resource Consultants (LRCs) are available at no extra charge to support the effective use of LGfL Learning Services in schools. To book a bespoke session(currently remotely) for your school, please complete the request form.
Also remember to visitngfl.netto'Meet the Team' and find information about 'Onboarding' if you are a new member of the LGfL - National Grid for Learning community.
Bett Finalist 2021
LGfL's hard work and innovation has been recognised nationally - we are a finalist for the Bett Awards 2021 - The Covid-19 Response Champions Awards.
Following on from last week’s announcement and the nationwide lockdown, it looks like remote learning is here to stay. So to help you, here are a few reminders from our Coronavirus Safeguarding page with guidance, resources and support for DSLs, staff, parents & pupils. Some key areas you may wish to share include:
Parents - keeping children safe during home learning and online tutoring
DSLs and SLT - updated policy templates for remote learning
Staff - safeguarding considerations for remote tech and RSHE ideas
Zoom, Teams and Google Meet - settings and guidance
Facebook Live Drop-in Sessions for Parents:
Over Christmas, we ran a series of three live sessions with expert guests from CEOP, the Parent Zone and other leading organisations, featuring the latest trends and risks, simple strategies to keep children safe online at home and top tips for parental settings + gaming. If you missed it, you can watch all three at https://facebook.com/lgfldigisafe/live - do share the link with parents and carers via your communication channels and school website.
LGfL - IncludEd
Next week will see the first ever Virtual TES SEN Show and we are delighted to announce that LGfL have agreed to be the headline sponsors!
Visit our virtual stand where where you can come and have a chat, find out more about LGfL content and check out some of our newest, free resources.
BusyThings
BusyThings is packed with EVEN MORE features for schools - they're #remoteworking and #lockdown ready! Book your place on aFREE live trainingsession with Rachel & Sue now to show you around.
Also, recently launched on BusyThings to support LGfL's ReadingZone Liveresource are a number of lessons and book extracts from 'Here We Are', 'Young Gifted and Black', 'The New Neighbours' and 'Mortal Engines'. To find these and others click on the "latest releases" tab in BusyThings.
Also remember we have the "Busy at Home" paper activities you could share with parents. Find on our Coronavirus site (Home Learning/BusyThings tab); covering many areas of the curriculum including maths, English (reading, writing and phonics), science and humanities.
J2e
January sees the launch of j2help, a brand new interactive help system. With help documents and videos, users can search for content specific to their needs.
j2help includes:
a searchable library of help
downloadable step-by-step pdf's
how-to videos
a direct link to the Just2easy support desk, with experts on hand to help you with your issue
activity ideas.
In addition, just2easy are providing free drop-in CPD for online learning. Every Tuesday at 3:40 - 4:40 come & ask help, support & advice and discover some new tools and ideas with @nicolakimbell and @im_alastair. Click here to join the session!
Adobe Creative Educators
Please remember, your classes (including you!) can have access to Adobe Spark and the entire collection of Adobe Creative Cloud applications through the partnership between Adobe and LGfL. If your school has not claimed their licenses yet, please click hereto do so.
Sign-up your class to a Minecraft & Adobe Spark webinar
Adobe and Microsoft together aspire to cultivate the important future-ready skills: creativity, communication, collaboration and computational thinking. Opportunities to experiment, make mistakes, reflect and try new things are all super important in tomorrow’s workforce and society.
Our Mission Earth! - webinars combine STEM with creativity and storytelling. During the webinar your students will be developing a creative solution to address the real-world problem of sustainability. They will build a sustainable home in Minecraft: Education Edition and use Adobe Spark Video to share their solution with the world! All the webinar dates and signup links here. Look forward to seeing you and your class there!
Training During January 2021
Check out the whole training portal for online training on a wide range of topics. Training events are included in your school's Let's Get Digital subscription and are therefore *free* for LGfL schools staff to attend.
We will be delivering an online version of the highly successful “Building an IT Strategy for Schools and MATs” event on the 2nd February starting at 10:00.
The event is free to all School and MAT senior leaders and will cover all the elements required for delivering a digital strategy in a standalone school or Multi Academy Trust. The event is aimed at a strategic rather than technical audience and will explain all the elements of a strategy in the morning with optional targeted workshops in the afternoon for those that want more detail on specific areas relevant to their organisation.
The EdTech Demonstrator Programmeis not just for schools and colleges who have signed up to receive bespoke support, but is also a place where schools can access excellent, comprehensive resources created by the demonstrator schools and colleges across the programme. There are many schools that could benefit from these without actually signing up to the whole programme.
Get free peer-to-peer support from our network of EdTech Demonstrator schools and colleges. Click hereto register your interest.
EdTech Demonstrator Programme also provides free online sessions, webinars and roundtables, allowing you to pose questions, share experiences and borrow ideas in short, easy to access events.
These resources have now been retired. However, due to popular demand, we are currently working with the publisher of Rigolo once again to try and secure an updated version for LGfL schools in early 2021. For more information read hereand the recently published blog (link below).
