We do hope you managed to get some time to relax over the half term holidays and recharge your batteries. The second half of the autumn term is always a busy one; many of you will be trialling online Parents' Evenings for the first time and be thinking of ingenious ways for your pupils to perform the Christmas plays etc.
Whatever this half term brings, we do hope you stay healthy and safe and successfully navigate your way around the problems/situations that come your way.
LGfL Bridge the Divide
LGfL are encouraging our community to address data poverty by bridging the divide together. We believe all children, including the most disadvantaged, deserve better on mobility. Therefore, we are undertaking one of the largest and most ambitious mobile data and device procurements ever to help schools and vulnerable children. Having saved schools millions on devices, we now want to transform the lives of children at home, many of whom don't have the connectivity or access they need. Therefore Bridge the Divide will be extended to address data poverty. More details to follow later.
If you are a school who has ordered devices through Bridge the Divide, we have set up a site with information about the delivery of devices and details of who to contact in any event - devicesupport.lgfl.net.
DfE Funded Support
Schools who are at the early stages of their digital journeys can apply directly for DfE-funded support with setting up Office 365 or G Suite for Education. Find out more via The Key's digital education platform hub.
Free Resilience - 1 Gbps for secondary schools
Resilient services are available through LGfL; these services are available both over copper VDSL or fibre lines dependent on the level required. They are of particular benefit to schools in the unlikely event that there should be a network failure, as the resilient service will take over and keep essential services running for the school. For further information please contact enquiries@lgfl.net
LGfL HomeProtect
'Keeping Children Safe in Education' says schools must have appropriate filtering + address safeguarding considerations, including ‘online at home’. Our new school-safe home web filtering for remote learning is designed to keep children safe at home and is managed Windows devices, Chromebooks or iPads.
The 9th to the 14th November (ie this week) sees a full week of Edtech Daily 'Live Panels' and Twilight 'Tea & Chat' from our 50 Demonstrator Schools and Colleges, sharing CPD material and online advice. You can sign up to this FREE six day online event here.
Across the week, we will be offering:
Every morning, daily ‘Live Panels’ - Roundtables discussing policy, up-to-date sector issues, latest trends in education and technology and practical EdTech ideas for early years to Post-16.
Twilight ‘Tea & Chat’ - cross-regional panels made up from our network of Demonstrator schools and colleges.
Sharing CPD materials and online advice and guidance about how you can embed EdTech into your teaching, learning, organisation and community.
Friday Evening: Festival of EdTech Creativity - Music, dance, art, and drama, live on Facebook
Saturday: live EdTech Summit 2020 led by the national network of EdTech demonstrator schools and colleges.
@EdtechDemo Visit:edtech-demonstrator.lgfl.net to learn more about the EdTech Demonstrator Programme and request free support from one of the 50 EdTech Demonstrator Schools and Colleges.
Adobe, The Edit - Be the Change, Shape It!
Adobe and Sky have joined forces to inspire your students to take part in a digital storytelling challenge – ‘The Edit – Be the Change, Shape It’ – using Adobe’s video tools; Adobe Spark and Premiere Rush.
Your students will create a short report to be featured on a Sky News Channel, using Sky footage and Adobe editing tools. They will learn about the different roles involved in the whole production process, receiving tips from Sky experts while developing key media literacy skills. As a multi-skilled team your students will research, plan, shoot and edit using Adobe Spark video or Premiere Rush. The free curriculum aligned resources give you everything you need, including tools to help you learn and feel confident with digital tools and teach more creatively.
Prizes include a final screening of the winning films at Sky Cinema! Click to find out more and sign up
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 here to do so.
BusyThings and ReadingZone Live
You will be aware from last month's newsletter that ReadingZone Live was relaunched in September 2020. We are now pleased to announce that BusyThings have released six more interactive book extracts on their site, plus two projects and three comprehension quizzes to complement the updated LGfL RZL. The projects include activities such as creating a book jacket, writing a review and writing a character profile. Read this Curriculum blogfor further details about the ReadingZone Live update.
DigiSafe Updates
Anti-Bullying Week - new toolkit for schools with top tips and ideas.
To help prepare for Anti-Bullying week, we’ve put together a toolkit with ideas, simple strategies and tips to empower staff, pupils and parents and develop your whole school approach. View toolkit here.
Extremism and Covid19 - curriculum resources to build resilience during Covid.
With extremists exploiting COVID19 to attract young people online, we teamed up with DfE, National Literacy Trust, BBC and Connect Futures to showcase some great new resources to empower pupils and promote critical thinking. Download resources at covidpreventduty.lgfl.net
Online Tutors– safeguarding tips for parents.
Share this flyer with parents to keep children safe during extra tuition, which is much more likely during Covid - whether privately, via school or the government National Tutoring Programme.
Spotlight on Safeguarding - start your briefings/insets with our new 5 min cpd videos.
Need up-to-date content for your next staff briefing? Why not start with one of our 5 minute Spotlight videos – topics include radicalisation, child criminal exploitation, bullying and referrals.
Upcoming Training
We have new online training for the new academic year. Click the images below to see the information for the highlighted courses and to book them.
You can also check out the whole training portal for training on a wide range of topics (including Tech Squad training for 3PSOs).Training events are included in your school's Let's Get Digital subscription and are therefore *free* for LGfL schools staff to attend.
In this 1 hour online session, we will offer top tips, particular advice and real-world examples on how to use LGfL resources to support remote learning.
This 1 hour online session is designed to fit into a staff meeting slot.
We are running the sessions EVERY Monday (4-5pm) during term time.
There are a range of Thursday morning sessions from IncludEd (9:30-11:30am) aimed developing staff understanding and improving inclusive practice.
Google Professional Development Programme
The Google for Education team has partnered with LGfL to provide a bespoke Professional Development programme for schools. These interactive webinars are designed to support educators in hybrid and blended learning methods, making the most out of G Suite, assessment and feedback and Chromebook masterclasses.
Note they are adding further dates for G Suite for Primary.
Flash Player and Legacy Resources
Since Adobe's support for Flash Player* ends in 2020 (*software used on the Adobe Flash platform that includes viewing multimedia content and executing rich internet applications, such as educational games and also streaming audio and video) we will be retiring the LGfL "Legacy" resources at the end of the year (this includes Rigolo, Virtual Experiments and PB Bear's Adventures.
If you have any further questions about our legacy resources, please contact: contentsupport@lgfl.net.
