jordan.graham@northumberland.gov.uk

richard.taylor@northumberland.gov.uk

jennifer.harris@northumberland.gov.uk

Going forward we will amalgamate our two newsletters and issue a single termly newsletter covering online safety and curriculum updates.

Following this week's announcement, we have scheduled a series of bitesized online training sessions to run this week.

Google Classroom (setting up and setting work) - Tue 5th 2pm, Wed 6th 4pm & Tue 12th 4pm

Live streaming lessons with Google Classroom - Thur 7th 12.15pm & 4pm, Wed 13th 4pm & Thur 14th 12.15pm

Home Learning for EY and KS1 - Tue 5th 4pm & Mon 11th 12.15pm

Busy Things - Fri 8th 12.15pm & Mon 11th 4pm.

Please email either jennifer.harris@northumberland.gov.uk or jordan.graham@northumberland.gov.uk to reserve a place.

While you will get the most from Busy Things by setting up a classroom and accessing the teacher tools, if you have not had a chance to do this yet, families can still make use of the many resources by filtering by year group and subject area to find relevant activities.

You will also find the Northumberland Home Learning guide in School360 resources which is packed with ideas and activities.

Teachers can also add their own resources to School360, if you're not sure how to go about this please get in touch.

If you are accessing devices through this scheme or purchasing your own, please contact us as we can assist in their set up and ongoing management.

You can find out more about applying for Chome Books and Tablets HERE.

You can find out about how to get internet access for disadvantaged children, including details of schemes to increase 4G data allowances and obtain 4G wireless routers HERE.

We’re now able to enable live Google Meet calls between a teacher and pupil, for schools using Google Classroom in School360. Google Meet is switched off for pupils by default, please ask your head teacher to contact us if you would like this switched on.

Dates are listed at the top of this page for introductory sessions. We will show you how to set up and manage calls between school and a pupil studying from home.

We will also point you toward key guidance and policy templates which must be reviewed before you begin to use this service.

Please note - there is no expectation from the DFE that your staff live stream lessons. You may prefer to share pre recorded videos or share content created by another organisation.

The aim of the National Centre for Computing Education is to equip teachers with the knowledge, confidence and resources needed to deliver an effective and engaging computing curriculum.

'The UK is now engaged in probably the most ambitious re-envisioning of computing as a school subject, that is taking place anywhere in the world. The new English program of study establishes computer science as a foundational discipline that all children should study at an elementary level, as they do natural science or mathematics. This will turn them from the slaves of technology into its masters. It will turn them from mere consumers of technological stuff into its creators.' - Simon Peyton Jones, chair of the NCCE.

We are delivering training on behalf of the NCCE for which there is currently Government funding available, including Teaching KS1 Computing and Teaching KS2 Computing.

We are able to schedule these sessions once we have a minimum of 5 bookings. If you or a colleague would be interested in attending this training please get in touch and we will organise a date that works for all interested parties.

If you attended last academic year, you can receive funding again this year so that a colleague may attend a course.

Please email us to find out more or to register your interest.

We preempted this change with the introduction of Busy Things which holds over 1000 cross curricular resources aimed at EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

If you haven't yet taken part in one of our introductory sessions please get in touch to arrange one. We'll cover setting up your class, setting work and providing feedback for your pupils.