Pupils from Baden Powell Primary School used video conferencing to discuss life during the Second World War  with pupils from Pentyrch Primary School.  Using the school's Anderson shelter as a backdrop, they talked about gas masks, ration books and air raids

 

We have setup a weather station at Howardian which feeds live data into http://weather.lgfl.org.uk 

Here you can monitor things such as humidity, temperature and windspeed and make comparisons with other parts of the UK. We are listed as Penylan, Cardiff 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/meandmymovie/

CPD SE Wales- www.cpdsewales.org.uk

The 5 LEAs within the South East Wales Consortium are working together to change the face of the current structures for CPD provision for school based staff via a new web based on-line system, CPD SE Wales at www.cpdsewales.org.uk.

The Consortium’s work towards this new collaborative approach to the delivery of CPD is well under way. The individual School Improvement Services within the Consortium, which includes Cardiff, are aiming to radically improve the CPD provision to schools in the region.

 The new joint approach to CPD provision through www.cpdsewales.org.uk. aims to bring a number of clear benefits to schools: The new structure plans to:

• Give more choice of CPD across the consortium
• Bring a broader range of expertise available to schools than any one LEA can provide
• Enable specialist advice which is not currently offered in some authorities to be offered to all schools
• Provide the opportunity of joint appointments and joint sourcing of outside consultants to address gaps in provision
• Facilitate school networking within and across LEAs
• Provide an up to date record of CPD of all staff within any one school.
• Offer an effective system for recording evaluations and feedback about impact upon school practice/standards

Joint working is ongoing in a number of areas such as Curriculum 2008, the Foundation Phase and the reorganisation of advisers’ consultancy deployment on a consortium basis, in order to make better use of resources and improve services. This work supports the Consortium’s aim to provide a service that will be more flexible and tailored to the developmental needs of schools. The Consortium is also working with outside partners to broaden the range of CPD provision offered to schools.

These outside partners include recognised experts in their field such as the Key Skills Support Programme Cymru, CILT Cymru, Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Gwent Theatre and Management and Education departments within Further and Higher Education institutions.

From the end of February in the Spring Term 2008, LEAs will hold workshops to familiarise staff with the new system. The introduction of the system will commence with a short initial pilot phase followed by the launch of access to all schools further into the Summer term 2008. All schools will be contacted by the local Schools Advisory team to arrange for participation in one of the familiarisation workshops. For more information contact SEWC Project Manager elizabeth.arthur@torfaen.gov.uk

Video Conferencing available for all schools in Cardiff We are pleased to announce the launch of Visual Nexus in Cardiff. All schools will have the necessary facilities to enable them to use video conferencing in any classroom which has internet access This industry standard system will allow point to point and multi-point conferencing, along with collaborative working and data sharing. Already out in the Secondary Schools, a series of Primary School training courses will be launched in December. Don't miss out, contact us to ensure your place on the courses Do you have contact with a school or organisation at home or abroad with whom you'd like to conference? Then let us know!!!     Nelson Thornes have given us permission to make available some sample materials specifically produced for VLEs in SCORM and ILS format. These cover Maths, Science and MFL and are available here. You will need an enrolment key to access the materials which may be obtained by email from Elwyn Davies .

This new site explains how the Cardiff 14-19 Network is working to provide a wider range of experiences to meet the needs of all learners. Professionals and learners can use these pages to find about the range of courses for 14-19 year olds across the city. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is working with INSAFE (the network coordinators for the European Commissions 'Safer Internet Plus Programme') to promote the Safer Internet Day 2008 Competition.