GPP (That's 'Guided Professional Placement' to the uninitiated) has begun and with it there are new technologies to get my head around.
The first thing I'd like to mention is that the school I am at in Salford takes its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. The school is aware of the importance of joined up thinking when it comes to the protection of the children in its care, and as such has signed up to a website called "My Concern". This website is a superb way of ensuring that when it comes to child protection, everybody has access to relevant information. Let me give you a for instance (and, just for the record, this is a completely fictional example). Imagine a nine year old called Aaron has arrived for school on Monday morning with a pronounced limp. On further examination you notice a bit of bruising on his leg. Now, it may be nothing to worry about; you know that Aaron likes sport and he may have simply strained it at the weekend during a match (to be fair, this is the likeliest explanation). But, on the other hand, this may be a significant puzzle piece in a wider jigsaw that points towards child abuse at home. By reporting it on My Concern you ensure that the headteacher, his GP, his social worker, and any other party relevant to that child's wellbeing is aware of the puzzle piece. If it is of no consequence then fine, but if it is then you may have just helped to prevent further violence towards an abused party. I think My Concern is brilliant, and I'd encourage all schools (and any area of society that work with children) to sign up for it. A second technology I have seen used by my mentor is a piece of PE assessment software* for the iPad. In short, this software allows the user to photograph children during specific activities (selectable from a drop down menu), tag them by name, and mark down whether they have achieved, partially achieved or not achieved the lesson objective. This data is then all collated and is accessible by the headteacher. I feel this is a great part of the drive to boost the status of PE in English schools, and I'm all for it. Next up, I will blog about the pick and mix computing modules from my university's computing programme. * I will blog further about this software in the future when I can take some screenshots of the user interface.
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