Dissemination of Good Practice 2005-2006 Action Plan

1. Dissemination of Good Practice 2005-2006 Action Plan

2. cITizenship Generations Together

3. cITizenship Generations Together A whole school e-learning project to raise pupils’ awareness of how all ages can work together and learn from one another.

4. Introduction ‘Generations Together’ aims to broaden children’s awareness of how people from different generations can work and learn together. Many changes in society have led to generations frequently becoming segregated from one another - especially younger and older people.  This separation can lead to unrealistic, negative stereotypes of whole generations and a decrease in positive exchanges between them.  Yet these separated generations do have resources of value to each other. This intergenerational project is an attempt to bring the generations together again, improving understanding between them and increasing the support they provide to one another. It offers a win/win situation for everyone involved. Although, in the first instance, this is an ICT focused project, there will be opportunities to extend into other areas, such as history, maths, art and circle time.

5. Specific Objectives/Targets What are we aiming to achieve and by when?

6. Create a bank of pupil/teacher made resources for the various aspects of the intergenerational project. These will be produced and published by the school and available online and/or as paper copies. • Create a bank of worksheets and activities to be used during the project and in future years. These will be saved in the Teacher Information area on the school network. • Create an online environment for the ‘Generations Together’ project. This will be for the school and its associates, accessed via the school’s Intranet and website (www.comberps.newtownards.ni.sch.uk). • Raise parental and wider community awareness of the project by issuing regular news bulletins. This will be done via the school’s news sheets and through contact with churches and businesses in the town. • Run ICT Skills courses, using pupils from Years 6 as facilitators. The courses will target two community groups in particular – Over 55’s and Women Returning to Work. (N.B. This will be a central feature of the Generations Together project.) • Link the project with the ongoing program of Positive Behaviour. • The above will be achieved by June 2006.

7. Baseline Reference Point How well are we doing at the moment?

8. The school has strong links with churches and businesses in the Comber community. Support has been given and received over many years. • There is school involvement with Senior Citizens e.g. visits to local residential homes by members of the choir, invitations to grandparents to talk to pupils about their lives and childhood memories etc. • To date, the subject of Citizenship has not been formally addressed. • Although the school has an Internet Café as part of its Dissemination of Good Practice project this year (2004-2005), it has not previously offered adult ICT skills classes. • All classes regularly participate in ‘Circle Time’. • SPOT (Super Pupil On Trust) has been part of our previous Dissemination of Good Practice projects.

9. Success Criteria How will we know if we have succeeded?

10. We will know we have succeeded when … • pupils and staff show enthusiasm for, and a positive attitude to, the Generations Together project. • pupils make regular contributions to class output, both online and paper based. • there is a bank of resources saved in the Teacher Information area of the school network and available for use in future years. • there is a dedicated area (The Generations Together Zone) on the Intranet and website, consisting of website links, games, information and resources, relevant to the project. • worksheets and activities relating to the project have been uploaded to the Teacher Resource Exchange as exemplars of good practice and feedback has been received from the moderators.

11. We will know we have succeeded when … • there is community involvement in the various activities. • people register for the ICT courses and facilitators, who have received in-house training, are confident, competent and enthusiastic. • there is a positive response from schools in the SEELB to the project information and sample activities sent to them. • the project is sustainable.

12. cITizenship Team • ICT Coordinators • History Coordinator • Pastoral Care Coordinator • Others

13. Actions What are we going to do in order to achieve our objectives and the targets stated within our success criteria?

14. Form a ‘Generations Together’ Team consisting of ICT, History and Pastoral Care Coordinators to plan, monitor and evaluate the project. • Form a ‘Generations Together’ Project Group, drawn from Year 6, to act as facilitators for the ICT courses. • Create a bank of worksheets and activities for pupils. Teachers will be given guidance re. topics, timescale etc. and provided with planning frameworks. These worksheets (with accompanying lesson plans) will be uploaded to the ‘Generations Together’ folder saved in the Teacher Information area of the school network. The worksheets will also be accessible to pupils via a dedicated project area on the Intranet and Website and can be printed and completed to reinforce work done in class. • Create a ‘Generations Together’ Zone on the front page of the school’s Intranet and Website. This will include interactive games to support the project, links to useful websites and printable worksheets.

15. Regularly feature pupil’s work in a ‘gallery’ on the school Intranet and Website as a means of celebrating success. • Take digital photographs of school events and activities linked to the project. These will be viewed in the Photo Album on the Intranet and Website by pupils, teachers, parents, friends of the school and members of the community. • Train teachers and facilitators to use the new Interactive Whiteboard in the ICT Suite and help them appreciate that this is a valuable tool for the project. • Establish the “Super Pupil On Trust” Scheme in Year 5. • Design ICT Skills Courses to meet the particular needs of the target groups. • Provide project facilitators with in-house training. This will include training in communication and listening skills, as well as ICT skills related to the course programme. • Plan a unit of work for each year group at KS2 (with a broader and more general one for KS1), e.g. using, as a starting point, ideas from the ‘Help the Aged’ programme for schools.

16. Units of Work Year 5 … Food & Fitness Year 6 … Money Matters Year 7 … Then & Now KS1 … Community

17. Year 5 Unit of Work THEME: Food & Fitness This is an appropriate theme for Year 5 pupils, as it links with their existing study of Healthy Living. Pupils will compare their daily requirements of food and exercise with those of older people. Example activity: Pupils will design questionnaires to gather information from parents and grandparents. This will be used to create a database using Information Workshop 2000. They will also use the information to word process case studies to make a book. Online resources and interactive games will be used to enrich and enhance learning. • The Body • Diet • Food Groups • Calories • Exercise • Case Studies

18. Year 6 Unit of Work THEME: Money Matters This is an appropriate theme for Year 6 pupils, as it links with their participation in the ‘Young Enterprise’ scheme. Pupils will learn that keeping track of their money is very important. They will also learn that, as people get older, more money is spent on essentials. After people retire, most of their money comes from a pension. Example activity: Pupils will use a search engine to gather information about pensions. What types of pensions are there? How much is the State Pension? In this unit of work, good use will be made of Spreadsheets. • Earning • Budgeting • Getting Older • Pensions • Case Studies

19. Year 7 Unit of Work THEME: Then & Now This is an appropriate theme for Year 7 pupils, as it links with their existing work on World War II and their visit to the European war cemeteries. Pupils will compare and contrast life today with life during the war years. For example, they will learn that more women went to work because men were away at war and most older people still lived with their families. Nowadays, older people live more independently, often in their own homes, families are usually smaller and grandparents often look after children when their parents are at work. Example activity: Pupils will publish their stories on the BBC’s ‘WW2 People’s War’ website. Good use will also be made of PowerPoint. • Wartime • Living • Family • Facts • Case Studies

20. KS1 Unit of Work THEME: Community … looking after each other Pupils will learn the importance of helping others in the local community and how many older people are involved in voluntary work. They will learn that good transport means people can travel around easily, even if they live on their own. Upper KS1 pupils will think about the issue of isolation - how some older people live on their own and feel cut off and lonely. How can we, as individuals, or as a school, help? This unit provides many opportunities for visits to the school by members of the community and those who work in the service industry. • Helping Out • Transport • Family • Isolation • Case Studies

21. Basic Computing Course • Target Groups • over 55’s • women returning to work • Facilitators • “The best way to learn is to teach.” • pupils from Years 6 • trained by ICT Coordinator Possible 8-10 Week Programme (adapted to meet the needs of the target groups) • Word Processing • Desktop Publishing • Presentations • The Internet • Spreadsheets • Databases

22. Monitoring How are we going to monitor the implementation of the programme? ?

23. Evidence collected by … class teachers, ICT, Pastoral Care and History Coordinators. • By means of … work saved on disc in the ‘Public’ folder of the school network and in class books. Printouts of work and displays, photo album and work gallery on Intranet and website etc. • Feedback from course participants and those involved in various activities. • Analysed by … Project Team. • Reported to … Senior Management and Board of Governors.

24. Evaluation At the end of the implementation period of the action plan how will we decide how successful we have been?

25. We will evaluate our success by … • assessing the use of the ICT suite for all aspects of school learning, and especially Citizenship, in 2005-2006. • assessing the level of staff input into production of school-based resources to support the Generations Together project. • assessing the use made of resources in the Generations Together Zone on the school Intranet and website. • the level of community awareness of, and involvement in, the Generations Together project. • the numbers registering for the ICT courses. • pupils’ response to the various year group activities and the work produced. • the response from other schools in the SEELB to information sent to them about the project.

26. Support What help is available?

27. School based inset with teachers and project facilitators to explain activities, software and use of Intranet/Internet. • Inset training e.g. Interactive Whiteboard. • Support from SEELB, Pastoral Care and ICT Advisors. • Support from C2K Consultants and technical services. • Advice from the ‘Help the Aged’ schools’ team.

28. Positive Behaviour Super Pupil On Trust SPOT AWARD

29. SPOT AWARD SPOT AWARD Super Pupil On Trust • Awarded to Year 5 pupils who are committed to observing all rules governing the use of computers in Comber Primary, including Internet safety. • Will be granted permission to use the Computer Suite at lunchtimes to continue work or carry out independent research. • This privilege is earned and will be withdrawn if trust is broken.