Category Archives: Pre School

Centres With A Difference

Perth, Australia, 2018-May-31 — /EPR EDUCATION NEWS/ — Nido Early School centres have established themselves as the benchmark for excellence in early education in Australia and one of the key things setting them apart from other education providers is that they practice what they preach.

Their values and ethos are bound by a passion to provide young minds with the ability, means and skills to enable and sustain future growth and development – and anyone who has experienced this philosophy in action will attest that these aren’t simply hollow words that sound good. The centres really do deliver on their promises.

There are a number of Nido Early School centres in West Australia and Victoria and the company is currently undergoing rapid growth to meet escalating demand for their premium standard of early childhood education.

Their philosophy is inspired by the globally acclaimed Reggio Emilia approach to early education which places significant emphasis on the importance of family and community and which has the premise that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ at the heart of everything it does.

This emphasis on involving family and community in order to give children the best possible care and education is activated and strengthened in many, many different ways at the centres. But no two centres are the same. Just as each community where the centres are located is unique, each Nido Early School is different and caters for the diverse and ever-evolving needs of children and families.

To meet these needs, a variety of fun and fruitful incursions take place at the centres on an ongoing basis.

These are arranged depending on the needs of the families at the school and the unique community that it serves, and they bring a whole new dimension to early learning. The children get involved in a variety of thought-provoking activities and their young minds are stimulated in a creative, interactive way.

Some recent incursions include visits from a representative from St John Ambulance WA, the local vet, a yoga instructor, a leading nutritionist and a naturopath – all of which brought learning to life in the nurturing and beautiful school environment.

The centres also demonstrate their commitment to the wellbeing of families and the wider community by providing access to essential services like dental care and child healthcare. Take the Nido Early School in the Perth suburb of Lakelands for example which has introduced a monthly visit from a child health nurse to assist busy families and nurture the development of children. Similarly, when the community dental van visits the Nido Early Schools in Perth, they provide important oral health services but they also benefit busy families.
Feedback from the community about these visits has been overwhelmingly positive and the benefits are clear.

Another aspect of Nido Early Schools that makes them ‘centres with a difference’ is their focus on helping those who are in need.

For example, a partnership with a local Dementia Club sees members of the club visiting a Nido centre once a month to share stories, form friendships and learn from one another – and judging by the level of excitement and anticipation about the visits by the children and club members alike, it’s a remarkable experience which benefits everyone. Another example of Nido Early School’s community involvement was a recent sleepout at one of the centres to raise funds and awareness for the St Vincent de Paul Society.

This is just a brief snapshot of some of the many ways that Nido Early School centres activate their educational philosophy and bring learning to life. Each centre is unique, taking its cue from the diverse needs of both the school community and the wider community and meeting those needs through the best possible education and care possible.

For more information on Nido Early Schools, please get in touch through the website www.nidoearlyschool.com.au where you’ll also find the contact details of the centre closest to you.

Via EPR Network
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Children’s Book Series Combines Substance With Fun

Growing up, author and illustrator Setria James did not make the best grades, but she discovered a strong artistic ability through coloring and began excelling in art classes. She subsequently followed this passion through her college education, studying fine arts and graphic design. Setria recently tapped into her love of coloring and interest in child development by single-handedly authoring and illustrating the Doodles Coloring Fun book line under her Doodles Avenue brand.

Setria published the coloring book collection to encourage children’s artistic expression, provide a fun platform for learning, and aid in their overall development. The series delves into a variety of interesting and educational subjects, such as animals, insects, flowers, food, safety, travel destinations, and United States history. Each book is filled with Setria’s original drawings, themed facts, and activities, which address some of the biggest concerns parents face, including education, health, safety, and cultural awareness.

Ten coloring books have now been released under the Doodles Avenue brand, including the award-winning first edition of “Doodles Alphabet Coloring Fun.” According to Setria, “Coloring helped cultivate my creativity as a child and inspire my career in graphic design, which is why I wanted to produce Doodles Coloring Fun. If my books can inspire other kids to be creative and help them learn about their world in the process, then I’ve accomplished my goal. Doodles Coloring Fun has a level of substance I wish my childhood coloring books contained, with imaginative sketches and educational facts.”

Setria attended Texas Woman’s University, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Masters of Art degree with an emphasis in Graphic Design. Says Setria, “Coloring stimulated my career path and my passion for the arts. My lifelong love of coloring continues through the Doodles Coloring Fun collection, but now I’m paying it forward.”

The Doodles Coloring Fun series is available exclusively on Amazon.com.

If you would like more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with Setria James, please email doodlesave@aol.com. High-res photos are available to the media upon request.

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New Public Class Fosters Social-Emotional Skills in Children

Mariposa Child Success Programs, a nonprofit organization that promotes the healthy development of children, will be offering a class to the public on how to foster social-emotional competence in children. Promoting Social-Emotional Competence: Managing Behaviors and Improving Performance will begin on February 9, 2012 at the new Union Mill complex in Hampden and will continue for eight weeks.

The course will be taught by Dr. Anne Townsend and Dr. Harriette Wimms, Mariposa’s Chief Academic Officer and Lead instructor respectively. The course trains adults in Mariposa’s unique process for increasing social-emotional competence in children, including interpersonal and learning-related social skills, and reducing problem behaviors through a skills-based model for adult interactions.

This course offering is an extraordinary opportunity for an adult to learn how to develop and apply five key skills that can make a great impact on children’s lives. Participants will have access to numerous journal articles, books, instructor examples, role plays, Mariposa workbooks, skills application exercises, and more.

This presentation of the course – typically available only on an institutional basis – is open to the public will follow a weekly schedule, occurring every Thursday night from 5:30-7:30pm. For more information or to register for the class, please contact Emalee Rodriguez at erodriguez@mariposaeducation.org.

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Back to School Made Easy by the Book People

Specialist online book shop the Book People has created a blog post which gives its readers their top five recommended resources when it comes to getting the children back to school.

As well as providing a huge selection of the best children’s books and reference books for kids, the Book People aims to be a useful resource for parents, teachers, children and avid readers alike. The latest blog post, which went live this morning, includes a snippet about each website included in the list so that the reader is given a taster of why it has been chosen and why they might find it useful to read before the new term begins, and afterwards.

The blog post includes websites that offer useful reading tips, fun ways to get reluctant readers interested, shopping guides to ensure the kids are prepared and how to prepare for the first days of school or nursery.

Previous blog posts from the Book People have included Top 10 travel advice blogs and Top 10 book review sites, and those sites that are included often receive an eye-catching winner’s badge to put on their homepage. The Book People offers affordable books to buy online and organises its range into age groups, genres and much more to make it easy for customers to find and order the books they want.

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Creative child awards ‘Wizarday- when our stuff went away’ 2011 game of the year

Over 100 moms, educators and child psychologists reviewed new products, on behalf of Creative Child Magazine, to judge one product to be the best product of the year. They chose Wizarday to be the best product of 2011 at the“kid`s board game & social skills/self discovery” category.

This award comes after a prestige book review by Jim Cox of Midwest Book Review: ‘‘Scheduled around a ghostly holiday (Halloween), the events of Wizarday lead to fun-filled games and routine -related deals that somehow lead to smooth operations of daily routines and increased family harmony. How does all this work? It really is best to read the book, besides, it‘s more fun that way!……Parents of preadolescents will love Wizarday but they may have to wait their turn to read it‘‘.

Filled with fun characters and silly names, Wizarday consists of a hilarious fiction storybook with 3 corresponding board and card games. Game 1 follows the story as players race around the board in search of their lost routine. In game 2 each player finds a proper room for his opinion. And game 3? A quick card game to play on the go.

Reading and playing helps families facilitate their understanding of routines, preparing tweens for responsible adolescence. Old family values with 21st century skills – communication, collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
Age 8+ ● $37.5

Since its debut, Wizarday was awarded “The Toy Man Editor Choice Award” and “The Toy Man Seal of Approval”, for high value of potential cognitive/critical skill growth and overall improvement in an individual or group. In addition, Wizarday book received a 5 star rating in the “American Chronicle” children book review by Rhonda Fischer.

Toys N Tayls was founded by Dr. Sarah Itzhaki and Steven Tobias, Psyc. Its goal is to bring health awareness to the home through fun experiences. Each product has a book and corresponding game or toy, which targets a different kind of personal challenge. Through humorous stories and games, children ages 5 and up learn how to face daily challenges and discover ways than can conquer their fears, doubts and problems.

Visit the award-winning ToysNTayls at toysntayls.com for more information.

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Promethean Introduces ActivEngage To Its Range Of Learner Response Systems

Promethean, a global leader in interactive learning technology, has launched ActivEngage, a new software version of its market leading Learner Response System*. This new application enables laptops or desktop computers to act as personal response devices, meaning schools can provide voting capability in classrooms via individual student computers instead of specific handsets.

Computer-per-pupil initiatives are increasingly being promoted by governments as a means of underpinning schools’ ICT strategies. That, along with schools focus on developing problem-solving and technology skills makes these a valuable classroom resource. The introduction of this software only version of Promethean’s Learner Response System has been designed to complement these initiatives and widen access to their assessment and engagement capabilities.

Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland has welcomed the development of the new software application, becoming the first local authority in the UK to adopt ActivEngage. It plans to introduce the software to primary and secondary schools across the region, following an initiative to ensure all pupils in its 122 schools have access to their own laptop, netbook or PC.

John Tait, Education Officer for Dumfries and Galloway local authority, explained: “It is vital that ICT is embedded into the teaching and learning process. Having enjoyed previous success with Promethean’s handheld voting systems, we wanted to maximise our ICT investment by providing all schools in Dumfries and Galloway with access to this assessment and opinion-gathering capability, without having to purchase additional hardware devices. ActivEngage was the perfect solution.”

Schools using ActivEngage can use the technology in a single classroom or across an entire campus. The voting interface floats over other software applications, enabling it to be deployed at any point in a lesson.

Promethean’s Head of European Education Strategy, Margaret Allen, commented: “Learner Response Systems have proved invaluable for providing teachers with flexible and exciting opportunities to engage, motivate and assess learners. Teachers gain instant insight into students’ understanding and can use the self-paced learning mode, whereby students work through different levels of question sets, to personalise learning to the capabilities of different individuals.”

Students are able to respond to a wide range of questioning formats using numbers, free text, symbols, or likert scales. Responses can be instantly displayed on an Interactive Whiteboard laptop or desktop computer and saved by the teacher for later analysis.

Promethean is also offering schools the chance to ‘try before you buy’, by enabling trial copies of ActivEngage to be downloaded and used free of charge from PrometheanPlanet.com, the world’s largest online interactive whiteboard community. This will give schools the opportunity to explore the benefits of ActivEngage and Learner Response Systems before purchasing the programme.

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Promethean Brings World’s Fastest Car To Maidenhead

Promethean, the interactive learning technology provider, organised a rare opportunity for pupils from Maidenhead and Reading to see a life size replica of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car. They were also able to meet and question Richard Noble OBE about the Bloodhound project, and its attempts to set a new World Land Speed Record and exceed the 1,000mph milestone for the first time.

The event was organised by Promethean to mark the official opening of its new offices in Maidenhead. The company is the Bloodhound project’s official interactive education technology partner and aimed to create a genuinely exciting educational opportunity in the area to mark the occasion.

Promethean’s President of European Sales and Marketing, Paul Berry, commented: “Through our partnership with Bloodhound, we are working to give young people access to inspiring content, resources and tools to help engage them in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects that will improve their life chances. This is an ideal way to give pupils a day to remember, and set them thinking about the exceptional things that can be achieved through science and technology.”

Pupils representing Wessex Primary in Cox Green, Maidenhead; Cranbourne Primary in Winkfield; Emmbrook in Wokingham; Ranelagh in Bracknell; and Maiden Erlegh in Earley had the chance to see the 13.4m long Bloodhound replica and take part in interactive sessions involving rocket power, distance, time and speed using Promethean classroom technologies.

Building of the actual Bloodhound car is underway in Bristol. Powered by both a rocket and a jet engine, it has been designed to achieve speeds of up to 1,050mph, and is expected to become the world’s fastest car when it makes a new attempt on the World Land Speed Record in South Africa in 2012.

Along the way, the team behind the project also hope to foster a lifelong interest in science, technology, engineering and maths in young people and help develop a pipeline of talent for the future.

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Promethean Launch ‘Give Every Child A Voice’ Recycling Campaign

Promethean, the interactive learning technology business, is launching ‘Give Every Child a Voice’, a recycling campaign among Scottish schools to support the NSPCC’s ChildLine, the 24 hours-a-day helpline for children and young people.

Promethean is bringing together schools across Scotland to help raise funds for ChildLine by recycling old or unwanted mobile phones. For every 250 mobile phones a school collects, Promethean will donate £500 to ChildLine in Scotland and an ActivExpression Learner Response System will be awarded to the school.

The ActivExpression Learner Response System is a set of handheld pupil devices which allow every child to respond to questions by texting their responses.

All schools are encouraged to participate in the campaign and can sign-up via www.giveeverychildavoice.com, a dedicated campaign website.

There are around 2,150 primary and 375 secondary schools in Scotland, and Promethean hopes to enrol as many schools as possible to help generate a target of £250,000 for ChildLine in Scotland.

Once signed-up, schools will be provided with collection bins, literature and resources to help promote recycling, fundraising and awareness for ChildLine in Scotland.

X Factor finalists John and Edward Grimes, aka Jedward, are lending their support to the campaign by making a school appearance in Scotland where they will discuss recycling and raising awareness of ChildLine’s service.

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Promethean And BrainPOP Announce Integrated Assessments For Learning

BrainPOP, the award-winning creator of animated, educational resources, is pleased to announce that its curriculum-based quizzes are now fully integrated with Promethean’s learner response systems, ActiVote and ActivExpression.

The integration of ActiVote and ActivExpression, the industry-leading learner response system, with BrainPOP’s quizzes – including all BrainPOP Jr. (K-3) topics – makes it easier than ever for teachers to improve learning outcomes by providing highly individualized instruction and assessment. Linking BrainPOP’s content to learner response devices opens the door for increased student participation and higher academic achievement.

Earlier this year, educators in Georgia’s Forsyth County Schools piloted the functionality, which is powered by Promethean’s software developers’ kit.

“The ability to gather formative and immediate student responses while using BrainPOP’s dynamic content adds a new dimension to classroom instruction. The integration of these learner response systems with BrainPOP’s quizzes has been incredibly well-received by both teachers and students,” said Jill Hobson, Director of Instructional Technology for Forsyth County Schools in Atlanta, Georgia.

Administering BrainPOP quizzes with ActiVote or ActivExpression not only engages students but also helps teachers quickly identify who is struggling and might need extra assistance. By fully integrating BrainPOP quizzes into Promethean’s software development kit, teachers can work assessments into their lessons in just a few easy steps. The reporting functions allow teachers to see individual student progress and to view responses in a number of formats. Student and class results can be printed or downloaded, and then incorporated into grade books and learning management systems.

“BrainPOP’s collaboration with Promethean on the engineering of this new capability exemplifies our commitment to 21st century learning,” said Avraham Kadar, M.D., CEO and Chairman of BrainPOP. “The pairing of our quizzes with learner response systems brings a new level of engagement to the classroom, one that is sure to have a tremendous impact on student performance going forward.”

“Our partnership has provided an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate how interactive technologies and rich digital content can help real teachers in the classroom with real education improvement,” commented Mark Elliott, President of Promethean North America. “A digital learning environment empowers teachers with the tools and resources they need to support today’s student, and, in turn, boost participation and overall academic achievement.”

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Promethean Sponsors First Irish Teaching and Learning Festival

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has announced that it is to be the lead sponsor of the inaugural Irish Teaching and Learning Festival, held in Citywest Conference Centre, Dublin on 15th and 16th October, 2010.

The conference will feature education thought leader, and Oscar winning producer, Lord David Puttnam, presenting his vision of how Ireland can better meet the educational needs of its new generation of learners. As a former president of UNICEF UK, and non executive director of Promethean, the Cork resident will bring some very thought provoking ideas to his keynote.

Graham Byrne, head of Ireland and Scotland at Promethean said: “There has been very strong demand for an Irish event to highlight the very latest resources, technologies and trends in teaching. As a global leading educational technology company and creator of the ActivClassroom suite of classroom solutions, we are delighted to support Ireland’s first ever interactive conference and exhibition.”

Promethean will be demonstrating how its ActivClassroom solutions, comprising of interactive whiteboards, learner response systems and specialist teaching software, are bringing to life the promise of ICT in education, improving engagement and results for learners and teachers. There will also be a host of practical teaching workshops, live demonstrations and an exhibition of the latest education tools for visitors.

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Promethean Acquires SynapticMash

Promethean World Plc (LSE:PRW), a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has announced that it has agreed to acquire SynapticMash Inc, a start-up US education formative assessment software company. The acquisition is expected to complete before the end of July 2010.

The initial consideration is $10 million in cash, of which $1 million is deferred for 18 months. A further performance related consideration of $3 million may be payable in 18 months, dependent on retention of key SynapticMash employees and sales targets.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Seattle, SynapticMash has developed a sophisticated and modular cloud-based formative assessment platform that is being marketed to US school districts through a subscription model. Its learning management system, LearningQube, transforms the way schools collect and manage classroom data, enabling teachers and administrators to better assess and track student performance.

Formative assessment is the evaluation of student performance instantaneously during the learning process rather than by formal exam typically at the end of a term or school year. It enables teachers to modify lessons during the progression of a course, based on their students’ levels of understanding, leading to differentiated instruction and improved academic achievement.

SynapticMash directly fits Promethean’s education strategy and significantly strengthens Promethean’s formative assessment and learner response systems (LRS) offering. LRS are handheld devices that allow students to contribute in real time during lessons, and enable teachers to instantly gauge student understanding.

SynapticMash’s LearningQube software will be fully integrated with Promethean’s LRS devices and specialised educational software, ActivInspire, to create a new and powerful formative assessment proposition for the education market, enabling teachers as well as school administrators to improve student assessment and performance.

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Promethean Announces Triple Success At 2010 Worlddidac Awards

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global interactive learning technology, is delighted to announce that it has won three prestigious awards from the Worlddidac Foundation for excellence in education.

Promethean’s specialised ActivInspire education software, ActivExpression Learner Response System and teacher web community, Promethean Planet, were all honoured in the ‘Information and Communication Technologies’ category.

These awards, which are held biannually, were judged by a jury of teachers and industry experts based on educational and didactic capabilities, design and sustainability.

Promethean has a long tradition of success at the Worlddidac awards, recognising its leading global position in interactiveeducational resources and technology. This year’s triple win follows previous successes for Promethean Planet and its ActivPrimary software, the precursor to ActivInspire.

Iwan Streichenberger, Chief Marketing Officer, commented: “We are delighted with this triple success, which is overwhelming recognition for the significant educational benefits Promethean’s ActivClassroom brings to learning. Once again, this demonstrates Promethean’s ongoing commitment, through the development of innovation interactive learning solutions, to improving engagement in the classroom and raising student achievement across the world.”

The Worlddidac Foundation has been presenting Worlddidac Awards internationally for the past 25 years, recognising excellence in educational resources. Worlddidac is the global trade association for companies providing products for education and training at all levels. It has 180 member companies and organisations from 43 countries on 5 continents. The 2010 award ceremony will be held in Switzerland in October.

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Debut Author Covers Life Cycle of Black Swallowtail Butterfly in Inspiring New Children’s Book

In her thrilling new children’s book The Caterpillars that Grew… and Grew … and Grew, debut author and illustrator Robin Murray follows the three-year old Maddison as she explores the world through her magical magnifying glass and learns all about the amazing life cycle of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly.

When the Black Swallowtail Butterfly makes its debut each spring, seeking out colorful flowers for nectar, Maddison is able to identify it from its unique wing shape and distinctive black, yellow and cornflower blue markings. After the butterfly lays its eggs on dill, parsley, fennel or carrots, they can see a little caterpillar munch its way out of the egg and start eating. Finally, the caterpillar stops eating and find a place to spin its chrysalis, its cocoon.

And there it rests quietly, hanging by a little silk thread. Several weeks later, an amazing thing happens to Maddison’s surprise. Really close to the chrysalis, she glimpses a little head will poke out and the butterfly come into the world. Still wet, she watches as the new butterfly pumps fluid from its body into the veins of the crumpled wet wings. As the veins fill, the wings expand. Soon, a lovely butterfly stretches its black wings open and shut, practicing for its maiden voyage into the sky as wide-eyed Maddison is filled with awe and wonder about this miraculous transformation.

From egg to growing caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, Maddison and Mimi, her grandmother, take readers of all ages on a delightful adventure and teach youngsters all about plants to best attract butterflies as well as host plants best suited for feeding hungry growing caterpillars. By releasing each beautiful butterfly, they make the world a more beautiful place for all mankind. Realize the importance of preserving and protecting one of God’s most tiny, beautiful creatures and learn about the ways to preserve the butterfly’s as well as the larva’s natural habitats today in Murray’s entertaining and inspirational book The Caterpillars that Grew … and Grew … and Grew, a window that inspires children and adults to ask questions, explore and learn all about a very popular and beautiful species of butterfly that lives in the southeastern part of our country.

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Promethean Partners With Bloodhound Supersonic Car Project

Promethean, a global leader in interactive learning technology, has become the official interactive education technology partner of Bloodhound SSC (SuperSonic Car) Project.

Bloodhound team members have held the World Land Speed Record for the past 26 years, however the new Bloodhound project aims to design and build the first car capable of achieving 1,000 mph and smash the World Land Speed Record. The three year project is lead by Richard Noble OBE and Wing Commander Andy Green OBE who set the current record of 763mph (1228kmh) in October 1997.

Promethean will work with the Bloodhound SSC team to support its international education programme and engage young people in the science that underpins this challenge. Supported by an array of global technology companies and universities, a key objective for Bloodhound is to inspire young people to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education and careers.

The project will provide open access to its science and engineering research data and design iterations involved in the development of the Bloodhound SSC. Ultimately this will be the catalyst for a raft of cutting-edge research in fields such as; aerodynamics, materials technology, composite manufacturing and sustainable high-tech engineering.

“In the 1960’s, the goal of putting a man on the moon inspired an entire generation to take interest in STEM. We hope Bloodhound will have the same “Apollo Effect” for this generation” said Jim Wynn, Chief Education Officer at Promethean.

Promethean will be installing its ActivClassroom technology in Bloodhound’s education centres, creating the ‘classroom of the future’ and will be equipping Bloodhound’s education ambassadors with relevant software and educational resources for use in schools.

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Promethean Planet Is Changing

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has unveiled a new look Promethean Planet to provide members with a faster, easier and more enhanced user experience.

Promethean Planet Is Changing

Available free in 11 languages, this next generation of Planet aims to provide its 600,000 plus teaching members with new functional enhancements. These include a one-click mega-menu and enhanced resource search and filtering, making it quicker to search for and access over 20,000 free teaching resources.

Proving once again that Promethean Planet is all about its members, the new site enables users to personalise their experience by customising their interactive whiteboard community homepage with their favourite content and resources, exchange private messages with other members and create bookmarked quick links to any Planet page. In addition, Planet’s free online storage means each member can save and store up to 1GB of resources securely in their free, personal storage space.

With its enhanced website, Promethean Planet continues to lead the way to encourage the true spirit of community. Promethean Planet’s new innovative private group functionality has been designed to meet the needs of educator groups, schools, districts and education authorities. Planet members can apply to set up a private group that includes private forum, blog and wiki functionality as well as the ability to file-share within the private group environment.

Brent Taggart, Head of Promethean Planet said: “Promethean Planet is the world’s largest online community of its kind and its success is due to its members who span 150 countries. We provide the platform for teachers and educationalists to share lessons and ideas, source training, and interact with their peers. The enhancements and improved functionality unveiled today have been designed with our members in mind in order to further improve their Planet experience and to build on its market leading position.”

Promethean Planet’s popular online store has also been given a new facelift, making it even easier to buy publisher created interactive whiteboard resources from leading names such National Geographic, Dorling Kindersley, Scholastic, the Waterford Institute and Collins. These low-cost, ready-made lessons are completely customisable, aligned to educational standards and can be purchased in US dollars, GBP and now Euros.

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Promethean Technology Key To Improved Results At St. Aidan’s

Promethean ActivClassroom solutions help the new £16 million campus at St. Aidan’s Church of England Academy, Darlington, achieve a dramatic turnaround in school attendance and academic results.

Since the implementation of the Promethean ActivClassroom with interactive whiteboards (IWB), the Academy has been transformed from one of the country’s “least effective” schools to a thriving centre of secondary education and beacon of ICT best practice.

Assistant principal, Alan Dick, commented: “We know that technology is a vital part of students’ lives, and we were determined to place it at the heart of our improvement strategy. This approach has paid immediate dividends, renewing students’ enthusiasm for lessons and giving a welcome boost to their results.”

Whereas only 19% of students left the school with five ‘good’ (A*-C) GCSE grades in 2006, this had doubled in 2009, with 39% of students achieving the benchmark – well above the national target of 30%.

Key to this transformation has been the role of classroom technology in addressing student attendance and improving the former school’s ranking as eighth worst in the national truancy league.

Alan Dick added: “Since the opening of the Academy, attendance levels have increased from 81% to over 90% – in a class of thirty, that’s the equivalent of three students turning up to class who were previously disengaged from lessons. The improvement has been influenced by a number of factors but it’s clear that students are more motivated by the use of tools such as electronic whiteboards and learner response keypads, meaning that they look forward to lessons and find it easier to participate.

These results support a recent poll by Becta, the Government agency responsible for promoting the use of ICT in schools. It reported that 95% of teachers now recognise that use of technology is raising standards in schools and colleges (Becta Raising Standards, 2009).

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Promethean Joined By Jim Wynn As Chief Education Officer

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has announced the appointment of Jim Wynn to its senior management team as chief education officer.

Jim has over three decades of experience in education technology across more than fifty countries. He joins Promethean from Cisco, where he led their public sector consultancy for emerging markets, with an emphasis on education. Jim’s previous appointments include head teacher of two secondary schools in the UK where he pioneered the use of ICT, head of research at RM Plc, and partners in learning lead for EMEA at Microsoft.

Jim’s in depth global experience, both in education systems and serving education for highly recognised technology players, will further strengthen Promethean’s leading global position in the interactive learning technology market.

Jean-Yves Charlier, chief executive officer of Promethean, commented: “We are delighted that Jim is joining Promethean. His knowledge of education systems across the world, together with the benefits technology can bring to learning, will be invaluable in further shaping Promethean’s strategy and continued development of innovative products for the classroom.”

Jim’s appointment will help to strengthen Promethean’s pledge to bring to life the promise of 21st century learning, improving engagement and results for learners and teachers alike through the use of interactive whiteboards and other interactive learning technologies.

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Promethean Helps School Host Premiere Of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Promethean, a global leader in interactive education technology solutions, presented Riverside elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia with an ActivClassroom after the school emerged triumphant over 5,000 other schools competing in a nationwide contest to mark the gala premiere of the motion picture Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Riverside submitted an impressive proposal to convert its auditorium/gymnasium into a movie theater, and promised that its students would generate Hollywood-style excitement for the unveiling of the long-awaited film based on the first of Jeff Kinney’s best-selling books. The prize consisted of an ActivClassroom including an ActivBoard interactive whiteboard, a set of 32 ActivExpressions, ActivSlate and ActivSound and the opportunity to hold the gala premiere of the film.

The premiere event was held in conjunction with the National Education Association’s (NEA) “Read Across America” program, which focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources; the NEA has designated March as National Reading Month. NEA also sponsored the contest, along with 20th Century Fox, School Library Journal, and publisher Harry N. Abrams Inc.

The Riverside Elementary safety patrol had special “security” duties on the red carpet. Also providing key assistance was WRES-TV, where some Riverside pupils – and budding news anchors – served as part of the morning news team.

F r o m its origins as a series of online cartoons, Diary of a Wimpy Kid exploded onto the pop culture scene when Jeff Kinney’s first “novel in cartoons” was published in 2007. Diary of a Wimpy Kid spent almost three years on The New York Times’ children’s best-seller list, and was translated into 33 languages. The book captured the imaginations of an army of formerly “reluctant readers,” and launched countless video reviews, social networking fan groups, and parties celebrating the release of each new Wimpy Kid book.

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Promethean Wins Major Spanish Tender

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has been awarded a multi-million euro contract to install 4,550 of its ActivBoard+2 interactive whiteboards, together with ActivInspire, Promethean’s specialised teaching and learning software, in 1,900 schools in the Spanish region of Andalucia. This represents around a 70% share of the total number of interactive whiteboards available under this tender.

Promethean Wins Major Spanish Tender

With over 8 million inhabitants and over 6,000 primary and secondary schools, Andalucia has the largest population of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions. Completion of this roll-out of IWB systems will see some 8% of the estimated 78,000 classrooms in Andalucia equipped with interactive whiteboards*. This project is being funded through the Spanish Government’s Escuela ICT 2.0 programme, one of a number of financial stimulus
packages targeted at education technology currently being implemented across the EU.

Beyond the classroom, teachers are able to join PrometheanPlanet.com, the world’s largest online community for users of interactive display system technology. Promethean Planet is available in ten languages, including Spanish, enabling more than 530,000 members from around the world to connect and exchange ideas, share new and innovative lesson resources and access a wide variety of professional development materials such as interactive whiteboard tools.

Paul Berry, Promethean’s President of European Sales and Marketing, said: “We are delighted with this significant contract win, which follows a comprehensive tender process and demonstrates Andalucia’s preference for Promethean’s interactive learning solutions. We believe that one of the key reasons for our success was the quality of our integrated ActivClassroom offering, which brings together our ActivBoard interactive whiteboards, ActivInspire educational software and training, and our teacher community, Promethean Planet. This contract is further evidence of the growing adoption of interactive learning technology in Europe, which is a key growth market for Promethean.”

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Promethean Launches Test Prep Course

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, has launched a new programme to help prepare students for college entrance exams.

Promethean Launches Test Prep Course

Created in collaboration with the Chicago International Charter School (CICS), the Preparing for Standardized Tests program is designed to improve student’s performance on the reading and math sections of the PSAT, ACT, and SAT exams.

The Preparing for Standardized Tests program, a collection of interactive whiteboard (IWB) lessons, engages students in mastering essential college readiness and provides them with advanced test preparation. Students can practice how to answer questions from standardized tests using the guided practice lessons and the innovative interactive whiteboard tools of Promethean’s ActivClassroom. Every week, they will complete two essential skills lessons and answer the corresponding practice questions that are presented in a formal testing format.

“This innovative collection of lessons has been carefully designed to support the development of core college readiness skills using our ActivClassroom technology. We believe students will find these unique interactive lessons helpful when preparing for important college-entrance exams,” commented Brent Taggart, Chief Strategy Officer for Promethean.

Preparing for Standardized Tests extends CICS’ ACT Practice Tests, an earlier series of test preparation courses developed by the school. In creating the new program, CICS licensed its intellectual property from their tests and consulted on the development of the core content of the lessons. In keeping with the mission of CICS to prepare all students with a college preparatory education, this new IWB program fully utilizes the interactive power of ActivInspire software and the ActivExpression learner response systems from Promethean.

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