Microsoft Lync in the Classroom – Thursday April 19^th in Manchester!

This promises to be a great event, specifically looking at the power of Lync and how this can be used in Schools.  If you haven’t done so already then please register here.  If the registrations are full then send me an email and I will see what I can do.  I’ll be there talking about School in a Box as well, so I hope to see you!

Move your School to the Cloud this Summer with Office 365 – LiveMeeting on May 10^th 

In case you aren’t aware, your School will be deploy Office 365 (Exchange, SharePoint and Lync) to staff and students for FREE this summer!  We’re setting up a webinar on the 10^th May to help you understand your options…and we’ll be running a series of events later in May where you can meet the team directly.  I will keep you posted on more information!

Nviron Event – The Public and Private Cloud, Friday 11^th May in Blackburn

You may have heard of terms such as Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service etc… well this event looks at the difference, what the opportunity is for schools, and what Nviron can do to help, as a Microsoft Gold Partner.  If you would like to book your place then please email nburrell@nviron.co.uk to confirm your place. 

Dreamspark Week:

This week is Dreamspark week!  You’ll see lots of activity on Twitter and our blog sites etc…but to kick this off, have a look at this video to hear about what Dreamspark is. 

Links to be aware of:

• The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is out (a BETA for consumers) and available for download now!  If you haven’t done so yet, I would really encourage you to take a look here.
• Office 365 30 day trial.  If you are looking to prepare for a potential summer move to the cloud, have a look at Office 365.  You can download a free 30 day trial here in preparation for summer availability!
• Dreamspark is free for schools and available here

That's How We Roll Training are currently offering free bikeability level 2 training to children and young people between the ages of 9-18, for more information and booking details please contact Gary at: thatshowweroll@yahoo.co.uk

Netsmartz have just released an interactive e-book showing what happens if you give out your information online. Aimed at children ages 5-10 it shows how pop-ups can sucker you into giving out personal infomation. Check it our here

A big thank you to everyone who attended the anti bullying professionals conference and contributed to it's success. The conference report and video clips will be posted on the web site at yourhealthsunderland.com/anti-bullying  in the near future 

The Anti bullying charter mark registration form can be found on the same website or email Dorothy Maddison

Copies of the keynote speech delivered by Mark Lloyd and a series of links mentioned in the workshops are available on his blog robotbutler.co.uk

Links to our anti-bullying channel are here

The Dux Award is aimed at top performing Year 9 pupils. It is intended to encourage higher aspirations by inviting one high performing pupil (and a teacher) from every secondary school to visit a Russell Group University. The visit will take place during June and July of this year. All expenses associated with the visit (including travel, subsistance and teacher supply cover) will be reimbursed by the DfE.

Registration for the award will run from 16-27th April. For more information see here

Sunderland are holding an Anti-Bullying Professionals conference at the Bethany Centre on the 23rd of March.

The conference is designed to be interactive and informative with keynote speakers and 6 interactive workshops which will raise awareness around bullying issues for children and young people in a variety of settings, offer the opportunity of improving practice in managing bullying issues and give an opportunity to network with other professionals who can support your setting in managing bullying issues.

Our keynote speakers are Mark Lloyd (CEOP) who will give a presentation on cyber bullying and Sunderland Youth Parliament who will give a presentation on Bullying and Children’s rights. You will be able to attend 6 workshops throughout the day:

Attachments:

Conference flyer pdf.pdf

Big Dance Schools Pledge Save the date - 18 May 2012!

The Big Dance Schools Pledge is back in 2012. We’re hoping it will be the best  yet! In the last two years over 900 schools worldwide have signed up to the Big Dance Schools Pledge. For 2012, we want to boost that number to 1,500 schools.

The World Record 

Our aim is to break the world record for 'The Largest Simultaneous Dance Routine –  Multi Location'. It is currently held by the Netherlands, with 1,472 different locations. You can help us beat this record by signing your school up today.

The World Record attempt will take place at 1pm on 18 May 2012 – the day the Olympic Torch arrives in the UK.