June 2011 Newsletter - Secondaries
Welcome to the June edition of the JCS newsletter...
In this month's edition:
- eChalk and Scran now available to all secondary Hampshire SLS member schools
- Topic Study: Astronomy
- Events news: JCS at the SLA conference
- Latest sector news
School Library Services working with JCS to provide high-quality online resources to their member schools...
Students and teachers at all secondary member schools of the Hampshire SLS, Southampton SLS and Portsmouth SLS now have online access to hundreds of curriculum-mapped games, puzzles, quizzes and simulations from eChalk, following a new major agreement through JCS Online Resources (JCS).
Schools in Hampshire also have access through their SLS membership to Scran which is providing them with 360,000 images, sounds, movies and learning resources—all copyright-cleared for use in their schools.
Significant savings have been made by all three School Library Services by combining their members’ learner numbers to form a JCS South East School Library Service Consortium.
Working together across the region and making these resources part of their membership means that around £12,000 has been saved on behalf of their schools for access to eChalk alone. Similar savings have also been made by Hampshire on their subscription to Scran.
The JCS model means that the more schools in a region subscribing to a resource, the lower the cost per school. A growing number of School Library Services are therefore purchasing subscriptions for their schools through JCS or helping coordinate subscriptions, so their member schools can benefit from the savings.
At a time when many schools are facing severe budget cuts, savings like these, made possible by JCS consortia rates, are crucial to ensure the ongoing availability of high-quality, trusted teaching and learning content. By investing in online resources, these School Library Services are ensuring that 66,000 learners across the county – and their teachers – can now make use of these invaluable resources both within school and from home 24x7.
Contact Sally Pelling-Deeves via info@jcsonlineresources.org to find out more.
Back to topTopic Study: Astronomy...
With the recent summer solstice and lunar eclipse, what better time to use online resources to find out about Earth’s journey through space? The wealth of information and imagery available through JCS resources supports and stimulates learners to explore this fascinating topic.
Credo Reference
Searching Credo Reference for ‘summer solstice’ yields 272 results, including:
- 95 general reference results
- 53 science results
- 30 geography results
- 20 religion results
- 17 philosophy results
Request a free trial of Credo Reference
Science in Context
- A search for ‘astronomy’ in Science in Context returns thousands of periodical results, plus hundreds of reference works and multimedia sources.
- The useful Astronomy and Cosmology Topic Page provides an overview of the subject and directs learners to the wealth of information available, highlighting specially featured content.
eChalk
- Teachers can reinforce learning using hundreds of fun games, simulations and activities from eChalk.
- The ‘Earth and Beyond’ section includes 12 activities specifically relating to this topic, such as simulations of the Earth from space and the moon’s orbit, as well as games and activities like ‘Moon Lander'.
Science Reference Center™
Searching Science Reference Center™ for ‘astronomy’ retrieves 22,742 results. Users can quickly and easily drill down to discover:
- 21,540 articles and abstracts from journals and magazines, including articles from Physics Today, Nature, Science Teacher and even History Today
- 749 reference entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries etc.
- 393 biographies
- 14 experiments
- 303 copyright-cleared images
Scran
- Scran offers hundreds of images relating to astronomy, from photographs of famous scientists to depictions of the stars in paintings and artefacts.
- For example, this page about Hadley's reflecting octant shows how people have used the stars for navigation throughout history.
©Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.
Bridgeman Education
- Delve into the wealth of art, photography and artefacts relating to the solstice, seasons and astronomy available through Bridgeman Education.
- For example, explore beautiful photography like this image of the sun setting over Stonehenge on the Winter Solstice.
© Bridgeman Education
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Events...
Libraries Give Us Power: SLA weekend course 24th – 25th June
The annual SLA conference is the most important date in every school librarian’s calendar, and JCS is delighted to be exhibiting and running a seminar at this year’s event.
- Join as at 11am on Friday 24th for our seminar ‘JCS – empowering the librarian’ when we will demonstrate how online resources can empower the librarian and help them effectively support the delivery of the curriculum and the development of information literacy skills. We will show how JCS can equip librarians with the best possible information about resources, and how they can be used in teaching and learning.
- What’s new at JCS? Visit Joyce and Paul at the JCS stand Saturday 25th to find out about new resources for the portfolio and the latest regional consortia developments.
We look forward to meeting many of you there!
JCS / SLANI workshop, Tuesday 28th June
JCS is running a workshop in partnership with the School Library Association Northern Ireland at the Antrim Board Centre on Tuesday 28th June.
This important workshop will consider how, at a time of significant budgetary challenges, school libraries can continue to effectively support the educational objectives of the school, and how JCS can help.
The workshop will address questions such as:
- Why are online resources from trusted sources so important for schools?
- How can online resources support teaching and learning?
- How can schools save time and money with JCS?
Several publishers will be demonstrating their resources, and plenty of time will be available for delegates to trial them on PCs. Attendance is FREE and includes lunch. Please book via email to info@jcsonlineresources.org as soon as possible.
Back to topLatest sector news...
‘Children with internet access at home gain exam advantage’ (from the Guardian):
‘The e-Learning Foundation says that children without access to a computer in the evening are being increasingly disadvantaged in the classroom. Research suggests that 1.2 million teenagers log on to revision pages every week and those using online resources were on average likely to attain a grade higher in exams.’
This finding highlights the important role of the school library in redressing the imbalance in learners’ chances, by ensuring online learning opportunities at school are maximised.
‘Third of England pupils fail to reach maths potential’ (from the BBC)'
‘200,000 maths pupils and 160,000 English students are failing to make the progress expected between starting secondary school and finishing GCSE, according to official data.’
Online resources like eChalk support maths teaching and learning from an early age, with an emphasis on learning through fun.
Take out a free trial of eChalk
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