Education Group and BBC Breathing Places

As a company who are keen on helping young people to make a difference, Education Group are helping to promote the campaign for the BBC Breathing Places project.

In the last three years, BBC Breathing Places has encouraged over 10 million people in the UK to make a real difference for wildlife, and since it was launched just one year ago the BBC Breathing Places Schools project has played a significant part in this ongoing success. A staggering 8,616 schools have now signed up, and are receiving free, simple and fun teaching resources and activity ideas.

Through the project, huge numbers of children have been getting closer to nature and have started to transform their schools into wildlife-friendly places. BBC Breathing Places has joined forces with the RSPB and partnered with 42 other like-minded wildlife and conservation organisations across the UK, to make this the best possible project for young people.

And there’s still time to get involved. Primary, middle and special schools are all invited to take part in ‘Doing One Thing’ for nature each term – such as planting seeds, making homes for mini-beasts, and this term creating homes for all kinds of wildlife in their very own ‘wildlife walls’.

All schools have to do is register online and they’ll be sent everything they need to get started. The activities are flexible, so they can be part of a lesson or a lunchtime club, and they’re a great way of encouraging learning outside the classroom. There are quick and simple links to the curriculum, as well as links to further activities from a range of partners.

It’s a chance for a single class or even the whole school to get out and get involved with the wildlife in their grounds, whether in an urban, suburban or rural setting. And the good news is it’s never been easier – as each term, schools can download new teachers’ notes and activity sheets from the BBC Breathing Places website.

“Breathing Places Schools has been a really good source of practical ideas and encouragement, and we are looking forward to wildlife gardening into the future,” said Alison Hadfield, Year Three Teacher, Brighton and Hove High School.

BBC Breathing Places Project Executive Karen Gregory said: "This year we plan to celebrate the huge achievements of the BBC Breathing Places schools – bringing to light stories about the fantastic work going on across the UK, and inspiring even more children and schools to get involved and create their very own special places for wildlife, and also for themselves.”
Andy Simpson, RSPB Head of Youth and Education, said: “Breathing Places Schools brings the best ideas from the best natural history experts, direct to teachers across the UK, making enthusing children about nature easier than ever.

Martin Burch, director of Education Group said "We work with many thousands of children in primary schools each year which provides us with an excellent opportunity to promote this extremely worthwhile project. Our aim is to educate, enrich and inspire the lives of young people through our music and dance workshops and class music teacher provision and we feel that BBC Breathing Places does a similar thing.....only outdoors!"

Education Group Video now available

As stated previously, The Education Group website is going through some changes. The company that offer primary school music and/or dance workshops, along with african and samba drumming launched a new site in 2008. The site makes it easier for teachers to correspond after the workshop day, and for employees to keep in touch, making it dynamically 'greener'.

There is now a brand new promotional video available which can be viewed by going to www.educationgroup.co.uk

Foreign Language Teachers

From 2010, all children from the age of seven should be provided with the opportunity to study a modern foreign language as part of their class time.

Education Group are able to provide primary schools across the UK with French and Spanish language teachers for between one to five days per week. As part of our service, we ensure that you will get the same teacher on the same day or days each week, providing continuity for both the children and the school.

As well as a qualified teacher, also included in the service are resources provided in association with La Jolie Ronde.
The package provided contains detailed lesson notes and CD’s of resources with hundreds of files to support lessons (flash cards, stories and poems, transcripts of songs, presentations), plus lots of games & activities to use on interactive whiteboards and CD’s of songs and poems. It links with the Modern Foreign Language Framework and has been written in accordance with the relevant Key Stage.

Many schools are already using our language teacher service to ensure that PPA cover time is provided whilst offering a valuable and soon to be essential benefit to the school.

See the website at www.educationgroup.co.uk for details

African Drumming

Drumming is the “heartbeat of the world”, well, according to Education Group instructor Mathis Richet. The African drumming workshops offer primary school pupils the chance to learn basic African drumming techniques along with a brief contextual analysis to why it was important to create drum circles. Not only are the workshops important to give the children an insight to different cultures, but also gives them the opportunity to experience drumbeat and rhythm in unity. Furthermore, the drum beat is “good for the body and soul” according to Shonna Beckwith of Florence.

She believes that the drumming “is evocative, evoking the spirit and energy, and it nurtures self-esteem, listening and cooperation skills, eye-hand coordination and math skills.”

Within a normal African drumming session, certain outcomes are definite and connect to Shonna Beckworth’s statement. Firstly, the drumming will boost energy and receptivity of the pupils, as it will be a different experience within the same environment. Secondly, it sharpens listening and concentration skills and develops personal presence in a group. It is important for the children to work in a group as it teaches them how to share in responsibility and coexist. When you work as a team you show respect to others by accepting their input. The workshops require to children to for a sense of camaraderie as it is an important attribute to work in unison, to create their own uplifting composition, to meet the overall objective or creating something within a team.

In the workshops, the instructor provides each child with an instrument relevant to the chosen theme. In an African drumming workshop, the Djembe drum is the instrument of choice. The Djembe has a great cultural heritage in Africa. Although similar to other drums used within different tribes on the African continent, it has minute but significant differences.

The Djembe is the drum of the Mandinka people, and its origins dates back to the great Mali Empire of the 12th century. Of all the African drums, the djembe has become extremely sought after in the Western world and is regarded as the most popular.

It is also reported that drumming offers therapeutic benefits according to www.livingrhythms.com. Drumming has been made known to reduce stress and depression. Furthermore, drumming exercises the upper body, develops creativity, and elevates a person self esteem.

As African drumming raises morale, requires exercise and forms comradeship among peers, it is a great activity for a primary school, as it is within the early years where social skills can be adopted.

For more about african drumming in primary schools see www.educationgroup.co.uk

Dance Video's available soon

Video recordings of reference dances for dance workshops have been recorded, cut down and soon to feature on the back-end of the Education Group Website.

Ideas are a-foot for a corporate video also. Education Group goes techno!

Jeff Chung's Case Study on Working in the UK

News:
CASE STUDY: JEFF CHUNG
CLASS MUSIC TEACHER

Jeff Chung:Coming over from the other side of the world, my trip to the UK has been a very prosperous move, in building my knowledge in European ways, self confidence, self awareness and my abilities as a teacher, as well as financial advancements.

Having just completed my University degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, it has been a huge learning curve that has been greatly guided by the people at Education Group.

When I first arrived in the UK, I had set myself up for many interviews with different agencies, leaving plenty of options and opportunities for work. However, being a music teacher, Education Group was of great assistance, not only providing interviews with schools immediately upon arrival, but also catering for my individual needs and following through with the different schools that I have worked with thus far. Education Group, although primarily an company providing teaching positions for key stages 1, 2 and 3, were able to successfully find a position for me within a secondary school (key stages 4 and up). Although this did not work out for me, the team at Education Group had successfully organised a position at a junior school (upper primary school), which has ended in great success.

They organised everything that was required for the position including the
needed CRB and interviews with the schools.

Education Group was happy to organise according to my individual needs whether that be day-to-day supply teaching or full time teaching. They were incredibly friendly and very much genuine people, who not only proceeded to find teaching positions for myself, but also in following through by making sure that I was satisified with the position(s).



The team also guided me in my decisions financially including the different payment options available to me and
the legal issues that came with my specific visa arrangements.

Coming from a some what well-off area of Sydney, I have come to realise what a multicultural nation the UK is and
how different the materials are within UK schools. Not only that, but how different the nature of teaching is within the
classrooms of British schools. In regards to the development of your own teaching methods and in the growth of
yourself, you find that coming over to a different cultural environment allows you to learn a whole lot from not only
your colleagues within the school but also from your students as they challenge you in a different way to those you
are used to within the comforts of your own cultural background.

Of course within the initial stages of my moving to the UK, I found it difficult to translate pounds and what exactly was cheap and what was expensive, moving from Marks and Spencers and Waitrose to Sainsbury's and finally settling on Somerfield (something that was initially missed in the many discussions I've had with Education Group!!)...then you
ask yourself about the alcoholic beverages (it is a working/holiday visa after all) and you begin to pay 5 pounds for
two drinks finding yourself falling into the trap of thinking "$5 AUD..wow that's cheap...wait a minute!!" (something
that was not missed within the discussions!)

I found the people of Education Group very sincere and genuine in making you feel as comfortable as possible in
having arrived in a new country - a very difficult job considering I was located in the heart of a busy city like London.
In my experience, Education Group also provide a firm support system towards their staff and it is obvious that they
work towards a happy and healthy relationship between themselves, the many a schools they have available, and the music teachers (experienced or new-bies alike).

Although I originally intended on teaching secondary here in the UK, I myself am quite happy in my position as a
primary school music specialist, the school offering many opportunities to expand my knowledge as a music teacher
and/or classroom teacher alike, all of which would have been a difficult process without the support system that was offered by the people of Education Group.

New links formed

We are proud to announce that reciprocal links have been formed with drum for schools and with Prozone music .

Both offer great selection in music instruments, particularly in the percussion genre.