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Win a flight on SpaceShipTwo

Here's an opportunity that doesn't come along every day... a chance to get yourself into space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two. This is a specially great opportunity for teachers: the winner will have most effectively demonstrated how they would use the experience of a SpaceShipTwo flight to best motivate young people to enter the world of aerospace. From the Aeronautical Society's website:

Through the generosity of Virgin Galactic, the Royal Aeronautical Society is delighted to offer our members the opportunity to win a ticket on SpaceShipTwo. Your chance to experience weightlessness and gain your Astronaut Wings.

There's time to join the RAeS before the competition launches in December. Download the flyer here and register online here.

SQA National Stats

The Scottish Qualifications Authority have published their national statistics from this year's diet of examinations. They conclude that nothing much has changed from last year, with the caveat that this year's figures don't take appeals into account, from which you are meant to infer that things are actually getting better.

I reckon we could raise attainment if we could get the little buggers to behave better, what do you think? See also this and this.

Here's the document in pdf format.

Dundee. Such a lovely town.

This taken from the glitziest shopping centre in the city. Gorgeous, innit?

Bored? Try this...

You may have played Reversi or Othello, a game in which the rules are simple but the strategy can be challenging. Here's a web-based version of Othello for you to try. Techno-geeks may be interested to know it's brought to you by the Ruby on Rails framework.

We like Firefox

My browser of choice is Firefox. Apart from the superior functionality of Firefox, they have a sense of humour, too. I found this site at http://ie7.com...

New motivation initiative

Class contact time down!!!

Hooray! According to a quote in this week's Dunfermline Press:

A spokesperson for the Executive countered, “We have fully resourced and funded class contact time reductions. We are giving councils millions of pounds to implement this so schools are not left with larger classes."

This is true. I can be sure that I now have 6 non-contact periods a week, if you ignore the "contact" I had with the 20 or so children who were creating merry havoc outside and around the school when I was trying to do my planning and preparation.

Mike Gilmour, the highly regarded Rector of Woodmill, has gone on record this week in the Dunfermline Press:

In a newsletter to parents, Woodmill rector Mike Gilmour said “very significant staffing issues” throughout Fife had forced the school to rejig first-year classes.
Other measures, such as banning staff from attending courses during the day and cutting school trips, have also been actioned in the school amid concerns that Fife is not getting its fair share of probationary teachers from the Scottish Executive.
And, despite pulling out all the stops to take the heat off his under-pressure staff, Mr Gilmour warned parents, “Even now the situation remains constantly critical.”

As always, there are more issues than apparent here, and the situation at Mr. Gilmour's school will be subtly different from that at the school where I teach. However, it is evident that teachers are finding it hard to be given the OK to go on CPD courses during school time (I got the OK to attend one one a Saturday) and the timetable is so tight now that it squeaks.