Northern Grid for Learning - School Broadband, eSafety, Learning Resources and More
Search ResourcesTags
 All items created by the Northern Grid for Learning, ranging from interactive resources to guidance and documentation. 
Northern Grid Monthly Newsletter - October 201112 October 2011Find out about our latest news, upcoming events, and some of the best educational resources on the web in our Monthly Newsletter. This MonthEnter your school for the Northern Grid Awards Will your eSafety provision deliver an "Outstanding" judgement? Creative Strategies to Support Literacy KS2
Leave a comment below
View the Newsletter »
How to Lose Your Job in 7 Minutes30 September 2011or...The Importance of OwnershipA superb eSafety video from Northern Grids' ‘Protecting Adults Who Work With Children’ event.
Also labeled: Bullying, eSafety, Guidance, Head Teachers, Learning Platform, Multimedia, News, NG Services, Parents/Carers, Presentations, Publications, Support, Teachers, Video Northern Grid Conference 2012 - Call for Papers27 September 2011Call for Papers - Speak at our Conference Friday 22 June 2012
We especially welcome papers from speakers with practical and recent experience in developing these themes within the classroom and are able to share their experiences with others. We are looking for speakers who will genuinely inspire and offer practical guidance to ensure all delegates to leave the conference with confidence and enthusiasm to try at least one new idea or activity they’ve seen during the day.
Areas of InterestPrimary educationSecondary educationSpecial education and InclusionYou are invited to submit a 200-300 word abstract. A panel of specialists will consider papers and authors will be informed of the panel’s decision on 11 November 2011 Deadline for submission is: October 31, 2011 Authors will be informed of the panel’s decision by: November 11, 2011 Accepted papers will be published in the conference programme and available to delegates on this website. About the ConferenceThe theme of Northern Grid’s 2012 conference is focused on how education technology supports and engages all members of the learning community. Teachers, pupils and parents are enriched and empowered by the communication opportunities available through effective use of education technology and social media within the school, the local region and the wider world. The conference programme showcases outstanding and inspiring practitioners, from across the UK, in a packed workshop schedule designed to ensure professional development is at the heart of the day. Early Years - ICT Skills Resources: Worksheets and Activities22 September 2011This resource covers ICT Skills and Development
Northern Grid worked with a number of teachers in the North East region to produce resources for the foundation stage. This page contains a number of worksheets and activites aimed at developing ICT skills. Download all of the worksheets and activities here. Northern Grid Acceptable Use Policy 2011-201212 September 2011
Schools are well aware of the need to keep pupils, teachers, data and systems as safe and secure as possible. All schools need to ensure that they have an up to date Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). To support schools in meeting their eSafety requirements Northern Grid has a responsibility to ensure that the whole Regional Broadband Network continues to be safe and secure. This means that all organisations connected to the network need to abide by a common Northern Grid AUP. As technology changes rapidly this Grid AUP is updated regularly. The Northern Grid Acceptable Use Policy has been endorsed and approved by the Northern Grid Directors who are all senior managers within partner Local Authorities. Your Local Authority has agreed to abide by this AUP. This policy applies to all users of the Northern Grid broadband network whoever they are, whatever devices they are using, whenever and wherever they are connected to the network. This also includes users within a directly connected establishment or users connecting to the network remotely. Any school, LA or other educational organisation using Northern Grid for Learning's Network or Service is required to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Failure or non-compliance may result in the school's broadband service being disconnected and / or civil, disciplinary or legal action being taken upon individuals, groups of individuals or establishments. Head teachers must ensure that all users are familiar with the relevant sections of this AUP. This document refers to the use of the regional Northern Grid network. Schools also need their own Acceptable Use Policy covering the use of the internet and their network by pupils, staff and visitors.
Also labeled: Documentation, Governors, Guidance, Head Teachers, ICT, NG Services, Publications, Teachers Mini Apps - Number Sequence09 August 2011How to play Number SequenceSelect a level difficulty from the options Easy - Just Addition Medium - Addition & Subtraction Hard - Addition, Subtraction & Multiplication Extreme - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division The icon next to the answer box will tell confirm if your answer is correct or not by showing a tick or a cross Once a sequence is complete go back to the menu to try a harder level or select the same difficulty and new numbers will be generated Mini Apps - Chain Letters09 August 2011How to play Chain Letters.You have 1 minute to make as many changes to the original word as possible. Start by entering the original word then click save original word. Make as many changes to the word as possible: - You can only change one letter at a time - You can't change the same letter more than once in a row e.g. if you had BALL, you could change it to HALL but you couldn't then change it to CALL, you'd need to change another letter first - You can't use proper nouns At the end of the minute you will be told how many words you made. You get 10 points for each new word you make. Click reset to have another go with the same or a different word. Parental Engagement Case Study03 May 2011Woodlawn School, North TynesideOne of Woodlawn's primary aims is to increase their children's participation in and enjoyment of learning. They recognise that that getting parents involved with their child's learning is one of the best ways to ensure that child is successful. Woodlawn School has been involved in the Becta Parental Engagement Project and has developed a wide range of methods for working with parents. As a special school Woodlawn deals with a wide range of special educational needs and all schools can learn from their experience. This case study gives an overview of what the school did, what the benefits of better engagement with parents were, what they plan to do next and tips for other schools. How to check that your CachePilot web filtering is correctly configured14 March 2011Please carry out the following checks. If any of the tests fail then your Cachepilot configuration is not providing adequate protection. Contact Easynet Support on 08453334568 for further advice and assistance. Google Safe SearchOpen your browser and type the URL www.google.com a search windows will open click on the search settings link top right. If you can view and change the SafeSearch Filtering options SafeSearch in not enforced. YouTubeIf you have decided to allow access to YouTube for a CachePilot user group, login as a member of this group and access the URL www.youtube.com a green banner titled "Enabled Safety mode" should appear directly below the YouTube search bar. After any video is selected check to ensure that viewer’s comments are disabled. They would normally appear directly below the video. Blocked CategoriesFrom your workstation’s browser access the following URLs. All of the following URLs should be blocked if they are not your browser will be automatically redirected to the Smoothwall home page. If any sites are not blocked check you’re filtering for configuration errors!
The above categories are blocked by default on all Northern Grid Cachepilots.
Social networking sites are now the most common method of spreading malware and viruses due to their popularity and poor design. If the school allows access to these sites a rigorous security policy needs to be enforced to protect the network.
Cachepilot FAQWhat can a CP do for your school?A CachePilot can speed up the delivery of web resources to your school through transparent and advanced caching techniques. The device can also be used as a local content store. The Smoothwall web filtering solution protects web users from offensive and malicious websites and offers URL category blacklists and dynamic content control. How does the Smoothwall filtering work?Smoothwall uses two separate techniques to block inappropriate websites. A URL category blacklist database is stored and updated on the unit of well-known websites. To enhance the URL blacklist a dynamic content filter is deployed. This heuristic filter is able to identify and categorize websites in real time, and block or allow them according to the policy deployed. The dynamic content control uses a weighted phrase limit. The WPL is a sensitivity bar and defaults to 50 suitable for a primary school. Secondary Schools may wish to increase the limit (desensitize) to 120. The CachePilot has the ability to blacklist (block) or whitelist (allow) any website, webpage or file type download. Can I use Site Lists with the new Smoothwall filtering solution?We recommend you do not use site lists but they can be added to the site list permission if required. The new filtering configuration is now simpler to use and more efficient due to the separation of filtering components. To modify the filtering select User Accounts / Groups and select the group you wish to modify. The Global group policy applies to everybody and should be populated with your school blacklist. The new filtering configuration allows exceptions to be added in a group thereby eliminating the need to reduce the number of blacklisted categories for the Global group.
The Cachepilot slows down web access?A correctly configured and maintained CachePilot does not generate any significant delay. Slow Internet performance may result from a problem on your network or on the remote web server. The new web filtering solution is more reliable and provides faster performance than a CachePilot running Smartfilter. Websites on the Internet are hosted on a range of equipment resulting in performance differences to add to this geographic location and server loading can impact on the speed of your web access. If a website is generally slow to access it is a prime candidate for using the CachePilot’s advanced caching functionality. If the Internet connection is slow contact mark.vinnicombe@northerngrid.org to run a remote diagnostic check.
Also labeled: Documentation, Filtering, Guidance, Publications, Social Networking, Teachers, Technical Tools for Learning Booklet04 February 2011
Northern Grid works with teachers, Local Authorities, Museums, Libraries, Archives and other organisations from across the region to develop a range of content for teachers and learners. The Tools for Learning booklet highlights some of the these resources.
Northern Grid - Services Guide 201127 January 2011
Also labeled: eSafety, eSecurity, Filtering, Learning Platform, NG Services, Publications, Technical, Support E-Security: A Practitioner's Toolkit02 December 2010
Why use the E-Security practitioner’s toolkit?The security toolkit provides clear and relevant practical advice to schools to ensure the safety of network users and protection for the network itself. The toolkit addresses those topics that are key to any sound security and risk management strategy. The content will be maintained and updated to ensure that it remains current and reflects the needs of the school sector.
Target Audience
If you require any further information or advice contact mark.vinnicombe@northerngrid.org Other Useful Websites19 October 2010Listed below are a list of website that contain lots of useful resources; content of the sites listed below is entirely the responsibility of the website authors.Philosophy for Childrenhttp://chss.montclair.edu/iapc/homepage.html Critical Thinkinghttp://chss.montclair.edu/ict/homepage.html The International Center for the Enhancement of Learning PotentialAccelerated Learninghttp://www.alite.co.uk/index.php Teaching Thinkinghttp://www.teachingthinking.net Intelligences and learning styleshttp://www.educationalresources.co.uk/s-learning-styles.htm TES Teaching Resources
Northern Grid for Learning Email Newsletter October 201008 October 2010
Smoothwall Filtering - Frequently Asked Questions08 October 2010Northern Grid has produced this document to assist you in checking that your CachePilot is configured correctly. It contains a list of sites with instructions on how to test your configuration settings correctly and any actions that should be taken from performing these tests; in addition to these test instructions it also contains a list of FAQs to help answer any questions you may have about the CachePilot system. Further information available in the document below.
|
Teaching & Learning |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Download the Acceptable Use Policy 2011-2012
