January 2011

The know zone

  • Unconditional glove
    Business managers and governors need to be aware of the full extent of responsibility schools and colleges must bear when staff carry out physical tasks, says Richard Bird. More
  • Reform's black mark?
    Will the Coalition’s planned reforms to training, pay and inspection inspire a new generation of outstanding teachers? Unlikely, says Sam Ellis. More
  • Lead vocals
    Quotes from Martin Luther King, George Lucas, Steve Forbert, Walt Disney and Thomas Hardy More
  • Into Africa
    Lynne Barr, deputy head of Diss High School in Norfolk, turned to teaching after a short career in accountancy. In 2009, she went to Rwanda with the Leaders in International Development programme for a stint as an education management consultant, and received the full-on celebrity treatment. More
  • Facial recognition
    The National Portrait Gallery has added to its extensive collection of online teaching resources with a new website dissecting what makes a successful exhibition. More
  • Adding value
    The use of technology has become deeply embedded to enhance pupils’ learning, but it also has an important role to play in helping schools deal with much tighter budgets. More
  • Reading between the lines
    Education Secretary Michael Gove has introduced an English Baccalaureate to give greater recognition to ‘traditional’ academic subjects – languages and humanities in particular – as a measure of school success. Is it a retrograde step or a way to re-inject more rigour into judging how a school performs? Leaders share their views. More
  • Leaders' surgery
    The antidote to common leadership conundrums... More
  • Good in parts
    ASCL’s response to the education white paper dominated discussion at December’s Council meeting, with plenary debate divided into themes led by the committee chairs. On many topics there was strong agreement but on others, such as school improvement partners and provision for excluded pupils, reaction was mixed. More
  • A marathon task
    There are some welcome ideas in the long-awaited schools white paper but, says Brian Lightman, the proposed pace of change is too great. More time should be given for debate before rushing to implementation. More
  • Painful extraction
    Hell hath no fury like a mother in search of justice when she believes her offspring has been attacked in school. But there are two sides to every classroom story, says Christopher Martin. More
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The National Portrait Gallery has added to its extensive collection of online teaching resources with a new website dissecting what makes a successful exhibition.

Facial recognition

Anew teaching website revealing the ‘backstage’ life of museums and galleries has been unveiled by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). Through interviews with staff at museums and galleries around the country it details the processes involved in staging two exhibitions: Writers of Influence: Shakespeare to JK Rowling and Comedians: From the 1940s to Now.

What does it offer?

It covers concept and curating, creating a marketing campaign, designing the 3D exhibition space and organising events. The site also features interviews with young people and industry professionals and provides careers advice as well as ideas for assignments, project resources and blogs.

Who is it for?

The site is targeted specifically at teachers and students on the 14-19 Creative and Media Diploma but also aims to appeal to young people looking to get involved in the sector in some way.

Which museums and galleries are involved?

It was developed by the NPG in partnership with Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Museums Sheffield, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, and Southampton City Art Gallery and put together by Atticmedia. It is part of the strategic commissioning scheme, a Department for Culture/ Department for Education-funded initiative aimed at encouraging national museums and galleries to work with regional partners on educational and access projects.

What other resources are available through the NPG?

The National Portrait Gallery has a number of digital education resources, including teacher resources for art and history for secondary and A level students. There are also distance learning materials for A level, BTEC and GNVQ photography, art and media studies courses and City and Guilds.

The gallery has a range of free education programmes for secondary groups, delivered by a specialist freelance team of artists and teachers, runs sessions for extended schools, special educational needs and professional development.

What are ‘webquests’?

Webquests are the gallery’s online problem solving activities for secondary students. Nine national museum collections are used to stimulate enquiry based learning. Clare Gittings, NPG learning manager, says: “Tudor webquests and other historical topics are particularly popular at Key Stage 3, but so are art, literacy, maths and science ones, including many which are cross-curricular.”

Each webquest sets the students an open-ended challenge which is tackled using objects and images from at least three of the major national museum or gallery collections.

“Many of the more complex webquests are broken down into a series of tasks and employ interactive thinking tools – sorting, ranking and categorising in different ways – whose outcomes very often depend on the personal preferences of the individual student or groups of students,” Clare adds.

“The value of webquests lies in the direct learning experience they give students, using the nation’s most treasured collections in a way that is both structured but allows plenty of individual choice and opinion.”

Weblinks

www.npg.org.uk/webquests
www.npg.org.uk/learning/schools/secondary-schools.php
www.npg.org.uk/creativeandmediadiploma

facial recognition

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