For Your School is the home of all products and services designed for use by the entire school community. School leaders, local authority staff and school governors can find the most innovative solutions for a variety of needs, with exhibitors ranging from furniture suppliers to Government departments, agencies, trade unions and ICT hardware suppliers.
For Your Classroom features resources and services covering all age groups for use in the classroom; from art and musical equipment, publishers and software suppliers, SEN and scientific resources through to general equipment. The Education Show is the ideal place for classroom teachers, teaching assistants and other educators to discover innovative products and resources for all subjects and all ages.
Richard Joslin, exhibition director of show organisers, Emap, comments: “The Education Show has maintained its success over the years because it is so much more than just an exhibition; the show offers fantastic CPD opportunities for teachers and ample opportunities to explore the best resources for their school. With the challenges that we all face in the current economic climate, we felt it was important for the show to offer decision makers – whether teachers, school governors or local authority staff - the easiest way to explore the most cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of their school and their learners.”
Seminar programme
The seminar programme at the Education Show also offers a budget-friendly way of ensuring continuous professional development for practitioners, with over 80 seminars and workshops designed to meet the needs of educationalists across all subjects and stages of education. The chosen sessions will be delivered by leading practitioners and address some of the most pressing issues within education; such as Assessing Pupil’s Progress (APP), literacy and numeracy, inclusion and personalised education.
In addition, travel subsidy schemes are available for groups of ten or more staff travelling in excess of 50 miles to the NEC courtesy of the sector’s trade association, BESA’s coach scheme.
Visitors can attend seminars in any of the five seminar theatres on the show floor. Tickets can be pre-booked for any of these at www.education-show.com/seminars. All the sponsored seminars are free of charge. The remaining sessions cost £12 + VAT.
More vital information can be gleaned from key Government agencies such as the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Qualifications Curriculum and Development Agency (QCDA), who will be at the show to enable visitors to keep abreast of the latest policy and initiative news, making this one of the most useful days in a school and local authority calendar.
Innovation has a home
This year, in addition to the redesign, several new feature areas have been created to address specific initiatives at the heart of education; including Innovation Alley and BETT Boulevard. The former was created in order to address the problem that smaller new companies sometimes have in showing their new products.
In the current market it can be challenging for the smaller business to thrive and many start-ups will find 2010 a difficult time to launch themselves and their resources. To ensure the best of these companies are able to showcase their innovative products, the Education Show created Innovation Alley. Visitors to the show will be able to see the products that could well take the education sector by storm in 2010; from tactile and playful resources to ingenious numeracy products.
Richard Joslin comments: “Innovation Alley has been created to give small companies a place to shine and to enable educationalists to see the best products on the market, all under one roof. Teachers know what teachers really need and often recognise gaps in the market. With the financial difficulties that many suppliers face in the current climate, the time was ripe to create an area of the show, which would be a platform for the most imaginative, inventive and useful resources on the market. During a recession, sometimes only the larger companies prosper but education is and always should be a sector in which innovation is nurtured.”
One company that will be present on Innovation Alley is Brooker Morgan Education, which delivers tailored presentations on the harsh realities of time in a young offenders institute in order to dispel the myth of kudos that is worryingly present amongst some young people. Jenny Brooker, former teacher and joint founder of the company, comments: “If an awareness of what they would face makes any young person think twice about their actions then ours is a job well done. The Education Show presents a fantastic opportunity for us to let education professionals know about the service that we offer. “
Best of BETT
BETT Boulevard, meanwhile, brings some of the highlights of the largest exhibition of ICT in education to the Education Show. If you didn’t get a chance to make it to BETT this year, or didn’t get your fill of the latest in educational technology at the show, you can find a selection of exciting and innovative exhibitors from the world’s largest education technology show.
Ray Barker, director of BESA comments: “For twenty years now, the Education Show has featured leading educational suppliers, alongside smaller, innovative companies providing educationalists from the UK and beyond with the ideal place to discover new resources and achieve better researched procurement decisions. BETT Boulevard brings an exciting element of ICT to the show in one easy to find location.”
Due to a surge in exhibitor demand, BETT Boulevard has been expanded and is now located in the For Your School area. Some of the exhibitors featured in BETT Boulevard include NumberGym Software Rentnote, Whizz Education, Rapid English Consultants and Spysure.
Future of Literacy Forum
Running alongside the Education Show, on Friday 5th March, is the ‘Future of Reading’ Literacy Forum, with support from the National Literacy Association. Developed to delve deep into the heart of literacy, attendees can enjoy a stellar programme of speakers and roundtable discussions, including a presentation by author and former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen.
Michael Rosen says: “I think it’s vital for the education of every child in the country that we get back to talking about reading whole books. For a variety of reasons, and through no fault of their own, many teachers have lost the expertise and know-how to find their way through the hosts of children’s books on sale today. What’s more, because education has been saddled with goal oriented questioning and quizzing of children in relation to ‘passages’ and ‘excerpts’, the value of ‘talk about books’ has been downgraded.”
Anyone wishing to attend the ‘Future of Reading’ Literacy Forum should visit www.education-show.com/reading to book tickets to this event, which cost £150 plus VAT for the full day programme. After the Forum, delegates will have the opportunity to network with speakers at a drinks reception sponsored by Scholastic. The ticket price includes entry to the show itself.
Compass Resource Material
Compass Books are launching a range of books and teaching resource material at the forthcoming Education Show introducing young people to punctuation.
‘ The Puncs ‘ is a witty and original series of six titles about a group of characters , each representing a written punctuation sign. A seventh title traces the story of punctuation through the ages. Learning punctuation practice is fun for pupils as they read through the individual character stories and become exposed to different and repetitive uses of punctuation. Not only amusing, the books are brilliantly supported by cartoon style illustrations.
Also available on CD are ‘ Puncsheets. ‘ These are interactive whiteboard worksheets which covering each Punc character and linked to the storyline. Open a selected puncsheet and click and drag punctuation symbols to positions within a text, getting a pass or fail response and registering a score. Or, type in a text exercise where requested.
Compass Books have announced a special package offer, ‘ The Puncs Classroom Punctuation Pack, ‘ comprising the Puncs books, CD and wall poster. These can be ordered on-line at www.thepuncs.com.
0114 2589801
