BETT Day 4

Very slightly late this post, apologies, had to drive 300 miles home then sleep for several hours if not days before getting back into the swing of things. Just to tidy up the last BETT posting. Saturday appeared pretty good to us. Certainly better than many previous Saturdays with a steady stream of good quality visitors all through the day. The quantity actually approached Wednesday which may be a sign that the bad weather on Wednesday meant that many teachers,especially local to London, delayed their visit until Saturday. The latest on Functional Skills and Diplomas from the show. I saw the latest Diploma resources from our friends at u-xplore. As always with u-xplore, the presentation of the resources is very lively and they cover all 10 existing quals with the next four under development. This product does focus on diplomas, has references to PLTS but no direct references to Functional Skills standards. Also met with the guys at Vision2Learn. They had announced through BETT PR the availability of Functional Skills courses from Easter but nothing to show at BETT. Our friends at Espresso also let us know that contrary to what I said on Day 3; "Channel 4 Clipbank includes a Personal, learning and thinking skills framework comprising six groups that complement the Functional skills of English, Mathematics and ICT. Clipbank includes a range of clips and resources that provide opportunities to develop these skills: Independent enquirers Creative thinkers Reflective learners Team workers Self managers Effective participators Functional skills" Happy to clarify this on their behalf and good to know the blogs get read!:) That's about for this year and just one final thought. We rented a van to bring all our stuff down, a LWB transit type thing. It cost more to park it in London for 4 days than it cost to rent for 7 days - unbelievable! Comments and queries always welcomed. Jonathan Wells of Guroo clear market leaders in providing pedagogically sound learning resources for functional skills in the 14-19 curriculum.