School pupils visiting the Birmingham Botanical Gardens enjoyed all the fun of learning about the Earth’s Tropical Rainforests on special pre-booked sessions involving live animals!

'Tropical Inc' were guests at the Gardens’ Study Centre, teaching school children about the importance of the rainforest habitat and introducing them to a range of rainforest animals from creepy crawlies, to birds, mammals and even snakes.

On January 7th 2010 EngineeringUK, The Royal Academy of Engineering and The Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust, will jointly launch Tomorrow’s Engineers, a new enhancement and enrichment partnership to improve levels of science and engineering engagement in hard to reach schools across the UK.  The scheme, which will be announced to teachers at the Association for Science Education Conference in Nottingham, will initially support hands-on engineering activities to 30,000 children and young people aged five to nineteen in 2010.

St Augustine’s CofE Primary School in Kilburn, Westminster, has installed a brand new training kitchen for pupils using Lincat’s market leading Silverlink 600 range of prime cooking equipment.

The kitchen has been fitted with six workstations at differing heights (720mm and 850mm) to accommodate the age range of the children, to enable them to cook safely. Each workstation incorporates an HT3 two-plate boiling top and a V6/FD fan-assisted glass door oven.  Preparation tables, sinks and wash hand basins at corresponding heights complete the new kitchen layout.

It’s important to ring-fence budget for procurement – there is no need to squirrel away funds in case the economy gets worse. The Pre-Budget report has promised schools will continue to receive an increase in funding until 2013 and trade association BESA urges schools to think about investing rather than holding back.

As the UK still waits to move out of recession, schools could be forgiven for putting off procurement and putting funds to one side in case of a “rainy day”.

Sovereign Play Equipment has been accepted as a member of the Association of Play Industries (API) recognising its wealth of experience within the play sector.

As one of the largest providers of school ground developments in the UK, Sovereign has transformed over 10,000 outdoor environments into imaginative play and learning zones. Over 17 years it has built an enviable reputation for delivering both a comprehensive and flexible service, providing customers with all their outdoor play and learning requirements.

BETT is the world’s largest educational technology event, attracting more than 30,000 UK and international visitors over the four days. With more than 700 exhibition stands promoting a range of products and services from the ICT industry, it is wise to plan ahead for your visit. Education Today spoke to a number of schools to find out what they will be looking for at this month’s show and liaised with Becta (The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) to see what advice they are offering to help buyers find the right products.

This time of year, the value of a good school meal is more important than ever to help children stay healthy and warm. It has been proven that a good meal at lunchtime can help to improve concentration and drive better results in the classroom.

The government is also championing school meals and in his pre-Budget report last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling promised “to extend free school meals to half a million primary school children of low income working parents, who previously would not have been eligible”.

In the same week that the Department for Children, Schools and Families announced an extra £100m in funding to tackle a national shortfall of tens of thousands of primary school places; UK Company Alfresco Rooms Ltd unveiled an alternative building solution that could be the answer to this growing crisis.

New school building delivered in less than seven weeks

In a flagship project, Coupals Primary School in Haverhill, Suffolk opened the doors of a custom designed Alfresco free standing classroom, the first of its kind in the UK and believed to be the largest stand alone building of its type in the country. Incredibly, the bespoke octagonal building was delivered in less than seven weeks, with minimal upheaval to the school, meeting all stringent building regulations and exceeding eco guidelines.

Metsä Tissue has found a way of dramatically cutting washroom waste whilst retaining high levels of hygiene, especially in areas, which traditionally make exceptional demands on paper consumables.  The Katrinâ narrow range of hand towels, including the innovative Easy Flush range, provides the solution - reducing space requirements, lowering waste, saving money and improving green credentials simultaneously.

People in the field of education are beginning to question the use of ‘carrots and sticks’ to motivate young people to behave in pro-social ways and to make the most of their school experience. This ‘behaviourist’ strategy is at odds with attempts to develop social and emotional skills and responsible citizenship amongst young people. Many educationalists and practitioners believe it is time to adopt a new approach. In response to this, a growing number of schools and residential homes in the UK are changing their culture and adopting a restorative approach to relationships and behaviour.

Of all the current changes in the world of education, I personally see none as more exciting than the launch of the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) - the Government-funded, classroom-based professional qualification aimed at helping teachers to enrich their skills, knowledge and understanding.

The MTL is a new and very different kind of masters. It is a national qualification allowing participants to build on their previous educational development and immediately apply the theory that they’ve learned inside their own classroom – a model that borrows from successful masters in other fields, such as the MBA.

With tax and public spending high on the news agenda, teachers are being urged to take advantage of a free, online teaching resource that helps pupils learn just what tax is all about.

Specifically designed for Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), Business Studies and Citizenship teachers of pupils aged 11-19, the Tax Matters resource contains three teaching modules, to help secondary school pupils gain an understanding of how tax is raised, what the main taxes are, and what they ultimately pay for.