Seaview primary school in Belfast wins TES technology award
Seaview Primary in north Belfast received a prestigious TES award at a ceremony in London.
It was named the UK school with the most innovative use of technology in learning.
The judges said that attendance, behaviour and pupil outcomes had improved at the York Road school as a result.
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Queen’s University Belfast has opened a new £7.5m advanced manufacturing facility, which aims to help Northern Ireland companies improve productivity.
It will allow manufacturers to experiment with high-end equipment and get access to the latest research.
It will also provide Northern Ireland with a regional link to other manufacturing research networks.
The centre has been supported by the UK Department for Business, Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute.
It will have a particular focus on aerospace technologies, but is open to other sectors.
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Deloitte to bring in 70 apprentices during 2018
The five-year programme helps young people gain a BSc in Business Technology through Ulster University, as well as recognised professional qualifications and a job at Deloitte.
Now 70 apprentices are due to join in 2018, bringing the total who have completed the programme to 180.
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Ulster University Honour for Silicon Valley boss Sarah Friar
The Co Tyrone woman attended Strabane Grammar, where she developed a love of maths and science. Sara is an ambassador for females in tech and was involved in launching the Ormeau Baths tech campus for entrepreneurs. Since 2012 she has been chief financial officer for Square – a mobile payments company jointly run with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, which has become one of the world’s fastest growing financial technology companies.
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Nearly 800 children enter Northern Ireland justice system for first time in one year
Nearly 800 children and youths entered Northern Ireland’s justice system for the first time in the 2016/17 period, new figures have shown. For 2016/17 a total of 29,031 offences were recorded across all categories, with 8,665 of these being first offences.
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Data hack at South Eastern Regional College could affect staff’s information
The BBC reports staff at the further education college have been told their data may be at risk.
It follows the hacking of an employee’s email account.
A representative from the SERC said it was working with the Information Commissioner’s Office and the PSNI to resolve the issue. The SERC has a number of campuses across south-eastern Northern Ireland and has around 32,000 students.
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New STEM Education Centre in Omagh
A shared education campus in Omagh has received a £140m Government funding boost.
Strule will be the largest of its kind in Northern Ireland and will bring together more than 4,000 pupils from six schools and all backgrounds.
It will offer collaborative education opportunities to students across the Steam (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) area of the curriculum.
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Appointment of new members to the Education Authority Board
Mrs Sarah Kelly is from Derry and is the former Principal of St Joseph’s Boys School. Mr Nelson McCausland is from Newtownabbey and is a member of the committee of the Ulster Scots Community Network. He has declared that during the last five years he has undertaken political activity for the DUP, holding office both at local branch level and as a MLA (2003-2017). He is a member of the Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund committee of NI Screen for which he receives no remuneration.
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Voluntary Youth Capital Scheme to receive £5.9 million investment across NI
continue into following years.
Permanent Secretary, Derek Baker said: “Good quality youth work can significantly and positively impact on the lives of young people and make a real difference to their future. The Voluntary Youth Capital Scheme gives youth organisations across Northern Ireland the opportunity to improve the facilities and services they offer to young people.
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Full Steam Ahead : Children Learn through Film Making
PRIMARY school pupils are being taught film analysis to help improve their literacy skills.
Full Steam Ahead is a two year project that uses filmmaking as an educational tool, enabling pupils to make their own films and learn skills such as stop motion animation, storyboarding and script writing.
The project, run by Into Film in partnership with the Nerve Centre in Derry and Nerve Belfast, instructed teachers how to use film in the classroom to develop and support learning.
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Gender gap in university applications widens
New Ucas statistics reveal almost 98,000 more women than men had applied by the end of last month to start degree courses this autumn. Overall, 367,300 women, of all ages, had applied to university by June 30 – the last deadline for applications. In comparison, there were 269,660 male applicants – a gap of 97,640 students.
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Calls for students’ backgrounds to be part of university entry alongside grades
Calls have been made to improve equality of opportunity for university entry by making it “about background, and not just exams”.
Chris Millward – the director of fair access and participation of the Office for Students watchdog – has stated that the current application system is flawed, arguing that A-level grades are only a “robust measure of potential if they are considered alongside the context in which they are achieved” and that in higher education “we are a long way from equality of opportunity”.
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Local school children inspired towards STEAM Careers
Aimed at exposing primary school children to careers in STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Arts and Mathematics), Miniversity has engaged with two schools near the West Belfast Interface with assistance from the Housing Executive.
Black Mountain Shared Space Project received £10,000 in Housing Executive funding for a pilot project so that students from Harmony Primary in Glencairn and Bunscoil an tSleibhe Dhuibh in Ballymurphy could engage with the project.
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More than 60 NI schools lose funding to run breakfast clubs
Patrick Allen, principal of Foyle College in Londonderry, said he was notified just days before the new financial year that his school would lose £22,000 from its budget.
“This is about so much more than just the breakfast club,” he said.
“We used our funding last year to operate an accelerated reading programme to support pupil literacy, provided direct support for Key Stage 3 literacy and numeracy and we were also looking at the transfer from primary to secondary school.”
Mr Allen said the money also supported STEM, technology and homework clubs, peer tutoring initiatives and helped to finance additional bus services.
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Access NI Checks: NI first to go Digital
“AccessNI plays a vital role in protecting our communities by providing criminal record checks for those applying to work with children and vulnerable adults. Investing in this new technology will provide an end to end digital service which allows the fastest and most secure method of receiving certificates in the whole of the UK.”
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Unspent Integrated Education funding now to be rolled out
Unspent money totalling £91m for shared and integrated education from the Fresh Start agreement will be made available in future years.
That is according to the Treasury and the Department of Finance.
The confirmation came after BBC News NI revealed the Department of Education (DE) had only been able to spend £8m of the £100m allocated since 2016.
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A digital mental health hub for young people has launched in Northern Ireland
The Northern Area Mental Health Initiative is a project led by Cookstown and Western Shores Area Network, in partnership with Action Mental Health and Nexus NI.
The Initiative offers free mental health awareness and resilience training, internet safety, sexual abuse and exploitation education to children and young people aged from 8 to 25 in schools, youth clubs and through key contacts such as teachers, youth group leaders and parents groups.
Read more and access link to the Hub here.. |
