Category: Training

July 21, 2014July 23, 2014

SEND reforms – are you ready? Free guidance pack to download.

As discussed in our previous blog, the SEND reforms could have an impact on practice at your school. From September 1st, schools will be expected to have clear systems for identification, assessment, monitoring and securing appropriate support for children with special educational needs. Today we have received new information from the Pathfinder Champion Support Team to help implement these reforms and inform staff of changes.

The document explains:

“The SEND reforms require a whole school approach to SEND. It is essential that the whole school community, governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, young people and parents, understand what the reforms mean for them.

This attached slide pack has been designed to help school leaders in mainstream schools engage the wider school community in the culture change. The aim is for school leaders to use selected slides from the pack to engage governors and staff in the reforms. It is not designed to be used in its entirety.

The slides have been developed in partnership with the Joint Professional Association SEND Forum, comprising representatives from ASCL, ATL, NAHT, NASUWT, NUT and Voice; as well as Achievement for All, London Leadership Strategy and organisations representing disabled children and their families.”

The school leaders slide pack, which you can download here, contains key information to help headteachers introduce new practices to staff and governors. There is also guidance notes which you can download here.

For full information visit the new Pathfinder website. The Pathfinder Champion Support Team have asked for these new resources to be passed on so everyone can benefit from the new advice so feel free to share.

What can 4D creative offer you to support the implementation of this legislation?

Within the 4D team, there are a range of skills and knowledge from across the disability agenda. Our operations manager, Colette Gollcher also works on behalf of the Council for Disabled Children supporting local authorities in their preparation for these reforms.

We have a range of workshops that can support you and your school:

A full briefing session to understand the upcoming reforms to enable you to support your children, young people, their families, your staff and governors.
A workshop explaining how to utilise an immersive space for person centred annual reviews
A day of live planning for a group of young people and their families who may be starting the journey in education health and case plans
Learn how to develop immersive content relevant to preparing children and young people for adulthood
A bespoke workshop designed around your ideas and intended outcomes. Just get in touch to find out more.

Next steps.

If you’d like to find out more about an immersive space being installed at your school contact Louise on louise@4dcreative.co.uk

Alternatively, to discuss a workshop on the SEND reforms, please call on 0844 414 2595 or email: hello@4dcreative.co.uk

Finally keep up to date with all our news by following us on Twitter and signing up to our newsletter below.

July 8, 2014July 9, 2014

The Children and Families Act and immersive learning

We are fast approaching the end of term and a period of rest and relaxation. However, on the 1st of September, the Children and Families Act comes into force which could potentially have an impact on practice across your school.

An immersive space could be a key tool to support your school as you prepare for this new legislation:

The key highlights of the legislations:

1. Local authorities to publish a clear, transparent ‘local offer’ of services.

As a school you may have been asked to produce your ‘local offer’. Your immersive space enables you to promote your provision as a unique selling point. The space offers a creative, inclusive and holistic approach to meeting individual needs as well as facilitating positive outcomes.

It’s a space to relax and inspire whilst giving new and fresh experiences through light, sound and projection. Travel to new places, enjoy the calm of a giant aquarium or be inspired by a trip to the London Olympics, all with this unique tool.

2. A more streamlined assessment process and a single Education Healthcare Plan

An immersive space is an ideal place to support observations and assessment of both individuals and groups. Annual Reviews could take place within an immersive space and bring the young person and their family into the heart of the process.

3. A stronger focus on preparing for adulthood, including new powers for local authorities to provide children’s services to young people over 18 to improve their transition to adult services

The development and promotion of aspirations and life skills is fundamental to achieving positive outcomes. An immersive space gives you the ability to upload content that will facilitate this approach. Give young people a greater understanding of the world around them or inspire them to create their own images and videos to express themselves. The space could also bring involvement from the community, local colleges employees as a partnership approach to supporting the children and young people in your care.

What can 4D creative offer you to support the implementation of this legislation?

We have a range of workshops that can support you and your school:

A full briefing session to understand the upcoming reforms to enable you to support your children, young people, their families, your staff and governors.
A workshop explaining how to utilise an immersive space for person centred annual reviews
A day of live planning for a group of young people and their families who may be starting the journey in education health and case plans
Learn how to develop immersive content relevant to preparing children and young people for adulthood
A bespoke workshop designed around your ideas and intended outcomes. Just get in touch to find out more.

Next steps.

If you’d like to find out more about an immersive space being installed at your school contact Louise on louise@4dcreative.co.uk

Alternatively, to discuss a workshop on the Children and Families Act, please call on 0844 414 2595 or email: hello@4dcreative.co.uk

Finally keep up to date with all our news by following us on Twitter and signing up to our newsletter below.

June 23, 2014May 13, 2017

Bridging the gap with immersive learning

All schools are looking to give young people the chance to experience the world around them and develop all the skills to be successful in the future.

Your pupil premium has been introduced to help achieve better outcomes and at 4D, we believe our immersive spaces are a tool that will support better outcomes for your pupils

Experiential learning
An immersive space allows you to transport your pupils from their usual classroom to new cultures, worlds and experiences giving a fresh context to learning. This may be a trip to a museum or another country or be about a more abstract experience such as visiting other planets.

“The purpose of the room is that it blows the kids away and takes them to places they never thought possible. You can show them a picture on a board but it is not the same, it’s not the same at all. There are no boundaries in a room like this.”
Wendy Austin, Harwood Meadows School, Bolton

Communication and language skills
The power of giving a class a real stimulus that they’ve seen, felt, heard and experienced has been shown to improve writing and inspire young people particularly for those who English is their second language.

Pupils can be transported to read and write war poetry from a muddy trench or taken deep into the heart of a spooky wood and asked to imagine what is around the corner. Set imaginations and pens wild!

“By using the Dream Room, St Christopher’s has seen a marked improvement in the speaking and listening skills of its students. Teachers are taking greater accountability for creativity in their teaching and learning as the immersive space is proving to be a useful tool for this.”
Colette Denby, Headteacher, St Christopher’s Primary School.

Peer led learning and collaboration
Task young people to research and source images or videos and then present them back to their class. This is real life learning, developing an understanding of partnership working, creating suitable resources and then sharing this with their cohorts. The immersive space is a stage that brings the best out of everyone who works in there.

“The impact that we have seen on the pupils has been very impressive. The level of interaction and connection with subjects and topic areas has been outstanding.”
Dominic Annable, Head Of Languages. Wade Deacon High School, Widnes

Training with Education professionals.
An immersive space is a tool to facilitate experiences. All our spaces come with a full range of training with former teachers and for those interested, our team can create a whole school approach for your staff and pupils putting creativity at the heart of your curriculum.

“Teachers need support and time to learn to use new technology effectively. This involves more than just learning how to use the technology; it should include support to understand how it can be used for learning” – EEF guidelines

Find out more

Learn more about the impact of immersive learning at Harwood Meadows School with our case study video:

What now?
A member of our team would love to explain how immersive approaches could be in your school.

Just drop us a line and we will arrange a time to come and see you or to give you a call.

T: 01706 248112 | E: hello@4dimmersive.com | Tw: @4dimmersive

March 6, 2014

The Great Fire of London workshop at St Hugh’s Primary School

Last week we travelled to St Hugh’s Primary in Liverpool to run one of our new immersive workshops. The 4D Pop Up was the scene for as creatives to run the session looking at the Great Fire Of London.

The two primary classes entered a time tunnel in the 4D Pop Up where they met the man who started the fire, Thomas Farriner. Pupils learnt all about the fire and how it started in the Pie Shop before a newsflash from the 1666 news came in with all the events of the day. As the lesson progressed, a quick press of an iPad dramatically changed the 4D Pop Up to engage the young people and give them new experiences.

Groups then wrote and shared virtual postcards sharing their ideas on how London should be rebuilt using all the knowledge they had developed in the session. It was a fantastic time working with the pupils and we were delighted to see how much the young people learnt and how their confidence grew in the immersive space.

Check out our full gallery below

In the afternoon we also ran the second of our free creative workshops. We welcomed 25 practitioners to the school and ran a session in the 4D Pop Up before a second workshop in St Hugh’s immersive space. The focus of the event was creativity and best practices for sharing a whole school approach. We’d love for you to join us at our next creative workshop, to register, fill in this form.

Or if you’d like to book a a creative workshop for pupils, then just email Inés on ines@4dcreative.co.uk or call on 0844 414 2595

January 14, 2014

Free taster creative workshops

Are you thinking about how to make creative learning and thinking as part of your environment and curriculum?

Come and find out more about 4D creative and our innovative approach to teaching and learning.

This year, 4D creative will be running regular taster events, starting this month in Manchester followed by Liverpool at the end of February.

Each event will explore how immersive experiences support positive and engaging learning for all children and young people.

This is a chance to explore the immersive experiences we create and gain key skills to inspire young people and innovate learning that can be used in any classroom setting.

The events run by 4D creative and as creatives will be split into two sessions:

Workshop 1

How immersive experiences support creative thinking and learning at a practitioner level both within the classroom and within an immersive space.

Workshop 2

The impact of creative learning and thinking on outcomes and achievement for children and young people for senior leaders.

Full details and to book:

26th February – Liverpool Training Workshop at St Hugh’s Primary School, Liverpool. 1.30 – 3pm or 3.30 – 5pm

To book your free place, simply register below using Eventbrite or call us on 0844 414 2595 – please note each event and session will be identical.

Our March and May events will be launched very soon. Email Pete in our office to be kept up to date with events as they are launched.

Liverpool Event

January 7, 2014

Save The Cycle Workshop at Holywell High School

Just before Christmas, we took the 4D Pop Up to Holywell High for a days workshop on the Carbon Cycle. Our friends from AS creatives joined us to lead a day long workshop for pupils from a selection of high schools from the local area.

Together, the group explored the impact we have on our planet, global warming and what we can do to prevent further damage. After an introduction in the 4D Pop Up, pupils explored the carbon cycle, wrote presentations and gathered content. At the end of the day each group presented their findings in the style of news reports to their peers inside the 4D Pop Up.

In a suitably overblown manor, we have quickly pulled together some photos of the event into iMovie. Saving the world should always involve ridiculously empowering music! iMovie trailer maker is one of our favourite ways to capture videos like the one below and is always something we recommend to the schools we work with.

[media url=”https://vimeo.com/82277853″ width=”600″ height=”400″]

This year we will be launching our new programme of creative workshops – explore immersive learning in any setting for any age group. If you would like to find out more then just get in touch via our contact page.

June 28, 2013

4D Exchange – 11th July

4D Exchange is designed to help our network of schools get the most from their immersive spaces.

We know that our immersive environments work best with a passionate and inspired staff and we hope that 4D exchange can help practitioners find new ideas and best practices to take back to their own settings.

This is also a great time to ask questions to the 4D staff and other teachers working in an immersive environment.

Agenda

Get inspired! A handful of our schools will share outstanding lessons they have run in their immersive space and the outcomes of these. This will include a wide range of lessons from developing content to core curriculum themes.

Highspots & Hotspots. An open discussion for the group to share ideas, content and best practices. Discuss areas where your space could be working better with other practitioners and the 4D team. Bring a pen drive full of your favourite immersive content to share with others!

Further support and training. Meet your school’s relationship managers and find out how they are working to help you get the best from your immersive space.

Where and when?

TEN Centre, Salford

11th July (1.30pm – 3.30pm)

RSVP

E: hello@4dcreative.co.uk

T: 0844 414 2595

Please note – this event is for our current network of schools. If you’d like to visit one of our immersive spaces, get in touch and we can organise this for you.

October 9, 2012

Free 4D create workshop

Recently our teaching and learning expert Gav took members of the 4D team for a special training session to make sure we all knew how to upload content onto our software, 4D create.

Outstanding lessons need carefully curated content and 4D create enables users to upload their own images, videos and audio in seconds. Pete brought some photos from a recent trip to Berlin, Benji brought some video from a family get together and Lou sent her son into the garden to get some snaps! After a quick demonstation we were all able to make our own immersive experiences by dragging and dropping pictures and audio into the software.

Free workshops

We enjoyed the session so much we thought we’d open it up to everyone! Gav will be running an introduction to 4D create to show the simplicity and power in uploading your own content and it’s completely free to attend (though it would be great if you bring some images/audio/video with you – these can be either on a memory stick or just bring your phone/camera with you on the day) You will also learn what content work best when creating immersive environments to help you prepare some outstanding lessons.

Date: November 6th 2012

Time: 3 – 5pm

Cost: Free!

Location: 4D Offices, Manchester, M4 7JA

To book, simply send an email to hello@4dcreative.co.uk with ‘4D create Workshop’ in the subject line. Places are strictly limited so book now to avoid disappointment.

NB due to the expected uptake, there is a 2 places per organisation limit for this course.

June 22, 2012

4D Teaching and Learning.

We recently launched our brand new Teaching and Learning offerings. Gav, our vastly experienced and all round lovely training practitioner, has developed a series of options that are aimed to increase creativity in your staff and school.

We offer a whole range of INSET training packages and creative workshops to ensure you get the most from your 4D Immersive Space. These are a great way to build confidence and maximise the potential of the space.

The Options…

So What Now?

Exploring the basics of what you can do in a 4D Immersive Space and how it fits into your settings style. Experience a taster of creative immersive learning approaches and an introduction to our software, 4D create.

Content, Creation and Creativity.

A greater examination of the opportunities our software 4D create can offer you. How to source elements and use them to enhance the space, quickly and effectively. Finding out what works, what has impact and how to involve young people in the process. How to create interactive content can also be part of any workshop where this is an aspect of your 4D Immersive Space.

Creative Thinking and Learning.

How to engage with all learning styles and recognising the characteristics of the creative learner, focusing on originality, imagination, having a purpose and adding value.

Creative Workshops & Masterclasses.

From storytelling to den making, drama workshops to bespoke creative sessions, we are developing a range of exciting sessions to inspire learners and colleagues.

Have a different course in mind?

Just get in touch, we can design training sessions to meet your needs and intended outcomes.

The next steps... To book a course, call the 4D creative team on 0844 414 2595 or email us via our contact page.

May 17, 2012

4D create launch

[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhiQArXpOOc&feature=plcp” width=”100%”]

This week we have welcomed some of our current clients to our offices to check out our new software. Staff from Heaton School, The Grange, The TEN Centre, Wade Deacon School, Witton Park CLC and Harwood Meadows visited our demo space and were blown away by what they saw!

4D create is the result of many hours of development, programming and testing but we are delighted with the finished software. We now have a piece of bespoke software that is easy to use and super simple to programme meaning pupils and teachers can upload their own content and create their own immersive experience in minutes.