13 March 2015
New widescreen layout - exactly suits iPads and other mobile devices
Over the weekend of 14-15 March we will change the home screens on the website. When they have been installed, come back here and read the changes below, so that you can see exactly what it means.
• Now you can get students to focus better than before
With our ever-strengthening search facility on the website, you can get students to find what they want by using the 'Research' button. To make this as straightforward as possible, and to stop students getting distracted, we have moved the main menu off the screen. This also gives us a chance to put even more dramatic pictures on the home screen to enthrall students.
• However, we know teachers need the main menu for a more comprehensive road-map of the resources available, so the menu is still there. Just click on the menu tab on the left of the screen and it will fly back and behave as normal.
• Our screens have always been exactly the dimensions of iPads and suit other tablets as well. You will find, however, that the new menu can be thumb operated very conveniently from the left side, a feature in common with an increasing number of mobile devices.
• The image on the home screen is clickable, so students can click through it to the connected search item and find out more. The screen changes frequently, so there is regularly something new to click through.

• The help area will have a new quickstart guide which you can print and keep next to computers for reference.

• We will be at the Education Show this week, so the phones may not always be answered. E-mails will be answered overnight. If you are coming to the show, do pop in and say hello.


28 February 2015
New subject screens
What a difference it has made by changing the subject screens! If you go to Geography, History, Religion or Science you will see our new simplified and refreshed screens. It's a lot of hard work, and the science has so many linked books it was a bit of a struggle figuring out how to do it. But I think we have got there.


18 February 2015
New Energy and Measuring books
We have added these books as part of our Science around us set. They are on the home screen. Slightly simpler and different format to science at school. Make good guided reading books.


9 February 2015
New camel and ostrich books
We have added these books to our Early Years section and bookcase 32.


5 February 2015
New weather/cloud/woodland books
We have added a book called Cloud Atlas, which is currently on the home screen and Reading Room bookcase 32. It is book 657 if you are collecting livebookmarks. This should be helpful in local weather studies as well as weather curriculum work.
There is a new book uploaded: "Woodland" and it is in the section for early years.


3 February 2015
Live search filtering introduced
We have added a live search to the research screen. This will enable you to type a word and find where it is. The list filters and shortens as you type, so it is fun to watch as it works. To see this best, type your word slowly. Let us know if we have missed any curriculum words, so we can consider adding them. That way we can make it as useful as possible for you.


28 January 2015
Magna Carta
June will be the 800th year celebration of the Magna Carta. We have produced a book for this, in which we reveal many amazing things about where the Magna Carta is still used. They can all be found in Research when the topic leaves the home screen.

In a few weeks there will also be a video.
23rd January 2015
Early years
We have completely rebuilt the early years section, with new books added and an easier way of finding out where things are.
12th January 2015
Climbing El Capitan, Yosemite
A new world record climb is being attempted. It began on Dec 24 and is ongoing. See it on the BBC and other news. Our cliffhanger book will give you the basics.
9th January 2015
Crocodile/alligator
There is a new book on the home screen and on the last screen in the reading room which deals with crocodiles and alligators. This is level 3. There is already a level 1 book on alligators.
8th January 2015
Children at work
There is a new book on the home screen which deals with Children at work in Victorian and modern times in particular.

There are some stunning pictures, and I have left lots of space so that you can talk about the pictures with your students. The 5 blobs rating is simply because children will need lots of teacher guidance.

The other new book is Mexico. This is to go with the Maya topic, or if you are studying modern N America.

Make your own mini website from ours...
Making your own mini website from ours is simpler than you might think. It will give you rapid access only to those assets you need. Click HERE to see how, or give us a ring for immediate help. A new examples active folder has been added.
27th Dec 2014 to 5th January 2015
New items... welcome to the museum of the virtual
The end of an old year, and the start of another. Time for a change of screen. How many changes can you spot, I wonder?

One obvious one is that we have opened our video museum: bottom left of the home screen. It is entirely made of videos. It includes historical exhibits and collections of modern things. Except for a few very large objects (like pyramids) they are videoed as though you could go to the museum and see and hold the objects yourself. If you click on the TITLE of the exhibit, it will open up the research link, giving information, more videos and full research. You can use it as the next best thing to giving out artefact boxes when doing projects and topics or visiting a museum. Although it already has hundreds of objects, this is just the start. It will be greatly expanded this year.

Another new feature is the video top right which will show sample active themes.

There is a range of new books which you can see in their entirety by going to the reading room and clicking on the most recent tab. Many of them are for early learners and include such books as rainbow colours.

Finally, and by no means the least as it is the result of countless hours, is the upgraded Research tab. About half of the entries now have videos. We will put more emphasis on this tab in the future, and suggest you encourage your students to use the web site via the research tab. The subject tabs remain, but those are primarily for teachers. If we have missed important words, please do let us know.
Make your own mini website from ours...
Making your own mini website from ours is simpler than you might think. It will give you rapid access only to those assets you need. Click HERE to see how, or give us a ring for immediate help. A new examples active folder has been added.
20th November 2014
Rush hour
You will find a new creative topic book on 'Rush Hour', which will be helpful if you are doing journey to and from school, thinking about roads, railways and public transport, or trying to compare rush hour and traffic across the world. Goes in geography travel and settlement.

18th November 2014
Markets of the world
You will find a new book on Markets, which begins by explaining how markets developed over the ages, what you find in them and how they function. There is then a major section to show markets across the world. Suits history, geography and shopping.

Make your own mini website from ours...
Making your own mini website from ours is simpler than you might think. It will give you rapid access only to those assets you need. Click HERE to see how, or give us a ring for immediate help. A new examples active folder has been added.
13th November 2014
Make your own mini website from ours...
Making your own mini website from ours is simpler than you might think. It will give you rapid access only to those assets you need. Click HERE to see how, or give us a ring for immediate help.

Thanksgiving USA for at least one turkey
Thanksgiving USA is a much bigger event than Harvest Festival in the UK, although it is sort of the same thing. It is the time when Americans celebrate the first feast made by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1621 after they successfully grew crops for themselves, most having died since coming over on the Mayflower.

Turkey is top of the menu, just as it would be for UK Christmas. It is also a big holiday when people travel across the country to see their folks.

The President is given a turkey each year, and he pardons it from being turned into a feast, and it is allowed to strut around for the rest of its natural life. The others, however...

So have a look at the USA Thanksgiving.

15th October 2014
A search term a day keeps ignorance at bay
One of the easiest ways to get a class underway at the start of each day is to read a search term together. There are over 1000 terms, and many have videos, so choose one at random, or work through systematically. It will only take five minutes and you will always be doing something new connected to the curriculum.
14th October 2014
Blob levels •••••
You may have noticed there are little blobs on the covers of books which give some guide as to their level. Personally I am not in favour of too rigorous a levelling (which is what some computer systems do) and would rather rely on the judgment of teachers, but it is probably helpful to know which ballpark the book is in. The point being that our books are picture-led and so even if the text is not suited to your needs, the pictures might well be, and they are big enough to use on a whiteboard without referring to the text.

But, I was asked, why are they not on videos and comprehensions? The reasons are different, and here they are: videos stretch across an enormous range of ages and abilities. You see that whenever you look at TV. Again, teachers can use videos much more widely than any other instructional form. So, for example, a video of mountains in the Alps can be shown to year 1 and year 6 quite effectively. You just ask different questions of your class. Given that, blobs don't seem useful. Comprehensions are already structured around AFs with 2/3 at the start and 6/7 at the end, and intended so that you just use the bits that you feel appropriate. For example, if your class is not up to sequencing, just don't so that bit.

13th October 2014
We have added 60 new videos last week alone!
We are always adding new videos, but this week has been a record, as we have added 60. They are particularly designed to add to the search terms.

We are adding videos to as many search terms as we can, and our aim by Xmas is to have 75% of entries supported by a video. So far we are at C, and it is a long job, with over 1000 entries to work through.

By Xmas the search term book and video links will hopefully also be incorporated into our live link system.

If you think we should add search terms for curriculum topics, please let us know what those are.



21st September 2014
New
Have you noticed the new Science library on the right hand side of the home page? This series of 28 books, each 48pp in extent, offers a less structured way of tackling science for those doing topics. So if you want to do, for example, "Don't throw it away", then this series is for you. The first 14 books are in the Reading Room and will shortly also be in the Science section, too. The others will go up shortly.

All of the geography and history videos now have live videoclip links. Religion and science will follow shortly. Remember, by downloading these links and the live bookmarks and keeping them in a folder on Dropbox or other sharing system, you can sync all of your devices and create a mini website absolutely geared to your needs. It makes preparing for lessons a doddle. If you need help with how to do this, give our frontline staff a ring. Ask for Edward or Emily.

We are putting more and more local studies videos online, so keep looking to see if there is now one near you. (Live in Richmond (Yorks), Swindon, Basingstoke, Trowbridge, Birmingham, Frome, Oxford, Whitby, Loughborough, Shrewsbury, Conwy, Liverpool and so on and so on?). The idea is to give drive thrus that you can look at with your students. They all have narratives, but you can turn the sound down and do anything you want with them. Everyone loves looking at their home place! We still have masses to put up over the coming months.

SEARCH continues to be enhanced, but if there are words you would like added, then all you have to do is to contact us (support@curriculumvisions.com).
Leaps and bounds
We also continue to be real people directly at the end of the e-mail and phone (with apologies to those who really love call centres and automated switchboards), despite doubling our school customer base for the second year running. No corporate activity here. We love hearing suggestions of what you want. Last week a librarian suggested potions as a science theme. What a great idea. Watch this space for that to happen. It will be an integrated combination of books, videos and teacher guides – but then you wouldn't expect any less from us, would you?
28th August 2014: Autumn term news
Welcome
First, let us welcome all of the schools who have just joined, either individually or as part of the School Library Services of:

Cornwall
NE Wales
Somerset
Wiltshire and Swindon

during last term or at the start of this term.

In case you are still wondering what we do, let me quote what a recent teacher said: "When I start a new topic, I know Curriculum Visions are bound to have something on it, so I turn there first."

We aim to provide you with levelled, curated resources. Remember you can give sub-user logins to students if you wish, so they can use the resources at home for report writing etc, too. If your school doesn't have a sub-user login as well as a staff login, please get your school administrator to ask for one.

There are now 225,000 files online, designed to give you support over a wide range of curriculum topics.

Getting to the resources
For those new to the site, it may be helpful to know that you can get information in two ways: 1 Click SEARCH. That will take you to a curated list with links to all appropriate resources.
2 Click a subject and navigate to the topic of your choice. Notice there are book, video, picture, iTopic and teacher resources.

English
We want English to be at the heart of everything. So it is split into two sections. Under English on the home screen you will find spelling books and a wide range of activities including our Stargazers. If you haven't seen our Stargazers, go take a look. It has 1000 story starters! They are designed to help creative writing styles in both fiction and non-fiction.

The English comprehensions are placed WITHIN each subject area in the teacher's resources section (top right). There are well over 2000 comprehension sheets that you can photocopy or put on a whiteboard. So comprehension is always topic-based. No need for it to seem anything other than a natural part of everything that is done. But the comprehensions are structured around AFs etc, so you will know what the outcomes are.

The teachers resources also have an increasing number of lesson plans as well as activities. We keep adding more as we get time.

Videos
A word about videos. Think of the nearly 1000 videos as starting points. All topics have them. The classroom cinema is an introduction and often 10-20 minutes long. They cover the topic and introduce it quickly and engagingly. Videos are bandwidth-hungry, so show them on whiteboards rather than individual computers. They are meant to be for communal watching anyway, which is why we call them classroom cinema.

Local studies
We have been spending an increasing amount of time on Local Studies. No one else does this, do they? But it is time-consuming, and it features many local videos that we have taken specially over the last few months. We have hundreds to add, but you will understand that videos take time to edit (1 minute of video shooting takes 2 hours to make into a film for the web, by the time text, captions and so on are added), so they will be added as and when we can.

Reading Room/New items
The Reading Room (button near the top left) is where we put all of the Creative Topics books. Creative Topics are only digital and created only for this website and not available anywhere else. They are scattered around the subject areas, but if you want students to browse for a non-fiction book to read, then they can look here. The first screen features themes: the current one is new science books that can be used for non-fiction literacy studies as well as science.

Live bookmarks
A feature that is completely unique to us are our live bookmarks. They are designed to allow you to create your own favourite resources and open them from anywhere that has an internet connection, even your smartphone or tablet while on a train or bus! On each page with a cloud icon, click/tap it and you get a list of resources. Choose one and it will be downloaded to your device. We suggest you collect them all in a folder in your dropbox or similar, so they will be synced across devices. That way you can collect resources you want at home, review them on the bus and open them in class, all without going near to our website. So it makes everything you need just one click away and you don't have to rummage about the website when in front of a class. Try it out. You can have, for example, folders for Year 3 Geography, Year 6 Food or whatever you want. It's amazing. More information under Help on the main screen.

And finally...
As you can see, there is lots going on, and it is all very exciting. If you are an old hand, then reading this may have prompted you to go to some new corners. If you are new, then you should by now have the confidence to know that there is nowhere better you can go to look for support resources. Of course, if we don't have what you want, and it is part of the curriculum, please tell us, and we will see if we can do something about it.




8th May 2014
How the railway changed our lives video for New Curriculum.

Enjoy this video about the early days of the railway. It lasts for 17 minutes.

To view it immediately, CLICK HERE


When it is no longer previewed, it will be placed in these locations:
History: Victorians. It is one of the additions for the New Curriculum.




6th May 2014
Evolution video for New Curriculum.

Enjoy this video about evolution. It lasts for 14 minutes.

To view it immediately, CLICK HERE


When it is no longer previewed, it will be placed in these locations:
Search (Evolution), Science evolution, fossilisation and dinosaurs. It is one of the additions for the New Curriculum.




3rd May 2014
First Civilisation (Sumerians) video for New Curriculum.

Enjoy this video about the world's oldest civilisation. It lasts for 14 minutes.

To view it immediately, CLICK HERE


When it is no longer previewed, it will be placed in these locations:
Search (Babylon, Sumerians), History First Civilisation. It is one of the additions for the New Curriculum.




1st May 2014
Ancient Civilisations Maya video for New Curriculum.

Enjoy this video about one of the world's oldest civilisations. It lasts for 14 minutes.

To view it immediately, CLICK HERE


When it is no longer previewed, it will be placed in these locations:
Search (Maya), History Maya/Aztec. It is one of the additions for the New Curriculum.




29 April 2014
1066/Battle of Hastings video for New Curriculum.

Enjoy this new video about the world's most famous battle. It lasts for 12 minutes.
Turn the speakers up loud for the battle scenes.

To view it immediately, CLICK HERE


When it is no longer previewed, it will be placed in these locations:
Search (1066 and Battle of Hastings), History Saxons and 1066/Medieval. It is one of the additions for the New Curriculum.