Teacher Network newsletter: Aung San Suu Kyi, Wimbledon and Breadline Britain

Another busy week has whipped past and much of my time this week has been focused on the brilliant Breadline Britain series in The Guardian which is looking at the impact of the government's austerity measures. I spent part of last weekend reading the comments you made in the survey we asked you to take part in about your experiences of having hungry children in class. They made very sad reading for a Sunday afternoon. If you didn't catch our blog about the results of the survey then take a look here and I took part in a Q&A session on Wednesday with Carmel McConnell, the CEO of Magic Breakfast , a charity which provides breakfast clubs in around 200 primary schools. We've put up a whole raft of resources from Magic Breakfast for you to use in schools - find them at the end of this blog about the free breakfast scheme in Wales from headteacher Marian Thomas. I was also busy with our computer science for teachers day on Thursday. It was a complete sell-out and the feedback was tremendous. Our speakers were passionate, engaged and enthusiastic, as were our delegates. Here are a couple of Twitter highlights: • • We'll be sharing the resources on the GTN soon for all members. We are in the process of putting together a panel of subject experts to help guide and advise us and would love to hear from any MFL teachers who might like to take part. To find out more email Emma Drury . I've just had a quick browse on our jobs site and we still have around 2,400 jobs available for anyone looking to move on - take a look here and for those of you wishing to advertise the team here are ready to take your call - on 020 3353 2010 or email [email protected]. Ask for Shade, Sonia, Michaela or Matt - they're all lovely. New teaching resources on the network With Wimbledon starting tomorrow now is the perfect time to have a bit of a tennis theme for your lessons. To help you the Tennis Foundation has come up with this set of cross-curricular activities called the Grand Slam Challenge . They say it is aimed at 7-9 year olds but could suit older pupils too with a bit of adaptation. There are lots more resources available from the Tennis Foundation including these great maths investigations and literacy themed resources . There are many more on the site - simply search under the phrase "tennis foundation". But if tennis isn't your thing then why not consider doing a little bit of debating in class. We have this excellent resource from the English-Speaking Union which you can download, fill in and use to stimulate a really active, exciting activity in your classroom. There are no end to the subjects you can debate about! Resource highlights This week some of our favourites on the site have been: Primary Green screen films Bats and balls sorting fun Types of noun Shape and reflection Adjectives linked to the senses Toys and games presentation Secondary Food stories Virtual canvas Know those nouns Waves War Horse - teacher notes Microsoft - computer games in education Blog of the week We had a really interesting blog this week from Andrew Jones - a religious studies teacher and head of department from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire talking about teaching pupils about empathy. It was timed perfectly to coincide with the visit from Aung San Suu Kyi - who had travelled to the UK to meet Dave Lee Travis (amongst others) after collecting her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Please do take a look if you get a chance - Andrew has uploaded some fabulous resources for use in class too. The theme of our How to teach feature in Education Guardian on Tuesday is protest songs and performance poetry, helping students find the power of their voices. We are highlighting some wonderful resources from Amnesty International the British library and Apples and Snakes so please do look out for it. If you would like to blog for us, send a brief summary of your ideas to [email protected] and Emma will get in touch. And finally... Next weekend (Saturday 30th June/Sunday 1st July) sees the Pop Up Festival of Stories for kids (big and small) and teenagers at King's Cross in association with The Guardian. There'll be sessions such as learn to make manga, a pop-up cinema, monster supplies from the Ministry of Stories and some authors too...for more details (it's all free but some sessions need to be booked) click here . And what does everyone think about Education's Michael Gove's decision to scrap GCSEs in favour of something more like the old O-levels? Secret Teacher was blogging about it yesterday so if you have comments, leave one there. Wishing you a splendid week, Very best wishes, Wendy Berliner Head of Education, Business and Professional If you want to sign up to this weekly newsletter you need to register on the Guardian Teacher Network . • Follow us on Twitter @guardianteach • Check us out on Facebook • See our Teaching Jobs app