Editors notes:
As you can see I have redesigned the newsletter,
lets face it, the other
format was getting a tad dated after 7
years. As I look back reflected on how far we had come in ICT and
learning
over those few years (cue ripply
lines and calendar
pages flying off the wall….) NO! Not nostalgia surely!
Actually, the reason I mention it was that I was
talking to a group of
South African teachers last week and asked them about the technology
they had
access to generally in their schools, was it enough to deliver an
integrated
e-learning system. Bemused looks… One of let me know that
before he came here
he had only ever seen one other electronic white board in the area
where he
worked and he was amazed that here in UK schools they are every where.
I
think he was making the point that we have all the technology we want
here
and that SA schools had nothing. I don’t’ dispute
that SA schools need all
the help they can get (I saw on a SA gov
website
that they input a massive 20% of their budget into education each
year), but
I did allow myself a wry smile given that five years ago I and most
other
school teachers had only ever seen one of these mythical electronic
whiteboards in the distance and I certainly lived in fear of someone
asking
me, as an ICT expert, about them!
Resourcing has come a long way over the past 20 years.
Looking
back at the way it “used to be” I remember in one
primary school I taught at with
120 children, the whole curriculum budget for the year was about
£200 and
paper was being rationed. Pencils were carefully horded and sellotape, well, you could have
swapped a couple of roles
for a time share. Who’s got any blue tack?
Where’s the bander
fluid!! (He or She who
reads let them understand the mystery of the blue handed banderites
and breathing in solvents at close quarters.
J
)
We’ve come a long way in our schools in
terms of resources for ICT,
and in working out how to use it, BUT there is a blot on the horizon.
Where
are the experts to advice on the educational DEVELOPMENT of the use in
ICT?
Where have all the ICT advisors gone? Where is the funding for them
now? We
have lots of technicians but will local authorities have enough
personnel in
future to lead educational ICT development in schools or will it be
left to
clusters to sort out?
What is happening in your area? Where do you go for
advice?
The Editor md@icteachers.co.uk
Four, Five and Six Letter
Words in ICT
On a cold
and wet day recently I was sitting in an Edwardian
school building discussing 21st century learning with some secondary
students. I found them very reflective and asked ‘Do you ever
blog your
thoughts?’
‘Blog’s a four-letter
word in ICT’ they
said. Then they admitted they do.
That
encounter set me thinking. Here are some more words that
might not be allowed in school: MSN, Bebo,
Wiki, iPod,
Flickr, Skype, MySpace
and YouTube. These are
all the sort of tools that support my view that we need to encourage
students
to create, construct and publish. They have a dark side too, but
students,
teachers and parents need to develop the critical skills to make
judgments
about what is useful and good in the virtual world.
Later the
conversation turned to MySpace,
where one of the students posted his pictures for all the
world to see. Another who didn’t use MySpace
told
me she liked MSN, and as well as chatting – ‘we
like to gossip’ – this has
helped with her homework, as she collaborates with online friends on
her
school work.
Not
surprisingly the school’s ICT coordinator, listening to this
conversation, reflected on the students’ use of systems that
are kept
separate: school and non-school sanctioned. Students in a Further
Education
college later echoed this separation. They liked using blogs
and social software, as they were easy to use, but felt they were not
suitable for formal education. ‘Myspace
or Facebook are more
for your personal enjoyment than for
professional use as an e-Portfolio would be. A blog
or Myspace is more for
your friends to look at
where you put your photographs of you holiday and that sort of
thing.’
Is it
reasonable or sensible to maintain such a separation between
popular software and school software? And what is the role of parents
in
this? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal announced that MySpace is offering parents free
notification software
called Zephyr, which will enable parents to determine what age,
location and name
their children are using to communicate with people, but won't allow
them to
access their child's e-mail. Some parents I know go on to MSN and chat
with
their children’s friends. This is a little like introducing
your friends to
Mum or Dad if you bring them home after school, although even this
analogy
will no doubt shock some who value privacy.
I also had
the chance to talk with some primary students who have
been using secure online forums to converse with their peers, with
classes in
other schools, and with experts such as a marine biologist (mother of
children at the school) who specialises
in shark
conservation, and an astro-physicist.
Other
eight-year olds were excited to use email, even to their parents, and
particularly to relatives and friends abroad. One girl told me of the
‘joke
war’ she and her Dad were staging: ‘I send him an
email, a page full of jokes
and then he sends me back loads of jokes. Then I try to send him back
loads
and the last thing that he sent me was “Beware” and
the last one I sent him
was “Stop sending me jokes!”’ With both
activities communication skills are
developed, not to mention the social benefits of communicating as
equals with
adults who are not their teachers.
One of the
biggest phenomena is YouTube,
with thousands of video clips posted by people of all ages. Schools can
run
their own version through their learning platforms. In one school
recently, a
former BBC journalist worked with Year 8 students for the whole day,
helping
them analyse news
stories and write their own. When
their videoed news presentations were uploaded to the
school’s secure
platform, the site received an amazing 200 hits in one week!
ICT
teachers are in a privileged position to find out what young
people are already doing, and to help them be discriminating users of
technology. A recent Demos report entitled Their space: education for a
digital generation http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/theirspace
claims:
‘In
the same way that we should see young people as active and
valuable participants in designing their own learning experiences, we
should
also see them as critical participants rather than passive consumers of
media.’
It
suggests ‘reverse IT lessons’ allowing students to
share their
knowledge with other students and teachers.
It’s
quite amazing to see the extent of knowledge in a classroom
community when that happens, so my message to teachers is: Listen out
for
four letter words, but don’t rush to punish!
Elizabeth
Hartnell-Young
elizabeth.hartnell-
young@nottingham.ac.uk
Free Software to Extend
Primary ICT Skills
A colleague
was looking for ways to extend children's ICT skills in mixed age
classes,
both in KS1 and KS2. The school has limited funds and a somewhat
limited
range of software. She also had a strong feeling that several
of the QCA
units were no longer useful, or even appropriate, since time
and technology
had caught up and overtaken them. Here is my response to her…
“You say you
are using 2Simple - but which of their programs? I would recommend
2Create which provides tools for children to construct
presentations and
hyperlinked documents in a way that even quite young children can
manage. I would also recommend looking at 2Animate -
simple enough
for KS1 children (I have used it successfully with Y2) but
with enough
in it to keep older children happy (e.g. the facility
to import
images from a webcam - thus enabling stop-motion type animation). The
new 2Simple
image editor, PhotoSimple
has lots of useful
facilities and 2Paint A Picture is (2)simply
stunning (No,
they aren't paying me!)
Since cash
is in short supply why not consider what you can get for free?
Think.com.
encourages children to communicate and create on-line in a
safe
environment. They can make their own web pages and work
collaboratively, too.
There are facilities which are a bit like blogging.
It's free. If you don't know it have
a look at www.think.com.
You can log in to a trial version - nothing to download - it's all
on-line.
Have you
looked at the stuff on the NAACE Primary site (what used to be MAPE) http://www.mape.org.uk/ There's
some excellent things in the Classroom Activities section.
There are a
number of free image editing programs ranging from simple stuff to some
very
sophisticated offerings:
For KS1 try:
Drawing for
Children - http://www.cs.uu.nl
/people/markov/kids/draw.html or
Tuxpaint http://www.tuxpaint.org/
KS2 children could
get their teeth into these
excellent programmes:
Paint.net - http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
Photofiltre - http://www.photofiltre.com
Artrage - http://www.artrage.com/artrage.html
For
something with even more clout you could try Serif PhotoPlus
6 http://www.freeserifsoft
ware.com/
which not only provides sophisticated editing tools but also includes
and
very effective animator. Serif also
give
away "older" versions of several of their other
programs,
such as PagePlus (DTP),
DrawPlus
(vector drawing) and WebPlus
(website builder).
The Gimp http://www.gimp.org
approaches Photoshop in complexity as does its pretty sibling, Gimpshop http://www.gimpshop.net.
What about a
real down to earth version of Logo for the older kids (i.e.
one where you actually have to TELL the turtle
what to do by
typing in instructions)? Why not try MSW Logo http://www.softronix.com/logo.html?
And for work
on control/design, or for considering the need to only change one
variable at
a time when testing hypotheses, have you thought of the Design a Duck
game? http://www.cgpbooks.co.
uk/online_rev/duck/duck.htm.
Don't forget
Google Earth and Google Maps (which allows street maps to be overlaid
on
satellite images of the ground) or Microsoft's equivalent Local Live http://local.live.com.
I realise
that this does not answer the question,
"What can I do to develop children's ICT skills?" but it does give
you a greater choice of tools and very often trying out the software
will
give you ideas for child-centred
activities.”
Mike
Freedman
Independent ICT Consultant
email: mike@legend-ict.co.uk
web: http://www.legend-
ict.co.uk
Kingsthorpe College
Specialist
Sports
College
Boughton
Green Road,
Kingsthorpe, Northampton,
NN2 7HR
Tel:
01604 716106 fax: 01604 720824
e-Mail: kccadmin@kcc.northants.sch.uk<
/p>
11
–
18 Mixed Comprehensive
1414
students on roll (210 in the Sixth Form)
Kingsthorpe
College
is about to enter a new stage in its
development. A new
College, built on the present site in Boughton Green Road,
with excellent facilities,
will
soon be completed.
Required
for September 2007 start: A teacher of
ICT
A
newly qualified or experienced teacher is required to join us at an
exciting
time in the life of the College and the expanding ICT Faculty in
particular.
We wish to appoint someone who is well qualified and able, ideally, to
teach
throughout the ability range. We
offer
a full range of courses at levels 1, 2 and 3.
The closing date for applications is
Thursday, 8th March 2007 and interviews will be
held in the week
following this closing date. Please
contact Mrs Gill
Coventry by telephone or e-mail
for an application form.
Northamptonshire
County
Council is an equal
opportunities employer and seeks not to discriminate on any grounds.
UMUNTU NGUMUNTU NGABANTU
Personal
experiences from the ICP2005 Conference in Cape
Town July 2005 originally presented to the NAHT by
David Kitching,
Headteacher, Shanklin
CE Primary School, Isle of
Wight. This has been slightly shortened by the
editor, for the
full copy please contact Dave.
“Mandela is
an old man…His words mean nothing any more”.
The young man’s words shocked me. He was
about 35, a white South
African, smart, middle class, probably professional and well educated.
He was
with a group of friends, all white, in the Green Dolphin restaurant. It
was
busy. He was having a good time. He wanted to smoke.
The ICP2005 Conference had ended on the Thursday.
It was now Sunday
evening on the 17th July 2005 and I was on the
Victoria and Alfred
Waterfront in Cape
Town
on the day before Nelson Mandela’s 87th
birthday. I just had spent
the day on Robben
Island, I had listened to Thulani
Mabaso one of
Mandela’s
fellow prisoners describe the outrages of the apartheid times and the
struggle for freedom and equality for all, I had been to
Mandela’s prison
cell, I had learned much about the evil of apartheid and the fight for
freedom and was overwhelmed by the forgiveness of the black community
and
their very real and tangible desire for reconciliation and their wish
to put
the apartheid past behind them and their wanting to work together (with
everyone in the South African nation) to build a nation where everyone
was
valued and had a place.
It was a South African mid winter outside. The man
in the restaurant
wanted to smoke so he went outside – but then he opened the
window so that he
could continue to talk to his friends still inside at their table but
his
smoke and a very cold draft blew over me. I asked him (as I would have
done
if I had been at home) if he would please close the window because I
was in a
draft – he was offended. Reluctantly he did close the window.
As the man re-entered the restaurant he tapped me
on the shoulder. Our
interaction was not over and we began to talk. He was clearly upset
that a
foreigner had the impudence to ask him to close the window. We talked
for 15
minutes or so, maybe longer. In that time he told me that he found the
changes in South Africa
very hard to accept. When I spoke of Mandela and the positive impact
that he
had made he said, “Mandela is an old man – his
words mean nothing any more!”
It was clear that he and his friends were afraid of the pace of change
and
afraid of the blacks. It was very evident that he did not understand or
know
the black community. I wondered if he wanted to know.
I told him that I was a delegate from the UK
at the ICP2005 Conference in
his city and that I had had the most extra-ordinary experiences and
insights
in the week prior to our chance meeting.
It was a conference of some 2000+ delegates from
across the world with
a very large number of Headteacher colleagues from the African
continent. A
real chance to meet others, exchange ideas, challenge perceptions, make
meaningful contacts and friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime.
The man in the restaurant told me that he felt
isolated in his own
community and that he was uncomfortable. South Africa
was changing he did
not like the changes. This mood was made evident by the fact that many
of the
whites carried guns. A notice at the hotel (which was a refurbished
white
man’s prison) asked all guests to place firearms in the hotel
safe. Many of
the houses in the more affluent areas of the city bowl were protected
by
alarm systems that promised an armed response to intruders. He told me
that
he did not know his neighbours, he was unsure about the people that
lived in
his street. Then he told me that the blacks were different. He told me
about
the strengths of their communities as he saw them. “They live
and work
closely together, they help each other they have a spirit that we
don’t have
– they have a thing called Ubuntu”,
he said.
Not once did I feel unsafe in Cape
Town, not even talking to this
stranger.
In an intense conversation in that busy restaurant
with live jazz playing
in the background. I told him of just
some of the things that I had learned about Ubuntu
at the conference. Ubuntu
being an African idea
that underpins almost every aspect of African life that means that, ”I can only be a true
human being through you being a
human being and we therefore can only be human if we are human
together.”
I told him that I had listened, with tears in my
eyes, to Father
Michael Lapsley who was
working to rebuild
communities and individual lives that had been destroyed by the
apartheid
regime. That Father Michael had told us that he had experienced Ubuntu at the moment that his
hands were blown off. He
had been exiled from South
Africa
and was in Zimbabwe
when he received a parcel bomb. He forgave the senders of the bomb
because he
believed that that the human spirit –Ubuntu-
grew
most at the broken places. He was a truly human person.
I was inspired by the words of Desmond Tutu as he
clearly stated that
the future of his nation and indeed the future of us all will only be
secure
if we work together.
I had meet so many inspirational teachers and
school leaders from
across the world who believed the same and were doing as much as they
could
in so many different cultures to bring the human community closer
together to
enhance greater understanding across all those things that divide us.
Seeking
ways to bring our children to a clearer and deeper appreciation of each
other.
David, from Kenya,
and I started to chat in the queue for coffee on day 1 of the
conference. He
asked how many teachers did I have in my school I answered 7 including me, he said that in his
boy’s secondary school he had 14.
How many children I answered 155 – David roared with laughter
“I have 1400
boys! ”, he
said, “ 150 is one class!”
We talked about our schools – such an interesting comparisons
and such differences. He
had an attendance problem because the boys often had to work on the
farms
looking after the cattle but there were NO discipline problems. If the
teacher was late or absent the boys would wait quietly and respectfully
then
applaud the teacher when he arrived. Education for these boys was the
way out
of poverty and a way to contribute to the future of their poor but
emerging
country. Education, learning and the work of teachers was greatly
valued and
respected. David, like all us, worked very hard in the best interests
of his
students. He was such a warm, interesting and professional man. It was
the
same but different.
The next day at dinner, at Moyo,
I met
Margaret from Limpopo,
South Africa.
A Primary
Headteacher – we had so much in common. Our schools were of
similar size. We
were struggling with many of the same issues. She asked about my school
and I
told her that we having builders in the school for next year doing
major
refurbishments to create a new Children’s Centre in the
school and about the
new ICT suite we had just had installed. She smiled sweetly and told me
that
she had no electricity in her school and that the Parent’s
Association, from
a very poor community, were working hard to save enough money to build
a
proper flushing toilet, the first toilet, for the children to use. It
was the
same but different. Margaret, like David and so many others that I met,
was
working incredibly hard for her children and her community. They were
truly
inspirational teachers and to be with them and to hear their stories
was a
real and humbling experience. There were so many interactions like this
in
that intense conference week. Our children face the same future but
from such
different starting places. All our children have the potential to make
valuable contributions.
Ubuntu was an underlying principle, often unstated,
that influenced everything that they stood for, worked for and
achieved.
Without knowing the word it is a notion that drives all real education
everywhere. Ubuntu
grows at broken places when we
really have to support each other. The man in London featured
in the news helping the women in the
burn mask after the bombings was used as an
example. The true human spirit shines through at those extreme moments.
I met headteachers
from Ghana,
Kenya,
Nigeria,
every part of South Africa,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe,
Italy,
Canada,
USA,
New Zealand,
Australia
and other places all
with important and interesting stories to tell.
In a debating session a headteacher,
name
unknown to me, from Kwazulu
Natal described to the
group how for many years her school had been supporting and helping
families
and communities when the parents of the children in her school died
from
Aids. She described the immense problems that she had faced in doing
that
difficult job. She went on to describe that, because the scourge of
Aids is
impacting their society and community at every level,
that
she now had to support the children in her school as they died of Aids
and as
their classmates died of Aids. This was not a rare event and that she
had had
several children die in this school year,
she knew
that more would die in the coming months. Despite the difficulties she,
and
her whole school community, were doing their utmost for the children.
She was
such a strong person. The same but different – I wonder?
Ubuntu is deeply embedded in the
words of Nelson Mandela. In his speeches made as he was released from
all
those years in prison, and since that moment, he was and has become the
clearest manifestation of Ubuntu.
His positive and
affirming words, his deep forgiveness, his human spirit has shaped the
future
of South
Africa.
It could have been so
different and negative as so
many people described to me. Mandela chose to follow the spirit of Ubuntu. His words remain of the
utmost importance they
are shaping the future.
Ubuntu was expressed at the conference in so many ways
and, again, it is
hard to describe. We travelled the 7000 miles to Cape
Town as the bombings were happening in London
on the 7th July. The
first teacher that I met at Cape Town
airport as
we were waiting for our taxi to the hotel – Claude from Canada - put
his hand
on my shoulder and
expressed real concern and sympathy for the UK at
that dark moment. As the
conference opened there was such a strong feeling of real solidarity
from
that huge international gathering. It was stated that if we felt the
same for
the people of Iraq
then the bombings there would stop. The immense feeling was that as
educators
we must do everything that we can to create a more secure future for
our
children and the world. It was a deeply intense and moving moment.
Ubuntu was demonstrated in the joy of the children and
the musicians that
performed at the opening ceremony and throughout the conference.
Different
races, different faiths and cultures can truly work together and they
produced such rich, important, moving and spiritual work. The music and
the
performances were truly inspirational and uplifting. The satire of
Pieter
Dirk Uys was
challenging and hard hitting but was Ubuntu.
Outside the conference, as an independent tourist,
I experienced Ubuntu in
the people that I met. It is a driving force
that will, I hope, see this fantastic country into the future. Taxi
drivers,
waiters, shopkeepers, museum guides, in different forms it was
everywhere. I
went to District 6 that had been destroyed by the apartheid government
in the
70s and was deeply moved by the generosity of spirit and the very real
desire
for reconciliation demonstrated by Noor
Ebrahim and the
community.
The man in the restaurant and I talked and talked.
He missed part his
meal. He was interested in my views and my perception of his country.
He
challenged me and I challenged him. South Africa,
and the ICP2005
conference, has changed me, I was truly humbled by the headteachers
that I met, professionally challenged and spiritually changed. I
believe that
in my discussion in the Green Dolphin restaurant that I had challenged
this
man’s view with regard to the importance of Mandela and his
words and that I
had had a positive impact on him, another human being, and enabled him
to see
his country and its future in a different light and from a different
perspective.
We shook hands, smiled at each other and parted as
friends each a
little wiser then before. It was an unexpected but very important
encounter
at the end of an exceptional and extraordinary week. I am so glad that
I met
this man. He helped me to understand the impact that the conference had
had
on me.
A seed was
implanted at Cape Town that I believe will enable me to help
communities
truly come together, share, learn from each other, work together for
benefit
of children in Africa and the UK, and that will be manifest in the
greater
knowledge and understanding that will have been created in our
communities
across the world.
Dave
Kitching
Headteacher
Shanklin CE Primary School
Isle of Wight
UK
NAHT
delegate at the International
Confederation of Principles bi-annual conference
Cape
Town, South Africa,
July 2005.
KS3/4+ Is
your school an ILT shangri
la?
Sorry for
not contributing to the newsletter recently, but at
Christmas I broke my wrist, and this unfortunately literally stopped me
from
typing and writing for sometime. Anyhow the cast is off now and apart
from
occasional pain. Any how, back to the keyboard. Not being able to type
gave
me another perspective on things, and the ability to attend even more
meetings.
One such
meeting reminded me of one issue that arose a few years
ago at college where there was a conflict of interest between the
teaching
staff and their vision of what Information and Learning Technology
(ILT) is;
the technical staff in what they think ILT should be and of course
Senior
Management Team (SMT) in what they think ILT should be. Three opposing
views
and opinions theoretically with all the students at heart.
Let us
explore these beasts in more detail….
Staff (and I put myself in this group) think that
using ILT is using
software such as Hotpotato
in helping learning.
They also think that the world should stop for them in them being able
to do
it. That is the technical staff should be bending double in helping
them
achieve their needs…RIGHT NOW!
SMT
their perspective on this is one of aloofness and not one of the
staff. Their idea of ILT brakes down in a more practical use of IT and
ensuring that their managers can use a spreadsheet to analyse
reams and reams of data, whether or not this is the ideal way of
viewing it.
Has the check box for inspection been hit? (That was a naughty swipe I
know I
am sorry). Has the results for the staff skills audit revealed any
weakness’
that we can address in a staff development day that we can put on, and
then
remove at the last minute to allow us to update our schemes of work!
Technical staff, what is their role? Well if you ask SMT it is
up to them to help
realise SMT’s vision of
ILT and priorities. If you ask the techies, they see them as complete numpties without a clue of how
to go about things, and
that you have not got a chance in hell of whatever it is you want in
actually
appearing. The staff perspective as I eluded to earlier is one of the
willing
servant in that you will stick all the software on that I want whether
you
like it or not, and you will give me administrator rights to my machine
NOW!
The techies see the staff as complete muppets
and
again not a cat in hells chance of getting what you want as it
can’t be done,
or won’t be done more like.
Why is it
then we are not singing from the same hymn sheet? As a
manager I should be supporting SMT’s
vision of were
to take ILT. But my gut won’t let me. As a colleague I should
be supporting
the techies in their (shall we say) tempered approach in rolling out
the
technical gadgets and so forth to the minions. Again I can’t. And in the same vein I cant
support the staff either making demands on the techies that are beyond
reasonableness.
So what cant we all get along?
As we centralise (or if you like
empower) staff in making decisions, and start switching on the wanting
for
ILT in the staff, they find it frustrating that when they want to do
something, they cant because the relevant piece of software, or
hardware, is
missing. Staff become
frustrated in seeing that
other colleges etc are at best miss matched and that as some centres are galloping ahead
compared to others. Techies
are in a transition frame of mind in that for years no one encroached
on
their turf, especially SMT, but now it seems that they are no longer
scared
about the technical side. In fact they have a fair understanding of it
in
simple terms. This is the problem I suppose, that they now feel
threatened
and concerned that they are now having to be more transparent in their
operations.
And so
they should.
So I ask
the question again….why cant we all get a long. Or should
I say….Will we ever get along?
That’s
what I want to know from you…have any of you out their
experienced any of these issues? Do you have an SMT that has a true
vision of
what to do and where to go? Also techie staff that don’t
throw their rattle
out of the pram all because a member of staff has requested some guest
logins
because he didn’t know the procedure. How do you manage these
beasts and tame
them?
I want to
know.
Brian
Moodle is the
way…and I will get my way.
King Henry the Eighth is Alive
and Well and Living in Lancashire!
It would
take a Hollywood productions company months to build a set for a period
drama, not counting the enormous cost and delay the very fact that it
would
be plywood and plastic would spoil it before the filming aver starts.
So when
a well known romantic novelist dreams up a series of six books and
movies
based upon the Tudor era, alarm bells start to ring in the heads of the
producers and financiers.
Pamela Seres
has been writing Historical romance fiction for
many years and came across her very own King Henry VIII in the persona
of
professional actor Ray Irving from Chorley.
She noticed his remarkable resemblance to the famous King of Bling and was soon in internet
contact. Ray has been
acting professionally now for three years ever since he retired due to
illness from his beloved Teaching career, he had over 250 bookings last
year
and has over 120 already for 2007, you could say that the King is as
popular
as ever. “Hang on” say’s Ray, “ I also do another
King too, I am the double of Edward VII, Victoria’s
son famous for the cigars”.
So Pamela
got down to writing the first of six novels “Dark Castle
Lord’s” which has
proved popular in her on line sales, she then asked Ray to find a venue
to
film it in his native Lancashire. A movie trailer would be made firstly
so
that capital can be raised amongst the Hollywood
financial sector, then the movie would be made, the other five would be
funded from the profits of the first film.
Deciding
that the idea was a positive move for his Drama company “
The Henry Tudor Drama Company”, Ray went about
getting the set organised.
Samlesbury Hall
then
came into the picture, literally. They offered Ray free use of the hall
for
the filming of the trailer on the understanding that the full movie
would be
done on its premises. Considering that there is no finer example of
Medieval
and Tudor buildings in the Northwest, many similar but non better, Ray
took
the offer and started to organise
the film crew,
the actors, the costumes and the accommodation.
So Hollywood
is now in Lancashire
because the filming went ahead with spectacular results, the press
descended
on the venue during filming causing an influx of visitors to see what
was
going on. “We did it entirely with Lancashire
resources, the Americans were taken back by our professionalism and
value for
money” Says Ray proudly sticking his chest out.
The movie
trailer is now being edited and processed for distribution in America and Britain
to potential backers for
the big movie planned to be filmed in June or July. So impressed were
the
Americans that most of the Production team from Lancashire will be kept
on in
the full movie, a great start for the three young girls from the
Preston
drama school, the jeweller
from Chorley market, the
Engineer all of whom put their heart and souls into their parts and
proved
just what we can do here I the North of England.
To keep a
track on the developing movie go to www.HenryTudor.co.uk
and read its daily column.
Are there
any more new major projects on the horizon with King Henry? Well what
about
the story to be written about a trip to Kleves
in
Germany where his fourth wife came from; What about the recording of
the
building of Nonsuch
Palace in Epson for its Museum;
What about “Cinderella – The real story”
a Panto at
Samlesbury Hall in
November based upon the story of
Ann of Cleves. All good fun.
Ray Irving
Alias King
Henry VIII
You may sit
down now!
OFSTED
Joke of
the Month:
Two men were marvelling at a grave on which
was inscribed 'A gentleman
and an OFSTED inspector'. "Amazing", said one of them. "How
did they get two people in there?"
ICTeachers
Video
of the Month:
If you like Star Wars you will LOVE this! Sense of
Humour needed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGR4-
SeuJ0
If you have a favourite
joke or
a video you would like to appear here, send it!
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