The Creative Learning Journey..... every child matters
 
  CLJ News September 2009  
  The leading skills-based creative curriculum for all primary schools  
Our vision is based on the principles of ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’ and ‘Every Child Matters’. CLJ aims to underpin, support and improve children’s learning in the basic skills resulting in staff and pupils being enthused about teaching and learning in cross-curricular themes.
in this issue...
> Special Education Needs
> The Rose Report
> What's on the horizon

Welcome Back

Welcome back to your new term from all the team at CLJ and a warm welcome to the hundreds of new schools that have just embarked on their creative journey!
Your CLJ team hope that you have all had an enjoyable summer holiday and are looking forward to an exciting new term!
Over the break we have looked at the available shared wheels and noted how well this ‘good practice’ is growing that suggests many new and exciting themes for the coming terms! Many of you have been working hard over the holidays creating exciting thematic topic wheels for your pupils; it is very good to see so many cross curricular plans. With the hundreds of schools already into their second and third year of CLJ, and many more now embarking on the Journey, this should be a really creative year for many Primary Schools.

Special Education Needs

The Creative Learning Journey has been aware of the need to encompass groups of children and schools that require some special attention and a different level of skill sets to help with their specific educational requirements.
The Creative Learning Journey, in conjunction with a group of SEN pilot schools, is delighted to announce the launch of our SEN curriculum. Our new SEN curriculum takes the P scales and breaks them down into 5 levels within each area of learning, and into skill sets. The SEN curriculum gives you all the skills from Early Years 0-5 and P levels to year 6, in the six areas of learning from Foundation Stage into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. This allows for the continuation of inclusion and personalised programmes of learning for every child, giving the chance for equality of opportunity for all pupils. A curriculum to meet the needs of every child.
The SEN school resource consists of the A3 SEN progression of skills, with the ON LINE wheels personal development programme, and ON LINE skills personal assessment programme. The A3 SEN progression of skills gives you all the skills from P levels to year 6, to take the levels from P scales into EYFS and years 1 to 6. Also included in the resource material is an A4 flip chart of all the skills for the Early Years 0-5. This gives teachers the tool to set realistic and challenging goals for children, empowering teachers and pupils to create personalised learning programmes.
The SEN resource gives you a complete inclusion development programme with all the skills to allow you to be creative, integrating all pupils with special needs into a mainstream creative curriculum, helping them to achieve their full potential. Resources are available for SEN schools or for schools with an SEN unit.
For more information see the SEN section of our website or call CLJ on 01634 716222.
The Rose Report
How the CLJ fits
The CLJ has had great praise from many of the schools up and down the country, and teachers using the CLJ online wheels are really impressed with how the cross curricular approach fits in so well with the 6 areas of learning.
The recent Rose Report has adopted the 6 areas of learning, some with different titles, that are still to be settled upon. It was good to see so many schools contact us to agree this is the way forward and purchase the CLJ, to be ready and ahead with a cross curricular creative programme for 2011.
What's on the horizon
EARLY YEARS Skills
The new Skills Flip book for Early Years 0-5 gives you all the skills set out in the 6 areas of learning. The early years helps all the schools with Nursery to Foundation so now the CLJ gives you a complete skill based creative curriculum from birth to year 6. The materials are designed to help leaders and managers review how well children in their setting are developing over time. If you are a CLJ school and wish to order the Early Years 0-5  A4 flip book contact CLJ on 01634 716222
The new drag and drop style planning tool from CLJ
Our new interactive planning site to be launched in the next few months will enable all schools using the online wheels and on line skills to plan their school long medium and short term plans.
This will enable all schools to plan their Year Overview school plan, with each year group importing their wheels into the planning grid, then using the template for weekly plans, activity plans and discrete unit planner. Each year group can show their short term planning, linking to the Topic Wheel.
All plans are fully printable and can be updated at anytime, the simple drag and drop method of this new style planning helps Schools plan together in a much more cohesive manner.

The school Year Overview planner is set out into 6 half terms. This allows you to import a wheel or wheels from your wheel menu into each half term, and from here you can then use the short term planners, one for each week to plan your weekly plans, activity plans and discrete units. These are all set out for you, and will import all the skills from your wheel automatically.
You can add up to 3 wheels into each half term, and have 8 weekly plans per half term enabling wheels for special one off days or visits and plans for those special occasions.
CLJ Skills Assessment and the APP
The CLJ Skills Assessment Manger already levelled to the National Curriculum levels, allows you to make sub levels, comments, dates and full details of assessment to improve in the package. You can print out individual, groups or class assessments on all subjects or just one. A complete graph for your class or an end of year report all levelled to curriculum levels at any time. We are now working on bringing the APP into the Assessment Manager.
We would appreciate help from all schools that have started their journey by increasing the resources section available for activities within the planning wheels section. It really does only take a minute or so to add and send a new resource ...together we can make a difference..
The Creative Learning Journey Ltd. Unit 77, Riverside 3, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Rochester, Kent ME2 4BH
tel: 01634 716222 ------ web: www.thecreativelearningjourney.co.uk ------ email: sales@thecreativelearningjourney.co.uk