15 replies to this topic

[Steve]

Hi -
Just to let you know that the Sue Arnold/Ros Bayley book 'Foundations of Literacy' is on special offer at the Education and Play site.

The book is reviewed here. :)

[Anita]

Hi Steve
I've tried clicking on the link to the special offer and it always comes up Gateway Timeout. Is it my computer?
Anita

[Rea]

I got straight to it Anita, bet Steve knows the answer though :D

[Steve]

Hi Anita -
Gateway Timeout errors are often due to the users' web server being under strain or unavailable. It's unlikely to be your computer, and it's quite likely that if you try it again now it will work.

Like Rea, the link worked ok for me recently. Give it another try and if it still causes a problem let me know. :)

[Anita]

Hi Steve
I've just tried again and got the same message.
However someone else printed the page off for me so I now have the information.
Anita

[Zim]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for telling us about the offer. I've heard of this book and was going to get it but the £3.50 delivery charge put me off-I suppose it'd be more expensive in the shops though? Is it just me or does any one else resent the amount of money we spend on school? I know its not a resource as such and is for our own proffessional development but if these things are going to help improve our teaching then the government should provide us with a grant to do so. I'm only annoyed coz I'm overdrawn at the moment and last year I found out too late that there WAS money available for teachers in their 4th 5th year of teaching to pay for courses/books etc for prof. dev but no one told me!! Did any one else get that?

[Steve]

Hi Zim -
I didn't know about the relatively high delivery charge. How much does Amazon charge?

I'll see if I can talk to the supplier about that.

But the publishers themselves are selling the book at £17.50 plus p&p, so it's still likely to be cheaper. I guess if you order it from a local bookseller you might get it at £17.50 without p&p. Don't know really...

I'm with you on the cost of keeping yourself up to date with stuff. Perhaps you should talk to your employers - you're a teacher aren't you? In most professional organisations there's a budget for learning materials, and you may be able to claim it back as an expense - or get the school to buy it for you. :)

[Zim]

Cheers steve. Don't mention budgets!!

[Susan]

I didnt pay p&p on mine from the publisher and it came really quickly.
I think if you pay on ordering rather than take an inspevtion copy, there's no charge---unless of course its changed recently!

[Steve]

Thanks for that Susan - think I need to do a bit more research on this one...

[Steve]

Hi all -
Just to let you know that the offer I mentioned above (from the Education and Play site) is now improved. As Susan mentioned they used to charge £3.50 P&P, but have reduced it following our feedback to £1.95, which makes a big difference and also makes it significantly cheaper than Amazon.

They have also asked me to point out that they have lowered this price universally on purchases under £20 and P&P is now free on purchases over £20.

Hmm. Having read that I realise it sounds like a plug. But since they recommend the FSF highly, I think it's only fair to return the compliment! :)

[Helen]

Having read the book, we decided to try something in our nursery along the lines of the suggested "Five a day", although we call it "three a day"! We thought five might be too many to start off with, particularly as many of our children are still only three years of age.
So, we've gone through our story books, stuck on lovely gold stickers, and called it the "Gold Book Group". One member of staff asks three or four children if they would like to join her on the comfy sofa in the kitchen (near the Aga!!) for Gold Book storytime. The three books are read, enjoyed, talked about, and another group of children is asked. There is not pressure on them to take part, and children are not interrupted in their play in order to join in. So far, it's going very well. :) We repeat the same three books each time; one is fairly short, one longer, and one rhyming. This week we have used The Blue Balloon, Sailor Bear, and Hairy Maclary.
Does anyone else do something similar?

[hali]

we dont Helen..but it sounds like a jolly good idea :D

[Magenta]

I like the idea of doing this with small groups during Child Initiated play, currently we ask chn. to put their name on a post-it note and stick it on to a book that they would like us to read - books with the most post-its on are read to the whole group on Friday

[bubblejack]

I like this idea Helen. I do plan for an adult to be in the book corner but they don't seem to stay their for long enough but this way they might.
I like the idea of sitting next to an aga even more. We have to make do with a boring radiator.