Pink Cow Ltd

CREEPY CRAWLIES WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS!

Thank you all for entering our Creepy Crawlies Competition just before Easter. The answers were � Question 1 = 6 � A large school receives 6 extra DVDs when they purchase Advice Bank : Head Lice. Question 2 = Any two of the following a. Essential facts, b. Common Myths, c. How to detect Head Lice, d. Treatment options, e. Clear demonstrations � are topics covered on the DVD and on the Website which are mentioned in the Advice Bank : Head Lice product details. Question 3 = Public Health Medicine Environment Group � this is what the letters PHMEG stand for. Well done for all the schools who got them right! And the winners are� 1st Prize � a copy of the very popular CD-ROM from Neptune - The Learners Library Minibeasts - goes to Heathfield Nursery and Infant School (TW2 6EN) in Twickenham. Very well done to their ICT Coordinator Cathy Trevelyan who won the prize for her school. 2nd Prize � ANTLANTIS an ANT FARM from Wild Science has been won by ICT Coordinator Sally Woodward for her school St Albans Catholic Primary School (SK10 3HJ) in Macclesfield. And finally 3rd Prize � The Living Twig Indian Stick Insect Kit from Insect Lore has been won by Mrs Marilyn Gough, the Admin Officer at Horninglow Infants School (DE13 0SW) in Staffordshire. Well done to all three prize-winning schools. Your prizes will be �creeping� their way to you very soon!

IT'S HERE AT LAST!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the brand new title Advice Bank : Head Lice, the first in the BRAND NEW ADVICE BANK series of health care resources for schools and parents. It was quite a while in the research stage (you may remember a market research email early in 2008?), then it moved into the planning stage, then on to the development and production stage. And now finally we have the final product! And it was well worth waiting for � the final result is a polished, clear, interesting and, of course, useful resource which, we hope, will really help you! Advice Bank : Head Lice consists of a main DVD (you receive several copies of this depending on your school size) and full access to the Advice Bank WEBSITE for you and, more importantly, for all your parents and carers � your whole school or nursery community in fact. The website contains ALL the films which are on the DVD, so the brilliant thing is that by simply giving your parents and carers the website address and a unique access code they will be able to watch the films at home and view the advice on detection � even watch demonstrations of wet-combing, so they can see exactly what to do. Gone are the days of printing off advice letters for all your children to take home � now they can access the website and download their own! You and your whole school community will be able to watch sections on - Head lice at school What are head lice? The truth about the myths How to detect head lice Treatment options How to treat using chemicals How to treat using a mechanical method We are so pleased with Advice Bank : Head Lice that we are offering the main DVD out for you to have a look at on our usual 4-week free trial. For more details please click on the link below which most suits your school or nursery size and from here you can request your FREE trial! Advice Bank : Head Lice (Small school - under 100 pupils) Advice Bank : Head Lice (Medium school - 100 to 300 pupils) or Advice Bank : Head Lice (Large school - over 300 pupils) And, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to call us on 01344 867 111.

BACK TO OUR ROOTS WITH HEAD LICE (PUN INTENDED!)

Pink Cow Limited is returning to its roots by teaming up with a new supplier to bring you remade versions of resources covering a range of childhood conditions and safety issues useful to schools, health professionals and parents. We�re starting with the age-old issue of Head Lice and the brand new multi-media resource is almost ready! Our original resource was a humble 20-minute video that helped over 12,000 schools deal with all of the annoying aspects of the head lice. Myths were dispelled, treatments were carried out properly, schools or nurseries were no longer blamed and everything was great�well, perhaps I�ve gone too far, but it certainly helped considerably! Now, 12 years later, we�ve discovered that the head lice have survived, very few people have a video recorder anymore, the advice has changed, new treatments are available and a whole new generation of parents with a brand new set of myths and misconceptions have appeared! So, the new resource �Advice Bank: Head Lice� is bang up-to-date, it has been based on a 2008 report by the leading consultants in communicable disease control and consists of DVDs and a fantastically useful website that allows staff, parents and guardians and even the children to easily access all the up to date information and advice. You can register for further information by emailing the following details - School/Nursery Name Postcode Your Name School/Nursery Telephone Number to sarah.cushenan@pinkcowselect.com. If done by the end January 2009 we will ensure you receive a �5 discount should you go on to order the resource. There�s NO OBLIGATION whatsoever though, we will simply contact you again when we have the resource ready (likely to be late January/early February) and offer you an early opportunity to see the resource. If you like it we�ll ensure you benefit from the �5 discount. If not, no problem, our resources can always be returned without obligation - one thing that hasn�t changed in 12 years! You can read more about the resource here - (click on the version which corresponds with the number of children on your school roll) Advice Bank : Head Lice (Small school - under 100 pupils) Advice Bank : Head Lice (Medium school - 100 to 300 pupils) or Advice Bank : Head Lice (Large school - over 300 pupils) and order a copy on preview at any time. Or, if you prefer, you can always call us for more details on 01344 867111.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As we come to the close of another year there's just time to thank you all so much for your continued orders, for your calls, faxes and emails and for your brilliant comments about our service over the past year. We hope in 2009 we will be able to provide you with the products you need and also draw your attention to new and fantastic products you may not have thought of! We wish you a wonderful festive season and we look forward to hearing from you next year! Happy Christmas from all at Pink Cow!

THE Perennial Problem - HEAD LICE!

If, like thousands of other nurseries and schools, you find yourselves coping with regular outbreaks of head lice and dealing with all the ensuing questions from parents, you will be pleased to know that comprehensive help is on its way! Our brand new resource will be available in January 2009 and it will completely change the way you deal with this issue and, once and for all, help ensure you�re not in the firing line for something which has never been your responsibility. The resource combines DVDs, fact sheets and a dedicated website to provide you, your parents and in fact your entire community with the most up-to-date advice and information about this persistent and irritating problem. Contents will explain the facts, dispel the myths and give clear demonstrations on detection and the treatment options available. Emphasis is placed on the home and by directing parents to our dedicated website, using the fact sheets, or even lending them a copy of the DVD you will be sure that every parent is aware of their responsibility to deal with the issue, and crucially ensure that they have clear, easy-to-follow information so that they can do so effectively. If you would like to preview this resource when it becomes available in January simply send me an email (to sarah.cushenan@pinkcowselect.com) telling me the following - SCHOOL / NURSERY NAME: POST CODE: CONTACT NAME: TEL NO: If you let me know before 31st December you will receive a �5 discount voucher that you can use against the purchase of the new resource. There�s no obligation, we will simply contact you again when it is ready and provide our usual opportunity to preview. If you like what you see you can use the voucher!

Praise for Fire Warden Training from iHasco

Read for yourself the excellent feedback we received from Leeds Education about this product: �I would have no hesitation in recommending this material (Fire Warden Training and Fire Awareness in the Workplace) for use in our Primary and High Schools. The information included directly supports training courses on Evacuation Procedures in Schools and on Fire Extinguisher use and could easily be used for refresher training, for induction or for training by the Headteacher or Premises Manager. They were informative and illustrated points in a clear and concise way. We liked very much the use of a test for staff and the ability for schools to produce certificates, as this will help them to improve their training records in relation to fire safety. To summarise, we felt that both products were good quality, professional and represented good value in general.� Beverly Spooner, Fire Safety Manager, Education Leeds

STOP PRESS: Online demo of MySENCARE

We now have available an online demo of MySENCARE, which shows you just how easy this software is to use to create personalised learning plans. Follow this link direct to the demo video and then read our review or find out more from our website details.

Wishing you a warm welcome back

Wishing you a warm welcome back to the new school year. We hope you enjoyed the summer, whatever the weather! We are always busily searching for new and interesting software to suggest to our schools and have already found a potential star product from Neptune for this term. It is a program called Captain Conrad�s Space Adventure. This CD-ROM is due out at the end of September and includes activities supporting numeracy, literacy, art, ICT-skills, and problem-solving for the 3 to 7 year olds. Your children can watch real NASA footage in the �Space Cinema� and the older ones can learn a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets. We think that the �space� theme will really capture their active imaginations. Please click here to see product details. Our friends at Yellow Door have just received a very well-deserved GOLD Practical Pre-School Award for their excellent Come Alive Nursery Rhymes program. Bringing 8 well-loved nursery rhymes to life the CD-ROM includes a wealth of relevant activities. If you would like to see it for yourself we can send out the CD-ROM on our 4-week preview period as usual. For more product information please click here. Health and Safety staff at your school may be interested to know about a product which has just been launched by our sister company - The Interactive Health and Safety Company (iHasco) � it is a CD-ROM called Fire Warden Training - Training the Competent Person. Copies are already being previewed by schools and educational authorities and we have very positive feedback from Education Leeds who got together a team to assess the usefulness of the CD-ROM in an educational setting. Their comments were fantastic with the Fire Safety Manager saying �I would have no hesitation in recommending this material for use in both our Primary and High Schools�. She also said that the information directly supports training courses on Evacuation Procedures in Schools. Oldham Council already recommends the CD-ROM and widely uses Fire Awareness in the Workplace, the first Fire Safety product by iHasco. For further details about the programs please click on links Fire Warden Training or Fire Awareness in the Workplace. If you would be interested in previewing this CD-ROM it would be sent out on our usual 4-week no-obligation trial and is currently on 20% discount, until 31st December 2008, should you wish to purchase at the end of your trial. Please call Pink Cow on 0800 092 2467 for further details or to order your preview copy. Just to remind you that we are here to cater for all your educational software needs. Whatever you need please do not hesitate to call for any advice or prices on products. And look out for new features and special offers coming your way soon�.

MySENCARE - software to support inclusion

More and more schools are signing up to use MySENCARE to manage their pupils' special learning needs, so we thought we�d investigate why� The producers of this software claim it is easy to use and requires minimal training - a claim they haven't over-egged! It really is very intuitive to use - having booked a personalised online demo, I was quickly introduced to the basic screens and shown how to edit details. The system can automatically import information from most pupil management systems including SIMS and Integris, saving valuable set-up time and effort. Once your pupil profile information is there, it's a straightforward job to start creating your Learning Plans. There are banks of pre-prepared SMART targets but you can add your own as well. The Student List allows you to see all the pupils you're interested in, whether they are in your class or those whose learning you oversee across the school. There is a 'Details' screen giving personal data, a section for storing details of past 'Reviews' as well as the next one due, a section for information about support 'Provision' and a 'Wall' - a neat idea borrowed from chat-room style webs, whereby anyone with access to the system can add posts or notes about the child in question for all staff to be kept informed, from a well done for a good piece of work, to recording lapses in behaviour or interim progress against targets. (I should point out the software is not exclusive to those with SEN, it could be used for monitoring all your pupils.) The Mark Book contains all the national attainment targets with descriptions across the curriculum and age range, making it easy to select and update pupil assessment information. For each pupil the current, actual and target level is displayed by subject. Reports can be created and exported into Excel for further amendment before printing, if required. There is a useful spell checker tool to help too. An administration section allows other adjustments to be made quickly and simply, such as changes to staff or job titles, as well as adjustments to the banks of phrases. At all stages it seems you can easily bookmark pupils and flag them for concern so that you can keep an extra eye out for their progress and instantly inform other staff of this status. All in all, this appears to be a very well thought out product which has pupils' support at its heart, offering as it does improved management and information of their special needs. If you would like more information, please follow this link to our webpage entry about MySENCARE. An online demo is now available, click on this link to see for yourself just how easy this software is to use. MySENCARE video

We love to hear from our customers...

...especially when they are saying lovely things about us! This is taken from an email from one of our fantastic pre-schools - "...Can I also take this opportunity to thank you and your company for all the help and advice that you have given me over the last 3 years. I have been with Acorns for 18 years dealing with all sorts of orders with different companies and I have found yours the most useful and helpful. So please send my thanks to all concerned especially the ladies at the end of the phone. Kind regards..." We do try so hard to help every one of our customers in the best way we can and It is so nice to hear that we are doing this!