Pink Cow Ltd

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!

PINK COW SUPPORTS NEW NATIONAL CAMPAIGN !

PINK COW SUPPORTS NEW NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO HELP CHILDREN IDENTIFY SAFER STRANGERS AND SAFER BUILDINGS. Pink Cow are delighted to support the new �Safer strangers, safer buildings campaign� launched by our friends at Child�s Eye Media at the House of Commons this month (May 2008). The campaign has the backing of psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, national charities such as Kidscape, Suzy Lamplugh Trust and the Children�s Safety Education Foundation, Educationalist and best selling author Sue Palmer, and the Association of Chief Police Officers. It includes positive and empowering advice to help children to keep themselves safe. Katy Jones, Managing Director of Child�s Eye Media comments 'We were inspired by the work of GMP Police Officer Helena Hodgson to turn the Safer strangers, safer buildings message into a national campaign, and we are delighted that the Association of Chief Police Officers and so many leading charities and respected children�s experts are all backing the initiative. It is a straightforward message that will offer invaluable reassurance to children and parents.� The Safer strangers, safer buildings code is featured in Child�s Eye Media�s latest DVD entitled �A Child�s Eye View of Keeping Healthy, Staying Safe�, which is available from Pink Cow. It has been designed to help children to identify trustworthy adults who would be able to help them, and also the kinds of buildings to go into, in an emergency. The DVD contains five delightful films made specially for young children and covers other subjects including safety with fire, on the beach, on the streets and how to keep healthy. For further information on the excellent DVD from Child�s Eye Media, please click on A Child�s Eye View of Keeping Healthy, Staying Safe. Kidscape�s Michele Elliott says �This new DVD is excellent. Young children will understand and enjoy learning the safety messages, which are portrayed in an effective and entertaining way. It should be in every school in the UK.� For further information and to view short video clips please click here. If you would like to view a copy of this excellent DVD on our usual 4-week no-obligation trial period, or if you have any questions, please give us a call on our FREE phone number 0800 092 2467. This is the code - Safer strangers, safer buildings code 1. If you get lost, or feel unsafe, and there is no adult around that you know and trust, look for a safer stranger who you can ask for help. If you can�t see a safer stranger outside, look for a safer building you can go in to, to ask for help from the people who work there. 2. A safer stranger is a person who is working at their job which helps people. Safer strangers will usually be wearing a uniform. Safer strangers could be police officers, police community support officers, traffic wardens, shopkeepers, check-out assistants, paramedics and others. 3. Safer buildings could be banks, post offices, libraries, medical centres, shops, supermarkets, leisure centres and others. 4. Tell the safer stranger your name. Also, if you can, tell them the phone number of your parent or the person who looks after you. Comments by the experts to support the campaign: �The �Safer strangers, safer buildings� campaign offers a positive, empowering alternative to �stranger danger� and is appropriate even for young children. It gives all children an easy to understand strategy to keep themselves safe.�Psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, author of the Byron review. �Suzy Lamplugh Trust are delighted to support the Safer Strangers, Safer Buildings campaign. This is a positive, simple safety message that can easily be understood by young children without alarming them. This knowledge will not only make them safer but will give them the extra confidence of learning something new and valuable to them.'Steven Gauge, Chief Executive of Suzy Lamplugh Trust. �We know from our work at Kidscape how frightening it is for both children and parents when a child gets lost. Even more terrifying to parents is the thought that a child might be abducted. Teaching young children about such safety issues needs to be done sensitively and in a low key manner which is entertaining, fun and age appropriate. This 'Safer strangers, safer buildings' programme is all those things and we welcome it. �Michele Elliott, Executive Director, Kidscape. 'In an increasingly risk-averse world, it�s all too easy for parents to think the only way to protect their children is to keep them �safe at home�. But children stuck at home miss out on essential real-life learning. As they get older they need to play out, without too much supervision. � The best way parents can help children stay safe is to teach them how to cope with danger, through their own example and by giving simple rules � and making sure children know and remember them.'Sue Palmer, best selling author of �Toxic childhood�. �The advice delivered by this campaign could help save children�s lives. Many children are so frightened of strangers that they panic when they lose their parents, even if it�s only for a brief period of time. By giving the children a straightforward common sense strategy for what to do if they get lost, this initiative could save families a lot of anxiety and worry. �Safer Strangers, Safer Buildings� presents a positive alternative to the more dominant �stranger danger� messages, which can make children over anxious about the perceived risk from all strangers. Educationalists, politicians and parents are now beginning to realise that something more positive is needed if we are to encourage our children to be independent and make sensible decisions for themselves, rather than keep them wrapped in cotton wool.�Liam McGurrin, of the Children�s Safety Education Foundation.

Pink Cow 4 Eco-Friendly Schools!

Welcome back to the Summer Term everyone! We know some of you have been back for a while, but the Summer term arrived late in a lot of areas! At Pink Cow we always recycle our waste paper and used printer cartridges and are very keen on anything and everything green, so we were very interested to learn about the government�s sustainable schools framework and the eco-schools Bronze, Silver and the prestigious Green Flag awards. All schools and pre-schools of any type can take part in the eco-schools programme and once registered, follow a simple seven-step process which helps to address a variety of environmental themes, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity. Please click on link to find out more about eco-schools. And we think we have found the perfect products to start you off (or continue) in your pursuit of eco-friendliness! The first CD-ROM in the series of four products for 3 to 7 year olds on the theme of saving the planet is just out and is called Let�s play our part : Saving Energy. It is BRAND NEW and EXCLUSIVE to Pink Cow and comes from Eco-Vision, part of the ever-popular Early Vision company. Please click HERE to view product details. The CD-ROM uses real-life videos and interactive activities to help your children learn about energy, what it is and how we can help to save it. Included within the software are detailed Teachers� notes and lesson plans to help you incorporate the theme into your Literacy lessons, plus planning guidance and suggested activities linked to the Early Years Foundation Stage. There is even a whole-school assembly guide! We would recommend you take advantage of a free trial of this excellent program and use it to help inspire your children to make a difference to their world! The series will continue very soon with �Recycling�, �Saving Water� and �Going Green�. Please give us a call using our Free phone number 0800 092 2467 or email us at select@pinkcowselect.com if you would like us to send you out a copy for our usual FREE 4-week no-obligation preview, or if you have any other queries on this or any other product! Best wishes, The Pink Cow SELECT Team

Wet Play Winner!

Congratulations to The Gledding School in West Yorkshire, who are the lucky winners of our recent Wet Play competition. The prize consisted of approximately �40 worth of fabulous educational games and books. The winning entrant, was chosen at random from those who correctly answered all three questions. When given the news that she was the winner of our latest competition Pauline was thrilled and looks forward to receiving her prize � which has already been despatched! Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Pink Cow sales advisors on 0800 092 2467 who will be happy to help you further.

BETT 2008. This year�s winners are�

In the Digital Content Primary - Core Subjects� category, the winner was: Focus on Bee-Bot: Lesson Activities by Focus Educational Software Ltd. This great product allows you to get even more educational value out of your floor roamers or can be used as a standalone product to teach directional programming. Follow these links for more details and our review. In the Digital Content Primary - Other curriculum areas� category, the winner was: Rigolo by Nelson Thornes. This product is for teaching French, specifically for the first two years of language learning. It features an animated family and uses a marvellous virtual teacher to present the spoken language. Again for more details and our review, follow these links. In the Special Educational Needs Solutions� category, the winner was: ChooseIt! Ready-Mades Numeracy Series by Inclusive Technology Ltd. This is a lovely new series � details of all the programmes are already available on our website, just type �choose� or �ready� into our search field and make sure you click the title button. A review will follow shortly. In the Early Years Solutions� category, the winner was: Noisy Things by Q&D Multimedia Ltd - a musical activities program, click for more details. In the Creative and Constructive Tools� category, the winner was: 2Paint A Picture by 2Simple Software - an easy to use paint program, click for more details. In the e-Assessment for Learning category, the winner was: Smart Cat Profiling by Screen Learning - an assessment tool for the Foundation Stage, click for more details. Once again, well done to everyone from all of us at Pink Cow!

WELCOME Back! Are you ready for the BETT Show?

Welcome Back to the New Year and a new school term. We hope you have had a busy and enoyable festive season and a well-earned break! As usual the Spring term always starts very quickly for us with the Educational Technology Show � The BETT Show - as you probably know the BETT Show will be running in Olympia, London from 9th to 12th January 2008. Congratulations to all our suppliers with products which are finalists in the 2008 BETT Awards! The winners of the awards are due to be announced next week during the show. We will be visiting the show and having a really good look round at all that�s new and exciting � ready to report back all the highlights to our members. Until then if you would like to look at specific product details within the different BETT Award categories please click on the links below. Digital Content Primary - Core subjects: Focus on Bee-Bot: Lesson Activities by Focus Educational Software Ltd MathsWorks Planning Tool CD-ROM Years 1-6 by Pearson Education Nelson Handwriting by Nelson Thornes Number Challenge Interactive by BEAM Education (a Nelson Thornes Company) Words and Pictures Fun with Phonics Whiteboard Active 1 by BBC Active Digital Content Primary - Other curriculum areas: Groovy City by Sibelius Software Rigolo by Nelson Thornes Early Years Solutions: Beep! Beep! by Q&D Multimedia Ltd Noisy Things by Q&D Multimedia Ltd Special Educational Needs Solutions: Boardmaker Activity Pad by Inclusive Technology ChooseIt! Ready-Mades Numeracy Series by Inclusive Technology Ltd Strumbie Island by SEMERC at Granada Learning e-Assessment for Learning: Smart Cat Profiling by Screen Learning Creative and Constructive Tools: 2Paint A Picture by 2Simple Software MissionMaker by Immersive Education Thinking with Pictures by Logotron Ltd We hope to have some really interesting products to tell you about very soon! Also, please look out for new OFFERS which will be appearing on our website VERY SOON!