Worldmapper: the world as you’ve never seen it before!

Now this is a COOL tool. Worldmapper is a collection of maps where countries are resized according to various criteria. There are over 600 maps, including loads on various health, education, business, geography and social topics. So if you want to know infant mortality rates across the world, rates of primary education, CO2 outputs or even who exports the most cheese, this is the place for you. You could cheerfully while away many a happy hour on these maps…. or perhaps that’s just me!

Food Standards Agency- Foodbase

The Food Standards Agency have launched Foodbase, a new repository for Agency funded research. Take a look for full reports of FSA research into food choices, food safety, diet and health. Good stuff for anyone interested in nutrition.

NLH Specialist Library for Infections – NEW!

There is a brand spanking new specialist library available from the National Library for Health. This time the theme is infections, so click here for everything you need to know about infectious diseases, microorganisms, prophylaxis, treatment and control.

Resources in the library include:

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  • Reviews and Systematic reviews (e.g. Cochrane Library, CKS, DARE)
  • National guidelines (e.g. NICE, DH, SIGN)
  • International guidelines (if no suitable UK guidelines exist, e.g. WHO, CDC)
  • Examples of best practice (e.g. HPA)
  • Standard Operating Protocols (e.g. HPA)
  • Government health policies and standards (e.g. HPA, DH)
  • News and events

Anti-Bullying Week

Look out for Anti-bullying Week on 17-21 Nov 2008. Resource packs will be sent to schools, but loads of information can be found at the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s webpage: http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/Page.asp

Check Sarah’s Delicious site for more links: http://delicious.com/sarahoxford

NFER: ontheweb

NFER have a monthly current awareness service which highlights recent reports and useful resources. Download monthly bulletins for free from here.

Speech and language difficulties: effective use of resources

The Bercow Review: Effective and efficient use of resources in services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), was published on 31 July 2008 by DCSF, to support the Bercow Review (March 2008). Download the report here.

Let them play

A study published by Play England, part of the National Children’s Bureau, says that parents are being overprotective of their children and are denying them the opportunities for play they had when they were children. The study, commissioned to mark Play Day on Wednesday 6 August, also found that 77% of children want more opportunities to play adventurously.

Resources for History Education

A couple of tidbits from the Historical Association:

New e-CPD available. On the new HA website you will find the first of a series of history specific e-cpd units which we have commissioned. www.history.org.uk/resources/secondary_resource_1105_8.html. Funded initially by the TDA, this has given us the opportunity to develop effective cpd for history teachers, meeting their perceived needs. We are also exploring e-cpd for primary colleagues, where the issues are slightly different. Many primary teachers will have had little or no training during their PGCE course in teaching and learning history, and therefore need help in developing the skills and concepts of teaching history, as well as with the content of history. We have in production an initial module exploring teaching about Ancient Greece, which we hope will act as a model for future primary e-cpd. New modules will continue to be added to the e-cpd part of the HA website over the coming months.

TEACH Online materials launched on HA website. Earlier this year the HA produced a well-received report on Teaching Emotive and Controversial Issues, exploring how much was being taught and making recommendations and suggestions for teachers. We have now followed this up with some online support mateirals and case studies, for each Key Stage, and these are now live on the HA website: primary: www.history.org.uk/resources/primary_resource_1140_50.html

Info from the National Childbirth Trust

The NCT have updated their advisory leaflets aimed at parents (to-be) and professionals working with parents. Take a look here for the latest advice on breastfeeding, sleep, labour, nappies and more.