• Reading for Literacy 2
• The Holocaust and Genocide CD-ROM
• Streets Ahead

• Science Interactive
• ClipBank: Seeing Science - Electricity TV-ROM
• Easiteach Maths

Reading for Literacy 2 is a multimedia reading program targeted at 6 to 8 year olds. It is very easy to use both for teachers and children and is a useful, engaging and quick way of embedding ICT into literacy sessions

There are 27 different texts covering a wide range of genres, linked to the National Literacy Strategy. The students have a choice of reading the text or having it read to them. There are several activities for each text, including cloze procedures, dictionary work, and retrieval questions.

The program can be networked as well as run on an individual PC. When networked the teacher can access individual profiles, helping with assessment and children can return to their last activity when they next log on.

The software provides teachers and students with a set of interactive wall charts and quizzes to help with revision or reinforcement of a range of scientific concepts. It is suitable for Key Stage 2-3, covering most of the QCA units of work but can also be used at Key Stage 4.

The software is very colourful and easy to use and once installed, can be run from the desktop shortcut. The product can be used as a whole class activity or by individual students on a PC, as they can print their results from each quiz.

The ability to remove the text from the charts is useful and allows the teacher to uncover bullet points as required. It is easy to navigate between wall charts and topics.

This CD-ROM is closely linked to the schemes of work and programmes of study for both history and citizenship at Key Stage 3. It draws upon a wealth of source material, in the form of text, photographs, spoken testimony from real genocide survivors and archive film footage also presents students with a study of the Holocaust, comparing it with genocide in Rwanda and the Balkans. This programme promotes meaningful historical investigation, the realisation of the relevance of history to modern life, and the study of human rights.

The materials are designed for whole-class teaching, projecting the images onto a screen, as well as for individual use at standalone or networked computers and can be customised to help students’ understanding.

The TV-ROM contains a range of high quality short TV clips, photo images and reference material to support KS2 science QCA units of work for Electricity and Magnetism. Some of the most powerful clips are those that show the different ways that electricity is generated. There is an audio function to support less able readers. The glossary on this TV-ROM is an excellent support for developing children’s scientific vocabulary. The teachers’ resources area contains background information articles as well as printable worksheets for children to use away from the computer. I used the software during the plenary to check children’s understanding of circuits. The short video clip of a teacher constructing a circuit was particularly helpful, as it can be paused at different points to review and extend the children’s learning.

This is an easily accessible introduction to option choices for GCSE and related possible career paths. It is ideal for use with year 9 students as part of a PSHE course or for careers activities, enabling them to assess their level of ability in a range of skills and relate these to subjects. It can be used on a stand alone computer or on a network, and lends itself to individual student research or small group research.

Completion of a 20 question quiz provides the basis for a personal profile, which facilitates later exploration of GCSE subjects and career areas. This profile can be saved and accessed by the student and teacher through an allocated password. The software gives an insight into over 300 careers, making use of case studies, photographs, salary and qualification information to provide a thorough and interesting insight.

Easiteach Maths will help you to plan and deliver lessons to the whole class, using an interactive whiteboard and projector. It comes with a content pack disc which provides over 280 main activities and 150 mental starters. They are linked to maths schemes such as Abacus, New Heinemann Maths and Numeracy Focus.

These make an excellent starting point and you can also use it to plan your own lessons. Coupled with this are 20 Interactive Teaching Aids, developed by the Department for Education and Skills.

Easiteach covers the whole of Key Stage 1 and 2 and can also be used in the Early Years. You can load one of the programs from the content pack which saves valuable time, or you can tailor make lessons specific to your class and save them for future use.