Setting up experiments for key stage 3 science can demand too much of hard-working teachers, so they will welcome Griffin’s TeachAssist Resource Worksheets. There are 16 items in this new series, each covering a unit from the QCA scheme of work. A page for students shows how to get the experiment going - preparing an onion epidermis slide, putting woodlice in a “choice chamber”, purifying salt or searching leaf litter for small organisms. These come with diagrams and safety advice. Other pages provide checklists of equipment for technicians and order forms for teachers.

TeachAssist Resource Worksheets can be ordered from Griffin Education.

Tel: 01509 555944

Email: griffin@fisher.co.uk www.griffineducation.co.uk

Fortunate event

Key stage 2 readers who aren’t already fans of Lemony Snicket’s best selling books may well be converted by the new film starring Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law. Aspects of A Series of Unfortunate Events are explored in worksheets from Film Education. Children can match themselves against the ever-resourceful Baudelaire family, designing inventions from an improbable series of household objects or decoding secret messages by identifying grammatical errors. They can also thwart the evil schemes of Count Olaf by maths or research a range of repulsive reptiles. Resources to accompany Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events are available from Film Education, 21-22 Poland Street, London W1F 8QQ.

Tel: 020 7851 9450 www.filmeducation.org

Take it from Cinders

The Anti-Bullying Alliance has made imaginative materials for primary schools available online. There are six model assemblies, drawing on themes such as Cinderella’s treatment by her sisters or the falling out of former friends. There are also more than 100 pages of ideas for use in class and among staff. These develop the idea of making a “telling school” replace one in which a taboo on grassing ensures that some children find every day an ordeal.

www.ncb.org.ukaba From fat to fit

Forecasts suggest that half of our children might be obese by 2020. Well Fit! intends to reverse this. Aimed at Year 7, it’s a gaudy mixture of tips, gossip, facts and warnings. A 16-page magazine lets us into the secrets of celebrity fitness routines (cycling for Di Caprio, jogging for Madonna) and opens the doors of celebrity fridges, while a CD-Rom adds advice on exercise and diet. Teachers’ notes suggest ways of promoting discussion on smoking, body shape, junk food and stress-busting.

The Well Fit! resource (up to six school packs each including 30 student packs) can be ordered on: Tel: 020 7401 4070 Email: requests@edcoms.co.uk