Getting Started with Email
The purpose of this site is to help teachers  make a start with emailing projects by giving a few hints, a pupil friendly prompt sheet, addresses of some interesting email sites and a forum to find a partner school within Northumberland.

In the ICT Programme of Study, schools are expected 'to use E-mail to share and exchange information'. The QCA guidelines suggest teaching this activity in year 3 when 'pupils will learn about communicating over distances considering different methods of communication'. In order to deliver this unit 'collaboration with others is necessary'.

The Geography Programme of Study requires that pupils in key stage 2 are taught to 'describe and explain how and why places are similar to and different from other places in the same country and elsewhere in the world'. There is also a suggestion that weather conditions could be included when explaining what places are like. The document highlights these strands as ones suitable for ICT opportunities.

Then why not combine the ICT and geography requirements into an exciting e-mail project ? Get out the digital camera, take weather readings and e-mail your reports to schools in other parts of the county.

Another curriculum idea is to use e-mail for collaborative writing and story starters, perhaps with the contrasting school or with the middle school that the year 4 pupils will move on to.But whatever the focus, it is essential that e-mailing is integrated into the school's long term plan for ICT.