UK Jobs under threat at Toyota

Toyota could trim its UK workforce after a sharp decline in demand led it to post its first losses since 1941, it was reported.

The Japanese car giant has forecast an operating loss of 150 billion yen (£1.12 billion) for the financial year ending next March - the first such loss since it began reporting operating figures.
According to the Times, Toyota could cut up to 800 jobs in the UK, or 15% of its workforce, adding to the 40,000 positions expected to be shed from the UK car industry's 200,000 total over the next three years.

The Times said declining demand was "likely" to trigger redundancies across Toyota's business.
The car maker has not made any of its permanent staff redundant, but it is understood to have already cut an unspecified number of temporary workers.

Toyota promised to do all it could to retain permanent British workers, but has reportedly not ruled out the possibility of redundancies.

Source: The Press Association

To read or see more information on Toyota, you can watch my presentation called: Toyota the Supermarket for Cars Here at Slide Share

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

To all my students (that sounds a bit like Yoda, doesn't it?) have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To S1, keep enjoying yourselves and work hard.

To S2, start thinking about your career choices and what works best for you as an individual. You have to pick subjects for 2 years!

To S3, remember it won't be long before you are in S4 and facing the only exams of your life you can't resit. So no pressure then.

To S4, you have your Prelim out of the way and now to do a good job in the projects. We need you all to attend and work to your very best. I honestly think you can achieve some great grades with a little bit of hard work.

To S5 and S6, some of you show great maturity and work hard, some of you sadly are still a wee bit immature and to be brutally frank should have left school.

You guys do not realise it but you are role models for all the younger pupils. Your actions come with responsibility and have consequences.

But all is not lost for you. You have the Prelims coming up and I know there will be some people achieving great grades, some doing okay and others who we will have no choice but to change levels.

The challenge I set to you all is prove me wrong. If I said you will get a C, make me eat my words and get a B. If I said B, then get an A. If I said you will probably end up in Int 2, then go dazzle in the Prelim.

There is nothing I would like better than to say well done to senior school students who have achieved and earned their grades.

I do not want to frighten you but if you are going to University or College you'd better get used to the pressure of exams as you have this pressure in your lives for the next 3-5 years, and a lot more frequently.

It is tough at the top!

Best Wishes

MM

S1-S2 Xmas Disco!

Ho ho ho and Season's Greetings.

Tonight we're going to the Xmas Disco for the Junior School. Here's some silly person dressed up as Santa last year. Wonder who that is?

And in the top picture we have Magnum P.I. and someone who used to be in Take That!

I wonder what kind of pictures we are going to see tonight?

It's coming!

The first meeting of would-be TV stars will be held in X3 this Wednesday lunchtime, with me, Mr McGowan.

While we wait for our very own Greenscreen to arrive, we'll look at the filming process from the page to the screen.

That means you guys will be writing and planning the content of our own TV show.

But not everyone wants to be a TV star. Some of you may prefer staying behind the scenes in the production and editing departments. Or could we have set designers and make-up artists on show?

Who knows. Just remember that it is YOUR show. So we want to hear from you and all your good ideas.

The recruitment drive starts now. We aim to have a very rough pilot show sans greenscreen before we break up for Christmas.

So get your skates on!

Dragon in to save Woolies

At last one of my predictions look like they are coming true.

The Dragon who has a knack of bailing out poor performing companies and turning them into hits is Theo Paphitis, the Cypriot born millionnaire who once was Chairman of Millwall. In fact students will see his brilliant episode of Back to the Floor in the very near future.

Theo seemed the ideal man to take on the failing Woolworths company. I hope he does save at least some of the famous stores, if only because it is a name symbolic with British childhood. Woolie's pic and mix is legendary.

30,000 staff could be made unemployed if Woolworths were to go under. Including a current S6 pupil of mine, and what a terrible Xmas that would be for everyone.

How will Theo turn it around?

Some analysts have blamed Woolworths poor positioning as their main problem. They were slow to react to the 'One-stop shops' like Tesco and Asda where you can buy stationery, chocolates, DVDs and CDs... many of the items Woolies stocks. They were cheap but not cheap enough. And they couldn't rebrand into being a pricier store, because public perceptions would not change overnight.

Theo may well streamline the less profitable stores and cut down on employees, stock and the products offered. He obviously could use his own Stationery stores to supply Woolworths and perhaps even some of his Dragons' Den investments.

Can he turn it around? I think he could do, but one thing is for certain. Woolworths will be a different and smaller outfit this time next year if it is to be saved.

S4 Prelims

Good luck to our Admin and Accounting pupils sitting their first 'real' exams.

If you need any study help or advice feel free to contact me via school email or post on the SG Admin blog, and I will get back to you ASAP.

I will make available online the topic by topic questions which will be good for final exam revision, and I have some other study aid resources that I will print off for you and put online.

Next up will be the Practical Projects. With that in mind, I intend to create some more screencasts to aid your own learning.

In particular, I know I haven't put much up for Databases, so I will go through the Arrangements document for SG Admin and my best to create screencasts for each of the skills that could be asked.

I will obviously try and complete the WP and SS too, but I guess you can appreciate that it is a lot of work and it does take time. But I aim to make 3 a week, and over Xmas do at least 1 per day. That hopefully will mean a mountain of valuable online resources that can be viewed in class and even at home.

Try your best in the Prelim and answer every question. Remember the KU question really comes from the book and the notes, whereas the PS question really comes from you applying your understanding of the theory to a real problem and using common sense to come to the solution.

Good luck!

Senior School Ceilidh at Hamilton Grammar 2008

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Senior School Ceilidh tonight.

There were a few mix-ups when it came to ticket sales early doors with our intrepid sales force being twice (yes, not once but twice!) locked out of the Hatch and the tickets were inside!!!

Craig Morrice did a sterling job in giving the Senior School the patter... I mean sales pitch to come to what was a fun event.

S5 really got into the spirit of things, though we were a bit disappointed with the turnout from the current S6. But hey-ho that's the gamble you take when introducing a new event to a busy school calendar. I just know next year we will have double the people.. but then again it is all about atmosphere and enjoying yourself. I even got up for a dance!

Well done to the Young Enterprise group for providing the usual refreshments and we have found a Willy Wonka style product to send the wee S1 and S2s into dreamland at the upcoming Xmas Disco.

The performers did a fantastic job led my Mrs MacLeod and a former pupil John McCulloch. Also hats off to Mr MacLeod for doing his compere and getting everyone up dancing and involved. It could have been a tricky gig to pull off, but I think we can all say it was a job well done.

Now, as you sip your Horlicks and snuggle up to read the latest Martina Cole, you can give yourself a big pat on the back.

And I know even those people who perhaps were a bit embarrassed at the start... c'mon we all know you enjoyed yourself. And even though life has many pressures, you need to enjoy yourself too. When you get a wee bit older you stop worrying about what other people think and don't even think about getting a 'riddy' as we say in Glasgow, but you just go and enjoy yourself.

In my opinion it is events like this that make a school and a community. It is good to see them supported by the pupils.

Dunoon Visit

I visited Mr Paul Gallanagh, PT of Business & Computing, at Dunoon Grammar on Friday. Paul showed me the technical wizardry used to develop and publish his Blast From The Past video show.

It was amazing! And even better I got to meet the pupils who are filming DGS TV, a weekly pupil-led school news and magazine show. I originally was a bit worried that Mr Gallanagh's team of pupils could pull it all off in a lunchtime, but once the classroom was cleared, up went the stand and the greenscreen... I thought I was at 20th Century Fox Studios!

The kids did it all themselves and that is what I intend to do at Hamilton Grammar. There is so much that could be done with the technology and will be a valuable whole school resource.

I was also witness to the World Premiere of the DGS TV Main Titles. An incredible piece of editing and imagination. I don't want to spoil it for you, but there is one part I just love... and I am thinking already of how I can rip it off in our 'Octopus'!

Mr Gallanagh, who is also an LTS Development Officer, also shared some ideas about CfE. And I am glad to say that much of what we are doing in our school already with Blogging and Podcasting is similar. I even had a wee chuckle to myself when we had a look at our SG Admin Schemes of Work - they had quite a few similarities too. We also showed each other some great websites that can be used for work with pupils.

Another excellent resource Mr Gallanagh showed me was using an online poll site that can be used for self-evaluation. This could be used with our kids giving their view of how we teach in the classroom. I think I will be binning my old Excel Questionaire (as displayed to me as a young Probationer many years ago by the former Headteacher of St Luke's, John Fitzpatrick) and moving into the digital age. Paul assures me that the charts and stats are all done for me online, rather than having to do it myself! I think it is important to get pupils, parents and colleagues views on how we are teaching in the class and most importantly acting on their views.

I would just like to thank once again Mr Gallanagh and his wonderful staff and the talented pupils of Dunoon. Mr Gallanagh even had me helping out in one of his Admin classes... what a cheapskate! Dunoon is set in beautiful environs and the kids and staff are lucky to have such an inspirational setting. I look forward to seeing their DGS TV shows in the future. It certainly has inspired me and I know it will inspire our students.

HGS Digital - Pilot Video

As part of the HGS Digital scheme in the school, I have started filming and uploading teacher lessons. Hopefully in time pupils will be recording and uploading these vids for the school.

I did a short demo (the one on Donald Trump) but it was rather embarrassing!!! I have added more screencasts also to Teacher Tube for you guys to use in class. It is really a great learning resource for Administration at all levels.

To branch out a bit I have approached some enthusiastic teachers who have some great ideas to show the world.

First up was Miss McAree in Science. Her video explained about Chemical Reactions and had some cracking examples in it. My favourite bit is with the magnesium and the Bunsen burner. The flame was very, VERY bright!

Next up will be Mr Bowen (History) who will tell us a bit about the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck.

Future tutorials/vids will include (fingers crossed) Mr Anderson (PE) and Mr Cunningham (French). With more to follow.

I want the student's feedback on this, and you can tell me what lessons/demonstrations do you think would be most valuable.

At the end of the day we are doing this to help you study at home and improve your grades. But we also hope it will be fun. And most importantly we want you to get in on the act by writing scripts, filming and editing.

Yearbook Deposits

The Yearbook team are now taking in deposits. It will be £5 for the deposit and the chance to reserve your 2009 copy of HGS Yearbook.

Please contact myself, Miss Jackson or Mr Currie and we'll make sure you're on the list!

Fifa Tournament 2009

Tuesday marks the start of the much awaited XBox/PS3 Tournament to be played at lunchtimes.

64 entrants are battling for the prizes and to become Hamilton Grammar's Fifa 2009 champion.

Who will win?

Higher Admin News

I have added Letter Layout as a revision tool for those who wish it on Higher Admin 2009.

Also remember to make use of my screencasts. Follow the link to Administration ICT Skills and then select the appropriate MS Office package i.e Excel.

I will put more screencasts up soon.

Halloween Discos

A great couple of nights were had by all at the S1/S2 disco run by Mr Dyer and the Eco Group (DJ was Mr Ferguson, who was dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi - I was impressed!!!) and also at Hamilton Rugby Club for the S6 disco.

The S6 disco is run by the Yearbook Team (myself and Miss Jackson) and the pupils turned out in some amazing costumes.

There was only one winner however. A pupil who shall remain nameless dressed up as Mr Colin Stewart, our Headteacher! The Headie took it in good spirit and even posed for a pic with the rascal.

Perhaps in the future we can get the picture up, as it was brilliant.

I joined in the spirit of things by dressing up as an old, weathered teacher - no, not Mr Arthur, but Indiana Jones.

Can't wait for the Xmas discos!

SBEA Conference 2008

Just back from Perth and was funny to bump into quite a few familiar faces.

The Key Note speaker was Colin Temple, MD of Schuh and his presentation was interesting as it gave us an insight into the timeline of Schuh's ups and downs and reasons/explanations for them. He was also an advocate of reducing his firm's carbon footprint, so perhaps he may be a useful contact for our Eco Group. I made sure I got his card!!!

I also attended the Higher/Int 2 Business Management Command Words seminar, and again there were some useful ideas which I intend to put into practice with my class next week. I attended a similar Higher Admin programme run by Pamela Brown and Karen McLeod of South Lanarkshire which was pretty helpful. It gave general examples of how to answer questions with the different command words eg COMPARE Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The kids loved it when I tried it. I held off doing one for Higher BM since I know there are slight differences between the subject's command words even though they are under the umbrella of Business Education.

Mr Paul Gallanagh, PT of Dunoon Grammar - and an old school friend of mine - displayed some aspects of aCfE in action with an innovative use of greenscreen technology (ChromaKey as it is called) with History pupils creating a show investigating the Wars of Scottish Independence. The kids wrote, presented, edited and produced the show on their own. Paul was an award winning project leader at Our Lady and Saint Patrick's in Dumbarton and created the UK's first school TV station - OLSP TV. I am currently working away in the shadows on a few ideas of my own which will be revealed in the near future. In the meantime, just keep your eyes on TeacherTube. (BTW congratulations to Alva Academy who have created quite a few vids on TeacherTube). Pity my own wee vids never made it to Reporting Scotland, but then again give me time people of Hamilton....

Financial Education was the last port of call in a busy day (the lunch was pretty good at the Dewar Centre!!!) and Jim Lally talked us through some ideas to help us nip our Headie's head until they get Business Education (and not Maths, Home Eccies or PSE) back at the forefront of financial ed.

Lastly, with everything that is going on in aCfE, it really has made me wonder whether some of the sterling work that our own Faculty has done over the last couple of years could indeed be adapted for aCfE. Though personally I have some good ideas of my own which I am keeping to myself just now. But all I am saying is that I believe there should be more of the National Priorities and Transferable Skills embedded into the S1-S3 course which we will ultimately end up having to write.

But it HAS, it MUST contain some elements of Business Education and not just be a vehicle for ICT or else the Faculty system will have failed teachers, parents and most of all our pupils.

So let's have a S1-S3 curriculum that can educate, inform and entertain BUT it has to also be relevant. I am afraid to say it could spell the end of the weemee culture we have in our school!!!

Community Links AGM

Today myself and the formidable Mrs Shannahan took a group of 18 pupils to the Community Links AGM and Volunteer Awards held in the new community centre adjacent to Blantyre Miners Welfare Social Club.

It was a great couple of hours and we were made to feel very welcome by all the regulars. We were one of two schools, Calderside in Blantyre attended.

From an Educational point of view our students saw a real life AGM taking place and learned a few details about the differences between Charitable status and the advantages given to such organisations.

Our students also took part in a quiz using the PPV pads which was a lot of fun and we nabbed 3rd place earning one of our pupils a box of chocolates. If I had have known Ringo Starr was older than John Lennon we would have been spending i-Tunes vouchers like there was no tomorrow.

Community Links are involved in so many worthwhile projects, helping support the regeneration of Blantyre and Hamilton, as well as really bringing people together whether it is helping put PCs into people's houses or writing, editing and publishing the Community Matters newspaper.

I hope we shall be going every year and also I hope our classes, our school, indeed our community can offer some help to the already great volunteers who do such a worthwhile job.

Perhaps some of our students in Hamilton Grammar may end up as Volunteers in the future.

When you see the contribution in terms of the most precious thing we have - time - given by people it makes you realise that together as a community great things do happen every day. A brilliant tonic to the doom and gloom we read and see in the news.

So on behalf of Hamilton Grammar and the S6 Business students, thanks once again for having us.

Oh - and the lunch was superb!!!

Work - Life Balance... what is that?

I was escaping the Scottish weather by playing golf in Spain last week, but now we are back to business.

Higher BM are nearing their first nab;
Higher Admin are polishing off Excel tasks;
SG Admin are undergoing Integrated Tasks in S4, and S3s are being introduced (or reminded) about the pleasures of Spreadsheets
S2 are in Graphics mode
S1 are sending their emails!

I have 2 CPD courses this week (one on eTwinning, and the other related to Higher Admin).

Our Halloween Disco tickets are now on sale...
Our Young Enterprise shares are also now on sale...

I have an International Education committee meeting tonight after school...

And on Wednesday I am taking S6 to the Community Links AGM/Volunteer Awards at Blantyre Miners Community Resource Centre.

This is turning into one of the busiest weeks ever!

Plus I aim to upload more screencasts to TeacherTube and perhaps even some educational videos with a slight angle, and more slideshows to slideshare.net. It is funny now how many young teachers are blogging, podcasting or using a wiki. I remember when I was looked at when I showed people in my previous schools how to embed their slides in blogs! We've come a long way.

I am just glad pupils use the blog not so much as correspondence but as a resource. I tried using it for homework in the past, but perhaps I should try again, but sometimes it can lose its focus.

Anway, must dash my first meeting is in a few minutes!!!

Credit Crunch Jokes

Q Why didn’t the little boy get any pocket money this week?
A Cos his Mum’s gone to Iceland!

Q What’s the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza?
A A large pizza can feed a family of four

Q What’s the difference between an investment banker and a pigeon?
A A pigeon can leave a deposit on a Ferrari

Q How do you define optimism?
A A banker who irons 5 shirts on a Sunday night

(Thanks to Jim Riley at Tutor2u.et)

International Education, Young Enterprise and Eco Group

What an eventful week I have just had.

First of all I met (for the first time) Mr Dyer, Faculty Head of Sciences and the Boss Man of Eco Group and also the Chairman of the International Education committee.

I can't say too much about what was discussed - in case of industrial espionage - so all I can say is he has had a brilliant idea for my Young Enterprise company called Pinnacle to get involved in the world of reducing the school's Carbon Footprint.

On that note, our newly appointed managing director, Fraser Porteous worked hard this week to come up with a healthy menu to take to yet another committee (how many actually ARE there???) to press forward our plans in Hamilton.

Anyway the Eco Group have some very interesting ideas and hopefully I can help with some issues. I was also asked to go to the next International Education committee meeting when we return from our break. I can see a great opportunity to tie in some of our existing ICT areas with what the IE (I'm now at the abbreviation game) committee plan to do and as an added Brucie bonus I actually did put IE down as part of my CPD (was that genuis or luck? You decide.)

So if I did get involved that would be my FOURTH committee (ICT, Enterprise, Learning & Teaching) I think I would have to give one up. But I must admit I like the idea of reaching out and linking up with other schools, and I am sure our pupils would love it. e-twinning is next logical step.

I wonder if we did where would the schools come from? I know Modern Languages would like to link up with schools in France and Spain (which makes sense) but I am a nut on all things American so I would like to link up with schools in either the Mid West or Florida. I have visited a couple of schools in Minnesota and the facilities they have there are mindblowing. Apollo High, St Cloud and Sartell High, Sartell about 90 mins drive north of Minneapolis.

So it will be another busy month.

Teacher Tube

Just to remind my classes (in particular Higher and SG Admin) that I have added some more instruction videos onto Teacher Tube.

I will take requests from you again, as I can't do everything just yet, but I will create screencasts for the areas you guys feel you could do with the extra support.

We always can use Teach-ICT in the meantime, but I know you like to laugh at my little vids.

As long as it helps your grades, then so be it.

A Curriculum for Excellence

We have been looking once more at unpacking the Technologies outcomes in our school. It was a different process from the SBEA meeting earlier this year!
I think there is an opportunity for Business subjects to gain a larger foothold into S1 and S2 (yes I know it is for S1-S3) BUT at present very, very few schools teach Business subjects to S1 and S2. We are lumped into the generic umbrella of ICT or IT.

I think that there could be units that relate specifically to Business: Personal Finance (with the current credit crunch should our kids be more financially literate than the generations that have left schools over the past 20 years or so?), Marketing (pupils may end up with jobs in this creative discipline and they get the chance to look at product design, market research - perhaps desiging their own questionnaires that can be actually acted upon? - PR and advertsing) Enterprise - I would be all for teaching Enterprise as a discreet subject and I know some high achieving schools do offer this in S5/6 (because I taught in them!!!) and again pupils could form their own company and actually create and sell their products rather than having to wait for Young Enterprise in S5/6. Indeed some of the target group of pupils will have left school by the time Senior school comes along.

One gripe I do have with aCfE (why is education in love with acronyms?) is that the focus seems very much on Scotland. Now I am as Scottish as the next man, but I much prefer the idea of us all being Global Citizens and not being insular. My pupils and indeed myself are more interested in the practices and affairs of what is going on as Captain James T. Kirk would say: "Out there".
That means talking and researching MNCs; wondering if Hugo Chavez (the President of Venezuela) is right to nationalise many of his countries organisations; looking at the Tiger Economies and the incredible rise in productivity in nations such as China, India, Thailand and Malaysia; we're all still trying to work out the complex way the price of oil is calculated!, discussing the implications of California becoming independent and automatically assuming the mantle of the World's 8th Richest economy; looking in awe at Japanese marketing as they generate many products and let them sink or swim SANS (a little bit of culture there) market research; and on the subject of culture... the way people do business around the world is much more interesting than banging on for 20 mins about videoconferencing.

I love my subject and I just hope enough bigwigs who have influence realise that Business Education or Business Studies as it is still called in some places love it too. It is a vitally important range of subjects that are actually MORE relevant than many others because EVERYTHING we do, see, read or hear in the news and TV can be related to our subjects.

If we are serious about creating the conditions for first class students and future employees to emerge from the school gates, then MORE Business subjects are required.

This Week....

On my Higher Admin 2009 page I have uploaded a Screencast for Basic If Statements with more to follow as we continue to work through Excel problems and solutions.

Higher BM we are on to the last part of Outcome 2 after some time lost due to Univeristy visits, and also this week is the presentations of the Business Management Research Projects. Some interesting companies have been chosen including Reggae Reggae sauce.

SG Admin 2009 - S3s have a WP assessment and then move on to some simple spreadsheet tasks. They are also now onto Organisation of Departments after finishing Unit 1B.

S4 Admin are continuing with Integrated Tasks that are combining their knowledge of WP, SS, DB etc and are finishing Sources of Information.

S1 are starting the email unit after finishing their WP assessment.

S2 have their DTP Assessment this week!

In the News... Economic Indicators

The latest news from BBC...

UK manufacturing sees sharp fall

Manufacturing has been suffering along with the rest of the UK economy
The UK's manufacturing sector shrank in September at the fastest rate for 17 years.

UK unemployment total rises again

More workers are likely to lose their jobs this year
The number of people out of work in the UK rose by another 81,000 between May and July, to 1.72 million.

As well as these two indicators of economic recession (though we are not technically in one yet) there have been banks and building societies either taken over by rival firms and investors or nationalised (taken over by their respective Governments and bought out by public money).

Remember the Phillips Curve? Well inflation and unemployment are both rising at present which is at odds with the theory. Mind you over the last 10 years Gordon Brown's Chancellorship of the Treasury resulted in low inflation and low unemployment, which was achieved by our Government borrowing a lot of money from other sources. It looks like that policy is now coming home to roost.

It is common sense to expect the Phillips Curve Theory to take effect again and as unemployment rises over the next couple of years inflation will come down. It has to.

Again, the economic future is bleak and the lack of jobs is worrying for young people either graduating or going to university.

It would be wise just now to think about differentiating yourself from other students by building your CVs into something attractive and different. Voluntary work or school based activities would be wise.

Oil Price could hit $200 a barrel

Just when we thought oil prices were dropping they rose by a record $15 yesterday. Now experts are saying that the $200 barrel could be with us sooner rather than later.

Things are looking rather bleak with the Credit Crunch, the collapse of the Banking System, hikes in Energy prices, damage to the Environment, massive increases in Food prices and the ever upwards spiral of petrol prices.

Where will it all end?

Our pupils just now might think this is boring and doesn't affect them but in a few years time they will be looking for jobs, trying to buy their first home and even maybe be bringing up young families. Then they will realise the impact of the last few weeks events and perhaps ponder the thought that the world is currently heading towards the worst economic recession since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

As the saying goes: "Sad, but true".

Lloyds TSB merge with HBOS

After the collapse of one of America's biggest banks, Lehman Brothers and the continued sharp fall of HBOS's shares (from over 900 to a low of 88p) it looked like curtains for Britain's biggest mortgage lender.

However the prudent Lloyds TSB have made an offer to takeover HBOS. The deal is not done yet and other banks may eye up the chance to become the UK's biggest bank.

However there may be repercussions for stakeholders in the business such as customers and employees.

Customers will see less competition in the high street and credit may once again become hard to achieve, especially as Lloyds TSB are famous for being more stringent in their loans than some others.

Employees will surely face redundancies as there will be several branches in similar locations and staff doing the same job.

The major benefit is that at least the deal ensures the survival of one of the UK's main banks. After Northern Rock and now the shaky decline of the HBOS share price people on the high street and in the City must be wondering who is next?

New Technologies? Answer to Life, Universe and Everything or Armageddon?

Today's Big Bang experiment conducted by CERN and using the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) has been either lauded as the best thing since sliced bread or the end of mankind, the Earth and indeed Creation.

Taking a brighter view of things, what new technologies could be made with the information the science boffins will gain?

I am no expert but perhaps the creation of new metals/fabrics and building blocks of one kind or another could revolutionise the way we live in the future.

Regardless of what happens, it is exciting and has certainly caught the imagination of my pupils!

BBC Business News Round-up

House Sales at lowest for 30 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7604592.stm

Oil Prices Fall Again

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7605584.stm


These are probably the biggest two stories affecting people's lives in the UK just now.

What will be the final outcome of the House Sales slump?

What will be the long term affect of the fall in oil? Will the price reduction be passed on to the consumers?

In the News....

Manchester City FC have been taken over by the Abu Dhabi Group... will this change the face of the Premiership?

Crude Oil Prices are dropping... will the consumers at the end of a petrol pump get to see this difference?

Apple are in trouble with the ASA for misleading viewers of an iPhone advert... can we trust anything that we see on TV?

An exciting year lies ahead!

Our new Young Enterprise group had an informal meeting and seem to be brimming with ideas, confidence and committment. That is important I feel. We also have three distinct advantages over last year's plucky group.

1. We are starting earlier
2. We have a cash and carry card!!!
3. We may be able to use a very exciting technology which I am not saying anymore about.

I have also been approached to help out with the Yearbook which I would be delighted to get involved in, especially since I have had some magazine experience before and also I have a couple of ideas on how to keep the cost down (so our punters can afford it with their pocket money) and how to get it ready in time for June. But I'm keeping that close to my chest also.

The last major thing to look forward to was the success of our bid with the Faculty of Performing Arts. I am really excited about getting my teeth into a very big project. It will make my old Big Roch Digital pale in comparison (but then again I did that with zero budget!!!). It will be a step on from blogging and podcasting.

I'll need to get cracking with some more Screencasts also, especially as the S1 and S2s love it.

All in all I am glad to be back at school although I have been decanted along with my colleagues from ICT out into the modular accommodation (that's CouncilSpeak for huts!!!).

It is not perfect but it is not as bad as I feared. It is an extra challenge we will have to overcome together!

Incidentally, the new PCs are fab. The kids certainly love them more than the old bangers we had!

Higher Business Management Class of 2007-08

Time to bid a fond farewell to the lads and lassies of Hamilton Grammar School's Higher Business Management 2007-08. They are all off to pastures new, be that work, college or university. Some are going to to Civil Engineering, Primary School Teaching, Optometry, Risk Management, Fashion Marketing, Psychology, Accounting, Geography, Music and of course Business!

There are a few missing from this picture but I wish every single one of them all the best for the future. As a group they were a brilliant bunch, and individually they were highly talented. I am sure we'll hear from them again in the future. Perhaps a few budding Donald Trumps? As long as when they've made their first million they come and make sure they see their old teacher alright!

It is safe to say that they were a special group, and in fact they reminded me of my very first Higher class at Mearns Castle High School, who were also a unique bunch of students. There is nothing more satisfying when you bump into former pupils and they are pleased to see you. I have met a few of my former MCHS class in various places and it's such a great feeling when they thank you for your help!

As for my HGS bunch: I am very proud of them and I am not afraid to say I will miss them! I do have one major regret though. I never got them to do the whole Dead Poets Society thing... "Captain, o my captain!". CARPE DIEM!

Screencasts for Administration

I am now in the process of putting what I have learned from Screencasting courses into practice.

The first short videos I have created are basic spreadsheet skills and can be viewed and listened to at: http://spreadsheetskills.blogspot.com/

I hope to add more each night and develop from Standard Grade into Higher.

The purpose is to create a bank of materials that can be accessed by students in school or in the home, and making it a bit more lively rather than just the core notes or even using booklets with screenshots.

I hope you pay it a visit and I hope you find them useful.

Screencast Course

Attended an excellent CPD course today (yes, there are some out there) on Screencasting led by Eddie Mack of Glasgow University.

I found it very interesting as they used Camtasia which I have the old version 2 of. I have tried Screencasting before, using the free Auto Screen Recorder but it was hard and time consuming to edit.

With Camtasia it is much easier. I'm hoping that that will be my main mission for 2008-09 to raise attainment by creating my own screencasts for use with Higher and SG Admin.

At Saint Roch's I think my very basic screencasts did help the EAL students a little in Int 2, but if I could do a whole course worth, then who knows?

Perhaps I could even record the past paper solutions as a screencast so the students can just load it up and learn from it?

So hopefully in the next few days I will be bombarding TeacherTube with my own versions. I did like Teach-ICT.com and the way they did it, so I think I will be looking at them as a template.

I do get a bit excited when using new technology and I know my kids do also.

Hopefully I will start publishing more student material online such as their own podcasts... but I am currently involved in a very hush hush project that I don't want to talk about in case it harms our bid. But I think it could be brilliant, if done properly.

Anyway I think I am going to create a few screencasts tonight and upload them to TeacherTube.

Be warned!

SIFE

Looking forward to meeting Andrew Marr and the SIFE team again this week.



The University of Strathclyde students are going to put some 30 or so of our S3 pupils through real life business challenges to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.



They did a good job with our seniors at Christmas at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship so it will be nice to welcome them on home turf.

Young Enterprise 2007-08

Klass Act, Hamilton Grammar's YES company is in a mad rush to finish off their report and presentation for the Lanarkshire Area Finals in April.

The size of the group does seem to have been an issue as individually the students are brilliant and confident, but as a group they have become rudderless and lacking motivation. Perhaps I have something to do with it, but on the other hand I was so confident with this group I haven't been as much of a motivating force as perhaps I should have. A lesson learned there, I think.

I quite enjoy being the Link Teacher as it does give you another focus and I like working with the seniors, though don't mention the word 'Prefect' when I am around. (Cue in-joke private laughter).

Anyway, I am very proud of the students and I hope we do ourselves and the school proud... if we get everything finished.

At worst it has been an invaluable experience for me and the kids. We did start incredibly late so I won't make that mistake again. And even my mentor for YES at Lenzie had a few goes before being successful in the Area Finals. Though she did go on to win the Scottish twice!

Mind you, as they say from my neck of the woods: "Nae bother tae the wee man".

Was that my head swelling... mibbe. Because... READ THE POST BELOW!!!

We Are The Champions

Told them.

I had said in no uncertain terms to the seniors who did the grand job of organising a quiz for The St Andrew's Hospice that I was going to win.

Armed with a ramshackle team of Mr McAlpine (Mastermind subject: Music), Mr Alexander ( (Mastermind subject: Politics), Mr Pellegrini ( (Mastermind subject: Maths & Physics) I knew it was gonna be an uphill battle.

Just as well I had a trial for Blockbusters eh?

The lads romped home scoring 81 out of 90 to win by ten clear. We all felt like Tiger Woods, unlike Mr Arthur (Mastermind subject: Thunderbirds) who thinks he is Tiger!

Seriously, it was good fun and I enjoyed myself.

What a great performance and effort by the seniors, many of whom I teach in S6 or know through Young Enterprise. They raised something like over £400 which is just fantastic.

The Carrigan's venue in Hamilton was pretty good also. Everything went superbly.

Though I do have to say that the young chap who does Advanced Higher Music needs to go to Maths more often. I told him it was Beethoven's FIFTH and not the sixth as he insisted.

I look forward to making it two in a row next year!

The EDGE Programme

Two Hamilton Grammar pupils are going for the EDGE programme, an event run and sponsored by Scottish Enterprise.

EDGE is all about encouraging the young entrepreneurs of the future and getting them to work on a team based project within real companies.

I am going to be involved in some capacity, so I am quite excited also. And as one of the candidates remarked I am NOT only going because there is a quite stimulating social calendar. Shame on you!

Good luck to the both of them, and we wish them success.

Social Media Ideas for Business Education Subjects

Here are just a few thoughts from me about the whole Digital Curriculum or Social Media phenomenon related to the Business Subjects.

Please add your comments and share your ideas with me!

Listen to the podcast here

SBEA Mini Conference

I attended the SBEA mini conference in Stirling on Saturday 23rd Feb.

It explained a bit more in detail exactly what aCfE is going to be all about. The good news it seems for us in Business Education is that we may actually have an opportunity to have Business and Enterprise subjects taught at S1 and S2.

I do hope this doesn't mean we lose out on our IT classes to Computing!

But it must be a step in the right direction to gain more credibility for our subjects.

On another personal note, I would like to see Enterprise Education become timetabled in more schools and that the PT Enterprise & Creativity jobs are given more to Business Teachers rather than subject disciplines that may be enterprising in the sense of effecting learning and teaching, but do they have the necessary COMMERCIAL experience?

I would love to see our Business subjects be seen as important in the way they are in the USA. Business Degrees are right up there with Law and Medicine in the States.

On a final note, I watched with my class a video about John Caudwell and his star graduate recruitment programme. It was like a proto-Apprentice. The best bit was when his HR manager sifted through 2,500 CVs and only allowing 10 seconds for each. She picked up one and said: "This degree is non-commercial. Not what we're looking for." And she put it in the file going to the shredder. The sighs and look of despair from my Higher students was scary.

Perhaps also Teachers who have careers influence will think about this when they are telling kids to pick their subject!

Employers want practical skills and Business know-how. We can offer both at a High School level.

Anyway rant over!

Prelim Results

Looking over the results for both Higher Admin and Higher BM, it is obvious that there is some work to do!

The Higher BM results were overall excellent, though there is a small group who will have to attend supported study to develop their exam technique. I know you know the content, but you need to get it down on paper.

Higher Admin poses a few more problems since Paper 2 can be difficult and time is the enemy. I do believe that perhaps the wording of the questions confused some candidates. Therefore there will probably be a second Prelim to come.

The most important point to make is to make sure candidates are sitting the correct levels. Some people who get Ds can go and and achieve Cs and Bs, while there are other D candidates who would perhaps do better at Int 2.

I really urge you to view and use this blog more often as it is a good way to revise and you can ask questions which gives me the time and resources to put up better answers than a 30 second chat in class.

PR - Public Relations

Public Relations is a form of unpaid promotion.

PR tries to put a positive spin on events surounding the firm and can do this by:

writing and preparing press releases that are sent to newspapers and magazines informing them of upcoming events (perhaps the launch of a new product - The Angus Burger?)

Prepare and hand out company literature for potential customers to read and be influenced by.

Another job for PR is to try and respond to critics but in a good, positive way. To put a spin on it. For example if a company is caught out employing workers in Thailand who are getting poorly paid, the PR Dept will be on the case trying to argue that compared to other Thai workers they actually get a decent wage.

PR people arrange Press Conferences where the media can speak to people involved in the product or organisation for free. Think about Movie Stars publicising their latest blockbuster.

PR can also try to improve their image by arranging and organising donations to charrrrrriiitttteeeeeee (as Smashie and Nicey would say). So they look good and caring etc.

PR can invite in visitors or stakeholders in for a tour to try and develop good relations with them. Or even with the local community. Schools do this all the time! Getting parents in to see the new facilities or to show off some new initiative and show off how good we are!!!


One of the most famous faux pas by PR people was the blunder by Jo Moore who worked for the Labour Government. As the 9/11 attacks were going on she decided that "Today would be a good day to bury bad news". She knew the world's media had only one story to write so she tried to sneak her bad story out (I think it was to do with job losses) but unluckily for her, her email was leaked to the press. Jo Moore had to resign.

Research and Development

This is really part of product development.

So what's good about R&D?

• You can create a competitive advantage by having a product that outstrips rivals (i-Pod?)


• company image is improved if it is seen as innovative and forward thinking (Virgin, Apple?)


• you can get a PATENT which then again increases competitive advantage due to limiting imitators


• Prototypes can be developed and tested to try to satisfy customer needs


• R&D could also mean that the firm becomes more productive with the development of new technology which in turn could mean they become more efficient and also reduce costs.


• New production techniques can be created and implemented (again increasing production and lowering costs)


• Staff may be highly motivated because they are being creative

Interestingly...
99% of products don't reach market
Dragons' Den deals with much of the R&D as they meet inventors who need cash to turn their prototype into a reality
R&D is very expensive, but if firms want to be around in the future they have to invest in their future or be left behind

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is when a company contracts out work to another firm.

eg. The School can and probably in the past has created a Yearbook. But normally it is contracted out to a Printer.

Indeed even the School Modernisation could have been done by the Council, but it was contracted out to a Construction company.

So why?

The good things for the company are:

• the work will be done professionally and of high quality.


• They can focus on their own, main business.


• They can buy in the contractor on a job by job (or project by project) basis (saving labour costs)


• They do not have to buy specialist equipment (as the contractor will provide the equipment)


• The firm may not have the staff or indeed the equipment to actually perform the job

Bad things are:

• it can be very expensive


• you have less control over the job (there may be delays which you can't influence)


• information may be accessed by the contractor that is confidential


• the firm may layoff workers who were doing the job in order to bring in the contractor

2008 Prelim Advice for Higher Business Management

If you follow the link for my Higher BM page you will find the links to the 2007 past paper and the solutions.

Remember the COMMAND WORDS.

Remember SECTION ONE is compulsory.

SECTION TWO is the one you get to pick 2 from 5.

Also in Section One remember that the first question involves looking at the case study and mentioning the PROBLEMS of the company and not the solutions.

The following topics will be discussed over the next few days online:

POCGADSCIE
OUTSOURCING
STAKEHOLDERS
DOWNSIZING
SOURCES OF FINANCE
PRIMARY & SECONDARY INFORMATION
R&D
PUBLIC RELATIONS
TRADE UNIONS