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The Big Bus still believes in magic!

• ‘Fair play’ licensing, risk-free trial scheme, lesson plans and comprehensive curriculum references for teachers

• Shortlisted for a 2004 BETT Award (Online Learning Resources category)

At BETT 2004 The Big Bus, which is used in over 2000 UK nursery and primary schools, will be releasing new activities for nursery and primary aged children along with a selection of lesson plans for many of The Big Bus activities.

At a time when the focus on curriculum and measurement could threaten to stifle creativity, The Big Bus continues to work its magic for children of nursery and primary school age. Two new activities, which take children on adventures that involve people helping each other, are packed with material that is relevant across the curricula in numeracy, literacy, science and citizenship.

More than 30 themed activities on The Big Bus each typically require several skills but they are also structured to enable teachers to focus children on specific subjects at levels that suit their age group. The newly-extended set of curriculum references cover England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, make it easier for teachers to match activities to individual children’s educational needs.

However, the real measure of success in educational software is its ability to engage children, and this is where The Big Bus really succeeds. “On The Big Bus children are continually encouraged and prompted to keep on exploring,” says The Big Bus managing director Ian Goodall.

That encouragement, he says, is one of the main reasons that children like The Big Bus so much and ask for it by name, according to feedback from classroom teachers. Children know that they will be challenged to keep on and on trying until they discover and understand the right answers. “After all, this is education, not just entertainment,” says Ian Goodall.

“We spend many hours with children, teachers and advisers to ensure that we can exploit the full potential of interactivity in the age groups we cater for, and there is a real magic when you see the excitement of children as they really connect with the activities and succeed in meeting the challenges they are set.”

Details and demonstrations of activities are available at www.thebigbus.com where schools are also invited to try, with a money-back guarantee, the full subscription service.

‘Fair play’ licensing

Most schools boarding The Big Bus choose The Big Bus online subscription service which makes all the activities, and new ones as they are released, available as a site licence for £90 pa (nursery schools) or £180 pa (primary schools). CD copies of the ‘online’ service can be supplied each term, if required, for an additional cost of just £20 pa. Where LEAs take out an authority-wide licence, fees are negotiable. There are no hidden extras, and a school licence includes full use of The Big Bus throughout the school and by teachers at home.

Many of activities on The Big Bus are also available on Special CD Packs for Nursery, Literacy, Numeracy and Science at £24.99 single user (£49.98 site licence) and for Primary at £29.99 single user (site licence £59.98).

The Big Bus is approved by Curriculum Online for purchase using electronic Learning Credits (eLCs).

The Big Bus online service and CD Packs are also available for purchase by parents for home use.

Please note: All prices quoted are ex-VAT.

New activities for 2004

Can you Help? and Help! are the first new activities on The Big Bus for 2004. They have been designed for Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 respectively.

These new activities are based around an adventure about people who help, interwoven with helping Aunt Dotty to find the missing key to a mystery box. After successfully completing four different activities within the adventure, children are rewarded as the box is opened. They will have helped a hairdresser to sort different coloured dyes, a shop owner to sort sweets by shape, a fire fighter to assemble a ladder to reach and rescue a cat, and the manager of a recycling centre to sort different materials.

Can you Help? and Help! are online, and on the Spring Term subscribers’ CD, from January 2004.

New CD for Nurseries

The latest stand-alone CD – Nursery Pack CD 2 - from The Big Bus includes four activities for £24.99 (single user) or £49.98 for use throughout a nursery or school. Many of the characters featured will be recognised as old friends by children using activities in Nursery Pack CD 1. Nursery Pack CD 2 contains four activities:

• Mouse Moves – basic mouse skills
• Bo Bear Visits Friends – comparative language
• My First 45 Words – high frequency words
• Can you Help? – colour, shape, sequencing and materials.

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