Primary Resources Blog

Site Update: 9th May 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. 38 new resources have been added to the main website this week. Full details are given here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time!

Site Update: 24th April 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:18:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I've added 26 new resources to the main website this week. Full details are given here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time! Find out how you can support the site by clicking this link.

Site Update: 18th April 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I've just added 26 new resources to the main website. Full details (as usual) are given here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions during the past few weeks. If you're interested in helping out the site then click this link.

Photo Section Back Online

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:13:00 +0000

http://www.primarystuff.co.uk/photos/
The Photograph Section is now back online. Hopefully there won't be any further security issues with it but we'll see how things go! Thanks once again for your patience while I've got things back up and running.

Update 15/04/08 - I've had to take the gallery offline again.

Forums Back Online

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:01:00 +0000

http://www.primarystuff.co.uk/forum
The Primary Resources Forums are now back online. I will look at restoring the photograph section over the weekend if I have some spare time. Thanks for your patience while I put everything back together.

Links Blog Back Online

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:20:00 +0000

http://www.primarystuff.co.uk/blog/
The Links Blog is now back online. I'll be working to get the other two sections back up this weekend.

Primary Stuff Status Update

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:06:00 +0000

I just thought I'd let users know that the security issue that forced the closure of the forums, links blog and photo section has been identified. Our photograph gallery software had been hacked and this infected the other facilities that run from the same web domain. It wasn't anything personal - everyone else running the same software seems to have been targetted!

Now that I know what caused the problems I will be working to bring the forums and the blog back up soon. Unfortunately my laptop stopped working late last week so I'm not able to get as much work done during the day as I'd like.

The photograph section will remain offline until a fix for the security issue has been produced by the developers of the gallery software.

Forums, Photos & Links Offline

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:03:00 +0000

After noticing some strange issues with the forums, photo section & links blog I've taken them all offline. They are likely to be down for several days while I investigate what is causing the problems. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Site Update: 4th April 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I've added 30 new resources to the main website this week and 9 new images to the photograph section. Full details (and links) are given here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time!

Site Update: 20th March 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I've decided to upload these 22 new resources a day early this week. Full details are given on this page of the site.

This next month is going to be a little strange as our UK schools are taking their "Easter" break at different times. I will be continuing to add resources during this period, but the site updates won't necessarily appear in their usual Friday slot. Please keep sending in your lesson plans, teaching ideas, worksheets, presentations and other material. If you're unsure about how you can help the site, click here.

Site Update: 14th March 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Update time! There are 27 new resources this week. Full details are given on this page of the site.

My thanks go to everyone who continues to support the site by sending in material, providing feedback, contributing to discussions on the forums and purchasing items from Primary Extra.

(I'm still having issues syncing the files on the site but I think I've managed to transfer all the new material manually. Please let me know if you notice that something is missing.)

Update Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:16:00 +0000

I'm experiencing a few issues uploading the latest update of the site. Apologies for the delay. Part of it is already up there and the rest will gradually follow throughout the morning.

Site Update: 7th March 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:01:00 +0000

I've added 25 new resources to the main website this week and 7 new images to the photograph section. Full details are given here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time!

Site Update: 29th February 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Update time! There are 60 new resources this week. Full details are given here. My thanks go to everyone who continues to support the site by sending in material, providing feedback, contributing to discussions on the forums and purchasing items from Primary Extra. Find out how you can support the site by clicking this link.

Scheduled Site Downtime

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Our secondary web host is upgrading their servers over the next few days. As a result there might be slight disruption to some services.

The Primary Resources forums, the links & photo sections, the Primary Extra website & store and Primary Cartoons are hosted on this webspace. These sites may be unavailable for a fifteen minute period sometime between 11pm on 28th February 2008 and 5am on 29th February 2008. (GMT)

The main Primary Resources site will not be affected.

Greg Arious & Heracles Books Available

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:00:00 +0000

In the past I’ve received quite a few requests for printed versions of some of my resources, particularly from overseas readers. A few weeks ago I set up a system where you can order proper printed copies of the cartoons in book form.

The ‘Greg Arious and the Lexicons‘ book is a 24 page paperback, printed in full colour. It’s always been a popular story on the Primary Resources website and this book includes the newer, redrawn Primary Extra version of the tale. It's a great way to introduce synonyms and the use of a thesaurus to primary school students.

The ‘Labours of Heracles and other Greek Myths’ contains the complete story of Heracles together with all the tales from our ‘Perseus and the Gorgon’ myth pack (Perseus, King Midas and the Trojan Horse). This book is 40 pages long, printed as a colour paperback. ‘Heracles’ is our most popular resource so I hope that teachers will find having a printed version of the book very useful.

I’m really pleased with how the printed versions look. Individual books can be ordered direct from the printers (worlwide) or you can buy a book & resources CD bundle from Primary Extra (UK only). You can find order links and prices on the Primary Extra books page.

Primary Extra Store Update

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:22:00 +0000

I recently upgraded the software that powers the Primary Extra store. Most of the changes are behind the scenes but should help improve your "shopping experiences". :)

Users of the previous store will need to register for a new account. As an incentive I'm discounting all items in the store by 10% for the next week.

Site Update: 22nd February 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. 50 new resources are included in this week's update. You can read full details of the additions here. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time! Find out how you can support the site by clicking this link.

Site Update: 15th February 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I hope that those of you who were off this week had a restful break. 70 new resources have been added to the main web site this time. Full details (together with links) are given here. Many thanks to everyone who sent in material. All contributions are much appreciated.

Have you checked out our Primary Cartoons site yet? it contains new versions of a lot of old Primary Resources favourites including King Arthur & the Enchanted Sword and Greg Arious & the Lexicons.

Inappropriate Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I've had a couple of people email me today to let me know that they didn't think some of the advertising on the main web site was appropriate.

I always welcome feedback on the advertising we show. Visitors should be aware that the Primary Resources web site is only designed for teachers and other educators to use. Some of the advertising we run is aimed at an adult audience. It is not intended that primary school students should visit the site directly.

However, in this particular instance, I'm not that keen on the advertisement that was being shown either and I've had our advertising agency remove it from the rotation.

Rather than send your students to Primary Resources, many of our "online" activities can be accessed through the Primary Interactive site.

Issues with Flash Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:59:00 +0000

A few schools have let me know that they've been experiencing problems accessing some of the Flash resources on the site recently. All of our interactive activities were produced a long time ago now and changes to the way that the latest version of Internet Explorer works with Flash might cause issues for some people.

It is something that I'm aware of but it will take me some time to set up an alternative way to access the relevant resources. At the moment the site links directly to the Flash files. I will need to set up individual pages for each activity in order to get around the current problems.

For the moment, users might find that an alternative browser (such as Firefox) will allow them to access the resources.

More information about the issues would be useful. If you're having problems accessing any of the Flash files then please let me know which operating system you are using together with the exact version number of your browser and the Flash plugin. Please also let me know if you can see the activity on this page.

Site Update: 1st February 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. It's time for a new update to the Primary Resources site! Thanks to the generosity of everyone who sent in contributions, I've been able to add 70 new resources to the main web site and 72 new images to the photograph section. Full details (and section links) are given below. Find out how you can support the site by clicking this link.

In an effort to try and juggle work on this site and family commitments I'm trialling a move to fortnightly updates instead of the regular weekly ones. We'll see how the new schedule works out over the next month or so. I'll still be adding items to our weblogs, the cartoon resources site and the photograph section each week. You can keep up-to-date with any changes by following the Primary Resources combined news feed.

Contrasting Locality Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:18:00 +0000

I've just added a great collection of photographs of Margate by Dave Walsh to the Primary Resources photo section. I should imagine they'll be a really useful resource if you're studying a contrasting UK locality in Geography.

If you've got similar photographs of your local area then please feel free to send them in. I know that other teachers will find them very helpful.

Email Update

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:39:00 +0000

The problems with the email system seem to have been rectified. Thanks for your patience.

Email Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Gareth) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:38:00 +0000

I seem to experiencing some issues receiving email through my Primary Resources address this weekend. Apologies to anyone who has had their messages bounced back.

If you have sent me anything through, either yesterday (Saturday, 26th January) or today (Sunday, 27th January), then I'd be grateful if you could send it to my alternate email, gp@primaryextra.co.uk. Thanks.

I'll let you all know when the Primary Resources email is back up and running.