[SWLUG] Open Office (Y Swyddfa Gymraeig)

[Alan Harris]

Lyn David Thomas wrote:

>On 17 Dec 02, at 9:45, Jim Killock wrote:
>
>  
>
>>"On the political front, we have just received a letter from the
>>Assembly's e-Minister announcing that they have adopted the plan to
>>translate OpenOffice and couple it with the English version as an
>>action within the Online Wales strategy - ie seeing the work completed
>>is an aim of the Welsh Assembly"
>>    
>>
>
>That is great news, I am fed up of hearing that schools are 
>mandating the use of MS Office 2000 (though a good database 
>would be a nice addition to OpenOffice too and would advance its 
>use a great deal).
>  
>
Great news but they obviously don't intend to do anything with it! I 
attach the following for your information :-

<quote>

Message from N Hawkins to the Director of Education.
Parents and Information Branch (SPD4)/ Y Gangen Rhieni a Gwybodaeth (ASP4)
Department for Training and Education/ Adran Hyfforddiant ac Addysg 
Welsh Assembly Government/Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru.
 
 I let you know that the Welsh Assembly was developing a national model 
for producing value-added indicators and a means of predicting 
performance between Key Stages.  This work followed on from the 
consultation on the future of the publication of Secondary School 
Performance Information. A copy of the draft specification detailing our 
plans was circulated in late April.  As I mentioned at the time we see 
this year's work very much as a pilot and an*_ opportunity for you and 
your schools to let us have feedback on the coverage of the model, its  
ease of use and improvements you would like to see introduced for future 
years._*

This year the model concentrates on secondary schools and provides a 
prediction of performance based on Key Stage 2 to 3; Key Stage 2 to 4; 
Key Stage 3 to 4 and Key Stage 4 to A/AS level.  It also generates 
school-level progress measures (value-added indicators) for the same 
periods.  We will be looking to include the Key Stage 1 results and the 
appropriate predictions etc. as soon possible.     

The model - in the form of an excel spreadsheet  - is now available on
learning.wales and dysgu.cymru and (hopefully) can be accessed by 
clicking on the following links.
_http://www.wales.gov.uk/keypubstatisticsforwalesreference/va2002-e.xls_
_http://www.cymru.gov.uk/keypubstatisticsforwalesreference/va2002-w.xls_ 

Could I ask you to pass this information to your schools?

_In the early part of January I shall be sending a short questionnaire 
which will help us evaluate the effectiveness of the model and provide 
you with an opportunity to offer comments on possible improvements. It 
would be extremely helpful if your responses could include any comments 
received fromyour schools. _ Clearly one of our aims for next year will 
be to make the information available earlier in the autumn term. This 
year's timetable was not helped by the delay caused by the A/AS level 
review and a few teething problems in creating the model.

Finally I should like to apologise for making this message available in
English only. The material on the Internet is, however, available in 
Welsh and English.

Please note. When the Excel spreadsheet is downloaded you are told that 
it contains macros and asked if you wish to continue - yes should be 
chosen.We hope to tidy this up in the next day or so when we will 
publish a more user-friendly (home) page for the pilot. 

</quote>

Very impressive - if you want to use this model (and headteachers will) 
then buy a copy of excel - very impressive!

Alan