Our Brain Gym Freedom of Information requests are off and I've started getting lots of standard acknowledgement emails back. I also got a couple of phone calls, one asking "What is Brain Gym? It sounds scary"!
If you would like to carry out your own FOI request in Scotland, here is a list of contact details for all the 32 local authorities and the seven teacher training institutions. I hope its useful to someone. Remember when emailing to include your postal address, post code, phone number, and be clear that its a FOI request and the timescale of the information you're wanting.
In the spirit of openness here is what we've requested:
Hello,
In an attempt to determine the cost of Brain Gym related activities, we would like to use the Freedom of Information Act to request the following:
1) The amount of money the local authority paid for Brain Gym activities, including professional development for both teachers and support staff, be it directly to the Brain Gym trademark holders,
Educational Kinesiology UK Foundation,
12, Golders Rise,
London NW4 2HR
or to third party instructors and trainers.
2) The number of hours of staff time that have been devoted to Brain Gym activities, including professional development for both teachers and support staff,
3) The cost of covering staff for any Brain Gym training courses provided during school hours.
4) Venue costs for Brain Gym training. Where the local authority has provided a venue, any extra costs that were incurred such as janitorial staff.
Please could all the information provided cover the past five years and be broken down by year.
Many thanks for your cooperation and assistance in this matter
Kind regards,
Kate Farrell & David Colarusso
As a science teacher and education journalist, I'll be fascinated to hear what the two of you find out. Brain Gym has been mentioned to me by teachers many times, but I'd no idea its scientific basis was so flimsy.
Posted by: Douglas Blane | February 06, 2007 at 06:11 PM
Hi Kate, I'm interested in your brain gym crusade. Also speaking as an ex science teacher, I have found the research to fall far short of saying anything like the brain gym enthusiasts claim for it. On the credit side, the activities can be fun "focussing" activities for tired or bored classes; but nothing more than that I suspect. Carla Hanniford's book on "smart moves" is quite convincingly technical and if I recall, quotes some actual research, but it didn't add up to the claims that are made for it. A brain gym trainer once told me that their head honcho won't publish his research; thats enough for any scientific thinker to know its pants.
My colleague who got the FOI however probably hates you!
Anyway, how about joining us on our Inside Learning podcast to talk about it among your other passions. Cheers!
Posted by: Matthew Boyle | February 09, 2007 at 07:05 PM
Given that you are blogging the results as they come back to you, Kate, why encourage others to make their own FOI requests? The questions you are asking are good ones - the whole Brain Gym bandwagon has always seemed very iffy to me - but multiple questions asked by lots of people means more public money spent complying than is strictly necessary. If some people ask even a slightly different questions, councils will be duty-bound to research the detail of the question asked - and money spent on compliance with FOI is money that can't be spent on the classroom or any other local authority responsibility.
I'm happy to watch the results as you blog them - perhaps you should encourage others to do the same rather than waste public resources with multiple requests for the same information?
Posted by: John Connell | February 10, 2007 at 09:30 AM