This will give teachers the chance to compile work at the start of next term - perhaps a class collage using images (packaging and other materials as well as photographs) collected by students visiting countries across Europe during the summer holidays. The regional finalists will attend a reception at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. There is also a first prize of a five-user network complete with printer and print server.Visit www.visionofeurope.come-mail: competition@visionofeurope.com or contact Christine Coward at Time Education on 01282 777799 for more details.

Time Education has had much more success with its Software for Schools giveaway. Since launching the promotion in September last year, the company has given away more than a million CD-Roms. Schools can claim any one of hundreds of titles in exchange for vouchers collected o their behalf by friends and family. The most popular title claimed so far by the 23,650 participating schools has been Dorling Kindersley’s ‘Eyewitness Children’s Encyclopedia’, followed by ‘ClipArt Compendium’, DK’s ‘History of the World 2.0’, ‘First Logo Problem Solving’ and in fifth place ‘Compton’s 3D World Atlas’. Four out of five of the most popular choices are reference titles, which reflects the continued popularity of computers as an information resource.

With two titles in the top five slots, Dorling Kindersley’s CD-Roms are clearly popular with schools. Teachers may find the company’s website equally valuable. The publisher, now part of the Pearson publishing empire, has put its entire collection of Eyewitness Guides online. Navigating the site has never been as easy as finding your way around DK’s reference books, but teachers with time to spare during the holidays will be richly rewarded by following links from www.dk.comeyewitness. This will take you to a freely available, searchable collection of 40,000 pictures and 2 million words, all of which can be copied and pasted and used non-commercially in classroom materials.

Debbie Davies