Monthly Archives: July 2018

School News

Do your colleagues know you’re here

One of the nice things about UK Education News is that there is no tracking going on – those of us running the service don’t know who you are, where you are, what you are reading etc.

What’s more, as you will have seen, the site is also totally and utterly free, and we intend to keep it that way.

But the fact you are reading this means that you are on UK Education News, and hopefully enjoying the service that we offer.  And so we’d like ask you a favour.

Could you send an email to one or two of your colleagues that says something like the example below.   (You might find it a bit cheesy so please do write something of your own; I’m sure you’ll do an infinitely better job that I can).

———————-

To colleagues in the school:

I’m not sure if you read the free rolling news service UK Education News.  But I do, and find it quite interesting.   And the people who run the service have suggested that those of us who use the free service might pass a note on to one or two colleagues and friends to tell them about it.

It’s a site that carries education news headlines from the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph etc.  You can simply click on a headline and then read the full story.

The service is at www.ukeducationnews.co.uk

I think it is quite good, and it really is free, so I’ve agreed, just this once, to pass this message on.

———————-

Now that may be far too horribly cheesy for you to pass on, but if you could rephrase it in any way you want, and pass it on that would be good.

And please do remember, there is no tracking going on.  We don’t know who goes on the site and we’re not asking for your email address nor that of your colleagues.

If you don’t want to pass this on, that’s OK too.  Although it is nice if you can.

Tony Attwood
Editor, UK Education News.

English

How a simple game can get some unenthusiastic readers to engage more fully with what’s in a book.

There is a certain truth in the notion that in order to enjoy a novel one has to have a sense of imagination.  An imagination which turns the descriptions, conversations, and events into a new reality inside the reader’s head.

There is also a certain truth in the fact that television can reduce this sense of exploration of ideas while computer games reduce it still further until there is little imagination left.

At the same time texting reduces language to snippets to a degree that can make a work of fiction look like a visitor from another planet to some students.

One way to break through this barrage of anti-bookisity (apart from inventing new words like “bookisity”) is to ask students to open a book at random and find a few lines that intrigue them.

It makes an ideal game towards the end of term. They might come up with a famous quote to do with the best and worst of times, or they could find something seemingly mundane such as “Wait for the common sense of the morning*.”

And then the discussion: Is the morning a better time to consider problems? Is there such a thing as common sense?

From here the students can be taken anywhere in their reading, and the point is made that literature is a source of ideas in individual sentences as well as in the whole story.

Consider Wilkie Collins statement that we “see with nobody’s eyes, we hear with nobody’s ears, we feel with nobody’s hearts, but our own.”  One never quite knows where these explorations lead.

This adventure can be continued into the holidays if the students each have a classic novel to borrow from the school or department library.  “Choose one book, find ten quotes you want to share,” is the project for the summer.

To help in this venture, Wordsworth Editions has a very wide range of books from as little as £1.88 each (with no delivery charge and no minimum order) covering authors from William Blake to DH Lawrence, Wilkie Collins to Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you want to see our selection of 50 essential texts taken from our full range of 400 titles, please do click here.

We also have our offer of a free book just in case you have not come across Wordsworth Editions before.  To receive a free sample of one of our classics without any obligation please do email education@wordsworth-editions.com with your name and the school address, and we’ll put it in the post to you with our compliments.

What’s more, if you order anything from us now, we’ll get the books to you well before the end of term. We look forward to hearing from you.

*Taken from “The Time Machine” by HG Wells – one of the many books on our list.

PSHE, Sixth form

To what extent do your pupils understand what is going on in the Middle East?

The average person knows very little of what is going on in the middle east, and perhaps more importantly, WHY – a result of the differing interpretations of historical and present-day events in the region. Not to mention it’s obvious complexity.

And, since your pupils have followed this timeline of events for a much shorter period of time, confusion and a lack of understanding about what is going on in the middle east is likely to be much greater. Which is why the charity, Middle East Education, was formed and are offering FREE talks that give a balanced yet factual look at the issues involved.

If you are interested in booking one of our FREE talks, simply email office@middleeastedu.co.uk to register your interest and to organise a mutually convenient time for us to visit your school.

Given by two knowledgeable, articulate and lively speakers, one Muslim the other Christian or Jewish, the talks can be provided in accordance with the requests from individual schools and are accompanied by colourful PowerPoint presentations containing many maps and photos, films, and animations. What’s more, questions and discussion by your students is encouraged.

If you would like to find out more before registering your interest, simply visit http://www.middleeastedu.co.uk/talks.html. On our website you will also find a number of free resources, including PowerPoints, activities and teachers’ notes, generally sorted by subject area (General Studies, History…) and/or education level (GCSE, A-Level…).

 Feedback

“Your presentation was extremely interesting – you managed to compress a huge amount of material into less than an hour without sacrificing its intelligibility, and our pupils were clearly engaged by what you had to say.”  – Ibstock Place School

“Our students found the talks beneficial, we wanted to cover the overview period with an emphasis on the present day and this was achieved. Having the aid of the ppt and Sami’s examples, gave our students further sources that they could use in their controlled assessment. We will be looking to have a talk next year subject to any review of our curriculum.” – Upton High

See more >>

Primary

An update on children’s emotional well-being and mental health policies and how they affect primary schools

 There is a window of opportunity to improve children’s mental health.  Primary schools have a vital part to play.

Current policy developments

During 2018 there has been much speculation about primary schools’ responsibilities and activities in respect of their pupils’ emotional well-being and mental health.  This has been caused by a Government statement to commit an additional £1.4 billion for children and young people’s mental health over five years, coupled with the publication of a Green Paper to enable this funding to be used appropriately.  The ‘Fit and Healthy Childhood All Party Parliament Group (APPG)’ published the ’Mental Health in Childhood on June 26th containing 73 recommendations, many aimed at improving the Green Paper.

We’ve just been through a similar situation with GDPR where poor advice is still being given.  Too many organisations left their planning too late which led to too many uninformed decisions.  Four key issues have been identified that you may wish to think about.

1              Appointment of mental health leads in primary schools

The proposal is that every school should appoint a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health’ to oversee the school’s approach to mental health and wellbeing and to provide rapid advice, consultation and signposting.  This is a good proposal, although the job  specification still needs to be developed in detail and competencies defined so that adequate learning objectives may be derived for training.

Consider who is the best person to take over this role and any impact on your staffing plan.  Recruiting someone from outside has the disadvantage of lack of knowledge of the pupils and being more of ‘an unknown quantity’.

2              Service delivery channels

The recommended appointment of a Senior Lead for Mental Health is followed by a more contentious one. The Government ‘will fund new Mental Health Support Teams, supervised by NHS children and young people’s mental health staff, to provide specific extra capacity for early intervention and ongoing help. Their work will be managed jointly by schools, colleges and the NHS. These teams will be linked to groups of primary and secondary schools, providing interventions to support those with mild to moderate needs and supporting the promotion of good mental health and wellbeing’

This seems a step backwards. Many schools are already carrying out these services satisfactorily where teachers and assistants have been trained to register standards. This has been proved to be very effective and cost efficient – so why change? just apply the new funding to this service.

Those who do not yet provide this service might consider if their pupils will be better off receiving therapy in their known school environment and don’t have to travel to another centre, probably have less waiting time and whether there’s less administrative burden and school control as compared to using an external team.

3              Regulation

This area is a striking weakness of the Green Paper.  No reference was made at all to regulation aimed at safeguarding children with psychological or mental health problems. Play Therapists and School Counsellors have had registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority since 2013.   The APPG report covers this serious omission by recommending that: ‘All counselling, including play therapy, must be delivered by suitably trained practitioners who are on a Professional Standards Authority Accredited Register such as: http://www.playtherapyregister.org.uk‘

Every school needs to consider risk management.  If the work is carried out by a registered therapist the risk of complaints by parents and others to the school is minimised because the professional organisation who manages the register are responsible for resolving the complaints.  This protects the reputation of the school.

4              Evidence based practice

The Green paper makes a simple statement ‘Committing to recruiting 1,700 more therapists and supervisors, and training 3,400 existing staff to deliver evidence based treatments’.    Again, the intention is good but the devil is in the very important detail.  It is essential to specify exactly what evidence based practice (EBP) means for therapeutic work with children.  The current medical model with a high reliance upon random control trials (RCT) is inappropriate mainly because of the ‘crisis of reproducibility’ associated with this research method.

Practice based evidence collected over a number of years is a better way forward.  This shows effectiveness and efficiency under real life conditions with all their complexity.  One model of play therapy, ‘Integrative Holistic’, has achieved this with over 59,000 outcome observations by parents and teachers.  It shows that overall 77% to 84% of the children show positive outcomes.  The variation is due to presenting condition, age, gender and number of sessions.

Schools should consider carefully which model of therapy is chosen, what practice based evidence exists and how they are going to compare their results, including cost effectiveness, to the national pattern.

The window of opportunity may not stay open long and may be obscured by the Government’s preoccupations with Brexit. But all schools can help themselves by thinking through the issues raised above for them.

Hope that this has been helpful.

Kind regards

Monika Jephcott – Chief Executive Play Therapy UK
www.playtherapy.org.uk

More details, help and information from: Jeff Thomas Registrar Play Therapy UK jefferyht@majemial.com

 

English

We’re committed to delivering high quality theatre in even more schools in 2018-19

This year we’ve had superb feedback on our in-school shows. Here are just two examples:

“What amazing performances. It was so helpful. Thank you.”

Selina, year 11, Selly Park Technology College

“Very informative and I now remember some quotes.”

Jasmine, year 11, Elizabethan Academy

Based on the feedback we’ve received from staff and students, we’re pretty confident our in-school productions are making a real difference. Schools, like yours, across the country are recognising the benefits a live performance can bring to their students. Fred Theatre is committed to helping these schools by providing top quality, competitively priced, in-school performances of GCSE texts.

Across the upcoming academic year, Fred Theatre has four productions designed with the needs of your GCSE students in mind:

A Christmas Carol

Macbeth

Romeo and Juliet

Jekyll and Hyde

All our in-school shows are 90 minute adaptations, fresh and exciting re-tellings of the familiar and much-loved stories. Each features a cast of six professional actors. We concentrate on the text and producing a faithful representation of the original—just a little shorter!

All we need to perform at your school is a space approximately 5m x 5m with room (of course) for the audience.

So, why not give your students the advantage of a live performance and reserve with Fred Theatre today?

To find out more, simply e-mail Helen in our office, helen@fred-theatre.co.uk, or call us on 01789 777612. We’ll collect a few details from you and respond with potential dates and a quote.

Robert Ball
Artistic Director
fred-theatre.co.uk

PS: The diary is beginning to fill up, so for the best chance of getting your preferred dates please get in touch before the summer holidays.

 

School News

The simple and effective way of cutting hundreds (maybe even thousands) of pounds from your organisation’s costs when choosing new classroom chairs…….. 

Postura Plus classroom chairs with a TWENTY year warranty can save schools and colleges hundreds or even thousands of pounds  and eliminate time wasted trying to repair damaged or vandalised chairs….…

Improvements in design and manufacture mean that the quality and durability of classroom chairs have improved significantly  since 1996. The result is that it’s now possible to obtain classroom chairs with a TWENTY year warranty.

That’s twenty years with NO replacement costs and NO repair costs …. a considerable saving of time and money compared with many chairs still in use in UK schools.

….and the chair in question  ?  It’s the POSTURA  PLUS, now in its  twenty first year.

Designed not only to be durable and virtually vandal proof it also encourages good posture and is available in 16 colours and six sizes from nursery right through to college and university.

If you’re looking for an attractive,  practical and durable chair  with an ergonomic design which  encourages good posture  and which can be used throughout your organisation then the Postura Plus chair is worth serious consideration.

For further information on Postura Plus chairs (which by the way, are manufactured here in the UK) please visit the website:  www.centraleducational.co.uk  

or contact them by email:  info@centraleducational.co.uk or phone:  020 7515 1797  and ask to speak to Martin Evans who will be pleased to help with any questions you may have.

Central Educational Supplies Ltd.,  PO Box 999  London  E14 6SH

School News

Do your colleagues know you’re here?

One of the nice things about UK Education News is that there is no tracking going on – those of us running the service don’t know who you are, where you are, what you are reading etc.

What’s more, as you will have seen, the site is also totally and utterly free, and we intend to keep it that way.

But the fact you are reading this means that you are on UK Education News, and hopefully enjoying the service that we offer.  And so we’d like ask you a favour.

Could you send an email to one or two of your colleagues that says something like the example below.   (You might find it a bit cheesy so please do write something of your own; I’m sure you’ll do an infinitely better job that I can).

———————-

To colleagues in the school:

I’m not sure if you read the free rolling news service UK Education News.  But I do, and find it quite interesting.   And the people who run the service have suggested that those of us who use the free service might pass a note on to one or two colleagues and friends to tell them about it.

It’s a site that carries education news headlines from the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph etc.  You can simply click on a headline and then read the full story.

The service is at www.ukeducationnews.co.uk

I think it is quite good, and it really is free, so I’ve agreed, just this once, to pass this message on.

———————-

Now that may be far too horribly cheesy for you to pass on, but if you could rephrase it in any way you want, and pass it on that would be good.

And please do remember, there is no tracking going on.  We don’t know who goes on the site and we’re not asking for your email address nor that of your colleagues.

If you don’t want to pass this on, that’s OK too.  Although it is nice if you can.

Tony Attwood
Editor, UK Education News.

English

A teenager’s taste is determined by parents, school, what’s being streamed this week, and chance.

Why was I so taken by science fiction during my early secondary school years?  Not because it did anything for my social standing; rather the reverse.  Nor because of my parents or my teachers.  But something tipped me in that direction.

But that chance interest did introduce me to HG Wells, and from thence into a much wider range of literature.

Now I mention this, not because you’ll have any interest in my early years (unless perchance we were at school together, which my computer tells me is a 17,857 to 1 chance, so I’ll assume not) but because of that adage: one thing leads to another.

My science fiction fascination led me to read all sorts of second and third rate literature, but somehow also took me into detective fiction and from there…   Well I won’t bore you, but I am sure you can see the point.

When pupils and students start reading, they can be taken anywhere, providing there are copies of alternative books available and a guiding hand in the school that suggests one might try this or that next.

Which brings me to my point: Wordsworth Editions has a very wide range of books from as little as £1.88 each (with no delivery charge and no minimum order) covering authors from Oscar Wilde to DH Lawrence, Jane Austen to Wilkie Collins.

My point is that one never quite knows where a young student’s interest will lead, and so having a wide range of titles means that when the moment of interest comes, the books are there.  If you want to see our selection of 50 essential texts please do click here.

We also have our offer of a free book just in case you have not come across Wordsworth Editions before.  (Or indeed just in case the notion of books from as little as £1.88 each with free delivery seems just too good to be true.)

So, to receive a free sample of one of our classics without any obligation please do email education@wordsworth-editions.com with your name and the school address, and we’ll put it in the post to you with our compliments.