The Anti-Graffiti Solution That Could Save Your School £1,000s
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Liverpool college receives prestigious Chartered Institution for Further Education status
Future Trends in Education: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Classroom
Education is on the brink of a significant transformation, driven by rapid technological advancements and changing societal needs. The future classroom will be vastly different from the traditional setup that many of us are familiar with. As educators, students, and policymakers adapt to these changes, it’s essential to explore the trends that will shape the learning environments of tomorrow. Understanding these trends will not only help in preparing students for future challenges but also ensure that they are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in an increasingly complex world. Embracing Technology in the Classroom One of the most profound shifts in education is the integration of technology within the classroom. The advent of digital learning tools and platforms has revolutionised the way students engage with their studies. In fact, a staggering 80% of students have reported that digital learning technology has directly improved their grades. This significant percentage underscores the pivotal role technology plays in enhancing educational outcomes. Moreover, the financial aspect of educational technology is equally compelling. The global educational technology market is projected to grow to an impressive $377.85 billion by 2028. This growth reflects a broad acceptance and adoption of technology in educational institutions worldwide, from primary schools to universities. Educators are harnessing the power of interactive software, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) to create immersive learning experiences. These tools not only make learning more engaging but also cater to different learning styles, ensuring that all students can benefit from the educational material. For instance, VR can take students on virtual field trips to historical sites, while AR can bring complex scientific concepts to life in the classroom. The Rise of Personalised Learning Personalised learning is another trend that is reshaping education. This approach tailors educational experiences to meet the individual needs, strengths, and interests of each student. By leveraging data and analytics, educators can provide customised learning pathways that ensure every student reaches their full potential. In this context, resources like IGCSE past papers and IGCSE revision notes become invaluable. They offer students the ability to practice and review material at their own pace, ensuring they fully grasp the content before moving on. Moreover, IGCSE resources provide a wealth of information that can be tailored to fit the specific needs of each student, making personalised learning more accessible and effective. The importance of using a variety of IGCSE exam questions and IGCSE papers cannot be overstated. These tools allow students to familiarise themselves with the format and style of the exams, reducing anxiety and improving performance. Personalised learning also extends beyond academics, fostering a holistic development that includes critical thinking, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. Importance of STEM Education Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is critical in preparing students for the future workforce. As the demand for STEM professionals continues to grow, it is essential that students are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in these fields. STEM education promotes problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, all of which are essential for success in today’s rapidly changing world. Programs that integrate STEM learning from an early age are becoming increasingly popular. These initiatives often include hands-on projects, coding classes, and robotics competitions, which make learning both fun and practical. By engaging students in STEM activities, educators can ignite a passion for these subjects and inspire the next generation of innovators and leaders. Remote Learning: A New Norm The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the educational landscape, with remote learning becoming a new norm for many students and educators. Before the pandemic, 23% of school systems had plans to adopt supplemental online courses. This number has since risen to 28%, highlighting a shift towards integrating online learning as a permanent fixture in education. Remote learning offers several advantages, including flexibility and accessibility. As noted by educations.com “Online education enables the teacher and the student to set their own learning pace, and there’s the added flexibility of setting a schedule that fits everyone’s agenda.” This flexibility is particularly beneficial for students with varying learning needs and those who require a more adaptable schedule due to extracurricular commitments or personal circumstances. Despite its benefits, remote learning also presents challenges, such as ensuring equitable access to technology and maintaining student engagement. Addressing these issues is crucial for the successful implementation of remote learning on a broader scale. Integrating AI in Education Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making significant strides in various sectors, and education is no exception. AI has the potential to transform teaching and learning by providing personalised educational experiences, automating administrative tasks, and offering real-time feedback. Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education, aptly puts it, “Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching.” AI-driven tools can analyse student performance data to identify areas where they may need additional support, thereby allowing teachers to tailor their instruction more effectively. AI can also help in creating intelligent tutoring systems that provide students with immediate feedback and personalised recommendations. These systems can adapt to each student’s learning style and pace, ensuring a more individualised learning experience. Furthermore, AI can assist in administrative tasks such as grading and scheduling, allowing teachers to focus more on instruction and student interaction. Preparing Students for Future Careers As the job market evolves, it is essential to prepare students for the careers of the future. This involves not only providing them with the technical skills required for specific jobs but also fostering soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability. These skills are increasingly important in a world where many traditional jobs are being automated or transformed by technology. Career education programs that offer real-world experiences, such as internships and apprenticeships, are invaluable in helping students understand the demands of the workplace. These programs provide students with practical skills and insights that are directly applicable to their future careers. Moreover, global collaboration and exchange programs can broaden students’ perspectives
Education Estates – the UK’s leading learning environment event
150+ Exhibitors | 3000+ Attendees | 150+ Speakers | 700 Awards Guests Education Estates® is an annual forum that brings together the education community: from policy makers and designers to suppliers and educators. Held in partnership with the Department of Education, it is a key resource to gain valuable insight into upcoming policy, be inspired by innovative new projects and derive practical knowledge from experts in the sector. ➢ Learn: a two-day conference over seven themed stages ➢ Explore: an exhibition showcasing some of the most innovative solutions around ➢ Celebrate: an awards ceremony celebrating excellence in the sector Education Estates® is the UK’s leading learning environments event, focussing on the funding, design, build, maintenance and management of schools, colleges and universities. This year is the biggest and best yet, with over 150 exhibitors and the highest ever number of registered attendees. The conference programme has just been released and offers delegates innovative ideas to current challenges, with presentations exploring every facet of the project and experiences from concept through to end user. According to Rebecca Stratten-Nott, the Event Commercial Director, the exhibition will see a 20% increase this year, with names including Morgan Sindall, Lawray Architects, Dulux Decorator Centre, Cundall, eEnergy, Bouyges, InVentry, Morleys, Trend Control Systems, Kawneer, RAM Building Consultancy, Energys Group, Saint-Gobain Ecophon, Kier Construction, Salix Finance, Fusion21, BOYCO UK, Pickerings Hire, James Hardie, SFG20, Fagerhult, Pagabo, Twinfix Canopies & Roof Glazing and Fews Temporary Buildings. Meanwhile, the Awards Shortlist has just been announced. The Education Estates® Awards is a sell-out event every year – a great way to celebrate what’s possible in the sector. New for this year is the Education Estates® Peoples Awards, recognising incredible talent and passion in education – the people behind the projects. Programme Highlights: Following the sell-out Education Estates® SEND and Net Zero conferences earlier this year, the conversation continues at Education Estates®! Highlights include: • Climate adaptive school grounds: a new frontier – Matt Robinson, Learning through Landscapes • Acoustic Design Watchlist – What the Building Bulletins don’t cover! – Emma Greenland, Anderson Acoustics • Building Quality from design to handover – Nick Coke, WT Partnership, Linda Stevens, CIOB & Jo Marchant, The Boxing Academy • Does Design Review Deliver for Education Development? – Matthew Blythin, DHA & Catherine Ward, HLM; Enhancing Higher Education Spaces Through Data-Driven Insights – Becky Hayward, Buro Happold • The integration of academia and community and commercial spaces – Robert Hopkins, AHR & Tim Hosker, University of Huddersfield • Education in the Secure Environment – Dave Clark, Lincolnshire County Council & Lorna Crowther – Managing/Regional Lead Architect, Kier Design When: 15-16 October, 2024 Where: Manchester Central How do I register: Register at: www.educationestates.com Education Estates® is free to attend for the public sector*. Education Estates® 2024 Sponsor Partners: Arcadis, AtkinsRéalis, Clevertronics, Galliford Try, i AM Compliant and TG Escapes modular eco-buildings. *Public sector refers to all those directly employed in schools, colleges, universities, government and local authorities (including governors and independent schools). Delegate rates apply to the private sector. The exhibition is free for all to enter.
Discover the future of education with industry experts at BRILLIANT Festival
Pioneering Primary School Abolishes Behaviour Charts
A Shropshire school says it has gone through a ‘paradigm shift’ in a bid to halt child shaming. Textbooks, childhood experts, and even many parents will tell you that children need consequences for their actions, and that it’s only through these that they learn to distinguish right from wrong. Consequences, they’ll tell us, help shape little minds to grow into well-rounded individuals, with a good dose of moral fibre. Indeed, schools up and down the country still rely on consequence-based tools like behaviour charts. A beautiful mural of a rainbow lighting up a sunny sky may at first glance seem like a cheerful classroom image, but look more closely and you’ll see that beneath that splash of bright colour lies a much greyer and more sombre backdrop depicting storm clouds. Imagine being that child whose marker has slipped down into those storm clouds, lurking sad and lonely in the murky depths of shame for everybody to see. It’s perhaps understandable then that some children develop a wholly inaccurate (but sadly sometimes deep-rooted) belief that they are somehow a ‘bad’ child. A belief that can become their ‘truth’ and can colour their attitude and approach across their entire school career. Always keen to find new (and better) ways of doing things, St. George’s Primary School, based in Telford, Shropshire, recently turned their own behaviour policy on its head and made the bold decision to implement an innovative new approach, underpinned by positive psychology and collective rewards school-wide. It’s a move which is already paying dividends according to Kath Watts, Deputy Head of St George’s School. She explained: “We built the new policy on the foundations of our ongoing work around trauma-informed practice, and it has an unwavering focus on inclusivity; physical, cultural, and neurological diversity; and an absolute avoidance of shame. “We knew that we were onto something special when a consulting educational psychologist who visited us recently referred to it as a ‘paradigm shift’ moment. “A lot of groundwork went into the policy courtesy of our early years teacher Lindsey Garroway, our SENDCo Holly Evans and our Senior Middle Leader Clare Holt, and we spoke deeply and candidly with our children about how they felt when their name moved down the behavioural chart. “We were given answers like ‘I felt naughty but sad’ and ‘It made me feel upset because normally I’m not bad that I know of, it made me feel like I was bad’. “The more we explored, the more shame-inducing we realised the charts were and so we abolished them with immediate effect. “Instead, we introduced a more collaborative approach with our Behaviour Stars System. Classes now work collaboratively to earn whole class rewards based on the number of stars they collect as a team. Stars are added to a behaviour app, and the children are also given stickers as an individual reward. “Whole class rewards are discussed and chosen by the children in the class, and can include things like a movie afternoon or a class party. Once the children have worked together to earn 500 stars they achieve their whole class reward, the system then resets for that class and they work on choosing and earning their next reward, ideally one per half term. “This system not only removes any shame-inducing element, but promotes teamwork – encouraging responsibility and accountability in a positive way. “Initial feedback has been incredibly positive with teaching staff reporting that children love to see the stars being added to the app and their class total increasing. It has been praised as a great team motivator – encouraging the children to work together. Children were also able to clearly recall what they did to be awarded the behaviour stars, suggesting a positive pupil engagement with the system. “Other classroom recognition we have put into place has had an equally positive impact. These include special awards such as a Values Award, Reader of the Week, and Postcards and/or texts sent home to parents to celebrate pupils’ success. “A ‘Wanted – Praise on Sight’ poster makes it easy for other teaching staff and even a child’s peers to reinforce their positive behaviour, and the ‘We Can Do It’ board provides additional encouragement. There are also a number of public recognition awards presented in Assembly, such as Class Star of the Week, Certificates, and Special Mentions Certificates. “The positive behaviour being encouraged is represented with visual prompts displayed on the classroom boards, along with reminders of values. At the start of sessions children are positively reminded of expectations, and non-verbal signals are used to help them stay on track. “If and when a derailing does occur, children of course need consequences. But these have also undergone a revamp and teaching staff have been given fresh guidance on how to encourage pupils to consider how best to make ‘good choices’. Language is all from the positive and categorically avoids the use of shaming language. “The approach often starts with a quiet word (with a friendly open face and body language), moving seats, or sitting a child with an adult who knows how to address the behaviour. “Natural consequences occur if matters escalate, with time taken to practise skills, feedback to parents when deemed necessary, and a ‘Reflect and Reset’ written reflection task provides a purposeful learning opportunity (and is never used as an isolation exercise). “For repeated or persistent examples of low-level inappropriate behaviour we have systems such as ‘Time In’ – instead of ‘Time Out’ – which offers time to reflect with a trusted adult outside of the classroom environment, to enable restorative conversations to occur in a safe and calm manner. “Behaviour Support Plans can be put into place where necessary – written by all parties including the child, teacher, parents, inclusion team and/or SLT – and will be monitored by a senior member of staff, and an Early Help Plan may be considered. “Where there is level two behaviour displayed – more serious incidents or continued persistent examples of inappropriate behaviour
Helping children rediscover the joy of writing
A new writing curriculum for primary school children has been launched today (Wednesday 19th June 2024) to help pupils fall in love with writing while improving their skills, which have been adversely affected by the pandemic. The percentage of children reaching the expected standard in writing by the end of Key Stage 2 decreased to 71% in 2023, down from 78% in 2019. As a result, one in three 11-year-olds left primary school last year unable to write at the expected level. The DfE and Ofsted is now focused on tackling the fall in standards. ESSENTIALWRITING, created by HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning), helps primary school children understand and enjoy the craft of writing. The material enables teachers to look at the curriculum with fresh eyes and impact learning by offering: HFL Education Primary English Advisor Michelle Nicholson said: “We want children to fall in love with writing again – Research by the National Literacy Trust found that only 34.6% of children and young people aged between 8-18 enjoyed writing in their free time, but those that did were more likely to do better in school and throughout life. “We want to ensure children have a voice and a choice as they are developing their writing skills at school, so that they may be more likely to choose to write for pleasure at home which will improve their written skills even more. In the same way as if we support children to read well and read with enjoyment at school, they will read independently at home. All of this improves confidence and life skills in other areas. “Sadly, many children missed out on developing their skills and appreciation of writing during the pandemic. Writing skills are difficult to teach remotely so many younger children missed out on learning vital foundational skills during lockdown. For older children, the shift to online classwork meant physical writing skills weren’t practised as much as they would have been in the classroom. The cumulative effect has been significant gaps in literacy and language skills.” HFL Education ran over 20 pilot schemes for the new ESSENTIALWRITING curriculum across a variety of schools in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and London, and they showed real impact. Both children and teachers were measurably more confident around the subject, and children were excited about writing and taking pride in their work. Mrs Danni Hawtree, English subject leader, St Paul’s Walden Primary School, one of the schools that ran the pilot, said: “The quality and quantity of the work has massively improved. The children have enjoyed the English lessons and the range of different themes. They loved writing for a real purpose and were excited to receive a response and see the impact of their writing. The units are enjoyable to teach because it’s clear and easy with the prompts and models in child-friendly language.” HFL Education’s ESSENTIALWRITING curriculum covers the National Curriculum and is designed for years 1 to 6. They will learn to write for a variety of purposes including creating stories and poems, capturing biography and putting together persuasive letters, with an understanding of audiences and purposes. For more information about ESSENTIALWRITING or for further advice about how to enhance your school’s primary English offer, please visit www.hfleducation.org/school-improvement/primary/english
Is a Smartphone Free Childhood the answer to our nation’s smartphone addiction? I’d say no.
By Mark Saxby – Positive Social When two Surrey mums made it big with their campaign to stop children and smartphones mixing, the UK’s media got very excited about it. Not that it was a new idea. One of my friends had already agreed a smartphone-free arrangement among a group ofparents in their Scottish primary school. They had all decided they would hold off giving their children devices. Wonderful. Inspired, I tried the same thing in my daughter’s primary school. The Year 5 dads were all in a WhatsApp group. I suggested us all holding off on smartphones until our children went to secondary school. I was largely met by silence except for one dad who said he and his wife had already given their nine-year-old boy his brother’s old smartphone and they were confident he’d be sensible. There lies the problem – while some parents, like the Surrey mums and my Scottish friend, recognise their children shouldn’t be on social media at such a young age, many other parentseither just don’t understand the dangers or have the capacity in their lives to even consider them. Some children will have smartphones and others won’t. And then the well-meaning parents will face immense pressure to buckle. As one mum said: “My son will be a social pariah if he doesn’t have a phone.” I’m not saying that the campaign for a Smartphone Free Childhood is a waste of time. For starters, it’s helped many parents see there is another way. And the more children without a smartphone, the better. But I believe the answer is in education, not a ban. The majority of time spent on phones by young people is spent using social media. Our charity, Positive Social, has run sessions with thousands of young people in classrooms across the country. We don’t tell the students to come off social media. Instead, we help them understand that social media is addictive; that misuse could damage their now and their future; and that they can enjoy life more if they spend less time on their phones. Ultimately, we give them the permission to make a choice – to have a different relationship with social media and their phones. And they make amazing commitments to change. They say they’ll: • Leave WhatsApp groups where they’re bullying other children. • Delete the Instagram app because it’s making them sad. • Spend more time with their parents because they’re more important. • Leave TikTok because it’s washing their mind. • Stop taking their phone to bed with them. We find that young people don’t want to be on social media as much as they are. They’ve just been allowed by their parents to spend time on their phones without boundaries. Many of them confess they just don’t feel good when spending an excessive amount of time on social media. Some schools we visit report a drop in social media issues. Other schools run our free follow-up Social Ambassadors programme so social media stays on the agenda. Of course, there are some children who won’t follow through on their commitments. Or they’ll forget about them. Or they just won’t be able to resist the pull of social media. After all, doctors liken our addiction to it as that suffered by crack cocaine users. But the childrenwill never forget our sessions – or that there’s a different way of looking at social media. Will they ever go smartphone free? I doubt it. If us adults can’t manage it, then why should we expect our children to. But it’s definitely time to empower our children to choose a different type of relationship with social media and their phones. Mark Saxby is one of the founders of the Positive Social charity, a national organisation which runs interactive classroom sessions in primary and secondary schools. You can find out more at https://positivesocial.org.uk/
Taskmaster star Alex Horne to host the Tes Schools Awards 2024
The biggest event in the education calendar is back, the Tes School Awards 2024, with the creator and co-host of BAFTA and National Comedy Award-winning hit TV show, Taskmaster, Alex Horne, and he’s bringing his six-piece band, ‘The Horne Section’ with him. Dubbed ‘the Oscars of Education’, the Tes Schools Awards celebrates excellence across the UK’s education sector, bringing together both State and Independent schools in one glamorous evening event in London. This year looks set to be the finest year yet, with a high level of entrants across all 21 categories. The panel of independent judges, made up of leaders from across the world of education, have already remarked that the quality and calibre of nominations at this stage is making their job a tough one. Alex Horne said, “As a former child who was taught by at least some excellent teachers, it’s an honour and a contractual obligation to be hosting this year’s Tes Schools Awards. I’ll have my band with me and they all ‘studied jazz’ at university so there are enormous gaps in their education that will hopefully be filled one day, and maybe this will be that day.” Time is running out to get secured Earlybird tickets. This year the Tes Schools Awards take place on Friday 21st June 2024 at the Grosvenor Hotel, Park Lane, London, and will be attended by many of the nominated teachers from across the UK. READ MORE QA EDUCATION NEWS: 8 ways to set an effective school budget Attendees will also get to watch an excerpt of the Lion King performed by the Disney Theatrical Group. Come celebrate the best in education with us and Alex Horne, The Horne Section, and the Disney Theatrical Group. Earlybird tickets for the event are available here. To find out more about the Tes Schools Awards, please visit Tes Schools Awards | Tes