Picture News – taking the weekly news agenda into schools
The 24/7 news cycle, social media and ‘fake news’ make it hard for even the savviest to keep up with what’s really happening in the world. Picture News is the simple yet brilliant new resource that enables schools to encourage children to question what they hear and read, to think around key issues and topics and develop ‘healthy’ news mindsets. The Picture News team consists of qualified teachers. Each week they choose the latest big news story, turn it into a vibrant A2 poster with a thought-provoking question and create an assembly plan with British values, Key Stage1 and Key Stage2 focus cards. The materials are available to schools as a download or printed and posted direct to the school. Promoting British values Since 2014, teachers must promote five key British values and their promotion is inspected by Ofsted. To achieve ‘outstanding’ status schools must engage with and promote these values in a meaningful way and the Picture News service builds consideration and discussion of these values into all of their teaching materials. Picture News is the brainchild of Early Years educational expert Katie Harrison, a mother of 3, based in Yorkshire and a former primary school teacher. Katie specialises in teaching Philosophy and Religious Education and is passionate about helping children understand and think critically about life’s big questions and issues. She also worked for a number of years in Education Sales and Training and founded Picture News with her partner Rob Harrison in 2015. Since launching the service has gone from strength to strength with more than 1500 schools signed up. The Picture News service is available in three levels suitable for: Early Years Primary School, and Years 7, 8 and 9 Schools can subscribe to the Picture News service as a hard-copy or email service with prices ranging from as little as £50 per year for email only access, to £300 per year for the full service where they receive posters and all materials in the post and via email each week. For more information on Picture News, see the website here.
Schools invited to take on UK’s biggest cycling, walking and scooting challenge
Schools are being invited to take up the Big Pedal 2019 – the UK’s largest cycling, walking and scooting challenge for schools. This year’s competition is backed by Angellica Bell, British television, radio presenter and cycling advocate, who took on the ‘Tour de Celeb’ in 2016 where she found her love for cycling. Organised by the walking and cycling charity Sustrans, the competition will run from Monday 25 March to Friday 5 April and will encourage young people from across the UK to travel by bike, foot or scooter for their journey to and from school. During the 10 days, participating primary and secondary schools will compete with one another to make the most journeys by bike, foot or scooter. To coincide with this year’s event, dozens of schools across the UK, will for the first time, be closing the road outside the school gates to motor vehicles. This is to limit the volume of traffic and help reduce air pollution, while creating an environment in which cycling and walking is safe, convenient and enjoyable. New research shows four in ten children are breathing toxic air at school, leaving pupils at an increased risk of developing lifelong conditions including asthma[i]. Walking and cycling can play a key role in improving air quality outside the school gates while helping to boost children’s activity levels. Angellica Bell, who is backing the campaign, said: “I’m delighted to be supporting this year’s Big Pedal. It’s a fantastic way to encourage more children to cycle, walk or scoot– doing wonders for their health and the environment around them. “I hope as many schools as possible sign up for the challenge and inspire children and families across the UK to get on their feet, scooter of bike for their journey to school.” Xavier Brice, CEO at Sustrans, said: “The Big Pedal may only run for two weeks but can leave a lasting effect on the way children travel to school by showing parents what’s possible and how easy it can be to leave the car at home for a few extra journeys a week. “With scores of schools already confirming that they will be closing surrounding streets to cars for this year’s Big Pedal, we are confident that 2019 will be even bigger and better than 2018 and demonstrate how people prioritised streets can create a much more pleasant and safer environment for children and parents to travel.” The theme of this year’s Big Pedal is ‘Travelling around the body’, with pupils tracking their progress on a wall chart, learning about the human body and how active travel benefits their health as they go. This year’s competition aims to build on the success of 2018 which saw over 1,300 schools register to take part, with teachers, parents, siblings and pupils making more than a million journeys to school by bike or scooter. In addition, participants travelled almost 2.4 million miles – that is nearly 96 trips around the world – and saved 1179.2 kilo grams of nitrogen oxide (NOx) from being emitted into the atmosphere. With 60,538 gallons of fuel not being used on the school run, parents also saved over £330,000 on fuel. The Big Pedal 2019 is open to individual classes as well as whole schools, with hundreds of thousands of pupils expected to take part. Children, parents and teachers will also be able to log, track and compare their journeys online using the Big Pedal website. For schools unable to take part in the main challenge there is also a one-day version, which can include cycling, walking and scooting activities during the school day as well as on the journey to school. Schools and classes will be entered into daily prize draws for rewards, including scooters, if more than 15% of a school cycle, walk or scoot on each day of the challenge. Ask your child’s school to sign up to Sustrans Big Pedal 2019. For more information visit www.bigpedal.org.uk Follow us: Twitter @sustrans #BigPedal Facebook https://en-gb.facebook.com/Sustrans Photograph credit: Neil Hanna
Schools could win share of £17,500 in Cool Initiatives edtech challenge
Are you a bright spark with a brilliant educational technology idea that could change the way we teach and learn in schools and drive up educational outcomes? If so Cool Initiatives wants to hear from you! Cool Initiatives, premier early stage investor in education and edtech, has just launched The Cool Initiatives Education Challenge 2019 . It’s giving away a total of £17,500 – no financial strings attached – to students, teachers or early-stage startups that offer an innovative edtech solution to change the face of education as we know it today. The top prize of £10,000 will be awarded to the winner, £5,000 to the runner up, £500 to each of the four finalists and £500 to the winner of The People’s Choice category. Entry is super simple – all you need to do is provide online your responses to a series of questions and submit a short two-minute video pitch. The deadline for entries is Friday 8th March. The judges are looking for an edtech solution aimed at servicing early years to secondary education that addresses one or more of the following three challenges for technology identified by Damian Hinds, Secretary of State Education, in August 2018: · Teaching practices to support access, inclusion, and improved learning outcomes for all; · Assessment processes to become more effective and efficient; · Administration processes to reduce the burden of ‘non-teaching’ tasks. Rolled out nationwide, the competition is open to entrants who just have an idea, those who may be in full/part-time work, those who have already started their own business, and early-stage startups that are sole traders, a limited company or a partnership with no external equity-based finance. The shortlist will be announced on Friday 22nd March, finalists on Friday 26th April and The People’s Choice Award on Friday 10th May when voting on this category closes. The winners will be announced on Friday 17th May. Commenting on the competition, philanthropist and Founder of Cool Initiatives Jon Thornes MBE said: “Many schools have told us that they’re crying out for better edtech solutions to help them spend less time preparing, monitoring, assessing and accounting, and more time teaching. “We’re seeking to support, develop and invest in ideas or edtech startups that will help schools and teachers to operate more efficiently and effectively.” To enter the edtech challenge please click on the link here.
Russian Grandmaster and maths teacher share learning benefits of chess
Following the pilot of a chess-based educational initiative in Russia, global education technology provider, Promethean, will be bringing Grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin, and a Russian maths teacher to Bett 2019, to deliver a programme of activity which provides insights into the learning benefits of teaching chess in the classroom. After undertaking academic studies that demonstrated learning chess could help to improve student achievement, Moscow Education Department has introduced weekly chess lessons as a mandatory part of the primary curriculum. To support schools in integrating chess teaching into the classroom using technology, Promethean piloted the ‘Grandmaster Challenge,’ which gave all schools in Russia the opportunity to showcase creative ways of teaching chess with Promethean solutions. Commenting on why Promethean launched the chess initiative, Ian Curtis, Head of EMEA and APAC Markets, said: “We’re much more than a technology company. We are heavily invested in education and supporting teachers to develop lifelong learners. In today’s world, technology plays an increasingly prominent role in teaching and learning, just as it does in students’ home lives. In light of this, we wanted to encourage teachers to explore approaches which use modern technologies alongside traditional methods of chess teaching – the objective being to better engage students in learning to play chess.” Having emerged as the winner of Promethean’s Grandmaster Challenge, Bakhova Alfusya Borisovna, maths teacher at Secondary School No 6, Nartkala in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, will be delivering daily presentations on Stand B98 which share her innovative approach to chess teaching with technology. Presenting alongside Sergey Karjakin, who holds the record as the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster, Alfusya will provide insights into making chess engaging for even the youngest of students, while Sergey will discuss why he believes the game has an important role to play in developing children’s mathematical, critical thinking, and social skills. For more information, see Promethean at Stand B98 at Bett 2019 – there will be live chess games featuring Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and the teacher from Russia taking place.
How to educate the innovators of tomorrow using technology
Technology permeates every stage of a child’s day, and embracing this is no longer a choice for schools. The students in the classrooms of tomorrow will be our tech innovators of the future, and head teachers must equip schools with the IT infrastructure and technology to handle the growing needs – and expectations – of their pupils, whilst also ensuring it’s affordable and secure for everyone. We are already seeing great strides in tech innovation within education. 2018 research by Ranstad Education highlights that the schools that have already adopted the latest tech do have higher pupil engagement. It predicts that lessons will become more project-based, with more interactive content to engage pupils – much of this can be aided through the use of schemes such as BYOD (bring your own device). BYOD schemes are found to allow pupils to feel responsible for their own devices, preparing them for more technologically advanced workplaces and making them active information-seekers; it also encourages pupils to work cooperatively. Despite the clear benefits, these schemes still have points that schools must consider and respond to. For example, welcoming a host of new and different devices into the school can compromise cybersecurity, something that is of utmost importance in a school environment. Everyone from academy trusts to head teachers and schools as a whole must be aware of new problems that arise with the constantly changing digital world, and act accordingly with companies that can organise the installation of safe IT infrastructure. We must also focus on delivering tech advancement in the classroom that improves the lives of our teachers, who are often burdened by overcomplicated admin processes. Technology can automate parts of the marking process, help teachers to design tests more easily, and keep better track of pupils’ work. Teachers can also give immediate feedback, important for the fast-paced pupils of the internet age. The more time we give to teachers, the more time is given to the pupils – who will be more engaged if we give them the digitally connected education they need. At BETT 2019, Stone Group will be showcasing our new scheme: AccessIT, to demonstrate the need for technology to enable learning, the potential for it, and what kinds of products and services can be offered in response to the growing need. The importance of digitally savvy schools cannot be overstated. Equipping classrooms for the tech innovators of tomorrow should be a priority, and there are ways to reach that goal while balancing the books. If you’re visiting BETT 2019, you can find Stone Group at stand E270.
Cybersecurity disconnect poses problem for school technology
An employee study has revealed the education sector is investing in smart workplace technology and seeing better productivity, skills and wellbeing, but that risky behaviour is opening up potential cybersecurity threats. Employees in the education sector are reporting greater productivity, wellbeing and the development of new skills as a by-product of the introduction of digital technology, according to a global study from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Our study of 1,096 employees revealed what those in the education sector, both independent and state schools, want and expect from technology, how they rate the performance of their workplaces, and what the priorities for investment should be going forward, as institutions face up to the opportunities and challenges of becoming a digital workplace. Key themes and findings include: · Investment leads to improvement: Two-thirds (64%) of education employees revealed that tech investments had been made in the last year, improving connectivity and allowing staff to conduct their jobs more efficiently. These investments also looked to be paying off: Over seven in ten (74%) reported increased productivity, as well as greater staff well-being (65%) and the opportunity to develop new skills (74%). · Education of the future: Nearly half (45%) of respondents working in private education believe digital technologies are helping foster better collaboration among team members, while state education employees see it as a means to simplify tasks so they can accomplish more during the day (43%). With this in mind, the sector’s desire for more automation within the workplace is perhaps unsurprising – more than two-thirds (68%) of employees across both state and private education agreed that automating tasks would be beneficial for the future of work. · A security disconnect emerges: A worrying disconnect is forming among employees between their understanding of the importance of security, and their willingness to take risks. Just under half (49%) of education employees admit they rarely (if ever) think about cybersecurity, despite 91% acknowledging the importance of cybersecurity when questioned. In addition over three-quarters (76%) believe there is room for improvement in the way connected tech is managed and controlled. The road to a smarter, secure classroom Jonathon Hickey, Operations Director at Crofton School, recently implemented a new wireless network across the school: “Staff are more productive, they can move from class to class without their connection dropping,” he said. “Before, we were limited to three to four classrooms with strong enough wireless connectivity, but now we can turn any room into an IT suite.” In regard to technological innovation, Hickey is optimistic for the future: “We’re just at the tip of the iceberg. The challenge we currently face is to not be content with what we have, but to push ourselves to investigate what other technological innovations we can implement in order to improve the way we teach. Of course, it can be hard for any educator to find the time to think about improvements, but by streamlining processes and enabling a more digital workplace, we can drive greater efficiencies which will free up space in the day to innovate and try new things.” According to Simon Wilson, CTO, UK & I, at Aruba, the education industry has the opportunity to evolve the way teaching is conducted, using enhanced technology in a secure way. He said: “Educators have only just scratched the surface when it comes to tech implementation. Many are seeing improvements and greater efficiency through better wireless connectivity alone but there is so much more they can do – particularly if they want to match the IT experience most children have today at home. “Now that many institutions have invested and built the digital foundations, they have an opportunity to take advantage of children’s natural enthusiasm for using IT and really innovate and challenge the traditional way of teaching. In order for teachers to be able to do so, however, they can’t be shackled by the fear of cyber risk. By implementing automation technology it will provide the assistance and protection educators need to push themselves further.” A CARTA approach to security An autonomous approach to security is increasingly becoming an imperative as mobile and remote working becomes the norm. This new paradigm creates the need for smart digital workplaces that deliver secure and reliable, optimised and personalised experiences that will foster employee creativity, collaboration, and speed, without clunky security systems causing barriers. To succeed, Gartner has recommended a Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA) approach to security which leans heavily on AI, Analytics and Automation to embrace the opportunities and manage the risks of digital business. This leads to a more productive and more motivated employee, with a greater sense of job satisfaction. To what extent are you prioritising security within your workplace? Take the Digital Workforce IQ assessment to find out. Research methodology A total of 7,000 employees were interviewed in April and May 2018 by Vanson Bourne, an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. The respondents were from organizations of all sizes, across both public and private sectors, with a focus on the industrial, government, retail, healthcare, education, finance, and IT/technology/telecommunications sectors. Interviews were conducted both online and via telephone using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate. Respondents were interviewed in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, United Arab Emirates, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Australia, India, Brazil, Mexico, China and South Korea. About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal lives. To learn more about cybersecurity, visit Aruba at arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com/
Attracting and retaining teachers amid talent drought
Baljinder Kuller, Managing Director, The Supply Register, discusses how schools should be attracting and retaining teachers amid the talent drought… At a time when recruitment targets for teachers have been missed for five consecutive years, training applications have dipped 5%, and teachers in England have the lowest job satisfaction of all English speaking countries, it is little wonder that an increasing number of schools across the UK are struggling to source and secure the volume of quality talent they need. The reality is that many teachers, for whatever reason, feel torn between their passion for the vocation and a need to build a career in which they feel engaged, rewarded and supported – and for some, they feel this is not possible within the education sector. However, school leaders can play their part in helping to stem the exodus of skills by fostering workplace cultures which are conducive to attracting – and retaining – the best talent. My experience in recruiting teachers within local authorities taught me that teaching is, to a certain extent, a lifestyle profession. Teachers, by and large, thrive on influencing the next generation of young people within their own community and they may have an emotional connection to a particular school or area where they see themselves building a career. For this reason, it is crucial that headteachers work towards building a compelling employer value proposition in order to engage potential recruits. For too long, recruitment agencies have been left to take the reins in terms of promoting individual schools as a great place to work. But given the growing shortage of teachers, this approach alone isn’t sufficient. Many schools have gradually become further removed from sharing not only specific career opportunities, but also advice on how speculative jobseekers can get in touch. The first step to building a favourable employer brand is creating a careers page on the school or academy’s website which highlights the school’s values, ethos and achievements – as well as contact details for those who are interested about learning more. Sharing results and initiatives on social media and in the local press will also help to boost your employer value proposition locally. Government figures show that, in the last decade, £44 million has been spent on teacher training bursaries for graduates who never go on to teach. What’s more, many of those who do begin a career in the classroom quit before they have had the opportunity to reach their full potential: according to data from the Education Policy Institute, just 60% of teachers continue to work in state-funded schools five years after qualifying. With this in mind, school leaders must ensure they are not only attracting great teachers but also have strategies in place in order to retain them. New research from teacher support charity, Education Support Partnership, shows that 40% of newly qualified teachers experience mental health problems such as panic attacks, insomnia and mood swings. Against this backdrop, it is vital that headteachers invest resources into wellbeing initiatives and have procedures in place to ensure that staff have access to the support they need to excel in their roles – whether that be through a stringent process to monitor and act on staff sentiment, a mentoring scheme or internal networks. In a similar vein, professionals must be offered clear guidance around opportunities for development – and support in upskilling in order to flourish professionally. Structured training programmes will enable schools to not only ‘grow their own’ talent from apprentice or NQT level, but also pipeline senior leaders to ensure future excellence. The Department for Education’s latest recruitment drive may help to encourage individuals into the profession. However, the responsibility of retaining this valuable talent within the sector rests firmly at the feet of the schools that will go on to employ them. For more information on attracting and retaining teachers, see supplyregister.uk
Bett 2019: BenQ to demonstrate how collaborative technology is reinventing education
BenQ UK, the internationally renowned provider of digital lifestyle devices, will showcase its latest classroom-ready collaboration solutions at Bett 2019 (23 – 26 January 2019) at the ExCeL London on stand B180. BenQ will showcase its extended range of flagship products for the education market including new Mainstream and Premium Interactive Flat Panels (IFPs). These new IFPs are optimised with a flexible user interface, multi-account management system and EZWrite annotation software to bring a truly collaborative learning experience into classrooms. The enhanced IFP panels also feature InstaQShare software, which is designed for seamless wireless presentation and collaboration. It allows for smooth streaming of both visual and audio files, plus users can mirror content from mobile devices and invite up to 16 participants. The Premium IFP range also supports multi-touch capability up to 20 points, allowing more students to participate in discussion and engage in group activities. BenQ ensures classrooms embrace innovation without compromising student’s health and the team will demonstrate its IFP features that create a healthy learning environment for students. For a comfortable viewing experience, the BenQ IFP’s automatically activate Flicker-Free, Anti-Glare and Low Blue Light features by detecting the movement of users close to the screen. However, the BenQ Premium panels are also equipped with a Germ-Resistant Screen which is powered by a multi-layer coating of a non-toxic enduring nano, ionic silver agent that kills germs accumulating on screen surfaces, even after thorough cleaning or long periods of use. The BenQ Premium panels also incorporate an air-quality sensor to help monitor CO2 concentration levels in classrooms and remind teachers to adopt necessary mechanisms to keep students highly productive during class. On the show floor, BenQ will host presentation sessions throughout Bett 2019, with education product advocates. The speakers will share their knowledge of BenQ’s latest interactive classroom-ready collaboration solutions and provide live case studies of their experiences using the products in the classroom. Visitors are also invited to join BenQ on stand B180 for a drink every day during Bett 2019 or drop by the stand to take advantage of refreshments, charging points and meeting tables. See the Bett 2019 website for more details on BenQ
How Clifton College found data backup solutions
Clifton College independent public boarding school in Bristol has improved its data retention, backup and disaster recovery thanks to Arcserve IT solutions. Clifton College is one of the UK’s top independent schools with nearly 2,000 students aiming to deliver a modern IT strategy. To achieve this they needed an effective backup and recovery solution that accommodated their growing amount of data but also protected their students and staff. The IT team struggled with low data retention, high backup failure rate and false ‘successful’ backups without notification – leaving their backup and recovery process time-consuming and inefficient. It would take the IT team half a day to fix problems which ultimately affected the performance across the school’s network. With the help of Cristie Cloud BaaS with Arcserve’s (Arcserve) UDP solution, Clifton College has seen a number of improvements, including: Recovery Point Objectives from 24 hours to 15 minutes 30 days data retention on-site and over one year off-site with multiple restore points Scalable data storage for the estimated 5 to 6 TB of data growth every six months Richard Edwards, head of IT systems at Clifton College, said: “If we lost a pupil’s coursework that could have an impact on the rest of their lives – so it’s critical that we have a backup solution that’s dependable, reliable and we know works well.” For more information, see the Arcserve website.