Best of Bett 2020

London’s annual BETT Show – the long-running exhibition of new educational technology – took place in late January, highlighting the massive array of hardware, software, platforms and products on offer for schools.

The show is amazing, but can also be overwhelming, and it can often be difficult to figure out which of these new objects of desire will actually solve a real educational problem, and which are the latest shiny solutions in search of a problem.

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      string(312) "... boards learners simultaneously held up to show the teacher their answer. “We know that when we ask learners to do presentation work, they do their best work” commented Juliette Heppell at London’s BETT in January, “so why wouldn’t we want all work to be like that?”.  And if ..."
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      string(5654) "Is it that there’s something about the sense of audience: something about learners being on show that makes them work so well? Or is it that, now information technology is no longer in its infancy, that the novelty (so-to-speak) has worn off and we want to revert to the visceral, instinctive action of picking up a pen and making a physical mark on a surface? Whatever, it seems that dry-wipe surfaces are back, they’re here to stay and they now can be much much more sophisticated than the hand-held boards learners simultaneously held up to show the teacher their answer. “We know that when we ask learners to do presentation work, they do their best work” commented Juliette Heppell at London’s BETT in January, “so why wouldn’t we want all work to be like that?”.  And if you think once students walk out of the learning space the work is lost – wiped off and gone for ever – then think again. With the camera on a mobile phone or tablet it’s recorded and can ultimately be uploaded to a digital portfolio. Dry wipe surfaces typically fall into two formats – vertical (which we’d traditionally recognise as wall-mounted but which are now equally available as freestanding, mobile panels), and now horizontal (tables) too. There’s something about the physical space the learner takes up with vertical surfaces that puts a single person ‘in charge’ but horizontal surfaces absolutely change that dynamic: when you’re gathered around a table, a much more collaborative approach is evident, one where everyone participates on an equal footing.But whilst it’s relatively easy to create an impromptu dry-wipe surface (pretty well any gloss surface will, to some extents, work) what is it about surfaces that make the best dry-wipe – ones that will remain stain-free for years – and which should you avoid at all costs? IKEA’s Lack gloss white coffee tables for example at, depending on where you live, kr59, US$14, A$20 or £8 (well it had to be cheapest in Sweden!) work perfectly well for a while, but in time they’d doubtless stain (although at that cost, arguably you could replace them). Nobody would claim that they’re designed, manufactured or advertised as dry-wipe, (it’s no more than a quirk of what was selected as an aesthetic treatment) and are manufactured using a gloss melamine foil – a material that just isn’t the most durable for a horizontal worksurface. In a learning space, they’ll inevitably have more than a coffee cup put on them, so it’s therefore unlikely they won’t, over time, get at least a little scuffed and scratched. For what they were originally designed for, this isn’t an issue – it’s simple aging. But when you’re then writing on them, it would represent a real problem. What makes them, and many other gloss finishes stain (it’s frequently referred to as ghosting) is ink becoming trapped in the porosity of the surface. Even glass – one of the least porous of materials – will trap some ink in its surface (only much less so than a surface that is more so) to the extent it’s pretty well imperceptible to the naked eye. And it is this that makes glass, or alternatively vitreous enamel (the same chemical composition) when you judge them by performance alone, probably the best dry-wipe surfaces that are widely available. You’d like to think there were a series of formal standards for dry wipe surfaces to enable you to determine what’s good and what isn’t, but despite searching we could only find the 2010 European standard, EN 14434 and this we understand is being revised. But even with the best dry-wipe materials though, without an appropriate cleaning regime, the surface will deteriorate, and it has to be said that a piece of thick felt glued to a chunk of wood is, despite the popularity of the traditional board rubber to do the job, not the best way by far. Because over time the felt simply becomes impregnated with ink and it therefore becomes more of a case of redistribution than cleaning, with old ink being pushed around the surface, whilst it gets more and more ingrained into both the surface and the rubber. And whereas proprietary school supply catalogues boast that their liquid spray cleaners for dry wipe surfaces are ‘alcohol-free’ in truth, the ones with alcohol tend to give far superior results: the alcohol mixes with the ink and evaporates quickly out to the surface where it can be wiped away, preferably with something like a microfibre cloth (that should be regularly washed) or alternatively, although clearly not as environmentally friendly, with a disposable wet wipe. In all cases, what you’re trying to do is to remove the ink, and to keep whatever you’re cleaning it with, ink-free too.Whilst there are some great glass vertical surfaces commercially available, the trouble with using glass as a table surface in learning environments is, and forgive the pun, clear to see: it’s vulnerable when it suffers impact, and if this did happen, the result inevitably carries significant danger. 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ECO Friendly Design

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      string(5579) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE EVERYWHEREKeywordsEducationalExcellence,world classprovision,academisation,leadershipdevelopment,staff, resources,national fundingformula,teacher training,accreditation,pupil premiumSummaryThis government white paper sets out plans to deliver educational excellence everywhere, sothat every child and young person can access world class provision, achieving to the best ofhis or her ability regardless of location, prior attainment and background.The whitepaper outlines continued plans for the full academisation of all schools, as well as reformsto teacher qualifications, according them the same status of expertise as doctors and lawyers. 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These periods could be up to three years at a time, givingheads the opportunity to make significant improvements between inspections.Other key focus areas: ■ Continued commitment to support an independent college of teaching ■ Consulting on a fairer national funding formula for schools ■ More leadership development training is planned to be delivered by successfully performingschoolsMain Proposals:1. Reform the National College for Teaching and Leadership2. Create web tools enabling schools to advertise jobs (& new national website)3. Reform allocation of teacher training places4. Strengthen ITT contentWeek Commencing 18th April 2016https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508550/Educational_excellence_everywhere__print_ready_.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.5. Replace QTS with a stronger, more challenging accreditation6. Develop new National Teaching Service7. Ensure there is a sufficient supply of high quality CPD provision8. Introduce a new Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development9. Examine feasibility of incentivising teaching schools to publish their research and CP on an ‘opensource’ basis10. Support” college of teaching, peer-reviewed journal, and EEF11. Design new voluntary National Professional Qualifications for leaders12. Rebalance incentives in the accountability system to help challenging schools including Progress8 AND giving taken-over schools THIRTY months before an Ofsted13. Implement fair national funding formulae14. Launch a new Excellence in Leadership Fund for best multi-academy trusts15. For governors: “provide clearer info” about schools, “establish national database” of governors &bar “unsuitable” ones16. Take new powers to direct schools to become academies17. Launch a new online Parent Portal and new league tables site18. Guidance on academy complaints, easier for parents to do so via DfE/ombudsman19. Consider how parents can petition RSCs for their school to move to a different MAT20. Streamline admissions objections and relax sixth-form admissions procedure21. 300 new teaching schools & 800 more National Leaders of Education (NLEs)22. If academies can’t organise school improvement support, RSC will do it and have an InterventionFund to help23. Teaching schools to be based on data (not Ofsted) and funding “better targeted”24. Establish new and better means of brokering school improvement25. Target a range of interventions toward Achieving Excellence AreasLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.26. Support schools to expand evidence-based, character-building activities & tracking27. Publish a strategy for improved careers provision for young people28. Reform alternative provision & make schools more accountable for excluded pupils29. Ofsted will consult on removing graded judgments on quality of teaching, learning andassessment30. Reduction in using Ofsted grades for choosing system leaders, teaching schools, etc31. League tables for multi-academy trust performance measures32. Improve effectiveness of pupil premium spending33. 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Leadership

Educational Excellence Everywhere

14 Apr 2016

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      string(5614) "At the beginning of the next academic year, September 2020, the new statutory guidance for Relationship Education, Relationship and Sex Education and Health Education for primary and secondary schools will come into force and schools will be expected to be ready to implement the government’s new guidelines.  The last changes were introduced 20 years ago, making this new guidance, in my opinion, well overdue, especially considering the changes and developments during this period with regards to technology and its impact on our lives, in addition to our thinking around gender, sexuality and mental health. Add to that the fact that children are physically developing earlier, with some girls starting menstruation as young as eight, it’s safe to say that the last 20 years have seen a lot of change.Some of the changes in thinking and understanding have been reflected legislatively. In 2003, for example, Section 28, which banned local authorities and therefore schools, from promoting homosexuality, was repealed. In 2004, the Gender Recognition Act was introduced, giving transsexual people ‘legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender’ and allowing them to legally apply for a new birth certificate to represent their ‘acquired’ gender. In 2010, the Equality Act was established.Technology has advanced rapidly over the last 20 years and looks set to continue, but currently, it is left for parents and educators to take responsibility for children’s safety in the online world. With 99 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds now online, the government’s Online Safety Bill, April 2019, which lists protecting children online as one of its integral functions, is very welcome. However, robust education for children from early years to the end of their school life is necessary to prepare them adequately for the world around them. A recent study by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) revealed that more than half of children have encountered porn by the age of 11 to 13 and children as young as 7 years old are accessing pornography online. It’s becoming clear that mandatory teaching around how to enjoy technology safely and in balance with children’s offline lives is an essential part of RSE. So how can school leadership teams support and prepare their staff to deliver the new RSE curriculum successfully?What the new RSE guidelines meanFirst, it’s important to examine understand why children’s education provision needs to align with changes in thinking and understanding to be able to best meet children’s needs. The changes are not without their controversy and some schools and teachers have already found themselves on the receiving end of anger from communities who find that the new statutory guidance is at odds with their cultural and religious beliefs.  Schools are expected to consult with parents and communities about what they intend to teach and how they intend to go about it. I would imagine that schools will continue to come up against resistance from faith communities and some parents. These new regulations will challenge the crux of some communities’ belief systems and that can understandably be confronting and difficult. You may be required to support teachers with the unenviable task of justifying to parents and carers why this teaching is necessary to prepare their children for the society in which we live. Schools play a vital role in developing children’s understanding of the world, which is why schools have to comply with and promote Fundamental British Values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith), and the equality act 2010. It is therefore vital that when teaching RSE, schools teach an understanding of difference. When people have an understanding of difference, it dispels fear and opens up an atmosphere of acceptance and tolerance. Schools that are tempted to teach only the minimum RSE requirements rather than potentially antagonising local communities run the risk of depriving children of vital teaching, and this halfway house may still result in opposition from the naysayers. It’s important to open up discussion without alienating communities by empathising, listening to and examining and exploring concerns.Amanda Spielman, the Head of Ofsted, has been quoted as saying she supports the teaching of same-sex relationships in primary, as well as secondary schools. However, parts of the new regulations are vague in terms of when to introduce specific areas and the depth of teaching required. The government is assigning schools the discretion to decide what is taught and when, depending on their pupils’ needs. It leaves teachers on the frontline, vulnerable, exposed to hostility and having to make decisions about children’s needs in this area, which they may not be adequately trained to do. When talking about the introduction of Wales’ proposal for RSE, Nazir Afazal, the Welsh government’s advisor, suggested that Wales would take more of a lead, rather than leave it up to schools, and described the English government as ‘quite cowardly’ in this respect.Without adequate knowledge of the subject and its impact upon children and their development, teachers may find it difficult to determine and understand just what is required. Their own confidence level in delivering and opening up discussion with children about sex and relationships will also be a factor. The result is likely to be a lack of continuity with different"
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Leadership

New RSE Guidelines Pose Serious Challenges for Schools

3 Mar 2020

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      string(5627) "Year-long support is critical for many of the young people we serve—one-day or term-length interventions simply do not work. The emphasis on longer-term programming is paired with structured touch points designed to ensure that developmental relationships strengthen and adapt. Second, our programme is underpinned by our ‘ABCD Shield’. The ABCD framework contains 24 valuable and malleable skills and habits important for future success; we use this framework to train our Franklin Scholars, design our resources and evaluate our participants’ social and emotional progress. All of the skills are valuable, but many of them are also are frequently cited by employers as desirable, including leadership, teamwork, resilience and problem-solving skills. Our Theory of Change articulates how these employability and life skills strengthen during our programme. Importantly, Franklin Scholars are able to count their mentoring towards the Duke of Edinburgh Awards (an important external validation of the work experience they gain).8Our intervention targets disadvantaged students, often in deprived areas. Four out of ten Franklin Scholars, recruited through a multi-step process, speak English as a second language and are eligible for free school meals. Among the Junior Scholars (referred into our programme by schools for social, emotional, and behavioural reasons; Figure 2), 98.9 per cent are at risk of formal and informal exclusion. Our programme helps young people develop the social and emotional skills and habits needed in school and in life; we work with schools to develop the ‘whole child’.8 After the programme, students rate themselves higher when asked whether they feel ‘able to help others tackle challenges’. Mentors report the greatest improvements in leadership, self-worth and resilience, while mentees report the greatest improvements in resilience, self-worth and confidence/courage. Best practice in a time of scarcityOur mission is for all young people across the United Kingdom to have access to high-quality peer support programmes and we’ve partnered with Spring Impact to develop a model of our programme that will be made available at low cost, called the Beacon Box. With a pilot now underway in London schools, supported by the Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation, the programme will be made available to schools across England for the 2020/21 school year. The Beacon Box is designed as an easy-to-implement toolkit for schools looking to develop or improve their peer support interventions.Looking beyond Franklin Scholars, there are very few ‘ready-made’ resources available to schools. Good first points of call, however, are the 10-point Approved Provider Standard for mentoring and befriending programmes, as well as some free online introductory courses offered by The Open University on mentoring and coaching.Using these, and other resources, we encourage schools and multi-academy trusts to mainstream best practice into their peer support programmes, and to require any third-party service providers to do the same. At minimum, this should include ‘opt in’ mechanisms for participants, structured resources to help the relationship develop, a defined timeframe for the programme, regularity of sessions, and ensuring high student attendance. In addition, third-party mentoring interventions should be able to provide schools with school-specific activity and impact reports for both mentors and mentees, and should examine not just the academic impact of the intervention, but the social and emotional skills developed as well. In some cases, it will be difficult to measure and attribute the incremental value of the intervention on individual students, but third-party providers should have mechanisms in place to pull in different pieces of evidence—like parental surveys, teacher surveys, or school data—to show how the programme has worked, and how it could be improved. In the bigger picture, we encourage local, regional and national policy makers to consider how the return-on-investment could be improved for the £118 million spent per year on peer support programmes in terms of the depth and breadth of impact. In the current education funding crisis, not a single pound should go to waste. OLESYA FEKETAKim Reuter, PhD is the Chief Executive of Franklin Scholars.  For more information visit www.franklinscholars.org or email kim@franklinscholars.orgReferencesDennehy, T., & Dasgupta, N. (2017). Female peer mentors early in college increase women’s positive academic experiences and retention in engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613117114 Gosh, R., & Reio, T.G. (2013). Career benefits associated with mentoring for mentors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1): 106–116. Villar, A., & Strong, M. (2007). Is mentoring worth the money? A benefit-cost analysis and five-year rate of return of a comprehensive mentoring program for beginning teachers. ERS Spectrum, 25(3): 1–17.Mentoring and Befriending Foundation. (2010). Peer mentoring in schools: A review of the evidence base of the benefits of peer mentoring in schools including findings from the MBF Outcomes Measurement Programme. Mentoring and Befriending Foundation: Manchester, UK. The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation estimated that one-third of all schools in England had some form of peer mentoring or peer support provision (26% of primary schools, 35% of secondary schools, 27% of"
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Special Needs

Is Your Peer Mentoring Programme Having a Negative Impact?

28 Feb 2020

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      string(5615) "At the beginning of the next academic year, September 2020, the new statutory guidance for Relationship Education, Relationship and Sex Education and Health Education for primary and secondary schools will come into force and schools will be expected to be ready to implement the government’s new guidelines.  The last changes were introduced 20 years ago, making this new guidance, in my opinion, well overdue, especially considering the changes and developments during this period with regards to technology and its impact on our lives, as well as our thinking around gender, sexuality and mental health. Add to that the fact that children are physically developing earlier, with some girls starting menstruation as young as eight, it’s safe to say that the last 20 years have seen a lot of change.Some of the changes in thinking and understanding have been reflected legislatively. In 2003, for example, Section 28, which banned local authorities (and therefore schools) from promoting homosexuality, was repealed. In 2004, the Gender Recognition Act was introduced, giving transsexual people ‘legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender’ and allowing them to legally apply for a new birth certificate to represent their ‘acquired’ gender. In 2010, the Equality Act was established.Technology has advanced rapidly over the last 20 years and looks set to continue, but currently, it is left for parents and educators to take responsibility for children’s safety in the online world. With 99% of 12 to 15 year olds now online, the government’s Online Safety Bill, April 2019, which lists protecting children online as one of its integral functions, is very welcome. However, robust education for children from Early Years to the end of their school life is necessary to prepare them adequately for the world around them. A recent study by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) revealed that more than half of children have encountered porn by the age of 11 to 13 and children as young as 7 years old are accessing pornography online. It’s becoming clear that mandatory teaching around how to enjoy technology safely and in balance with children’s offline lives is an essential part of RSE. So what does that mean for teachers?What the new RSE guidelines meanIt’s important for teachers to understand why children’s education provision needs to align with changes in thinking and understanding to be able to best meet children’s needs. The changes are not without their controversy and some schools and teachers have already found themselves on the receiving end of anger from communities who find that the new statutory guidance is at odds with their cultural and religious beliefs.  Schools are expected to consult with parents and communities about what they intend to teach and how they intend to go about it. I would imagine that schools will continue to come up against resistance from faith communities and some parents. These new regulations will challenge the crux of some communities’ belief systems and that can understandably be confronting and difficult. As a teacher, you may have the unenviable task of justifying to parents and carers why this teaching is necessary to prepare their children for the society in which we live. Schools play a vital role in developing children’s understanding of the world, which is why schools have to comply with and promote Fundamental British Values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith), and with the equality act 2010. It is therefore vital that when teaching RSE, schools teach an understanding of difference. When people have an understanding of difference, it dispels fear and opens up an atmosphere of acceptance and tolerance. Schools that are tempted to teach only the minimum RSE requirements, rather than potentially antagonising local communities, run the risk of depriving children of vital teaching, and this halfway house may still result in opposition from the naysayers. It’s important to open up discussion without alienating communities by empathising, listening to, examining and exploring concerns.Amanda Spielman, the Head of Ofsted has been quoted as saying she supports the teaching of same-sex relationships in primary, as well as secondary schools. Although, parts of the new regulations are vague in terms of when to introduce specific areas and the depth of teaching required. The government is assigning schools the discretion to decide what is taught and when, depending on their pupils’ needs. It leaves teachers on the frontline, vulnerable, exposed to hostility and having to make decisions about children’s needs in this area, which they may not be adequately trained to do. When talking about the introduction of Wales’s proposal for RSE, Nazir Afazal, the Welsh government’s advisor, suggested that Wales would take more of a lead, rather than leave it up to schools, and described the English government as ‘quite cowardly’ in this respect.Without adequate knowledge of the subject and its impact upon children and their development, you may find it difficult to determine and understand just what is required. Your own confidence level in delivering and opening up discussion with children about sex and relationships will also be a factor. The result is likely to be a lack of continuity with different schools teaching different levels of content around the RSE. Advice for teachers promoting"
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Special Needs

‘Playing it Safe’ is the Wrong Approach to the New RSE Curriculum

28 Feb 2020