Leadership

“Fake News” must be challenged

With so many impressionable young people devouring online content every single day, how do they tell what’s real, what’s fake?

A feature of 2017 has been the frequency with which reference has been made to “fake news” in the reporting of current affairs stories. Fortunately, the concept is not difficult to pin down. Speaking on the BBC radio programme Law in Action (2017), Magnus Boyd defines “fake news” as “false reporting, inaccurate content but dressed up as real news”. Joshua Rozenberg adds that it is “content deliberately designed to misinform and mislead”.

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      string(5657) "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.SCHOOL FUNDING PRESSURES IN ENGLANDKeywordsSchool funding,pressures,local authority,maintainedschools,balances, cashflow, deficit,financialstrugglesSummaryThis new report by the Education Policy Institute examines the latest trends in local authoritymaintained school balances, and assesses whether all schools will be able to meet costpressures over the next two years, following recent government funding reforms.It shows that the number of state secondary schools falling into deficit in England has almost trebledin the last four years to more than a quarter.The EPI report focuses on local authority schools because the data is publicly available. It excludesacademies, which account for about 60% of secondaries and 20% of primaries in England.The research adds to growing evidence of the financial struggles faced by a significant minority ofschools. The report also found two-thirds of council schools spent more than their income in 2016-17,while 40% have had balances in decline for at least two years in a row.Key Findings: ■ The number of local authority maintained secondary schools in deficit reduced from 14.3 per centin 2010-11 to 8.8 per cent in 2013-14. Strikingly, however, over the period of four years up until2016-17, the proportion of local authority secondary schools in deficit nearly trebled, expandingto over a quarter of all such schools – or 26.1 per cent. The average local authority maintainedsecondary school deficit rose over this 7 year period, from £292,822 in 2010-11 to £374,990 in2016-17. ■ The number of local authority maintained primary schools in deficit has also risen. In 2010-11, 5.2per cent of local authority primary schools were in deficit – this reduced in the following year to3.7 per cent, before staying at a level of around 4 per cent until 2015-16. However, in 2016-17,the proportion of primary schools in deficit increased significantly, to 7.1 per cent. The averageprimary school deficit also noticeably increased, from £72,042 in 2010-11, to £107,962 in 2016-17. ■ At a regional level, the South West had the highest percentage of local authority maintainedsecondaries in deficit over this period – with 22.1 per cent of schools in deficit in 2010-11, risingconsiderably to over a third of schools (34.9 per cent) in 2016-17. The East had the lowest – with7.5 per cent of local authority maintained secondary schools in deficit in 2010-11, rising to 17.5per cent in 2016-17. ■ The North East had the highest number of local authority maintained primary schools in deficit inWeek Commencing 26th March 2018https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Schools-funding-pressures_EPI.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.2016-17 at 10.1 per cent. The East of England consistently had the lowest, with 2.6 per cent indeficit in 2010-11, rising to 3.4 per cent in 2016-17. ■ A large proportion of local authority maintained schools are now spending more than their income.Over two-thirds of local authority maintained secondary schools spent more than their income in2016-17. Significantly, such events are not just occurring for one year – we find that 40 per centof local authority maintained secondaries have had balances in decline for at least two years in arow. ■ Similar figures are found for local authority maintained primary schools – in 2016-17, over 60 percent were spending more than their income. A quarter of local authority maintained primarieshave had a falling balance for two years or more. ■ Funding allocated by the government through its new National Funding Formula for schools(NFF), fails to meet pressures on schools budgets produced by this cost alone. This is despitethe announcement of an extra £1.3 billion in funding for schools by the government in July 2017. ■ As many as 40 per cent (around 7,500 schools) are unlikely to receive enough additionalgovernment funding in 2018-19 to meet these pay pressures alone. For 2019-20, this proportionrises to nearly half of state-funded mainstream schools in England (around 9,000 schools). ■ Schools are facing a variety of cost pressures, yet this analysis shows how many schools arestruggling just from this staffing cost alone. In addition, our assumption of 1 per cent staff payincrease over the next two years is cautious – with the government having signalled that futurerises in teachers’ pay may be higher than the current 1 per cent cap over the next few years. ■ For a significant proportion of schools in England, being able to meet the cost of annual staff payincreases from a combination of government funding and their own reserves looks highly unlikely,even in the short term. ■ In response to pressures, schools have undertaken various efficiency measures to deliver costsavings, such as switching suppliers, reducing energy usage and reducing the size of leadershipteams. ■ However, education staff account for the majority of spending by schools – around two-thirds. It islikely that schools will find it difficult to achieve the scale of savings necessary without also cuttingback on staff. Many schools will face the challenge of containing budget pressures and"
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Leadership

School Funding Pressures In England

22 Mar 2018

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Digital Learning

Fake News? Learning To Question, Challenge And Change The Online World

31 Jan 2021

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      string(5622) "‘For me’, she says ‘public libraries matter because they help to give a focus and an identity to the community they serve’. And, what’s more she says, ‘reading is cool again’ thanks to the ‘headliners of the last decade that have made it so:  Harry Potter, 50 Shades of Grey, Pride and Prejudice, The Da Vinci Code and Paddington Bear.  Not necessarily all great literature, but they have encouraged complete strangers to talk to each other about books and their reading experience….. ‘.What is a library and why do libraries matter?  Well, if you ask 40 people, the chances are that you will get 40 different answers because libraries mean different things to different people and people use libraries for different things at different stages of their lives.For me, Public Libraries matter because they help to give a focus and an identity to the community they serve. Whether it is information about the local area, clubs and societies, and activities for lonely people, the opportunity to feed a reading habit with bang up to date material or the need to access information about the major events in your life, such as a new job, your legal position in a dispute, what exactly the facts are behind the media reporting: a library can provide all of this.  It can help make sense of the morass of information that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. 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They help to provide a future for children and young people and a community centre for older people.  It is a known fact that proximity to a library is often a positive selling point for Estate Agents.A public library can change people’s lives.  It is a universal service from the cradle to the grave which is free at the point of contact. A good library should be a welcoming place, giving unbiased and unparalleled access to the world’s knowledge through a qualified, professional interpreter. Libraries of all kinds stand for intellectual freedom, equality of opportunity and community cohesion and, the best bit: no–one is ever going to ask you to spend money or enquire why you are spending your time there. The great looming tragedy is that those who make policy do not themselves use the public library service and they, therefore, have a picture in their mind of what the service is about. They talk about their not being relevant in the 21st Century or being nice but no longer affordable.They do not see the 60 children and parents who attend a read and rhyme time, or the schemes such as Food in School Holidays that ensure that children who are latch key kids have somewhere safe to go where they are stimulated, occupied and fed. Activities such as the annual Summer Reading Challenge, which encourages children to read six books in the summer holidays, really help children progress at school because, by the time they return in September after the long summer break, they pick up where they left off in the previous term. We have such positive feedback from parents about this scheme, with its focus on reading for fun and pleasure.  If a child reads for pleasure by the time they reach the age of 11, then they are much more likely to be successful in all walks of life, not just academically and professionally, but also personally as well, because of the effect on their general well-being.And it is not just children.  The benefits of escapist fiction are huge.  They take the reader away from the stresses and strains and conflicts of everyday life, supporting relaxation and reducing stress levels.  Reading is and should be fun and whatever you enjoy is what you should read, whether it be a graphic novel, a Mills and Boon romance, a biography or something that scares you. 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Family

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17 Apr 2018

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      string(5639) "at, laugh at the littlethings. In most scenarios, there are little things which seem out of place and ma ,y justfor a moment, make someone look at things differently and perhaps even elicit a smile.Focusing on these things can shift attention away from the major stressor and providerelief.The bigger pictureZooming out allows viewing of the bigger picture, and the stressor thereby becomesjust a small part of the whole. Effectively, the stressor loses importance and power whenreduced.Magnifying the stressor works on the opposite principle. This involves choosingto enlarge the problem in your mind to such an extent that it provides the basis for aridiculous scenario that may result in laughter. This is achieved by mentally taking astep back from the scene, or projecting it into another time and space—transferring theevents into another environment and altering the roles of people in it.This is similar to creating a sitcom out of a real situation, in an attempt to make thereal event too ridiculous in the mind’s eye to be perceived as a threat and forestallingthe fight or flight stress response.28Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadershipSkillsStaff wellbeing Fake it till you make itAnother approach to reframing involves laughing at something else to shift focus awayfrom the stressful event. This should not include laughing at another person, particularlyif that person is also under stress. An example might be watching cute or funny videos ofthe antics of puppies or kittens, which is always good for at least a smile.Additionally, the body cannot discern between laughter which is real or faked. Thepositive physical effects will still be felt, and even the mind can be fooled. Both in thescientific field and in other areas of life, the concept of ‘fake it till you make it’ is alsobeing recognised as applicable in utilising laughter for stress relief. The concept ofLaughter Yoga, introduced by Indian physician Madan Kataria, is becoming increasinglypopular since it began more than two decades ago.Laughter Yoga includes eye contact, yoga breathing and the concept of childlikeplayfulness in an exercise routine. Although planned laughter is employed whilegetting the routine underway, participants claim that the routine usually ends inspontaneous laughter. Once the laughter gets going, even if it is planned laughter,others are likely to join in because laughter, like a smile, is contagious and is as difficultto stop.The role of black humourIn movies such as Heathers, a cult movie set in a school environment, or in emergencymedical series like M*A*S*H and Scrubs, there is the suggestion that people whoencounter extreme stress as part of their everyday life find it easier to cope withtragedy and trauma by making fun out of disastrous situations. This over-the-top, crude,dark and offbeat approach has earned this genre the label of black, dark or gallowshumour.Dark humour may shock or outrage some people for whom this style of humour isoutside of their usual frame of reference, ,but for those for whom trauma and stress hasbecome far too normal a part of daily life, this kind of humour can serve the purpose ofreframing perceptions.Black humour is often based on incongruity: an example of this is the old jokeabout a condemned man who asks the hangman if the gallows are safe. Turning horrorinto a joke in this way categorises it as both incongruous and anomalous.The result is that black comedy takes the stressed individual through the steps ofreframing without their conscious knowledge or intention, and achieves the end goal:laughter as a result of a perception shift. Seeing the funny side of an otherwise stressfulsituation enables individuals to adopt the role of outside observer and view the traumaas ludicrous and comical.29Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadershipSkillsStaff wellbeingKnowledge trails1. Caring for your greatest asset – The wellbeing of your staff is central to everything that happensin your school, but how many schools have structures in place to ensure it? Nigel Gann investi-gates.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/caringforyourgreatestasset2. Smile your way to better grades – It’s not just teachers who benefit from a good laugh! JulieOlsson explains how students can reach higher levels of achievement through positive thinking.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/smile-your-way-to-better-gradesReferences1. Ellis, M. .(2015) Teachers quitting profession in recordnumbers as 4,000 leave every month, Government’sown figures reveal. The Mirror [online] 30 January.Available at:mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teachers-quitting-profession-record-numbers-5075690 [Accessed 25August 2016].According to the Benign Violation Theory of H umour, developed by researchersD .r Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren, humour is generated when there is a threat tohow someone believes things ought to be, the threat is benign to that person, and theperson realises both of these things at the same time. People try to find somethinghumorous if a situation violates, challenges or threatens their perceptions. However,they will only find it humorous as long as they are not themselves threatened. As soonas that line is crossed and the violation presents a personal threat, the joke will fall flator even cause offence.While some of the most horrific events become subject matter for jokes, thoseevents that occur further away from home often circulate sooner, while there is usuallya time delay on those closer to home, at least until the immediate threat is seen to beover. The difference"
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Leadership

SLT 7.6 It’s good to laugh

13 Mar 2017