Newsround

What’s been happening in the world of education?

• Dressing up as a fictional character could make children work harder, new research suggests. The study investigated the benefits of self-distancing (i.e., taking an outsider’s view of one’s own situation) on young children’s perseverance and calls this “the Batman Effect“.

• Led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, a group of health campaigners has called for pupils to be given standing desks. Listen to the research and standing desks makes absolute sense for tackling obesity. According to Professor Monica Wendel at the University of Louisville, active, standing experiences at school should “be the norm” and we should be stand-biased. There has been growing evidence that physical activity improves mental activity and could be the simplest and lowest cost method of driving whole school improvement.

In the US, standing desks have been more common in the UK. Take a look at one school’s experience here:

• Campaigners say that “Conflicting messages” on safety are preventing parents from encouraging their children to walk or cycle or school. The School Travel Survey for Parents, released by Sustrans Scotland and the Scottish Parent Teacher Council found  that

42.4% of parents felts that unsafe walking and cycling routes, a lack of or inadequate pavements, ineffective or lack of crossings, unsafe school entrances and dangerous driving were all major factors which prevented their children from walking, cycling or scootering to school.

• Research tells us that if we know the answers are available then we are much less likely to persist when problem-solving. What does this tell us about human nature?!
• Justine Greening resigns from the government and Damian Hinds has been announced as her replacement as England’s education secretary in the prime minister’s cabinet reshuffle.
• The Consortium for Research in Deaf Education (CRIDE) say that support for the 45,000 deaf children in England is in “complete disarray” as staffing levels fail to match increased demand.
• Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman says,

In primary, there is a continued narrowing of the curriculum where schools’ understandable desire to ace the English and maths SATs has been squeezing the science curriculum out. This has affected teaching in many ways, but in the very worst cases pupils have been sitting test papers every week of Years 5 and 6, forfeiting a deeper education in science and other subjects too.

Read more about what she has to say in the speech she gave at the Association for Science Education Annual Conference 2018.

• Read the ASCL’s advice Ofsted: 101 ideas to help you manage inspection and ponder number 91:

Reconsider your banner: whilst you may be proud of your inspection result, remember Ofsted is not the only mark of success. Perhaps the views of your pupils and parents would be a refreshing and welcome alternative!