What’s been newsworthy in the world of education recently?
- The Duchess of Cambridge visited my old school in London (Roe Green Junior School) to launch a new website aimed at helping children deal with mental health issues. Mentally Healthy Schools will be available soon this term.
- Dr Patricia Davies at the University of Wolverhampton finds that teaching children with iPads means they struggle to concentrate without technology saying that “it was easy for them to become disengaged and disinterested in classes that did not involve iPad use because ‘the lessons are boring and [we] find it hard to concentrate’.” Her findings will appear in a new book, titled Enhancing Learning and Teaching with Technology.
- The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) are keen to ensure that young children learn about copyright and piracy and they have launched some fabulous teaching resources on the crackingideas.com site.
- According to a study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Combining a kindergarten readiness summer program with a self-regulation intervention improves school readiness.
- Damian Hinds gave his first speech as education secretary at the annual Education World Forum and said that schools should teach children resilience through public speaking and sport to help them in the workplace. See what else he had to say in the following clip (FW to 6:44) or see a transcript of the speech here.
- According to research by O2, British children are aiming for careers in technology such as vloggers, animators and software developers. The study of 2,000 parents and 2,000 children aged 5-16 showed parents would be more comfortable though if their children followed a more traditional career path.
- Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, a bullying expert, says that no child under 12 should be using social media.
- The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a report – The Attainment Gap – which assesses the gap through the lens, first, of children and young people; and secondly, of schools, as well as early years and post-16 settings. It contains 15 key lessons learned in the EEF’s first six years including the observation that,
Sharing effective practice between schools – and building capacity and effective mechanisms for doing so – is key to closing the gap.