Newsround

What’s been in the news lately?

• Head over to Greg Ashman’s site for an interview with Dylan Wiliam, a world authority on formative assessment and Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the UCL Institute of Education in London.
• Nesta research has shown that not all digital skills are equally ‘future-proof’. It identifies the digital skills required for a ‘future proof’ job:

The most promising digital skills for the future workforce include:

1. Animation
2. Multimedia production
3. Design in engineering
4. Building and maintaining IT systems and networks
5. Research and quantitative data analysis

The least promising digital skills for the future workforce include:

1. Invoice processing and management of accounts using accounting software
2. Data input and preparation of payroll and tax reports
3. Clerical duties (e.g. typing, using a word processor, spreadsheets, email and calendar software)
4. Sales support and processing of orders in sales management systems
5. Stock and inventory management using inventory control systems

Nesta say,

It is also significant for this year’s school leavers, who are due to receive their GCSE and A-level results next month, because the research indicates that students should be more discerning when making career choices in order to seek out opportunities where they can combine creativity with digital skills.

• According to analysis in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) 5,100 disabled children in England who need a wheelchair are waiting more than the four-month target for the equipment to be delivered.
• How can we attract more teachers? It’s going to take more than rail tickets and capped rents.
• Preserving memories is essential – learn about the junior mini-story tellers at Shiroyama Elementary School in Japan who are passing on the horror of the Nagasaki bombings.
• Excluded for being autistic? Not anymore. DfE court loss gives SEND pupils exclusion protection.
• Parents who push their children into a specialised activity early doors are doing them no favours says Zach Hambrick, a professor in the department of psychology at Michigan State University:

So parents are pushing a kid into one activity early on and setting them on the path to specialising in one thing from a very early age. But there is evidence emerging in sports that early diversification instead of specialisation leads to better long-term outcomes.

• Sticking on a video during learning time is a cop-out. Not according to Tim van der Zee it isn’t who says that writing off videos as a ‘time filler’ misunderstands how valuable the medium can be in the classroom. Ummm…..
• i News reports that universities have been recklessly dishing out unconditional offers after it emerged students were dropping out of school once they had guaranteed a place at university.