VIEWS & OPINION


Starting strong and building on hopes and dreams


Comment by RACHEL MACKENZIE, Education Adviser - Careers & Employability at Greenwood Academies Trust


With increasing recognition of the skills gap and the need to tackle gender bias, giving children good careers role models is more of a priority than ever before. Here’s how our schools in the Greenwood Academies Trust are addressing this, with the help of great partnerships and free support. We want our young people to have information about the workplace


and to meet inspirational people in a wide variety of roles. Several of our schools have high levels of pupil premium and economic challenges in their communities so giving the children access to great role models is a key part of this, especially at primary level. We’re not a trust that wants to make every school fit the same mould,


each school is different and we understand this. We support them by putting them in touch with different businesses and organisations that can help and letting them know about the different programmes that exist. This approach does take longer but it’s more sustainable and unique to each school, so people have really bought into it. We created key partnerships with organisations and explore the


different funding organisations that exist around careers and employability to make sure we can offer all the opportunities that are available to our young people. We wanted to go beyond the Gatsby benchmarks so we begin at primary level and focus on broadening horizons and challenge stereotypes. In Corby we worked with local businesses during British Industry Week,


inviting them to share their career stories. We partner with DHL and Capital One, both of whom are large employers in another of our areas. Using them means that we’re able to offer insight into different roles within each organisation and we can use the expertise of their staff to help inform our young people. We know that some of our students might not want to go to university


so we make sure that they have information about apprenticeships too. Frida Nzaba, now an engineer with Rolls Royce, is one of our alumni and she shared her story with Nottingham Girls Academy. The impact was great; hearing from a former student really resonates with them. Many organisations and people are keen to work with schools. We use


the Inspiring the Future programme to find volunteers in different industries that can come into the school and talk to our pupils. We focus on challenging stereotypes and raising aspirations at primary


level and we bring everything together at secondary with a face to face interview to help young people discover where they need to go with the information and hopes that they have. Our ‘Your Character Counts’ initiative underpins our careers strategy.


The world is changing more than ever so it’s even more important that young people have resilience and confidence, along with independent research skills, teamwork and collaboration. Wanting your young people to have a good start comes naturally, and working towards that is incredibly rewarding.


Ban the phones?! Comment by MARK BENTLEY, Online Safety and Safeguarding Manager, London Grid for Learning


The French have been cracking down on mobile phones in schools: as of the rentrée (back-to- school season), a new law fulfils French President Emmanuel Macron’s election promise to ban smartphones and other internet-connected devices on school grounds for 3-15 year-old pupils. So you won’t see another phone in a French school… or will you? Actually, it’s not that simple – for some, not a lot will change. There have been many column inches


dedicated to the ban on mobile phones in French schools that came into force in September, and a number of different experts have weighed in on this contentious debate. Much has been said on the negative aspects of mobile devices, from their ability to distract pupils, disrupt learning and even suggestions that device usage may hinder young people’s development. Conversely, experts have pointed out that they


can be a gateway to innovative educational opportunities: there are a huge range of digital resources (including free ones) available nowadays. Perhaps most crucially, totally banning technological devices is simply unrealistic in the twenty-first century, where at least a certain


December 2018


amount of digital savviness is required to succeed in the working and education world, not to mention socially. In this column I’m taking this opportunity to


issue a pedantic “Did you know?” as a bit of background to the debate, which is certainly relevant if we take the approach of “If it works in another country, then why not here?” The actual text of the law says that in early years settings, primary and lower secondary schools (collèges), mobiles are banned, “except where the school expressly permits their use in specific circumstances (especially educational use) or locations”. And for the three final years of secondary education (lycées), the school doesn’t have to but “can” introduce a “total or partial” ban. So in fact, any school that still wants to allow mobiles can do exactly that. Whatever side of the debate you fall on,


remember that the result of the new French law is greater support for schools who want a total ban, but plenty of scope for allowing mobile and device usage – and not only for educational reasons. Here at LGfL TRUSTnet, we’re all about


supporting schools using tech better in the classroom and beyond. We found that nearly one in ten pupils find it hard to put down their device and have a break in our Hopes and Streams pupil online safety survey which confirms that technology dependence is a factor which safeguarding leads and carers of young people need to carefully consider and monitor. We will be looking at how we can further


support schools, parents and pupils with tech addiction/ detox over the coming months. Some initial suggestions include discussing latest screen time concerns with parents and sharing sensible advice on balancing activities rather than limiting time, as well as addressing technology addiction by asking pupils what they think about the nearly one in three who admitted finding it hard to stop using devices to have a break. Aside from this, it starts of course with the modelling of good behaviour by adults! Rather than banning technology we propose


that the emphasis should be placed upon teaching children (and even adults) how to become responsible users of technology in order to best prepare them for the modern world.


www.education-today.co.uk 25


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