CONTRIBUTORS


The importance of pastoral care for student mental health


This month, regular Education Today contributor GRAHAM COOPER, head of education at Capita SIMS, looks at the importance of pastoral care in relation to pupil mental and physical health.


In recent times, there have been many calls to recognise the growing concerns over mental health in the teaching profession with greater workloads being cited as one of the main causes for the increasing issues around retention. In parallel to this, education as a sector also needs to recognise challenges in relation to pupil mental and physical health – and come up with some practical solutions for how these can be addressed. Last year, the Children’s Society carried out a study into the mental health


of young people, describing their findings as ‘deeply worrying’, with one of the headline figures reading that 100,000 children aged 14 in the UK are currently thought to be self-harming. This is an extremely concerning figure, and there’s no doubt that schools


can play a key role in supporting pupils – however, with school priorities meaning that staff already feel under pressure to deliver in a wide range of academic areas, trying to offer assistance in matters such as this can seem beyond the resources of many individuals and teams. Recent times of austerity have seen funding for pastoral care cut further


and further back, making it increasingly difficult to find the budget for support, despite identifying children in need of help – it can seem like an overwhelming situation for many. Recognising issues in children can often be the first step towards providing


support, and if this is achieved early, potential problems can be addressed before they escalate out of hand. If you’re currently working in a school, it is extremely important to have a good understanding of the safeguarding policies and procedures in place, combined with a working knowledge of how to put them into practice. That’s why I am pleased with the excellent software solution for managing safeguarding offered to schools by SIMS partners at MyConcern. It is always said that prevention is better than cure and this applies to


mental just as much as physical health. Clearly, schools can only manage those aspects of children’s lives that are within their control, but helping to provide a safe and happy environment can go a long way in this respect. While much of the focus in lessons has increasingly centred on exam


performance and preparation, there remains a ‘greater good’ for schools to ensure that children in their care are fully prepared for the challenges of life, not just academic performance and improvement. Delivering outstanding lessons while also providing the support and care needed for children can create huge additional pressure for teachers and the need for additional resources is clear. Hopefully with the right awareness and continued coverage of the


benefits of providing a culture of wellbeing rather than just statistical outcomes achievement, we can see the education sector in the future delivering a more supportive environment for the development of a child’s mental health. The relationship between teachers, parents and children has always been a symbiotic one, and the need for this to be true is now more important than ever. Ensuring a positive setting for pupils will undoubtedly create a more manageable and enjoyable working environment for everyone involved in education.


uFind out more about MyConcern, the simple, safe and secure safeguarding solution created by One Team Logic by visiting this page: Capita-sims.co.uk/MyConcernETFeb2019


18 www.education-today.co.uk


Toys and games in teaching


This month, Education Today contributor KIRSTY BERTENSHAWlooks at the power inherent in using toys and games as aids to teaching.


As teachers we are always looking for more innovative ways to deliver the vast content of the curriculum without lecturing a class or repeating the same tasks over and over. Pupils often complain that classes are boring, and that can lead them to disengage or disrupt learning. One way to reengage learners is to use toys and games. Here are a few ideas for large groups or smaller groups. Lego or mega blocks style construction bricks are very useful.


For maths, fractions can easily be taught and determined using stacks of bricks. In science, the arrangement of a pile of identical bricks can be used to demonstrate the difference between molecules and particles, or compounds where the bricks are joined and mixtures where they are not. Bricks can be joined to show the approximate number of each atom in a compound e.g. two white bricks and one red brick would be water with two hydrogens and one oxygen. K’Nex is a fantastic resource for STEM activities or engineering.


Build the tallest tower that can hold a mass, a long bridge to connect two sides of a river, or construct a simple machine to demonstrate forces. If really inspired to explore forces, use a combination of toys to design a Rube Goldberg machine demonstrating as many forces as possible along the way. For maths, K’nex can be used to explore 2D shapes such as trapezoids and types of triangles. Symmetry, rotation and reflection are easily explored using a constructed shape of letter. 3D shapes, nets of 3d shapes and even the volume of 3D objects can be discovered and measured using K’Nex pieces. Boggle or Scrabble® type games improve literacy in a fun way,


improving communication skills which in turn help in every aspect of learning. Countdown combines literacy and numeracy learning and can be played in quite large numbers! To adapt these games, have a few dictionaries at the ready for learners to check their hunches or get a few suggestions. Card games are commercially available for both maths and


science, and quite cheap for each set. Learners can play snap or match up equivalent fractions or simple sums. Card games can easily be made for a specific learning outcome such as matching the square roots of numbers in their written form, e.g. matches to 9. Alternatively, students can write their own sets of cards for maths. Traditional sets of cards can be used and games like 21 used as a super quick ice breaker to practise mental maths. Snap and match games can work for many subjects across the


curriculum, from science matching element names to symbols, to historic events and dates when revising for GCSEs, and even modern foreign languages! Cards can be made with the English version of a word and then the translation in French, German, Spanish etc. – the more the sets of cards are played with, the easier it is for the learner to remember which ones which are. Start with a simple pack of cards, with only a handful or terms they need to learn, then start to add more difficult matches. Learning through play is effective at all ages!


Kirsty is the founder of STEMtastic, an education consultancy with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths www.stemtastic.co.uk


February 2019


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