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Former England rugby internati onal praises U niversity’s work on health andwellbeing


Former England rugby international praises University’’s work on health and wellbein


The University of Greenwich recently welcomed Matt Dawson,MBE, to its Avery Hill campus, where he provided skills and tips on a student touch rugby session and met students and staff from across the university.


During the visit,Matt, who is Health and Wellbeing Ambassador for university partner Sodexo, learnt about the university’s work to support the wellbeing of all its students and staff, a commitment culminating in the launch of its new strategy on the topic today, on University Health andWellbeing Day.


Matt Dawson said: “The University of


Greenwich has done a wonderful job when it comes to mental health awareness, not just in their health and wellbeing day, but also in the individuals talking about it.


“The education of pupils and lecturers on health and wellbeing is right up there on the agenda and I don’t think you could ask for anything more. ”


DavidMaguire, Vice Chancellor of the


University, said: “We were delighted to welcome Matt Dawson to the university and show him our fantastic sporting facilities, as well as the work we’re doing in supporting the health and wellbeing of our staff and students.


“We have recently invested £1.7m in new sports facilities and we’re keen to engage the whole student community in sport and physical activity, not just those that play at a competitive level, especially as there’s a proven link between regular moderate physical activity and better mental health. ”


As well as the launch of the new strategy, Matt’s visit also tied in with the University’s Mental Health andWellbeing day (7March), which included over 60 events across the university’s three campuses ranging from yoga and tai chi to a jewellery workshop as well as lots of information, advice and drop-in support .


NAHT responds to announcement of new school places for children with SEN Responding to the recent announcement by


NAHT re


responds to announcement of newschool places for childre children with severe learning difficulti


the DfE that thousands of new school places will be created for children with special educational needs, PaulWhiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: "With school budgets at breaking point and health and social care services severely cut, schools have been left struggling to meet the needs of our most vulnerable pupils. Today's announcement of new school places for


therefore to be welcomed. "However, this money will only go


so far and es is


funding shortages in schools go much further and deeper. It is of particular concern that the financial burden of addition support for pupils with more complex needs penalises those mainstream schools that are the most inclusive. This is unsustainable.We need significant investment into existing schools and services to


www.naht.org.uk


renwith SEN


ensure all pupils, irrespective of starting point or need, fulfil their full potential.”


Naturalworld and fantasy helps young chi dren use phisticicated lang


Natural world and fantasy helps young chilldren use soph


nguage,


The natural world and fantasy helps young children use sophisticated words such as “slithering and abracadabra”, one of the largest studies to measure pupils’ language skills has found.


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Academics have analysed 3,000 pieces of work from 824 children at 24 schools around the country aged between 7 and 16. The University of Exeter study is the first of its kind to use huge volumes of authentic school work to track children’s literacy progress.


It had previously been assumed that young children’s vocabulary was dominated by basic, high-frequency words. But the study shows children know and use highly sophisticated words from their earliest years in school. For example, seven year olds enjoyed using “meerkat”, “camel” and “vicious”, applying them in the correct way and coming back to the same words repeatedly in their writing.


What distinguished younger children's writing from that of older children and adults was not a


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preference for basic words, but rather the extent to which they repeated particular words and the fact that those words tended to focus on concrete things, rather than abstractions and ideas. For example, nouns used by Year 2 students include “earworm”, “meerkat”, “fairyland” and “volcano”, while those in Year 1 used words such as “suffusion”, “patter” and interference”.


Other words used by pupils in Key Stage 2 include ginormous, delicious, earworm, volcano, seaweed, cobra, toad, lightening, enemy and rotten.


The study found age leads to children using l ess repetitive language and to a better understanding of how different language is appropriate to different types of writing. In particular, young children tend to use 'fiction' style vocabulary (such as "yell", "creep", and "suddenly:) across all types of writing. As they get older, they maintain this style in their stories but move towards greater use of 'academic' style


www .education-today.co.uk.co.uk


words (such as "convey", "perspective" and "imply") in their non-fiction writing.


Around 53 per cent of the work was by


females and 43 by males, with the rest unknown, and 20 per cent of the children were eligible for free school meals. Around 12 per cent of the pupils spoke English as an additional language. The work was from lessons in English, science, history, geography and RE.


Teacherswhowish to have access to the research findings can go to:


research/centres/centreforresearchinwriting /proj


http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/ fo


ojects/growthingrammar/ r/ March 2019 2019 k/education/


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