BESA CORNER
In our regular feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, Education Today this month hears from teacher DAVID WILLIAMS on STEM in Action™ from Learning Resources®; while SAM PRESTON of SSS Learning debunks some safeguarding training myths.
David Williams
Championing STEM in the Primary Classroom
STEM is more than an acronym; it is an inter-disciplinary approach to learning that encourages problem solving skills, team work and discovery across Science, Technology and Maths. STEM in Action™ from Learning Resources® supports teachers in delivering engaging, practical STEM lessons that link skills to real-life scenarios. Highly Commended by the judges at the Education Resources Awards 2017, the projects meet the attainment targets of National Curriculum for England (2014). Each of the eight kits includes everything a teacher needs to start teaching straight out of the box, saving valuable preparation time and building confidence in STEM teaching.
A Head Teacher’s Perspective
David Williams at Parkfield Community School in Birmingham, won the National Pupil Premium Award for 2015 and invested the extra funding in a specialised STEM area for his pupils. “We came up with the idea of creating Parkfield’s Young Engineers’ Academy (YEA) where children could specifically work on STEM projects in a vibrant, dedicated space and have a wealth of resources which do this Each half term, our children visit our YEA for a full day. Here the children tackle a bespoke scenario, that provides the children with an opportunity to explore the links between and develop skills within the STEM subjects (in particular engineering, which is unfortunately given a low priority within many primary schools), in practical, real-life and fun contexts.” After searching for quality STEM resources, the school discovered STEM in Action™ and invested in the Earthquake Technologies project.
“The first thing that caught my attention was the wealth of teacher’s lesson plans that were provided within the teacher’s guide and children’s resource sheets. Although I’ve never been somebody who follows commercial lesson plans to the letter, these provided me with the inspiration I had searched for and with a few tweaks to the lesson plans/resources here and there, I could immediately see the potential of how this pack could be used with primary aged children to tackle various aspects of the STEM subjects, in an engaging way, within the context of looking at structures and earthquakes. I quickly found myself ordering multiple sets of this to use with a full class.”
Feeding back on the success of the project, Mr Williams said: “All of the children that used this kit developed further their social skills (turning taking, cooperation etc). Our school also has a very high percentage of EAL children and these sorts of activities are great at encouraging the children to develop their speaking and listening skills further. The debating that occurred of possible ways forward and potential pitfalls was great.”
To conclude, Mr Williams summarised the importance of STEM in the primary classroom:
“The need for our Young Engineers Academy and for all schools to generally provide a higher priority to the STEM subjects is very clear. Through our current and future planned work with our YEA and through other school’s giving the STEM subjects a higher profile (particularly in primary schools), hopefully we can inspire and equip our children with the vital skills they will need to succeed in the future, thus ensuring that our future workforce and country continues to lead the world in creativity and innovation”
www.steminaction.co.uk 8
www.education-today.co.uk
MYTH BUSTER: Safeguarding training
Sam Preston
From Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and child protection, to prevention of radicalisation, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Honour Based Violence (HBV), it is a legal
requirement that all teachers and support staff know how to support, respond to and report child abuse. Listed below are some of the latest safeguarding training myths I hear regularly in my work:
Training should only be conducted annually Annual safeguarding training and induction training is now mandatory following updates to the Department for Education’s ‘Keeping children safe in education’ for schools in England legislation but it also highlights the importance of regular safeguarding training throughout the academic year to keep up to date with the latest safeguarding knowledge and information. However, there are scenarios where training should be conducted more regularly.
My staff will never be 100 percent up-to-date with safeguarding legislation The world of legislative protection for young people is continuously evolving in line with case learnings and outcomes and so it is imperative that you work with a quality safeguarding partner who can alert you to changes in legislation and guidance and provide you with updated resources to share with staff.
I should be training my staff to a specific level dependent on role In the past safeguarding training specifications were often talked about in levels. Today, unless that is the language used by the LSCBs own training policy, training should be not be described in terms of levels, but by the role it is aimed at. It is essential that schools & academies always check what content is being described and who the training is aimed at.
Volunteers don’t need same level of training as teachers In terms of Prevent Duty, FGM, Child Protection, and CSE, all staff should receive safeguarding training as each area contains specific reporting duties which all staff need to understand in order to implement safeguarding effectively.
Legally we have to undertake training directed by the Local Authority Legislation and guidance is clear. Governance, devolved usually to the discretion of the Head Teacher, is responsible for sourcing and ensuring the quality of training provision. OSFTED or your Local Authority cannot prescribe how you train your staff, or specify the method of training undertaken.
Group training is best Group training can be useful, for example when planning for critical incident responses, however, it is imperative that every member of staff attending that training is individually assessed. When we teach in the classroom we differentiate so why should adult learning be different? To gather large groups of teaching staff together all on one day, once a
year, to complete safeguarding training, usually conducted on an INSET day is no mean feat. People may be absent, new staff members joining during the year must wait until the next planned session, and training in large groups makes it difficult to assess individual learning outcomes. Whilst individual face-to-face training is unfeasible financially, e-learning is
playing a key role in safeguarding training. Online learning anytime, anywhere is making a huge impact in teacher training across many disciplines. Already used by over 100,000 frontline professionals to help protect children
and young people from abuse and neglect, SSS Learning’s courses cover a broad spectrum of issues; from Child Protection and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), to Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence, Prevent Duty (radicalisation and extremism) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
For more information, please visit
www.ssscpd.co.uk/education May 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
