VIEWS From the pen of... Louise and Noam Lederman
From the pen of… is a series looking at the authors of books on topics in education. This month we hear from LOUISE and NOAM LEDERMAN, authors of the Jungle Jams book series.
British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
Looking for quality suppliers you can trust?
This month, regular Education Today contributor and Director of BESA PATRICK HAYES discusses the trade body’s new Code of Practice.
For over 80 years, schools have looked for the British Educational Suppliers Association’s logo when buying products and services. It’s an easy way to check whether the suppliers are providing quality offerings they can trust.
At a time of tightening budgets, this has never been more important.
“Sound and rhythm are core elements of life, from the chirping of birds in the morning to the radio shows during your commute. There is a constant soundtrack to occupy your minds. With this in mind it is unfortunate that the state of music education in the UK today continues to fragment, and relatively few are able to access and enjoy it.
“As musicians ourselves we know how possessing a creative outlet and playing a musical instrument is crucial in maintaining a positive mind and developing skills in all aspects of life. This is something we are keen to pass on to future generations of children, not just our own two little ones. There are millions of children across the country who hold bundles of untapped potential due to an on-going staffing and funding crisis currently affecting schools.
“We know and believe that music is key to a child’s development and there are many studies that prove this. For the Early Years, listening to and appreciating music can help children to develop speech and sounds. Playing with musical instruments can also aid development of fine motor skills. For Primary level, music can build a child’s confidence and provide them with social skills, and again as proven by numerous studies, learning music and notation can help with maths and solving problems.
“Without the necessary motivation and education during the formative years, there is a real risk of children becoming increasingly alienated from the world of music.
“This is why we developed our Jungle Jam book series. We aim to assist in filling a void at Early Years and Primary education levels. Jungle Jam is a fun, informative and educational rhyming book series about a jungle band who go on incredible musical adventures together. The series introduce young readers to different cultures, music genres and musical instruments from all over the world. In addition, the books include themes that focus on skills and learning that are crucial for a child’s development, such as; working together as a team, trying new things and overcoming fears, listening to and respecting others, accepting change and sharing. “We hope that our books will inspire children and ignite a passion and interest in music from a young age that will help them in future life. We can certainly see the results from our own son, who has just started learning the electric guitar as he wants to be just like Ziggy the Zebra, who is one of Jungle Jam’s main characters. “What will the future look like for our children? Ten years ago iTunes reached the milestone of 20 million songs, the world watched their favourite music videos in standard definition and Justin Bieber was still two years away from smashing records with his debut single ‘One Time’. The next ten years are a mystery and it is essential that we cultivate and encourage the next generation in order to maintain our own music landscape that rings around the world.
www.jungle-jam.com October 2017
Schools simply can’t afford to have to pay twice for products and services that aren’t up to scratch. And they don’t have time to spend hours – or days, or weeks – trying to get refunds from customer service departments who take the “computer says no” approach to customer experience. Time and money are such scarce commodities they cannot be squandered.
BESA members take great pride in displaying their BESA “tick” – as, indeed, does this magazine, Education Today. It shows that they sign up to a Code of Practice that makes them fully accountable to schools, with an independent means of arbitration – BESA – should any issues arise.
I must say, fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often, although when issues do arise, suppliers are always very quick to ensure that they are resolved.
It’s paramount, therefore, that this Code of Practice reflects the concerns of schools, which is why we are delighted to unveil an updated Code.
The new Code of Practice is the result of a year-long consultation with industry and schools to understand what assurances schools want when buying products and services. We undertook extensive focus groups with school leaders to get a clear understanding of what is important to them: from assurances around safeguarding to concerns to data security issues.
At a time when pupils spend over 50% of their time in the classroom engaging with education technology, it is absolutely no surprise that ICT-related issues top the list of things that schools wanted a Code of Practice to cover.
It is a mandatory membership commitment given by all members to BESA, which represents over 300 of the UK’s world-leading education suppliers. I can say with confidence that any resources you will need in the classroom will be provided by one of our members. Each member is expected, as a condition of membership, to meet the ethical standards provided for in the Code of Practice in that member’s relationship with the member’s customers. The BESA Code of Practice offers schools assurance in five key areas: Quality and Standards, Transparency and Openness, Integrity, Safeguarding and Data Security, and Discriminatory Conduct. The Code of Practice is something we take very seriously at BESA, as it reflects our members’ desire to ensure they are always at the forefront of offering the highest quality of products and services to schools around the world, and providing a world-class customer experience.
To look at our full list of members, and to read our Code of Practice in full, visit:
www.besa.org.uk
For information from BESA contact: Patrick Hayes 020 7537 4997
patrick@besa.org.uk
www.besa.org.uk
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