CONTENTS Dear Reader,


Welcome to the latest issue of Education Today, and welcome back to school! With coronavirus still dominating the headlines, I hope your Christmas holidays didn’t suffer too much in the way


of disruption, and if they did, I hope things are returning to some semblance of normality now. We have a great issue for you to kick off the new term, whether you are actually in school or whether you are teaching remotely, using the large array of remote learning tools to keep your students engaged. Speaking of remote learning, the UK’s biggest showcase of EdTech, Bett, was postponed in December, moving from its usual January spot at London’s ExCel to the end of March. We’ll be covering all the news and happenings from the show then, but in the meantime, we have four great features for you this month covering a diverse range of topics to keep you interested and informed. In our first, we speak to Dr Margot Sunderland, Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health (CCMH) and Co-Director at Trauma Informed Schools UK, who discusses the impact of primary school exclusions and asks how we move beyond the current system to one that actually helps keep children in schools and not out of them, while in our second, journalist Sal McKeown talks alternative provision with Lisa Alberti, founder of Pinc College, about the challenges many children face and the ways in which alternative provision can help them find their feet outside of mainstream education. In our third feature, we’re delighted to hear from Will Jordan, Co-Founder of IMP Software, who casts his eye over the multi-academy trust landscape and looks at what recent government announcements might mean for schools still undecided about the benefits of launching or joining a MAT; and in our fourth, last but not least, Johanna Sale, Vice Principal at Impington Village College in Cambridge, explains how her school has used its school trips to help its students broaden their knowledge of new cultures and develop an open-minded attitude to the world around them.


Remember, we love to hear from you, you can get in touch with us via Twitter @EdTodayMag, as well as by phone or email. Enjoy the issue!


Jonathan Swift - Managing Editor


In this issue... 04-10 NEWS


Selected stories from the UK education scene this month 12 THINKING OUT LOUD


With Felicia Jackson, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation 13 VIEWS


With Philippa Wraithmell, author of “The Digital Ecosystem: How to create a sustainable digital strategy for your school”; and Julia Garvey, Deputy Director General at BESA


14 BESA CORNER


With BESA members Fieldwork Education and Discovery Education


16-17 VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


We hear from Jon White, Development Coach at Clare Mount Specialist Sports College 18 CONTRIBUTORS


With Dr Liana Beattie and Kirsty Bertenshaw 19 SPOTLIGHT ON SEND With Joanne Gladders and Hannah Rix


20-25 VIEWS & OPINION Featuring comment and insight from the UK education sector


26-27 FEATURE: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING


With Dr Margot Sunderland, Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health


28-29 FEATURE: ALTERNATIVE PROVISION With Lisa Alberti, founder of Pinc College 30-31 FEATURE: MULTI-ACADEMY TRUSTS With Will Jordan, Co-Founder of IMP Software 32-33 FEATURE: SCHOOL TRIPS


We hear from Johanna Sale, Vice Principal at Impington Village College


34-35 BUILDINGS, MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT


36 FOCUS ON ED TECH 37-39 COMPUTING & IT RESOURCES 40-41 IN OTHER NEWS 42-IBC RECRUITMENT


Selected job opportunities from talentedteacherjobs.co.uk


Publication Manager: Carl Hearnden Publishing Director: Paul Ryder Managing Editor: Jonathan Swift Artwork Editor: Kirsty Hood Secretary: Tracey Ballard Published by:


Datateam Business Media Limited, London Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8LY Tel: 01622 699128 (Advertising) Tel: 07969 141997 (Editorial) Fax: 01622 757646 Email: education@datateam.co.uk Circulation: Curwood CMS Ltd datateam@c-cms.com Tel: 01580 883844 Fax: 01580 883849 Subscription Prices 2020 Number of editions per year: 11 UK: £52 Overseas: £132


The Publishers cannot accept responsibility for any discrepancies either in copy or between products and/or services listed. Nor can they be responsible for illustrations and/or copy for products which lead to infringement of copyright


Whizz Education


Working in partnership with schools, Whizz Education creates agreed implementation plans for maths provision. Reliable data can be submitted to OFSTED and Boards of Governors demonstrating progress and attainment. Confidence that all students are receiving the same high calibre of teaching across the school is facilitated through teacher capacity building, course correction and our award-winning virtual tutor Maths-Whizz.


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