Education Secretary sets out vision for character and resilience

Character and resilience are as crucial to young people’s future success as academic qualifications, says Education Secretary Damian Hinds.

 

In a conference, last week, Mr Hinds laid out the five Foundations for Building Character and pledged to work with schools and external organisations, including membership bodies and charities, to help every child access activities within each of those foundations.

 

Hinds said: “Character and resilience are the qualities, the inner resources that we call on to get us through the frustrations and setbacks that are part and parcel of life. How do we instill this in young people, how do we make sure they are ready to make their way in the world as robust and confident individuals?”

 

To make this happen, Hinds announced:

• plans for an audit of the availability of out of school activities across the country, to help understand where more focus is needed to increase access and choice
• a call on businesses and charities to offer more work experience and volunteer placements to young people
• relaunching the Department for Education’s Character Awards, which highlight innovative programmes

Read more via Department for Education

Herts for Learning English blog: Can you recommend a good book about the Romans?

In a new blog post, Penny Slater, Deputy Lead Teaching and Learning Adviser (English), explores the thorny issue of book recommendations and the desire to make links to the wider curriculum ...

 

As an English adviser, I am often asked this question - and others like it. The motivation behind this line of questioning is quite understandable: a primary school teacher, faced with the mammoth task of covering all the content that needs to be taught across the different subjects within the primary curriculum, is seeking to make the best use of the time available by using the English lesson to teach (or at least bolster) the knowledge requirements specified by another subject domain.

 

Quite simply, there are so many beautiful, challenging, profound, witty, rewarding (I could go on…) books available for us to plunder with our children, that to limit our selection to one that has a - sometimes vague - link with another subject matter is not only demoralising for both us as teachers and the children, I would argue that it is detrimental to both the subjects in question.

 

Read more via Can you recommend a good book about the Romans?

Beyond Healthy Award for Welwyn Garden City School

Over the last year, Commonswood Primary & Nursery School, Welwyn Garden City, have worked in conjunction with the British Obesity Society to improve the eating habit of their pupils.

 

The school have been working tirelessly to make lunchtimes healthier, improve the cooking provision for children at school and develop the area of resilience and mental wellbeing across the school. In December, they were assessed to see if the school could gain Healthy School Status and were successful.

 

Over two thousand schools are working with the project but Commonswood Primary are one of 22 schools, who have received Healthy School Status and Beyond Healthy Status.

 

Headteacher Gillian Seymour said:"This is a massive achievement and will benefit all the children. Our Deputy Headteacher, Sarah Manning has worked tirelessly with colleagues to embed a long lasting culture of health in school to ensure the health of all pupils at Commonswood is the best that it can possibly be.”