With calls to the NSPCC about sexual abuse increasing since schools started back, the children’s charity has teamed up with Ant & Dec to make sure children know what to do and who to speak to if something is worrying or upsetting them. The celebrity duo is hosting a new virtual version of the NSPCC’s Speak Out. Stay Safe assembly, which – before lockdown – the charity had delivered to millions of pupils.

NSPCC experts reported that the risk of abuse and neglect increased during lockdown and the charity today releases new data which shows that since children have gone back to school in September, the NSPCC helpline has dealt with 827 contacts about sexual abuse. This was a 10% increase when compared to the four-month period since lockdown (April to August), when the monthly average for this issue was 754 contacts.

The national lockdown left many children trapped indoors with their abusers for months on end, and the main issues the helpline heard about were physical and emotional abuse and neglect. It is vital that children know what to do and who to speak to if something is happening in their life which is making them feel scared or anxious.

Before the pandemic the NSPCC delivered its assembly face-to-face, in more than 90% of all primary schools across the UK, and in 2019/20 the charity visited nearly 7,000 schools, and delivered workshops to almost 1.6million children before lockdown was imposed. At this current time, NSPCC school volunteers can no longer deliver the assembly in person, so instead the organisation has made a 30-minute online Speak Out. Stay Safe assembly available to all primary schools in the UK.

In an accessible and age appropriate way, the assembly helps children understand how to recognise different forms of abuse, and how to speak out if they need to. The NSPCC is also offering supporting teaching materials with plenty of engaging activities. The assembly and resources are also available in British Sign Language (BSL) and Welsh. As well as this, it also focuses on some of the additional worries that children are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hosts Ant & Dec, who’ve been supporting the NSPCC for many years said:

Ant said: “We’re thrilled to be involved with the online version of the NSPCC’s Speak Out. Stay Safe assembly and we’ve had great fun filming with Buddy, the NSPCC mascot.

“We know that the lockdown will have been a difficult time for some children and others may be struggling with being back at school.

Dec added: “This is why the NSPCC’s Speak Out. Stay Safe assembly is so important as it reminds children that no matter what may be worrying them, there is always someone who can help.

“It is a real privilege to be supporting the NSPCC with this online assembly and we want all children to remember that difficult times never have to be dealt with alone.”

The virtual assembly is also being backed by the Department for Education.

Minister for Children and Families Vicky Ford said: “Protecting children from harm has always been a priority for this Government which is why throughout the pandemic we asked schools, nurseries and colleges to remain open for those who are most vulnerable.

“The NSPCC’s Speak Out. Stay Safe assembly will encourage children to speak to a trusted adult about their worries and for many that is likely to be a teacher. That’s one of the reasons why getting children back into the classroom in September was so important and why we are placing social workers in some schools to help teachers spot and report the signs of abuse and neglect more quickly.

“We have contributed towards funding Childline, so I’m pleased to support this extra resource for children to get help and advice.”

In all Speak Out. Stay Safe assemblies children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or Childline. The assemblies help to reinforce key lessons about abuse and neglect that are compulsory for all primary schools.

Karen Squillino, NSPCC Head of School Service said: “Children have been stuck indoors for many months and at the NSPCC we know for some children home isn’t always a safe place. Many during lockdown will have faced heightened risks. As the pandemic continues we all need to be there to support children, and by equipping them with the knowledge and understanding they need to speak out is one vital way we can help ensure their safety.

“I encourage all primary schools to sign up, so that we can help as many children as possible to recognise and report any worries they have.”

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To sign-up visit nspcc.org.uk/speakout

Adults concerned about a child can contact the NSPCC helpline seven days a week on 0808 800 5000, or email help@nspcc.org.uk.

Children can call Childline on 0800 11 11 from 7.30am to midnight from Monday to Friday or 9am to midnight on weekends. Or they can get in touch via www.childline.org.uk

1. Connect and smart consolidate

Connect

As students come into the room, there are 6 words on the board for them to translate into or from English. 2 of the words are from last term, 2 from last week, 2 from last lesson. No books allowed. 

Why they work:

• The task is exactly the same every lesson, so I don’t have to spend time explaining what to do.  
• They take seconds to mark. 
• They are valuable low-stakes testing.
• Words can be selected to prepare students for the lesson as well as to remind them of previous words.

Consolidate

I finish the lesson 5 minutes before bell and on the board there are key words or sentences that test students on what has been learnt in the lesson. No books allowed.

What’s good about them:

• They show students what they key learning of that lesson was. 
• They make students revisit the information and therefore they aid recall. 
• They tell me how well students remember the learning.
• They show students they have made progress.
• They give students a sense of achievement. 

 2. Objectives slide

At the beginning of every lesson, I show students the objectives for the entire module. I talk them through what we have done and what we will be doing in future, with quick examples. There are many benefits to this, but memory is one of the main ones. 

3. Objective recap

Before introducing new content, I go back through all previous objectives from the module. 

For every objective I have a visual from the lesson where we learnt it. This visual has all the key language. 

Students spend 30 seconds on each objective, testing each other in TL on words from the visual. They are taught to choose words that will challenge their partners.

4. Making connections sentences

Either after each previous objective or after all of them, students translate making connections sentences. There are always two of them. The first one is taken directly from the objective’s visual. The second one uses the objective’s grammar point in a context studied earlier in the year. 

This acts as a useful reminder but crucially, it teaches students that grammar is transferable across topics. 

5. Cumulative key tasks every 4-6 lessons

These are key assessed pieces that the whole department complete. As the module progresses, they include elements from all units. This example is from Key Task 4, which assesses knowledge from all units in the module. 

Additionally, students are marked on the same 20 points of grammar every time they complete an assessment or a key task. 

6. Vocab tests with every key task and assessment

Every key task or assessment comes with a 20-word vocab test, containing words from all modules studied so far. 

7. Cumulative Quizlet vocab lists

In order to prepare students for their vocab tests, I have created Quizlet vocabulary lists that include all vocab learnt so far, but no future vocab. Students are asked to spend 5 or ten minutes a day studying this vocab, independently of their homework.

8. Throwback homework

This is simply homework tasks belonging to previous topics. 

9. Repetition activities for the classroom

Self-explanatory, really. These are my favourite 5:

Guessing game

• Partner A thinks of a sentence from a sentence builder. 
• Partner B guesses the sentence with 2 rules.
  • They can only guess one column at a time
  • Whether they get the guess right or wrong, they will have to start their next guess from the beginning of the sentence 

X Factor

• Partner A is the judge.
• Partner B has to say a sentence from a complex sentence builder without looking at the board/sheet.  
• Partner A says NO (or makes a buzzer sound) every time partner B makes any mistake. 
• Partner B can peek before trying again but must always start from the beginning. 

Sentence chaos

• Partner A says a phrase from the board (chosen randomly).
• Partner B repeats that phrase and adds one.
• Partner A repeats all sentences said so far and adds another one, etc.  

Cumulative translation

• Partner A is a referee and has the answers. 
• Partner B translates sentence one. If they get it right, they move on. If they get it wrong, they lose their turn and Partner C has a go. 
• Students always have to go back to sentence 1. 

Use Insert – SmartArt on Word to get this editable template. 

Disappearing sentence

• A complex sentence is on the board. Students read it out loud. 
• A word turns into a gap. Students read the whole sentence out loud. 
• Another word turns into a gap. Students read the sentence, and so on. 

This can be differentiated by showing the English version of the sentence.  

10. Online self-testing

Quizlet, Memrise and other similar testing apps are great for memory and can be used in a variety of ways. 

Multiple choice 

I love using the Learn option of Quizlet, answers in Spanish and only multiple choice. Students respond to this quiz by writing a number from 1-4 on scrap paper. 

Sentence translation

I also make Quizlet vocab lists with whole sentences and ask students to go on the write option, answers in Spanish. The aim is to keep going until they get all the sentences perfectly right. This works particularly well if the sentences are complex and few. 

5 tips for teaching diversity, equity and inclusion: 

1. Promoting Acceptance: One of the British Values is tolerance, but acceptance is the ultimate goal in creating a culture of kindness, compassion and empathy. How can we create a sense of curiosity about humanity and holistically develop the children we teach? Check out the fantastic work by No Outsiders. 
2. Increasing Visibility: We need to consider representation across the school, from who is on our display boards, who is on our reading lists, who is on our lesson presentations, who is speaking in assembly. Put yourself in one of your student’s shoes and walk around the school. See if you can see yourself on the walls, in the library, and in the curriculum.  
3. Encouraging Celebration: Does your school calendar include all religious festivals? Do you mark national and international days and harness them as opportunities to celebrate? International Day of the Girl, World Mental Health Day and Black History Month are all on the horizon in the autumn term. How will you and your students mark them together? Also consider how you can leverage other dates such as National Poetry Day to spotlight and showcase diverse voices.  
4. Creating Belonging: We often make reasonable adjustments when a child from a diverse background or with additional needs joins our class or our school. How can we flip that and make our spaces inclusive all the time? Consider the layout of your classroom: Could a child with a disability move around it, or do you need to move some furniture around? Consider the way you communicate: Could a child with English as a second language understand your instructions, or could you dual code more? Consider your gendered language: Could you moderate the use of ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ now before a trans or non-binary child joins your class? 
5. Enabling Learning: It is our responsibility to keep reading, to keep learning, and to grow in confidence when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. We need to check our power and our privilege and actively listen to understand. We need to consciously diversify our thinking, be aware of our biases, and diversify the circles we move in. By pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones, we will meet people who challenge us and whom we will learn from. 

4 tips for leading diversity, equity and inclusion:

1. Diverse Recruitment: Where are you advertising and how are you advertising? Job adverts put a lot of people off from applying. Some things to consider: Is your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion clear? Is your language inclusive? Is your imagery diverse? Have your recruitment panels had unconscious bias training? 
2. Diverse Leadership: In many schools, the teachers are diverse but the leaders are not. What is your school / MAT’s policy for talent management and leadership development? How can you invest in the potential of your whole staff and challenge the nepotism of promotion? How can you plug the leaky pipeline of diverse talent? Make sure you are connected to your local Equalities and Diversities Hub.
3. Diverse Governance: When we look up at our governing bodies and trust boards, whom do we see? What message are we sending to our staff body and our school community when the decision-making power is not diverse? Check out the Everybody on Board campaign.
4. Diverse Curriculum: The commitment to diversity is a long-term goal for the school sector and needs to be embedded in curriculum design. What are you plans to review your long term, medium term and short term plans to ensure that your curriculum is inclusive? How can you integrate Global Citizenship and the Sustainable Development goals across the curriculum? What are the quick wins? We recommend checking out Lyfta. 

We founded Diverse Educators to be a grassroots community that creates a space for intersectional conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion in education. Training opportunities include webinars, coaching, leadership programmes and conferences (both face to face and virtual).

Our annual #DiverseEd event is held in the South each January, but in June we launched a virtual event which went viral. Speakers explored what diversity means for children, for teachers, for leaders, for governors and for the curriculum. Our next event is being held on October 17th. It is free and it is virtual, and you can register here and catch up with the below.

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First, before we get into our tools below, we must first focus on relationships with our students, families, and communities. As teachers, we are educators of excellence no matter if we are teaching online, face-to-face, or a hybrid model. As educators, we need to show up for our students each day and be there or them. Once we have the relationships formed, we can go and learn more about their stories. We can get to know and learn about which technology tools they have access to, when, and where. Trying to understand where students are accessing their materials for an online course, how they are accessing the materials, when they will have access to the technology could be very helpful as well. 

Let’s get some terminology down: 

• Synchronous – Learning and teaching happens at the same time. For example, teachers and students meet at a certain time / date / place (virtual or face to face). Lessons are taught in real time with the students in the virtual space. 
• Asynchronous – Learning and teaching happens on the students’ own schedules. This type of learning is flexible and can be more self-guided.

Please know that online learning is not one or the other, or that one method is better than another. At times you can be using both methods of content delivery with your students.

The tools that I am going to share with you are free (there are paid versions) and easy to use. Another reason why I am sharing these tools is because they can work across the curriculum and grade levels. You can use these tools during synchronous or asynchronous learning opportunities with your students. The tools listed below have extensive libraries and resources for you to use too – don’t reinvent the wheel unless you have to, right? 

Nearpod – www.nearpod.com 

Nearpod adds some sparkle to your presentations. You can upload your own content and add in formative assessment pieces such as fill in the blank, multiple choice, matching, Flipgrid, time to climb, drawing options and more. You can also add in activities for students to engage in such as website links, virtual field trips, 3D models, & graphing calculators. What is nice about Nearpod is that it offers both teacher and student paced modes. With the teacher paced mode you know that each student is on the same slide that you are.

Peardeck www.peardeck.com 

Peardeck is very similar to Nearpod but it provides students with interactive content and formative assessment pieces. Just like with Nearpod, you can upload your own content into Nearpod and embed activities into it such as fill in the blank, drawing options, draggable points, and more. What I really enjoy about Peardeck is their support for social emotional learning, templates for before, during and after lesson content delivery, and content for specific grade levels, subjects, and topics such as critical thinking. 

Buncee www.buncee.com 

Buncee works double duty. As a teacher, you can use it to create and share content, and engage students in learning. It can be used across a variety of teaching methods – large group, small group, and station rotations. In addition, students can use Buncee to show what they know in a unique way. You can use Buncee to reach students by incorporating audio, text, links, animations, and images. And it is a tool that you can implement across the grade levels and subject areas. 

These are just a few tools that can help drive your instruction forward in the online learning space. Friends, this school year is going to unlike any other. There wasn’t a pandemic 101 class in college but know that you can do this. You are strong – you are an educator of excellence. 

One way of continuing to expand horizons in the current climate is through the use of Lyfta. Lyfta provides an accessible window to the world, and allows teachers to facilitate human encounters that students might not otherwise get the chance to have. 

What is Lyfta?

Lyfta is an award-winning learning platform, made up of interactive 360° storyworlds of real homes, workplaces and environments from around the world. Students can explore Lyfta, unlocking rich media content, and getting to know real people through powerful and inspiring short documentary films. The content, resources and ready-made lesson and assembly plans cover a range of vital themes such as sustainability, wellbeing, human diversity and compassion. 

Watch this short film for a flavour of what Lyfta has to offer:

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Our ultimate vision at Lyfta is that children will have ‘visited’ every country in the world by the time they leave school. They will have met at least one human being from each of these countries; experienced different cultures, different languages, different jobs, roles and perspectives. They will have seen and formed a connection with hundreds of positive human stories modelling resilience, problem-solving, teamwork, and many other critical skills, values and competencies. They will be able to understand for themselves how interconnected and interdependent we are, and will have gained a deep awareness of their power and role in the world.

Teachers from a range of different primary, secondary and special schools across the UK and Finland already use Lyfta to create engaging and impactful lessons and assemblies across a range of curriculum areas including literacy, PSHE, RSE, PE, geography, citizenship, science, RE, and design & technology. We have been delighted to play a part in the incredible impact our teaching community has seen with the students they teach using Lyfta.

“Lyfta opens children’s eyes to a more balanced view of the world and the people within it. In terms of my teaching practice, Lyfta helps join together the curriculum with global issues and lift learning past the text books.”

Grace Garvey – teacher, Egerton Primary School

“Lyfta provides wonderful materials for whole class discussions. It’s changing my students’ view on the world and life!”

Edri den Hartog, teacher, King Arthur’s Community School

Using Lyfta to challenge students’ attitudes

Here is how one teacher at a school with very little cultural diversity in the classroom, effectively used Lyfta to challenge student attitudes.

This teacher, at a school in the southeast of England, was concerned with the rising levels of nationalism in the area. The students at the school were all from white British heritage, and had had little opportunity to experience living alongside people from diverse backgrounds or to explore the world beyond their local area. At the start of the session, students were asked to consider six faces of people they would meet through the Lyfta storyworlds, and were asked “which of these people do you feel you have the most common ground with?”

In the first survey, students said that they felt most affinity with person 1,4 and 6;  the people that looked most like them, in their experience. By the end of their time exploring the different environments and watching a short documentary featuring each of the people, they were asked to respond again to the question. The shift in attitudes was huge. Across the board, the students felt they had more in common with all of the people, but in particular, those that had scored lower in the first survey – person 2, 3, and 5. Most remarkable was the shift in affinity with one particular person; Muhammed, a Palestinian taxi driver in his 50s who moved to the top of their list.

Through this simple and powerful exercise, the teacher was able to start an important conversation with her students around difference, bias, diversity and more. She was able to provide them with an impactful and engaging experience, which will have a lasting effect. We know from research carried out by Immordino-Yang and Damasio in their 2007 study, We Feel Therefore We Learn,  that when cognition and emotion come together, deep learning takes place. If we are to change hearts and minds, we cannot simply ‘teach and tell’ students about the world, we need to find more emotionally engaging ways to inspire them to take action to build a better world for us all. Lyfta provides an effective and simple way to do this.

Six faces case study:

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“Empathy has always been important. Through empathy we understand and support others; it helps us build trusted relationships and our own peace of mind. Building on the strong foundations developed by its founders, Lyfta and the approach that it nurtures helps teachers and students raise their awareness of what is going on around us, of other people’s lives and of the wider world. Such awareness is probably more important now than ever before – at school, at work, and in life. I am glad to have experienced and grateful for Lyfta’s contribution to raising awareness, thinking of others, and developing skills appropriate to learning development; to strengthening of empathy; and to building the capability of all students.”

Gavin Dykes, director of the Education World Forum

If you are interested in finding out more about using Lyfta visit www.lyfta.com 

We have a limited number of places available for teachers from state-funded schools in England and Scotland to join our funded CPD training which is part of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms for Global Learning programme. Participants receive free access to the Lyfta platform and resources for one term. You can find out more and sign up at http://bit.ly/CCGLImpact

Tackling lost learning is clearly a priority. But before we can do this there are other gaps to address.

Rebuilding learning behaviour 

While children’s learning has suffered, their learning behaviours have taken a parallel dip, simply by being away from the school routine. We are social beings and as such we’re conditioned by our environment to do things in a certain way. Primary school children know that they need to put up their hand to answer a question, for example, or sit quietly at story time. But with up to six months out of the ring, these habits can fall by the wayside.

Pupils will have to work hard to get back on form and ready to learn, rather like footballers at the start of a season who need to return to match fitness. Our trust is approaching this task with the help of a recovery curriculum to re-establish learning behaviours that pupils and teachers used to take for granted, such as listening in class. When these good habits become second nature once again, the children will be fit enough to catch up on their learning.

Renewing emotional wellbeing

From what I have seen, the vast majority of children love being back at school and revel in the excitement of being reunited with friends, classmates and teachers. However, this could prove to be something of a honeymoon period before children tire of social distancing, frequent sanitising and face masks – and the hard graft of learning sets in.

Early years children sitting at desks in rows may miss the freedom they had previously to explore learning zones in the classroom, while older students are bound to find it frustrating being confined to a bubble and unable to socialise more widely. Students entering Years 11 and 13 will be painfully aware of their approaching exams, and the hard work ahead.

As a consequence, we could see anxiety levels rising rather than falling as the term goes on, and schools will need a clear strategy to alleviate the longer term fears of children and their parents. Parental engagement is key here as it can help to mitigate anxiety on all fronts.  But emails, texts and newsletters alone are not enough right now. Few schools have the time or resources to call each individual parent, but techniques such as crowdcasting – or live video broadcasting – can bridge the gap between getting a message out to the many without losing the personal touch. 

Our senior leaders use video platforms to broadcast to specific groups of parents according to the age of their child, for example, or their geographical location. The element of visibility is important here, and can help schools explain why they are taking certain measures while demonstrating an understanding of parents’ concerns.

Reshaping education for a changed world

Although we all have moments when we yearn for a return to pre-Covid days, we have to accept things will never be the same. But there are opportunities to take some of the trends that emerged from the crisis and turn them into a better way of working for a post pandemic future.  

Our model of education is still very much based on a Victorian approach to pedagogy with children gathered in groups, and the teacher as the sage on the stage. It’s not always the best use of learning time, whereas complementing face-to-face teaching with technology can help to create more independent learners. We’ve seen this happen during lockdown, when some young people thrived on blended learning, engaging with their teachers remotely, one-to-one, beyond the constraints of the classroom. Many teachers have flourished too. Colleagues who were initially reluctant to appear on camera turned into digital superstars who have taken the laptop screen by storm and become teaching personalities in their own right. 

Perhaps we should play to the strengths of our teams and keep using video to get those flamboyant, articulate teachers in front of more children than their usual timetabled classes. Every child in a school could benefit from inspirational teaching from your most brilliant maths teacher, freeing up other staff members to work in smaller groups to boost ability levels.

The focus of this academic year will be on closing learning gaps, but instead of rushing to catch up, we should devote time and patience to restoring good learning behaviour, bolstering emotional resilience and building a positive future. The long journey to match fitness starts with the right state of mind.

Tips for making the most of the year ahead

• Help children develop good learning habits such as organising their time and focusing on the lesson before addressing gaps in pupils’ learning. 
• Put aside a safe space where children can talk about their concerns on a one-to-one basis or in small groups with a designated staff member.
• Share best practice across your school or trust with regular debriefs to discuss issues that have arisen during the day and how you have dealt with them.
• Send clear communications to parents explaining why your school or MAT has made changes designed to keep children and staff safe.
• Retain some of the digital teaching tools your school found successful during lockdown, such as online quizzes, and use these in combination with face-to-face teaching.