Throughout this NQT year, I have found it hard to keep up to date with improving my subject knowledge and it has made me feel unequipped at times so to combat this temporal feeling of inadequacy, during this period of lockdown I have made a conscious effort to change the script. I have replaced the time that I would commute to work with a daily hit of history which has made my confidence boost even if it is just for teaching online lessons and preparing homework booklets. 

Below are just a few ways that I have tackled the development of my subject knowledge. I hope that you will feel inspired to make time to develop your passion for History and utilise this time of lockdown and working from home. 

Podcasts

At the click of a button you may find a fantastic array of podcasts from historians. These are great for teacher knowledge and for getting a fast track to ground-breaking research and historical scholarship. Whatever you are teaching, whatever your interests may be, you are sure to find something you will love amongst this list!

1. BBC Radio 4 
2. History extra 
3. Versus History 
4. BBC World Service – Witness History 
5. Dan Snow’s History Hit 
6. This Day in History Class
7. A History of the World in 100 Objects – Neil Macgregor

Blogs and Websites

Historical Association – Most schools have a subscription so check with your department before signing up. The HA has great features such as: 

• What’s the Wisdom On – a short guide to a particular aspect of history teaching. 
• New, Novice or Nervous? – An article to help new teachers of history.
• Polychronicon – designed to help history teachers update their subject knowledge.
• Cunning Plan – step-by-step plans for tackling particular teaching issues.

Made By History by Kerry Apps (https://kerryapps.com) – Social and post-colonial history, the early modern period and musings on teaching 11 – 18 history.

Justice 2 History –  (https://justice2history.org)

Twitter – Just search the hashtag #HistoryTeacher and everything from subject knowledge to resources is at your disposal. 

One Big History Department – a place for sharing thinking, resources and conversations about teaching and learning history

TeachMeet History Icons – providing high quality, free CPD, to UK teachers. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeihlqFBpMOPGjXzMbgi3Bw)

Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC Iplayer and Youtube – all of these sites have a wide range of history documentaries. Be mindful that a number of the films are not historically accurate and adapted for entertainment. 

Books

From general overviews to specific periods and themes to support the needs of teaching history. This is not an extensive list but it should provide you with a starting point for reading around widely taught subjects. 

Medieval:

The Black Death by John Hatcher

Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood

Reformation:

Reformation by Diarmond McCulloch

Heretics and Believers by Peter Marshall

God’s traitors by Jessie Childs

Germany:

The Ratline by Phillippe Sands

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

The English Civil War:

The English Civil War by Diane Purkiss

White King by Leanda de Lisle

Tudor England:

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

Elizabeth 1 by Helen Castor

Medicine:

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Harris

Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell

WW1:

The War that Ended Peace by Margaret Macmillan

The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire by David Olusoga

18th /19th:

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Death in ten minutes by Fern Riddell

Empire:

The Anarchy by William Dalrymple

Chocolate, women and Empire by Emma Robertson

Slavery and abolition:

Bury the chains by Adam Hochschild

A Fistful of shells by Toby Green

Black British History:

Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga

Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann

USA:

Trouble in mind : Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon Litwack

The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis

Whole Period and wider reading:

A Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

A short history of England by Simon Jenkins

Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer

To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 by Ian Kershaw

Island Stories by David Reynolds

A little history of the world by EH Gombrich

[Trigger warning: Contains frank discussion of anxiety. As both a superb educator and author of the highly-popular 2017 article ‘What it’s like to be a teacher with an anxiety disorder’, Kim Constable was invited by Innovate My School to write this article.]

On the one hand, I have really enjoyed the time at home with the cats, helping Gizmo get more comfortable being in the house when my housemate is around. I have had time to properly decompress from people-overload, as it has only been myself and my housemate around. And I have been able to start getting all those resources and ideas that live in my head out into reality. 

However, this has also been an extremely anxious time. I know I am not unique in that: because of the virus and uncertainty from the government, but to be honest most of my anxiety wasn’t around contracting the virus. I had bouts every time I had to go to the supermarket, but that was a fear of judgement by other shoppers. No, the majority of anxiety for me has been surrounding what comes after. After lockdown, after schools return and after life goes back to some semblance of normality. 

I have become comfortable in my little bubble at home, just me and the cats. I don’t have to worry about putting on the mask of being okay, even if I am not, I don’t have to prepare to interact with people or overthink those interactions once they have happened, and honestly it has been a relief I normally only get in the summer holidays. 

But I am well aware it can’t and won’t continue. My fears – and I use the word fear because I am truly terrified – are to do with face-to-face interactions with people. It’s like the return after a holiday, with everyone asking what you did and where you went. Only this time it will be about what you will do now. Who will you see, where will you go, what are you going to do? That expectation terrifies me, because the reality is, my life won’t change that much. I won’t be hugging people, or going out to dinner. I won’t be socialising with big groups of friends or havering parties, because frankly those things scare me. 

My biggest worry is that I will struggle day-to-day with the new normal, and this will impact on my ability to do my job. That I won’t be able to support my students upon their return because I can’t cope myself. There has been a lot of talk on how we as teachers need to focus on the wellbeing and mental health of our students once back in the classroom, but we must not forget the staff as well. 

I have been lucky enough that my counsellor has continued our sessions by phone through the lockdown, so I have been able to talk through my fears with her each week, to vent my frustrations. I still have those coping mechanisms I had before the lockdown, even if I am a little out of practice with them, but I know I will need to find new ones to cope with the new and ever-changing situation – and that is where I will need support and help.

I am very lucky that I work in an extremely supportive school, who are aware of my struggles and issues and have made accommodations for me to manage my mental health. I don’t know if my needs will change once we return or if my current coping systems will be enough, but either way we will need to look out for each other just as much as we will be looking out for our students and not just because of COVID trauma. 

Digital citizenship has become a broad term that means different things to different people. To us at the Digital Citizenship Institute, we view digital citizenship as an action, something that we need to practice and do every single day. In today’s interconnected world, this is our opportunity to put global education into practice to empower others to become change makers for using technology for good in local, global and digital communities.

Be Balanced

Digital citizenship is about the importance of prioritizing our time on and offline. Make sure you unplug, go outside and reconnect with nature, learn a new hobby, and most importantly, take care of your mental health. As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, we hosted a global panel to share how we can make a DigCitIMPACT on Mental Health. 

Other ideas to help us balance include reevaluating our relationship with technology. Take time to create or update your family tech contract to ensure we have scheduled offline experiences. We can also take this time to explore the wording of current tech policies at schools and work too. Are these policies written as a list of don’t statements? How can we start to redefine these policies to better reflect a more blended approach to learning and working? How can we transform don’t statements into I will statements as we highlight a proactive approach to using technology for good?

Be Informed

We encourage you to reach out to grandparents and senior citizens in your community and become tech mentors and volunteers. We believe learning side-by-side is the best way to encourage intergenerational learning where we learn together. Programs like Cyber Seniors can help bridge the digital divide to connect generations through technology as students promote social inclusion and community engagement. 

Let’s also spend this time at home learning how to evaluate the accuracy and validity of both digital media and social posts. We love the idea of students perfecting their curation, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and citizenship skills through the student ambassador program through Wakelet. Wakelet is a free curation tool and the student ambassador program is a wonderful opportunity for 13+ students to personalize learning while embedding media literacy skills as they learn how to be informed consumers and creators. Students under 13 can also contribute to teacher created collections. 

Here’s a playlist from our Spotlight Series where we learned with instructional technologists, classroom teachers, administrators, support staff and students:

Lake Shore Central Spotlight Series

Be Inclusive

If our new norm includes wearing masks, we are excluding the deaf and hard of hearing community. As we continue to learn and work online, who else are we excluding? Do our webinar platforms include closed captions? When we post online, are we adding an alternative text to our visuals for anyone blind or low vision? As content creators, it’s on all of us to ensure that our content is accessible for all learners. We need to engage with others online with respect and empathy and our content guide will help you be more inclusive as we continue to learn and work online.

Another wonderful way to guarantee that our content is accessible is to try some of our favorite tech tools like Wakelet, Flipgrid, Buncee, and Flocabulary. These tech tools have Immersive Reader, a part of Microsoft’s suite of Learning Tools already embedded into their platforms. Immersive Reader allows text to be read aloud in 60+ languages and turns basic text into an engaging audio experience. 

I hope these suggestions not only help you now, but continue to guide you as we plan for a blended approach to learn and work at home, school, and work.

Really helpful if you are an NQT looking to improve your teacher presence or a senior leader about to deliver training on this. How can we seek to improve when the very definition is driven by innate personality traits? We know it matters. We know that having a strong teacher presence leads to better student engagement and behaviour, so what actually is it and what tangible things can we do to improve? Yes, I admit that you find some teachers have more ‘naturally innate’ strong teacher presence. However as both a Psychology graduate and an Assistant Head who has mentored dozens of teachers on this, I believe it is definitely an area of teaching we can all improve on. I like to view it as the following:

Effective communication strategies (verbal and non-verbal) + relationships= strong teacher presence. 

When you think back to a memorable lesson or time in your life, what stands out? Is it the words that were said to you or the way they were said?  As Maya Angelou famously said ‘people will forget what you said but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ It is the HOW that will capture not just the minds but souls of a class of young students, keeping them gripped to your every word. This is strong teacher presence. 

Research states that non-verbal communication (tone, facial expressions, gestures, movement, eye contact, proximity) carries a lot more weight to the overall message and how that message is perceived. People are more likely to listen, find your message credible and remember it by how it is delivered rather than the WHAT-  the words used. The bad news? We as teachers probably do not deliberately practice this enough. The good news? We can all improve our non-verbal communication and therefore improve our teacher presence.

Top 4 non-verbal communication tips:

1. Tone – explain with passion and students will be immediately hooked.
2. Eye contact and facial expressions – exercise your authority with the ‘teacher stare’ to stop off task behaviour and give a subtle smile/nod to those doing it right.
3. Hand gestures and body movement – when modelling show them how by using your physicality. Need to explain the impacts of adverbs? Show them by walking around the room ‘slowly’ vs ‘rapidly’ vs ‘cautiously.’ 
4. Proximity and movement – a powerful teacher stance is key for exerting authority and expertise but don’t just stick to the front. Own your space and continue to manage behaviour for learning via non-verbal cues as you circulate the room. 

Effective communication strategies (verbal and non-verbal) + relationships = strong teacher presence.

Building positive relationships with your students: being genuinely interested in their lives outside of school and being interested in them as human beings is key to teacher presence. If they not only see the value in what they are learning but feel valued, then they are more likely to be engaged. 

Research from evidence based teaching identifies that teachers who forge high-performance relationships, showing care for their students while simultaneously pressing them to excel, secure better results. These teachers provide their students with strong guidance (both academically and behaviourally), whilst also nurturing personal responsibility and self-regulation. People are influenced by the expectations built upon them so your belief and actions will have a direct impact on students engagement, learning experience and outcomes. 

Knowing the importance of non-verbal communication (and communication in general) has made me reflect on the consequences that the lack of human interaction has in this current climate we face. How do we maintain teacher presence and relationships without our classrooms?

I have been in awe of the resilience, adaptability, kindness, innovation, creativity – the list goes on-  of teachers in my school since we started our online teaching journey. They have proven to me that amongst chaos there is opportunity. Opportunity to adapt, learn, create and grow. I am learning something new every day as we navigate this new ‘normal’ of teaching online. Here is what I have learnt about maintaining teacher presence online for student engagement:

• Your voice is as powerful as ever- you can still ignite passion for your subject in your explanations with your tone and stories you tell, your encouraging messages and kind words still inspire online and your words still have the power to help students learn and grow. 

• Smiles and praise matter more than ever- an acknowledgment of a good response in a live lesson, a welcoming video message with humour, class shout outs to students who have been engaging online with their learning/submitting work. The physical act of smiling increases dopamine and makes people feel happier. Smiling is a super power. 

• Plan activities/projects that involve collaboration- during live online lessons plan for activities that involve students working together to solve a problem/annotate and read a text together/brainstorm ideas together to keep connection alive without the physical presence. Collaboration creates that classroom ‘buzz’ online. 

• Visuals online – you can create your own virtual classrooms with your choice of images / GIFs/ bitmoji’s that showcase your personality and the vital relationships you have built. 

In fact, you can literally create your own virtual bitmoji classrooms. See here: https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-bitmoji-classroom/

Amy Cuddy, social psychologist, says in her book ‘Presence’ that, by tweaking our body language we change our behaviour which causes chemical changes to our mindset and subsequent behaviour. So instead of ‘faking it until we make it’, in the online teaching world we can ‘fake it until we become it.’ 

So, next time you teach online, sit up tall, look directly into the camera, project your voice passionately and confidently and smile knowing that from behind your computer screen your presence is still strong; you are still teaching; you are still changing lives. 

With the recent announcement that schools are reopening, for some pupils on 1st June, this may well be causing some pupils and parents / caregivers a lot of anxiety. It’s scary out there. There are a lot of ‘what if’ questions that can’t be answered. Being at home for many will have resulted in feelings that have ranged from feeling safe and secure and being fearful or cautious of going out, to craving the normality of how life was before lockdown.

The security that being at home has brought, may have formed the basis on which anxiety about returning to that normal has been building. This anxiety may well lead to separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is when someone is afraid of being separated from a person, persons, or even a pet. While many people associate separation anxiety with children, adults can experience the condition as well. (Medical News Today – June 2018).

For some pupils returning to school they may critically struggle with the demands of being separated from home or their parents. It might not just be the child but also parents / caregivers who feel the need to protect and this separation may bring about high levels of anxiety. Leading up to the return to school a child or young person’s behaviour may well start to change. They may experience panic or panic attacks, start to display adverse behaviour – ranging from angry outbursts to silent and withdrawn. Sleep may become very disrupted and their appetites be affected. They may become quite distressed and come up with a raft of excuses and avoidance tactics as to why they cannot return to school.

Nobody likes to see a child in distress. From a school’s perspective it is a good idea to identify a key person who can liaise regularly with the parent / caregiver prior to the impending start date. Give as much reassurance as you can and be as clear as you can about what the school day will look like. If possible, invite the parent and child into school so that they can re-familiarise themselves with the school layout and meet members of staff. You can discuss and explain then in more detail how the new school day will be. Encourage the parents to start with short periods of separation leading up to the start date. Meet the child at the door if possible and make the handover as quick and calm as possible. The longer the delay may reinforce the anxiety and parents and children can feed each other’s anxiety. If the child separates from one parent more easily suggest that that parent drops the child off. For some pupils a part-time timetable / reintegration plan may be needed to be put into place.

Providing structure and routine unpin feelings of security. Set small achievable goals – these are great for self-esteem and wellbeing and are intrinsic feelings of doing something well. A small-stepped approach is the best way forwards. Starting a new day or the next session you may find that the child needs to repeat some previous steps. This all aids reassurance and helps build resilience. If there are changes coming up, ensure that the child is informed / prepared as far ahead as possible.

Keeping busy and getting lost in an activity helps them to forget about their worries. Encourage them to get involved in an activity that interests them but also to become involved in activities / interests of other people. This will help to rebuild friendships and relationships with peers. It is helpful for the pupil to have a safe, quiet space to go to if they are feeling anxious. Have some guidelines as to when and how the safe place can be used. Talking to the child and understanding their anxiety will help to re-establish a trusting relationship and help them to adjust. Every child reacts in a different way to being separated. Your efforts may not solve the issues, but empathy can only make things better. Being listened to can have a powerful healing effect.

Communication is key between all parties to help promote a smoother reintegration. Offer to call the child’s parent to let them know they are ok. Or allow the child to make a quick one- or two-minute phone call for reassurance. A home – school diary is a good way of ensuring that the lines of communication stay open. Praise and positive outcomes can be recorded here.

Hopefully with a clear support plan in place reintegration will go relatively smoothly. If separation anxiety is excess and interferes with normal activities such as friendships, relationships and school and lasts for a sustained period of time, it may be a sign of a Separation Anxiety Disorder. In cases such as these a referral to an appropriate mental health service may be needed. Psychotherapy or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy by trained professionals may be offered. Left untreated can lead to complications, including depression and debilitating anxiety.

You may find the following websites helpful:

www.nspcc.co.uk/keeping-children-safe/coronavirus 

www.mind.org.uk sections for parents, young people and professionals

www.helpguide.org lots of articles and advice

1. The sociological imagination 

Doing sociology at home can be difficult for students, especially when they are without their teachers. They might lose some of the inspiration they once had, that is why it is super important to tap into their sociological imagination! I did this activity at the start of the lockdown with my Year 12 students – hopefully, you can have some success with your group. 

The whole idea of the sociological imagination is the idea that social forces have an impact on our lives, and this can be hard to teach. In a time where students are at home it will be great for them to be ‘thinking sociologically’ from day to day – this also helps to build on analysis (AO3) which is important for the exam: 

• Every student is different so ask them to pick an everyday activity that people do in their household such as eating a meal, drinking tea, washing up the dishes etc.
• Ask students to brainstorm why people do these different activities – what does it mean to the person, why do they do it, when do they do it?
• They will be able to look at situations from a different angle – very much like what sociologists do! 
• Ask them to display their findings in a word document or PowerPoint to share idea.

2. Sociology through the media 

Now more than ever, the media has become a part of our day to day during the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than the students engaging with these articles in a way that can cause anxiety and negativity ask them to look at this through a sociological lense:

• Each week ask your students to pick an article of their choice.
• This can be related to one of the units you are currently working on i.e Family or Education.
• Ask students to read and briefly summarise the article in their own words.
• Then ask students to consider what different sociological perspectives (Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism etc) would think about the particular issue.
• They can create a PowerPoint or Brainstorm on this.
• This will also help to support application (AO2) skills in the classroom. 
• By the end of school closures, they should have a wide portfolio of media articles that they would have analysed. 

 3. Family Tree

Before the lockdown, my students in Year 12 had just begun the family unit in Sociology. A very relatable topic where students can often analyse topics in a lot more detail. As an introductory task student can create a family tree.

• Provide students with a template of a tree or they can draw their own.
• Students can be really creative this adding in photos and small descriptions of family members. 
• I also encouraged them in this time to find out some more about the rest of their family! From great grandparents to 2nd cousins, students will be able to do some research about their own families! 

4. Poetry in Sociology

Get students to be creative with the different topics that you are looking at. In order to help the retention of new information I encourage my students to come up with a poem or song to help them to remember.

To help support them in this I sometimes provide them with a list of keywords that should be included. This is an example of that I did with my Year 10 when look at the comprehensive and tripartite systems of education:

In 1965 the comprehensive act came alive,​

Tripartite was bad, working class went mad!​

Now classes mixed, education seemed fixed,​

No 11+ exam, it was all a sham.​

All abilities under one roof, ​

The system did not tell the truth.​

Designed to cater for all abilities, “everyone had access to the same facilities”​

But streaming often happened based on class,​

True potential was hidden behind a mask.​

5. Sampling with Skittles or any sweets!

Due to coronavirus, I won’t be able to do this activity when we get back to school! Students normally do this together in groups together with a bag of skittles – however life at school will look slightly different when we get back. 

Research methods are not always fun, and sampling can be boring for students but using skittles can be fun! Students will need a bag of skittles (if they don’t – don’t encourage them to go out. They can be innovative and use other sweets or fruits etc). Doing this through a live lesson can be fun. You can demonstrate how we can ‘sample’ with the sweets and students must also follow your demonstration. This can be done with all types of sampling and when students can visual this it becomes much easier to understand.

Tutor 2 U also have a resource which you can download to help assist with this task!

The first week was truly bleak. My sense of purpose and fulfilment seemed entirely wrapped up in my little girl, and to my shame, I wondered ‘is this it?’ I was desperate to make an impact, and to award myself value again through the use of my brain – to achieve, to be recognised, to be validated. The never-ending impossibility of working, toddler-entertaining, maintaining a relationship, keeping up with family and friends, feeding everyone, and having time to cultivate a side hustle (as spectacularly unhelpful social media influencers seem to suggest is mandatory) overtook me.

And now? Eight (approximately – who truly knows what day it is anymore?!) weeks in?

I’m excited by new possibilities. I’ve been offered opportunities I never dreamed of. I feel a stronger leader than ever before. Most importantly, to my all-consuming relief, for the first time ever – I am enjoying spending time with my daughter. 

Look, I’m by no means perfect. My carpet is covered in crumbs, I haven’t worn makeup or a waistband in weeks, and my toddler’s screen time is probably into the hundreds of hours. I have days where my entire body is begging me to return to bed, and where the smallest setback, as trivial as breaking a cup or dropping dinner on the floor, can lead to destructive over-reactions of tantrums, tears and rage (mine). But maybe, just maybe, the small, often practical things that help to bring me out of these slumps, might help you too? 

1. Banish work-related guilt by ‘Managing up’*: Manage the expectations of your line manager by being realistic with them about your time and childcare commitments. I’m sure they want this important document/crucial SOW for next year/vital update to the marking policy immediately, but remind them that you are spending X hours a day homeschooling/toddler entertaining/keeping said children ALIVE and that you will complete the work, just slightly later than they’d like. *Please note, this does not work with delaying children’s dinnertime.

2. Save time with online lesson setting by ‘Collaborating’: Surely it’s not just me that finds setting online lessons to be extremely onerous? Having to explain everything as though you are there in person, whilst keeping instructions direct and clear, takes almost as long as planning lessons in my NQT year did. Asking members of your department, other schools within your Trust, as well as magpie-ing resources from free online sources such as Oak National Academy, BBC Bitesize and putting a callout to your networks on #edutwitter can save hours. HOURS!

3. Go against your entire teaching-belief system by ‘lowering your expectations’: I very much subscribe to the notion of having the mantra ‘high expectations’ engraved on my tombstone. But my friends, this is not the time. It’s not the end of the world if your child doesn’t complete their full quota of lessons today, or if your online lessons are slightly slapdash, or if dinner isn’t cooked from scratch but is hastily assembled from the remnants of your freezer. Go against the grain of a lifetime and let go.

4. Keep your brain active by ‘Embracing accidental CPD’: My 16 month old doesn’t speak yet. Before lockdown, this was a niggling worry that I banished to the back of my mind, locked tightly in the box entitled ‘parent guilt’, along with all the other things I felt I was failing at by having the audacity to both work and parent. With the many hours a day my daughter and I now spend together, I’ve read research into how language and speech develop, and am using this with her. As a secondary teacher, it could be seen as useless knowledge, but for my lower prior attaining students, I can see how their written and spoken work isn’t as developed as it needs to be, and perhaps how I can utilise some of my new knowledge to support them. And yes, my daughter has said her first word. And yes, it was ‘Dada’.

5. Relax! The phrase ‘unprecedented’ has become somewhat cliché, but yes, this is an unprecedented time! Do whatever you need to do to relax – put on Hey Duggee for the hundredth time to steal a few mins to scroll through your phone, have a bubble bath every single night, avoid the news where it is just mindless speculation, mute or block whoever you need to, crack open the wine at 5pm, binge watch series after series, eat comforting foods, go for runs whether you post about them or not, take up a new hobby – or equally, don’t. Do what you need to do. You are doing just fine.

Being able to understand the purpose of what they are being taught and how it applies to real life scenarios, will also help them recognise the importance of STEM careers and the role it plays in solving societal issues. Combining this creativity and real-world exposure with a competitive element will encourage students to think about how they can positively impact our society, offering them a platform to use practical applications of the knowledge they have learned at school. A prime example of this is the recent Youth Industrial Strategy Competition, a national science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) initiative, which asked students to address one of the Government’s four Grand Challenges of the Industrial Strategy: AI and Data, Ageing Society, Clean Growth and the Future of Mobility. 

It is important to make competitions like this as accessible as possible for all students, inspiring them to think big, and come up with innovative and tangible solutions. Offering facilitated regional Discovery Days as introductions to the Grand Challenges for schools in challenging circumstances, as well as bursaries to schools and groups who met this criteria, allowed as many children as possible to take part and encourage a love for STEM learning.

As part of the competition, students were able to develop their creativity, critical thinking and communication skills, as well as enhance teamwork and foster greater collaboration with their peers. For example, winners of the Intermediate category, year 11 students from Mary Webb School and Science College, designed a hydro-electric generator to reduce energy wastage, carbon dioxide emissions and society’s reliance on mass electricity generation. In doing so, not only have these students developed a project that effectively addresses the Government’s Grand Challenge of Clean Growth, but they have also demonstrated their creativity, innovation and importantly, a practical application of their knowledge.

Competitions can also ignite a passion for a particular subject or topic, and by working collaboratively with teachers, classmates and family, students have the potential to succeed in exploring concepts on a deeper level, and working together to come up with creative and innovative solutions that are relevant to our everyday lives. Ava Garside, a year 9 student from Allerton Grange High School, who won the Junior category of the competition is a great example of this. Creating an air quality sensor which can detect the healthiest route to work or school, Ava has demonstrated how this opportunity has enhanced her confidence and dedication to learning, commenting that she really enjoyed having a creative and practical outlet for her passion for STEM and that she is already thinking of new and exciting ways that she can use these skills to help address other current, real-world challenges. Determined to make a tangible difference, Ava is now working with a team of Nano-Scientists to further improve her project and help her community make better-informed choices about their health.

Encouraging students to play an active role in improving society, this way of learning can help to tap into the imagination of students and help them understand the world around them by exploring how they can address the challenges our society currently faces. In doing just this, Rushil Patel, a year 13 student from St Wilfrid’s Catholic Comprehensive School, expertly addressed the Grand Challenge of AI and Data by creating an AI communications device (in the form of a pair of glasses and a digital device) that helps those with autism by conveying limitless information around them, and responding to perceived emotions. His winning project has given him the platform to showcase his solution to a much wider audience, helping to boost his confidence and passion for learning through STEM. 

All students have the creativity and determination to identify and develop solutions that will positively affect those around them. By providing students with the opportunity to build on STEM skills through engaging mediums such as competitions, we as educators, will undoubtedly see a welcome increase in their creativity and confidence as a way to make a difference in society.  

• “What will happen to the children in our care?”
• “Where and how will they learn during school closures?”

Step forward the forward-thinking EdTech Impact with edtech solutions for schools and families.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, something similar was happening. The HundrED community were keen to find ways to share innovations that enable us to learn at home. Participation in HundrED webinars over the past few weeks has been both provocative and reassuring. The HundrED platform brings together an eclectic mix of individuals and organisations with one common purpose – to help improve education outcomes for all children. This month’s webinar featured Andreas Schleicher from the OECD, who talked about the need for entrepreneurial teachers as well as the need to build meaningful parent-teacher-student relationships. Watch the webinar video here.

So which innovations are highlighted in HundrED’s ‘Quality Education for All During Covid-19’ spotlight? Click here to be inspired and then share with your circles of friends, families and organisations. Here in the UK, many people – some literally – have been falling over themselves in praise for Joe Wicks and his daily HIIT workouts. To me, it’s more Physical Training (PT) than Physical Education (PE). However, Joe is certainly challenging sedentary lifestyles and that has to be a good thing. Teachers don’t have the branding that Joe has, but they have been just as eager – and energetic – in sharing ideas via various social media platforms.

I have been particularly impressed by the #ThisIsPE content created by Yorkshire Sport Foundation – with the support of others. Such ideas certainly increase Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) levels. However, I would like to see slower movement too – better still linked to learning. Approaches of Slow to Moderate Physical Activity (SMPA) levels can be found in Juliet Robertson’s carefully curated nature-based ideas from around the world. Here, the movement is connected with learning outdoors, which impacts further on our emotional and spiritual well-being.

Whilst on my ‘prescribed walks/runs/cycles’ round the local area, I have often stopped to admire the art chalked onto pavements and walls by children and their families. In the woods, people have taken to hanging mini-installations amongst the branches. Such messages of gratitude to the NHS certainly make you stop and reflect. Slowing down over the past month has had a profound effect on many. Personally speaking, it has allowed me opportunities to develop the art of noticing. 

To me, creativity is just as important as being physically active – the two go hand in hand. With this in mind, here’s a simple activity – an opportunity to be ‘creative’. There’s no running around involved – more like walking with purpose.

On the subject of taking life at a more gentle pace, some wise words from Ian Holmes, Headteacher at Thorner Primary School and co-director of Move & Learn CIC:

“In amongst the deluge of distance learning opportunities, please be mindful – we are in danger of information overload for home learning options. The most important thing is we see these times as an opportunity to spend time with our children and learn in a different way.”

Six weeks of summer holidays gives us time to rest, recharge and reset our bodies and minds ready for the excitement of the new school year. Six weeks of lockdown with no definitive end in sight? That’s a whole other ballgame and you can’t take your bat and ball and leave, because you’re already at home to begin with.

So what do you do with all this time on your hands? It seems the entire population of the Western world is baking – if you’re able to get your hands on flour and yeast, that is. Who even knew there were so many things to do with a sourdough starter discard? Every food blogger I follow – and that’s a lot – is spruiking their sourdough, making pancakes, scones and even crepes. Cripes.

Maybe you finally have no excuse to not clear out your wardrobe. You can Marie Kondo your way into a militant row of boxer shorts and t-shirts, precision-folded and standing at attention (with plenty of YouTube clips to remind you how to fold your shirts accurately). It sparks joy to see such uniformity. Personally, I managed to time relocating to Australia with the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, and I’d already Elon Musk’d my belongings and can’t therefore spark the joy of home organisation. 

With the lockdown still in full swing here, albeit easing every week and not to the extent of what it is in the United Kingdom, my time is taken up by alternately re-learning how to live with my parents, the evil nemesis that is the 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle I was silly enough to pick up free on Facebook Marketplace, and re-learning how to live with my parents until my frantic and incessant emails to the Queensland Premier and Australian Prime Minister work and the state borders reopen. Did I mention I’m forced to live with my parents right now??

In lieu of daydreaming ways to escape the familial home and have some adult contact beyond that which exists via a screen, here’s a few things you can consider doing to hone your teaching skills without *actually* doing any real work.

1. Sign up for some free CPD. @researchEdhome (or search the hashtag #rEDHome) brings high quality speakers to your sofa/kitchen/bed/home office. Best of all, if you miss the live sessions, they are on YouTube for catching up on when you wake up from your third nap of the day. Also check out #BrewEdIsolation and #GlobalBrewEdIsolation. There’s no promise of the infamous Rucksack of Sh*te, but there’ll be quality speakers. Just remember though: camera on, pants on!

2. Learn a little bit about dual coding and the benefits it presents for teaching and learning. As a starting point, the great Oliver Caviglioli (@olicav) is your man. His Twitter feed and website are full of free, excellent resources. You can then work on your tech skills and find some icons on a site like FlatIcon (https://www.flaticon.com/) and manipulate some images using Canva (www.canva.com) to create resources and infographics all of your own. 

3. Learn a new subject. Have a look at the exam specifications of various secondary or A Level subjects, and teach yourself some of the content. Connect with some subject specialists on social media to discuss what you’ve learned, ask questions and further your understanding. This is useful for everyone: primary teachers can further their existing knowledge; and secondary teachers can learn more about what their students are studying.

4. Work on your pedagogical skills by curriculum sequencing your mastermind subject. If you can’t be there for game day, you can still practise the skills to keep you match-fit for when the season resumes.

5. Start a professional learning journal. I’m not suggesting you channel your inner Bridget Jones or Adrian Mole (unless you want to, in which case put on your big pants and carry on). A professional learning journal can be many things, including a resource for logging your reading of articles, blogs and books, a register of CPD events you’ve attended and notes from those, and a place to reflect on lessons you’ve taught and conversations you’ve had. It doesn’t have to be a beautifully illustrated bullet journal, either. I’m insanely jealous of people who have the skills to do that, but even a folder on your computer can be a place for such musings.

6. Give your pedagogical toolkit a spring clean. What tasks or activities have you used a lot this year? What haven’t you used for a long time that you could bring back? What have you always wanted to try but haven’t? What does research suggest, being mindful of needing to apply it to your context and not shoehorn entire tricks and gimmicks in, lock, stock and barrel?

Finally, one more thing: keep curating and developing your professional network. When you haven’t had to use your brain for a little while, they’re invaluable for crowdsourcing ideas and being a sounding board. Thanks to my network for being able to virtually bounce the ideas around.