Tag Archives: poverty

What Causes Wellness?

Watch video of Harry Burns – write a reflection (1 hour)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEh3JG74C6s

Evidence: Write a reflection about your thoughts on wellness and wellbeing in children.

Personal Thoughts:

I recently watched the above clip of Harry Burns giving a talk on wellness & wellbeing. This was an interesting video which gave a lot of information which I had not thought of before.

He began by discussing why he started to look into the reasons behind those in the poorest areas taking longer to recover whilst in hospital. Throughout the talk he highlights many issues such as smoking and poor diets however recognises these alone cannot explain the persistent gap between rich and poor over some 25 years of study. Burns then looked at the work of other psychologists and came to an understanding that it is the early life of individuals which has the greatest impact on adulthood experiences. For example, growing up in chaotic environments has a negative influence however those young people who develop resilience have done so as a result of having a close bond with a caregiver/mentor, positive personal attributes and good support systems from peers and the community they live in. He then goes on to highlight the changes which occur in the brain due to stress in an individual’s life. It becomes apparent that these chaotic circumstances can have a detrimental impact on children and young people’s learning and development. The ability to learn, make sense of the world and behave appropriately is lowered as a result of lacking the ability to manage stress. Burns also highlights the importance of treating the root cause of all these problems as opposed to just ‘using drugs’ to cure individuals when they have become ill. Finally, the notion of alienation is discussed, particularly highlighting it as a continuous cycle. This suggests that it is vital practitioners work hard to ensure all young people have positive mindsets and encourage them to persevere with their education and reach their full potential.

I believe that the wellbeing of children and young people these days is something which we should be keeping an eye on to ensure we give all young people opportunities to build resilience and the skills they need to fully participate effectively within society. Resent research suggests that mental health in youngsters is continuing to decrease which is frightening; to think that young people, of primary age, are being reported as having depression. wellbeing-wheel

In order to find a solution to these problems individuals are facing, action must be taken across the whole board, from the early years, giving children the best start in life, to ensuring the elderly are not feeling isolated. Here in Scotland there are a variety of strategies and initiatives to help tackle such issues and make Scotland a happier, healthy place to live. For example the Early Years Framework – practitioners are actively engaging with parents and young people to improve overall wellbeing; breastfeeding initiatives to get more women participating due to the health benefits identified and also smoking cessation. I fully agree with Burns when he discusses the notion of having ‘Will’ and ‘Method’, to enable Scotland to be transformed.

Finally, the quote at the end of Burns’ talk is something which I think everyone should take on board –

“A compassion that stands in awe at the burdens the poor have to carry rather than stands in judgement at the way they carry them”

If we all took a little bit of time, made a little bit more effort to connect with people, we can help change Scotland as a nation and assist in creating better wellbeing for all.

Reference:

TEDx Talks (2014) What Causes Wellness: Sir Harry Burns – TEDx Glasgow. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEh3JG74C6s (Accessed: 09 November 2015)

HWB Presentation

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Develop a Presentation about HWB research; carry out a self-assessment of your work (3 hrs).

Working with a critical friend (peer), each person present five slides (must be pictures) that can be used to summarise a piece of research or a policy focus in the wider area of HWB. The pair should decide and identify the assessment criteria that have to be used. This should be displayed in your e-portfolio. Write up a self-assessment of your presentation before you present it to your critical friend. Present your presentation to your critical friend and collect detailed feedback from your peer.

Think about – are you meeting the agreed assessment criteria, have you practised your presentation, does it have impact, are you getting across the key points.

Evidence: A copy of your PowerPoint presentation. In addition, you should add your self-assessment feedback based on the assessment criteria. A copy of assessment criteria should be added.

Personal Thoughts:

This activity was quite time consuming to do. Thinking of the wider aspect of HWB, I wanted to focus on a policy/research document which hadn’t been considered in class. This led to the presentation focusing on the policy document ‘Achieving Our Potential’ which aims to tackle poverty and income inequality. The issue of poverty is something which we did look at in class however this was more based around the context of the attainment gap. Throughout the presentation, my aim was to:

discuss what poverty is, the causes, how it’s measured whilst giving statistics in relation to Scotland and also consider child poverty
discuss income inequality and its effects, also the notion of ‘working poverty’
discuss the government policy and it’s aims
consider the policy in relation to others, eg. Early Years Framework; early intervention etc.
emphasise there are many strategies/initiatives being implemented to tackle these issues in order for Scotland to become a fairer, healthier, more prosperous place to live – increasing the overall wellbeing of all those living in the nation; one alone will not achieve anything

Before carrying out the presentation, we decided on a criteria which we would self/peer assess against. Looking back, I believe we could have made this more specific however at the time of creating it we were unsure of what we should have. This may have helped develop the presentation further. In terms of practising the presentation, I feel this was something we lacked. Although we felt we knew our topics quite well and given the environment which it was presented (library) in, less reliance on notes may have improved the overall quality. I feel the chosen images, on each slide, were relevant to the current area being discussed – the audience recognised how they related to the topic.

By the end of the presentation, it was made clear that I had given clear and relevant information – focusing on key points – which is what I hoped I would do, enabling the audience to (potentially) learn something new, as I did with theirs. I found it challenging to be critical in my feedback however do feel I gave some constructive criticism to my peer.

The presentation can be viewed as a PowerPoint document –

HWB presentation

A copy of the self/peer assessment feedback sheet has been included –

Closing the Attainment Gap

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Design a poster (3 hrs)

Design a poster on closing the attainment gap and how HWB can contribute to this. This poster should be of a high quality with typed print and pictures on A 3 sized paper. Posters will be shared with the class. For the portfolio, take a picture of the poster and include a bibliography.

Evidence: A photograph of your poster and a completed reference list.

Personal Thoughts:

For this task it required some background reading to be undertaken to inform ourselves about the attainment gap in Scotland. We then discussed what we had found out and how we think we should complete the task. We deliberated a variety of ideas and had a few plans however we soon realised that we had so many ideas about what is being done to close the gap, this would be what we displayed. After discussing how we felt HWB contributed, we acknowledged that it is like an umbrella; everything done is in relation to HWB. With HWB being a responsibility of all, closing the attainment gap is also viewed in this way. For the gap to close, everyone must work together to achieve the ambition of the government. The introduction of Policy is a major influence in closing the gap however, for it to be successful, teachers and schools need to be informed about ways in which they can implement effective strategies into their practice.

On reflection of the final product, I feel it could have been more engaging; with more colour and images & being less wordy. However due to working as a small group time was an issue for some. I do feel I could have potentially been more persistent in suggesting using my own resources (printer etc.) to enable this to be achieved however I recognise that working in a group, compromises have to made.

This was an enjoyable activity as it is an area of great interest to myself. I found that those I worked with had little/no knowledge of what the attainment gap is and what is being done to reduce it; this was therefore beneficial in allowing an opportunity to discuss the issue whilst informing others at the same time.

References:

The attached document is a reference list which was used in the initial research of ‘Closing the Attainment Gap’ before producing the poster –

Poster References

Academic Reading

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Read and Share an academic paper around the area of child development with a peer

Evidence: Add a reference for the academic paper and write a reflection of the key findings (2 hours)

Personal Thoughts:

Due to time constraints it became apparent that this was an activity which I may be better off doing independently. I however chose not to look at child development as I wanted to focus on an area of more interest and which I felt would be more beneficial to me personally. The paper I therefore decided to read was:

McKinney, S., Hall, S., Lowden, K., McClung, M., Cameron, L. (2012) ‘The relationship between poverty and deprivation, educational attainment and positive school leaver destinations in Glasgow secondary schools’, Scottish Educational Review, 44 (1), pp.33-45

I found this paper of great interest as it reports on a Research Project of Quantitative Research and establishes the association between poverty & deprivation and attainment in school examination; the relationship between poverty and deprivation and initial school leaver destinations in Scotland. The study measured poverty through FME, SIMD and Staged Intervention; reliable indicators of poverty and deprivation, then compared with attainment figures and initial leaver destinations.

Through their findings, the research suggests a major association between poverty & deprivation and attainment. However, the research also demonstrates that there is no major association between poverty and deprivation and initial leaver destinations; some schools serving poorer areas are particularly successful (high proportion of initial leaver destinations). Furthermore, despite successful initiatives being implemented Glasgow is still below averages for attainment. The study also found that schools with lower levels of poverty & deprivation tend to have a higher no. of pupils moving onto Higher Education (HE), appearing successful; however the data suggests that these schools may actually be less successful in assisting the majority of its pupils to secure positive destinations outwith HE. This therefore raises the question of whether schools are really providing the support required for all young people on their pathway into adulthood.

The article does however have implications. Firstly, the data provides information on the initial positive school leaver destination, but no indication of the type of employment or training (full time/part time). HE was also taken out of the equation due to it being very highly associated with attainment – positive leaver destinations and finally, each of the three indicators have limitations.

To continue to monitor and demonstrate the effects of poverty & deprivation on attainment in exams in Glasgow requires further quantitative research and a longitudinal study would enable more data to be gathered beyond 2009.

Link to paper –

http://www.scotedreview.org.uk/media/scottish-educational-review/articles/338.pdf

The Rise of Foodbanks

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Recently BBC1 produced a documentary about the growing need and work of the Foodbank in Dundee. Living and working in Dundee as a student for the past 4 years as well as having placement experiences in schools in different areas, I found this quite a shocking but interesting watch. It was good to see how the service is run and who they are helping however it was difficult to comprehend that in such a wealthy nation, individuals are experiencing such horrible times.

I have attached a document which explains the Foodbank and some interesting points which were made throughout the programme –

Dundee Foodbanks

The programme can be watched on BBC iPlayer however the links says it is only available until Saturday 7th November 2015 (30 days after being aired) and can be accessed at –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06dsdqk/the-food-bank-scotlands-hidden-hunger

Link to The Trussell Trust Charity –

http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects