Category Archives: Contemporary issues

Twisted Tales in Time

In learning about social studies, I felt it was important to go out and ‘do’ it. Our Tutor recommended the Dark Dundee walking tour company, so Kim, Katy and I headed out to see what we could learn. Dark Dundee are a local company which specialises in walking tours in and around Dundee. They run lots of aptly-named tours, such as : ‘Crimes of Passion’, ‘A Dark History’, and ‘Dead Centre’, all of which sounded exciting, but we went for ‘Twisted in Time’. This was to explore the “truth to Dundee’s darkest myths and legends”, look at the facts behind what people believe today, and the truth to the stories that we hear in Dundee. I can assure you, we were not disappointed!

Another motivation for going on this tour was that it was specifically related to Dundee. I’m from edinburgh myself, and I have very little local knowledge. If i were in Edinburgh, I know lots of stories and local legends, which I think would be nice to share with a class of. So far, this has not been a problem, however, with probation year looming, I know that I need to act fast. Having recently had a talk from the GTCS on where I will choose to go next year to work, I have decided that I would like to stay in Dundee. This throws up the issue of what do I do if I am to cover a topic based on local history? Being honest, I would not know where to start! I thought this tour could be the much needed start in exploring my adopted home!

The tour promised “Dragons, cannibals, plenty more real monsters and tales of savage punishment and ancient feuds, this twisted tour just might keep you up at night…”, so we were excited when we approached the dragon statue in the city centre to begin the tour…

At the dragon, we learned about the story behind it. The story of the Nine Maidens of Pitempten. The legend goes that there was a farmer, who had nine daughters, and sent one down to fetch water from the well, and when she did not return, he sent another to find her, until eventually they were all gone and he had to go out to look for them himself. When he reached the well, he was met with the horror of the nine girls bodies strewn around a large dragon, which had killed them all. The farmer escaped and raised the alarm in the town and Martin, the supposed lover of one of the girls lead the charge to slay the dragon. He was egged on by cries of “Strike, Martin!”, and he eventually killed the dragon and saved the town. Nowadays this is why there is an area of Dundee called ‘Strathmartine’, named after this hero of local legend. Our tour guides, at this point, started to unpick the legend. Firstly the legend actually speaks of a serpent, not a dragon, so why the dragon statue? And if the hero of the legend is Martin, why is the statue of the villain? Well the answer is very simple, because a statue of a dragon is far more impressive! The dragon looks ‘cooler’ than a statue of an ordinary-looking man, plus there is no way of knowing what Martin even looked like!

The story is certainly unlikely to be true. I did a search of the story to gain a little insight into the story! According to some of research, the monster was a dragon, a serpent, and two intertwined snakes. One respondent to Dark Dundee’s explanation of the story suggested an alternative, which said that ‘Nine Maidens’ are referred to throughout Scottish folklore, dating to Pictish times, where there were nine maidens who were the daughters of a St Donevald, and upon his death they lived near a large oak tree, where they were eventually buried upon their deaths, and the site became a pilgrimage location. According to this respondent, a cult of these nine maidens was created and the church forbade pilgrimage to this site. It could perhaps be that this story was used to deter people from making the pilgrimage. This could be very plausible, as our Dark Dundee tour guides noted that the story could have been a fictional cautionary tale, and that the girls were eaten for the terrible crime of dancing on a Sunday…

We also stopped at this plaque on the Murraygate. It is to commemorate Grissell Jaffray, the final woman in Dundee to be executed as a witch. She was killed in 1669, however the records of her trial conveniently were destroyed in a fire, so only limited information is known. Because if what is known of witch trials at the time, it is very likely that a confession was extracted through some means of torture, such as the removal of fingernails. In this case, after her death, three presbyterian ministers were held responsible for her horrific death, where she was eventually burned at the stake.

Supposedly the day she burned, her son was captaining a ship arriving into Dundee port, and the pyre’s smoke was high and visible from the ship. The son turned to a fellow sailor and asked what was happening. He was told that it was his mother’s execution for witchcraft. Upon hearing this, the son turned the ship around and sailed out of Dundee, not wanting to be associated with his mother. Also, there is a gravestone in the Howff cemetery in Dundee, which is the final resting place of her remains

This was all very interesting, we lent in further to find out more… only to be told that this is not even true! Well, Grissell Jaffray was real, and she really was executed for witchcraft in 1669. However, for a convicted witch to have been buried on consecrated ground is just not possible! Our tour guides also told us that the story about her son is just a tad implausible! Surely if one’s mother was burning on a stake and you heard about it you would want to rush there quickly? And how could the other sailor have known about it, but not the woman’s own son? And to cement this doubt, our tour guides offered us one more piece of evidence to disprove this part of the story: there is no record of Grissell Jaffray having any children!

So what did I learn? Well there were a lot more stories and tales told, with various levels of authenticity, and as one might expect, more is known of the more recent stories. I have not referred to them specifically, as I wouldn’t wish to reveal too much of the tour, but there were many different things I learned. I think that as a learner I found out a little more about Dundee as a city, and as a local resident I think it is good to know little things like this, as it makes me feel more of a part of the local community, and this is something I think could be pertinent to children in classes I will work with. I think as a teacher, if I ever move to work in a new city, I will try to find out about local folklore and history, as I think it would be nice to share with children.

I think that children could benefit from a tour like this, where they could see the things they were learning about. I think that the tour offered a different approach to the stories we learned, one where the walking element itself could be underestimated, as this kept me interested and wondering what was coming next throughout! I asked one of our guides if they ever did tours with school groups, and he told me that they didn’t, but that is wasn’t out of the question. I think I wouldn’t take children on this tour specifically, as it was perhaps a little too gory and grim for the age groups I would be working with, however i think a tour like this has potential to be a fantastic teaching resource.

We really enjoyed our 90 minutes walking around the city centre, this is the link to go to if you’d like to take the tour, I can assure you you won’t regret it!

https://www.darkdundee.co.uk/#the-tours

After the tour, I stopped the other two and filmed a short video of each of us saying what we thought of the experience!

http://angusfolklore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/martins-stone-and-nine-maidens-and.html

http://www.dundeemessenger.co.uk/myths-and-legends/the-dundee-dragon/

Mosque Visit Reflection

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Beginning the RME module, it was suggested that we go as a group on a trip to the Dundee Mosque to the Open Doors day. I was very curious going in, as I had never been in a Mosque before. I would have been the first to admit to knowing only a little about Islam, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. What first struck me when we went in was how welcoming and pleasant all of the volunteers were. Of course I was not expecting anything different, but I felt that it was great how open they were, and how willing they were to share their own thoughts and experiences of their religion. I felt very welcome, and it was very interesting to see the religion! I feel more confident teaching Islam in a class, and I would definitely take a class there on a trip, as it was a great experience which I would like to share with any children I work with.

Our group trying on scarves in the women’s prayer hall

To learn more about Islam, I watched the following video. It follows the lives of two young Muslims: Sara and Kaisan, and gives them the opportunity to explain and demonstrate what their religion means to them and their families. I felt that it was a great way of showing children what it mean to be a muslim in the UK. I believe this it is a great resource to use with children as it explains Islam in practice, and from the point of view of a child, which is very important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L45T4Q7dxV0

It is quite different to what some children may have seen in the media about the religion and its practices. A simple google search of “BBC News Islam” had the following top two results:

“Islamic State conflict – BBC News”

“Islamic State group: The full story – BBC News”

And other versions of this search all brought up similar results, pages and pages about extremism, conflict, and many other negative images. On a personal level I struggled with this, as I saw no similarities at all to the real Muslims I met at the Mosque. The people were so pleasant, kind and open to us, that I found it uncomfortable to read the pages that my web search brought up. It seems wrong to me that these are portrayals of the religion that children can see. I considered the representations of Islam I have seen myself recently and came up with two very different ones which portray it in very different ways.

One was a recent television drama called ‘Our Girl’, set in Kenya, where a young female army medic is kidnapped by an extremist group and then rescued by her friends. I do not feel I can say whether or not the storyline was realistic, however it did make me think about the way that Islam can be shown in a negative and even scary light. Alternatively, the second was ‘My Jihad’, a series of ‘shorts’ – four 15 minute episodes of a drama about Nazir and Fahmida, two young British muslims, who meet by chance and decide to marry. The story follows them as they attempt to navigate their way though their relationship while maintaining a strong devotion to their religion. To me, this show was a far more realistic and fair representation of Islam. While I accept that the two shows are very different – being set within two very situations; in different countries; and of course with very different characters, I believe that they evoke different reactions in the audiences, and the portrayal of Islam in a negative light has contributed to there being a sense of unease around the religion, which my own trip to the Mosque simply proved was completely wrong.

Want to watch these two shows for yourself?

My Jihad: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01ssrp2/my-jihad-1-a-bus-a-burka

Our Girl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0452t2n

: Practicing writing in Arabic

: Showing off their Arabic writing

: Showing off their henna

: On the way in…

Fragile X – What is it and How do We Support Those who Have it?

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What is Fragile X?

In basic terms, Fragile X is a genetic condition which is the cause of most common inherited learning disabilities. Fragile X is also more common in men than in women, affecting 1 in 4000 and 1 in 6000 respectively.

Fragile X has many associated traits, and not everyone who has it will have all of those characteristics.

There are many potential effects associated with Fragile X, and each individual will only have some of them, in some cases almost none. The effects of fragile X appear to manifest differently in males and females, with females generally being less affected.

Some people with Fragile X will suffer from Epilepsy. This is around 15% of boys and 6-8% of girls.

What are the effects of fragile X on the individual?

Strengths of Fragile X
Good imitation skills
Good visual learning skills
Good long term memory
Sensitivity to others’ emotions
Likeable personalities
Good sense of humour

Different Effects by Gender

Males

More significant intellectual disability
Moderate to more severe learning disabilities
ADD
ADHD
Autism & Autistic Behaviours
Social Anxiety
Hand-Biting
Hand-Flapping
Poor Eye Contact
Sensory Disorders
Aggression

Females

milder intellectual disability
Moderate to mild learning disabilities, if at all
Emotional Health Issues
Mental Health Issues
Social Anxiety
General Anxiety

How Can We Support These Individuals?

One of the most obvious is to notice and encourage the use of some of the previously mentioned, or other, strengths.
Give them plenty of warning before transitions, like 5 or 10 minute prompts before moving between classrooms.
From this, it is also a good idea to have a consistent routine so they know what to expect and when.
Don’t try to force eye-contact, some individuals with Fragile X find this uncomfortable.
Allow them frequent breaks to keep their attention focused on learning, this should include the opportunity to move around the room a little.
Provide visual cues to assist them in following instructions and sequential activities.
Some people with Fragile X are prone to hyper-arousal (high nervous system activation), so it is worth knowing what environmental factors cause it in an individual and to try to minimise this. Examples include sound, light, textures, taste, and smell.
Try not to put too much pressure on them to perform, i.e. not giving a strict time limit for tasks, as it can be difficult for them to cope with.

For More Information

The Fragile X Society

Website: http://www.fragilex.org.uk
Helpline: 01371 87510Email: info@fragilex.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefragilexsociety
National Fragile X Foundation Website: https://fragilex.org/fragile-x/fragile-x-syndrome/

NHS National Genetics and genomics Education Centre

Website: http://www.geneticseducation.nhs.uk/genetic-conditions-54/655-fragile-x-syndrome-new

Bread and Butter Policy

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I came across this article in the news and I couldn’t help but post about it. Essentially, this English school attempted to bring in a policy whereby children who did not bring in their lunch money would not be given lunch that day and would be given bread and butter instead. While I admit this is better than simply not feeding them, it is still a horrific policy.

The problem I have is that it singles these children out. It may be that they had the money and simply forgot it, and that one day of not having a proper lunch would not do a huge amount of harm, though I can imagine it would be very embarrassing. The worry I have is for those children whose families struggle to pay for these meals.

At £2.10 per child per day, I can see that it adds up – £10.50 a week, and that’s just for one child! For these children, not being included with their peers could become a regular occurrence and other than being a humiliating experience, it could be worse for their health. Surely it is better for a child to have a substantial meal in the day than this proposed alternative, a meal with the proper nutrition and enough to fuel them for the rest of the day. I also think that it should be pointed out that for some children their school meal is the main or only source of healthy food and understanding of good choices, to remove this could be disastrous!

Luckily, I am not the only one who sees this in the same was as I do, after complaints from parents, the school had about-turned and agreed not to introduce this policy! However, I still find it worrying that they ever thought it was sensible, fair and inclusive in the first place. Essentially it would be punishing children for something usually out with their control!

If you would like to read it, then please see below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-35381990

The Meeting

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On Friday, my group and I were asked to role play a meeting, each of us received a piece of paper with our character and some extra information on it. We were role playing a meeting about a child called Jack who has various issues and we had to try to find a solution to. The characters were:

Jack’s Mum
Jack’s Dad
The Head Teacher
The Class Teacher
The Health Visitor
Jack’s Mum’s Social Worker

It was really interesting to watch the scene play out. I was Jack’s Dad and I knew that Jack was not receiving enough care from the mother, that the mother had lost her job and that this was for stealing.

Among all the other discussions I found myself focussing in my head that the mother was clearly not capable of looking after Jack and, as one of Jack’s issues was stealing at school, I thought this behaviour had been learned from the mother. In the end it turned out that the mother had not been stealing but had lost her job due to too many absences because she was not coping. This really got me thinking, and what I realised is that nobody in that group had all of the information. Because of this, there was not an easy way of making the necessary decisions.

If this was a real-life meeting, I would imagine that the mother would feel ganged-up on by the father and all of the various professionals. Our group decided that Jack should go to stay with his dad to allow his mum to get back on her feet, but I know that in reality this would not have been so easy a decision and the mother would not have let this happen so easily.

What I have learned from this activity is that there are always two sides to every story and we need to be able to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Another observation I made was that Jack was not included in any decisions we made, and it seemed that none of the adults had even asked him his opinion. This shows that there is a real need for childrens’ voices to be heard by those who hold the power to make huge changes in childrens’ lives. I will keep this in mind when it comes to my own practice, and in the classroom while teaching.

The Mystery of the Named Person

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Nearly every time I log into Facebook nowadays, I am faced with yet another post about the Named Person Act. Somebody always has a problem with it, often people who are not children and do not have children themselves! The same thing happened last night, a good friend of mine bemoaning the legislation, and now I am going to put my own opinion across!

To be fair on some people, simply being told that your child has a ‘Named Person’ surely sets off alarm bells. I don’t have children myself, but I can completely understand how a parent may feel, it does sound like there is someone who is in charge of a child over the parent, so I can see why they may panic. I asked my mum recently and she said “No one has my child’s best interests at heart more than me”. The problem comes when people stop there and don’t put any effort into finding out.

First, I’m going to try to explain what exactly the Named Person Act is and what it offers us. The role of the named person is to support children through the various trials and difficulties of their childhoods, be that moving school, bereavement, disabilities or something more serious. They are a point of contact for the children and families they work with. Before starting school, the named person is a child’s health visitor, and once they start school it will usually be the head teacher at their school, or possibly their guidance teacher.

The Scottish Government’s Website explains:

“What will a Named Person do?

The Named Person will be available to listen, advise and help a child or young person and their family, providing direct support or helping them to access other services. They can help families address their concerns early and prevent them becoming more serious.

They can also respond to requests for assistance from other services in situations where this may support the child’s or young person’s wellbeing.”

Does it say that the named person will take over from parents? Does it say that they will have children removed from their families? Does it say that the named person is in charge of the child in any way?

The answer is definitely no to all of these questions.

Now, my own understanding of a ‘named person’ is that the named person is the individual whom anyone who is concerned about a child can go to to share their concern. This means that concerns are shared with the appointed professional, who then has a full and more rounded picture of the life of the child in question.

For example, say a child’s teacher notices something in a child’s behaviour changes, then the school nurse notices something that causes them to have a concern, a social worker involved with the family is made aware of a change in the family’s circumstances, and finally then the child tells their scout leader something that raises their concern. If this information is not shared, the circumstances could become worse and cause something significantly more serious to happen. The Named Person’s role is to receive this information and build up a picture of the life of the child and inform the relevant professionals, deal with the problem themselves, or simply keep the information on record for future use.

To find out what people think of the legislation, I asked a few people I know for their opinions, here are some of their responses:

“Good idea for vulnerable children to give them neutral support if there are other professionals involved with the child. Not necessary for all children”

There are countless services out their like social workers, Childline which do similar things & I think improving those services would be much more beneficial”.

“I can’t see it being that effective compared to other services”

“a total waste of time”

“it undermines the parents and from what I can tell grants the person access to confidential information about the family and they have no say in the selection “

“I don’t see how this will actually help identify vulnerable individuals when everyone has a state guardian”

“affront to the freedoms of both parent & child”

“we shouldn’t operate on the presumption that all parents need monitoring”

“I guess they are a good thing but if people didn’t understand what level of involvement they would have then I could see why they’d be against them.”

This clearly shows that, while not everyone is in complete opposition to it, most people are not open to the legislation at all. I think that it is essential now to educate people, specifically parents in what this legislation is all about and what it means to them. The GIRFEC documentation refers to the role of the named person, saying:

“The Named Person also needs to help children and families feel confident they can raise concerns and talk about their worries to people who will listen and respect their point of view and work with them to sort things out”

This means that parents need to be informed that the named person is there for them and is not just a faceless professional who’s going to turn on them when things become difficult.

Ultimately, you and your families will probably never need to use your child’s entitlement to their named person, but who are you to deny that right to others, people who need the support or in extreme cases – intervention. To me it is essential the children have as many professionals looking out for them and their wellbeing as possible, and it is equally important that they understand this right and know that they are entitled to all the support they need. As I have already said, the ‘Named Person’ is not there to make parental decisions on behalf of children, but to co-ordinate people and resources, if the Scottish Government are guilty of anything when bringing in this legislation, it’s a poor choice of name for it!

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person/top-ten

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00423979.pdf

Interagency Working, This is Just the Beginning…

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Since today was our third day back after the Christmas holidays, I thought it could do with a post about the beginning of the new module. The module is about Interagency or Multiagency working. This, as you can imagine, is highly important for teachers. In the most basic terms, it means professionals in the lives of the children: teachers, police, social work, healthcare workers, community learning officers… The list goes on but those are some of the main ones.

We have been split into groups of 7 or 8. We are to do group activities and go on community visits together. Having met and discussed this with the rest of my group, I am feeling really confident in our ability to work collaboratively with this group. This is a massive benefit, as we have been told that this is not always the case. Clearly, as professionals, we have to simply work with the other professionals in the childrens’ lives – obviously, we cannot allow children to be put in danger just because we do not particularly like their social worker. I believe that the same logic applies here, as we cannot just decide not to work with each other because we do not like each other. I think that it is essential to remember this throughout the module with the group and to reflect on any issues arising.

I think that the main goal for the module is to keep up with the lectures and tutor directed tasks. Of course it is always good to keep up with these things, but for this module there are 6 other people who will be relying on my to do my share of the work in order to be able to do do their own or to learn their own materials. I also would like to set the goal of building a relationship with the remainder if the group, as I have identified the need to be able to speak to each other openly and honestly, especially if any problems arise between us. Towards the end of the module, I will update this post to see if I have managed this.

http://amberleyeducationcumbria.co.uk/onewebmedia/Picture%2014.jpg

UKIP Education Policies

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Before I start, I would like to make a few points. First, I am not attempting to write a scathing report on the UK Independence Party, nor am I even planning to demonstrate my opinion on any matter than education. Also, this is not an attempt to convince anyone to vote in a certain way, simply, it is my own reflections on the policies of the party, both positive and negative, and anyone is completely welcome to disagree with anything I say! I know that education is devolved to Scotland, so is unlikely to affect my education or my future career, but I do believe that my reflections are worth making.

I have copied some of the main points from UKIP’s manifesto from their website:

Ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals
Scrap teachers’ performance-related pay
End sex education for primary school children
Bring back grammar schools and support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools
Waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university
Make First Aid training part of the national curriculum

“Ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals”

I can see the point that they are trying to make, which is to reduce the bureaucracy and allow teachers to spend their time planning and teaching. However, I believe that assessments, data collection and appraisals can all be of value. For teachers, these things can be used to set targets and improve practice. I think that they key is in how individual schools and individual teachers use these things so that they are not aimless uses of time, but rather it is extremely meaningful. Assessments are not the be all and end all within education, but I can see that they can be beneficial if used correctly, so they should not be cut down. Ultimately, I can understand what this policy was attempting to do, but I cannot agree with it.

“Scrap teachers’ performance-related pay”

I am aware that we do not have performnce-related pay, but I think this point is worth consideration. Basically, it is saying teachers should not be paid based on their performance as teachers. A survey on the opinions of teachers in Wales about performance-related pay, it was found that “it would be problematic to isolate the performance of individual teachers and deleterious to collegiality and teamwork in schools” I agree with these points, I wonder how teacher would be assessed. Would it be based on attainment within their class? The problem with this is that children develop at different rates, so children who take longer to develop would bring a class average down. This could potentially result in a teachers trying to avoid having certain children in their class. I also wonder if teachers who are low on the pay scale would perhaps give up, and not put in as much effort. Of course, the counter-argument is that performance-related pay could be highly motivating to some teachers who would strive to be the best, but that begs the question: would they simply do it for the increased money, or would they do it because they loved it and they enhanced pay be a bonus? While I can understand this argument, I do not agree. I can see that performance-related pay could become a negative tool and therefore this policy is a sensible one.

“End sex education for primary school children”

This one speaks for itself, it means that many children will reach 12 years old with no understanding of sex education. I believe that it is essential that children know about sex and relationships, but also about their bodies. For me, the aim of sex education is to promote healthy habits in the future, not teaching children to do things that they are too young for.

“Bring back grammar schools and support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools”

This is an interesting concept to consider. They are advocating the use of grammar schools, which are “the only state schools… that are allowed by law to select all their pupils on the grounds of high academic ability”. This means that children can be put on a completely different track based on whether they do well in the admissions test. To me, this is wrong as it limits the opportunities offered to children, and I think it could be detrimental to their confidence if they fail to gain entry. “The specialist schools programme is a UK government initiative that encourages secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum in order to boost achievement.” I also have a problem with this, it is all very well to join a specialist school but I do not feel that it gives children enough opportunity to change their minds. They may want to be a dancer or performer when they are aged 11 or 12, and then decided they want something entirely different from their lives by the time they’re 16 By then it would be too late to change their minds.

“Waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university”

This could seem like a positive move, but to me, I see strong bias in favour of people who are more academic who would be most likely to study a STEMM subject. This would mean any creative subject would require the payment of tuition fees, such as: Art, Music, English Literature or Performing Arts. These people on lower incomes may feel pushed to apply for STEMM subjects just because they would not have to pay for them and go on to struggle with the course content. This means that creative or arts subjects would only be accessible to those who could afford tuition fees, limiting the choices for those from lower income families

“Make First Aid training part of the national curriculum”

I do not see any problems with this policy. The number of people I know my own age who have no first aid skills is very high. St John’s Ambulance’s research says that two-thirds (59%) wouldn’t feel confident trying to save a life. This is a huge number of people with no skills in this area, and that does not account for the number of people with out-of-date skills. If every child had this as a mandatory part of their education it would allow them to build up a highly useful skill set which they will be able to use throughout their lives. Also, I believe that it may be something that children who struggle with academics may find they are good at and could be a means of building up confidence in some children. It goes without saying that any training would have to be age appropriate.

My final point comes as a result of a group activity. We had to get into groups and research a political party and I was in the UKIP group. Something that I became aware of was that some people did not even try to be impartial and talk about their party without also giving their opinion. While this was in a peer setting, as opposed to a teaching one, I have become aware that there will almost definitely come a point in our careers where we have to teach about the political parties. It will be essential at that time to be completely impartial. On 1PP1 last year, I taught a bit about politics around the time of the 2015 General Election. I had to be very careful, even not to agree with anything children said. This is something that I think will be very important to remember throughout our teaching careers.

http://www.ukip.org/ukip_manifesto_summary

http://www.tlrp.org/themes/seminar/gewirtz/papers/bibliography.pdf

http://www.ngsa.org.uk/faqs.php

http://www.serviceschools.co.uk/cms/specialist_schools_arts_drama_music_new/

http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/what-we-do/latest-news/news-archive/news-stories-from-2010/april/2-in-3-couldnt-save-a-life.aspx