Category: Childhood
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Learning through outdoor adventure today helps young people adapt to the challenges of tomorrow
Within a world which currently resembles a moving target, an enormous amount of unmitigated information is at young people’s fingertips. Consequently, the measure of their knowledge is not the amount of this information which can be retained (cognitive skills). Rather, it is their ability to curate (filter and process) material coupled with an understanding of…
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England’s Pisa is decidedly lop-sided
This year’s PISA results were launched in the offices of Policy Exchange. It was a fitting choice – according to Nick Gibb the former schools minister, given that of all the think tanks, Policy Exchange is one of those which has had the greatest influence over the direction of England’s education policy since the election…
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Minimising harm in research with multilingual parents – protecting participants through creating translanguaging space
Research ethics in higher education institutions are increasingly led by the mantra: protect the institution, protect the participants, protect yourself. Mostly this is quality assured through increasingly bureaucratic processes involving form filling and standardised risk assessments. As ethics representative for SIOE this has caused me many sleepless nights thinking about whether the multiple ethics forms…
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Speaking volumes and silent echoes: uncovering government priorities for disabled young people in the SEND review
“Language exerts hidden power like the moon on the tides.” Rita Mae Brown (2011) In a recent paper from the Right to Review project, we analysed the SEND Review (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), a Green Paper that set out the government’s proposed reforms for the SEND system. Our aim was to interrogate “the hidden…
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Covid has put wellbeing in schools front and centre
Covid has put wellbeing in schools front and centre The school shutdowns during the Covid pandemic may feel like a distant memory. But the effects of this period are still being felt in schools today — and pupil wellbeing is one of the biggest casualties, as explored recently by Dr Caron Carter on this SIOE…
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Shaping South Yorkshire
Last week the Princess of Wales launched the Shaping Us campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of early childhood experiences in how we develop physically, socially and emotionally. The campaign starts from the premise that: “The way we develop, through our experiences, relationships, and surroundings during our early childhood, fundamentally shapes our whole…
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UK Child Well-being in the Pandemic
It is no surprise to hear the recent news that the child well-being in the UK is of concern: nearly a year on from the first lock-down children have found themselves in a new world. Since the day in March 2020 when the Prime Minister announced all of us – including school pupils – must…
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Stories that make up who we are (not): How children and young people navigate their lives through stories
We are all surrounded by stories- multiple narratives that make up the fabric of the world around us and through which we are able to make sense of our place in it. We tell stories, to inform ourselves about where we are from, where we are going, and who we are along the way. We…
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Achieving the early childhood panacea: the missing link…
Over the past two decades there has been substantial political interest and expansion of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services. Whether this be private nurseries, the voluntary sector or the maintained sector, such as schools and children’s centres. From September 2017, the entitlement to funded provision, introduced in the Childcare Act 2016, will rise…