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This online Certified Professional Development Course encourages delegates to engage, reflect and interact with (at least) 6 presentations during (or after) the conference, considering the impact the showcase could have on your own professional practice.

"Despite many challenges and pressures facing the teaching profession, taking a moment to step back an appreciate some of the positives can make you appreciate the joys to behold within the classroom. As part of a #UKEdChat discussion, teachers from around the UK shared the best perks of the job, which we have summarised here to help other colleagues reflect upon. We're not really in it for the perks, are we?"

"Make the news an essential foundation for learning  Created every week by our experienced education team, our award-winning tools for KS2 and KS3 enable you to develop pupils' essential reading skills through growing their understanding of the world outside the classroom."

"Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), part of the University of Oxford, used an eight-year survey of UK households (Understanding Society, part of the UK Household Longitudinal Study) to study how long teenagers spent using social media on a normal school day and their corresponding life satisfaction ratings. This is the first large-scale and in-depth study testing not only whether adolescents who report more social media use have lower life satisfaction but also whether the reverse is true. Before this study scientists had little means of disentangling whether adolescents with lower life satisfaction use more social media or whether social media use leads to lower life satisfaction."

"At its inception in the Victorian era, mass education in the UK focused very much on conformity, based on the prevailing 'factory production' mindset on the age. But how much has changed? With top down curricula and a rigid exam system testing the merest fraction of what is actually important, has education really left the production line behind?"

"Imagine being a child who's given a school note to take home and realising all your friends can read it, but you can't. Or being asked to complete an assignment in class that has been written on the whiteboard but having no idea what it says. Or opening up a book and seeing all the letters jump around. For the one in 10 children in the UK who are dyslexic, this may well simply be part of their everyday life."

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"Performance targets, increased workload, curriculum changes and other bureaucratic changes are eroding teachers' professional identity and harming their mental health, a new study in Educational Review finds. The study's authors interviewed 39 teachers across England and Wales who had experienced long term absence from work due to mental health problems, and six head, deputy and assistant head teachers who had dealt with mental health problems among staff."

"The team at Night Zookeeper is delighted to be giving primary school children across the UK a unique opportunity to use a new (and free!) website to create characters for a soon-to-launch animated TV series in a world first."

"For most children, school holidays are a chance to grow together as a family and time to take a break from classes (although we hope that learning continues!). But not all children look forward to school holidays. School may be their sanctuary from conflict and abuse from home or elsewhere. The most important, and often the most difficult step to safeguard vulnerable children is identifying that they are vulnerable in the first place, as the truth is often hidden very well. Safeguarding training is a yearly mandatory course in many parts of the UK, but are teachers confident at spotting issues and stepping in when needed?"

"In the UK, there are about 100,000 children with autism - about one in 100 - according to the NHS and 70% are educated in mainstream schools. Learning and socialising with neurotypical children can pose a challenge for pupils with autism who find it hard to read facial expressions and body language and have difficulties understanding the intentions of their peers. They may also prefer to play alone which sets them up as targets in the playground, with other children finding it easier to pick on them as they do not have a support structure around them."

"Sometimes, it is just necessary to stand in front a group of children and speak to them. It's not the strongest tool in a teacher's box of tricks, but speaking to groups of pupils is hinged with one notable problem - keeping their attention - especially if you are trying to get key points across to help their learning.  However, these ideas - adapted from spring.org.uk, can easily be amended for classroom situations, and are worth exploration in ensuring attention is kept by the majority of pupils"

"In his new book, Adrian Bethune explores different angles of the life of children who are of primary-school age. For example, in a fascinating first chapter, Bethune examines our tribal roots, tapping into our pupils' primitive social instincts and their powerful effects on wellbeing and ability to learn. Citing the work of Louis Cozolino (Click here to view The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom by Louis Cozolino on Amazon UK - worthy of a read itself) a tribal classroom embodies tribal qualities including a tribal leader, cooperation, teamwork, equality, fairness, trust and strong personal relationships. Such qualities enable everyone to feel valued and a feeling of a big family, helping secure positive relationships - the role of the teacher in this relationship is to help pupils feel like they belong, which is fundamental to learning. Developing this tribal theme, Bethune the proceeds to share ideas to be implemented in the primary classroom to help cultivate such positive relationships, including the design of a team flag, greetings and endings, teaching social skills, and building humour and games into the setting."