Occupational Therapy

The College of Occupational Therapists (COT) sets the professional and educational standards for occupational therapy in the UK, representing the profession nationally and internationally and contributing widely to policy consultations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT) and operates as a registered charity. Their website is a useful source of information for both professionals and the public offering guidance, reports and research publications.

The College launched the 'Occupational Therapy: Improving Lives, Saving Money' engagement programme this month. The purpose of the two year programme is to influence stakeholders, by showing the difference that investing in occupational therapy can make. To set the ball rolling, they have published a report, which gives the impact of occupational therapy across urgent care pathways including acute crisis and emergency care, discharge planning and specialist services.

Spending Review 2015

The government presented its Autumn Spending Review on Wednesday - here is a summary of the key points. The outcome for 30-hour childcare is discussed and another report gives an overview of the impact of the review on education funding. On the surface, the NHS have done well, with an extra £8bn a year pledged. However, a focus on patient safety and rising demand mean that hospital trusts are likely to remain in considerable deficit by the end of this financial year. Publicly funded bursaries for student nurses are to be phased out and replaced with student loans. The government's U-turn on tax credits seems to be good news for tax credit claimants - or is it? The small print within the review has been studied closely in this Guardian report. 

HM Treasury have published supporting documents for the review; detailed background on the context and aims of the review is given and the process is explained here.   

Religious Education

This briefing introduces the rules around RE in state-funded schools; it addressess concerns that have been raised about the quality of RE teaching, including the number of RE teachers with qualifications relevant to the subject. It also provides information on other related issues, such as the parental right of withdrawal from RE, and the rules on collective worship in schools.

A separate report 'Collective Worship and Religious Observance in Schools' has been published recently; it recommends that Governments in the UK should reappraise the duties on schools to organise acts of collective worship (England, Northern Ireland, Wales) or religious observance (Scotland) for their pupils. It also includes recommendations with respect to the current implementation of the law and policy surrounding collective worship and religious observance.

The 'Westminster Faith Debates' bring together leading academic and public figures to debate the latest research on religion and values. A debate in June entitled: 'A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools' has been documented online.

Related links:

National Association of Teachers of Religious Education

Religious Education Council of England and Wales

Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE)

Faith Makes a Difference

Children’s Centre Census 2015

The Children’s Centre Census 2015 has been published by 4Children; it provides an overview of the major trends and developments taking place in Children’s Centres across the country. This year the Census received responses from nearly 400 Centre managers, collectively responsible for approximately 1,000 Children’s Centre sites nationwide.

Time for Wellbeing

Figures show that more than half of UK teachers are thinking about leaving the classroom within the next two years, largely as a result of stress, heavy workloads and low morale. To help address this issue and the wellbeing of pupils, Nuffield Health will be launching a pilot project at Wood Green School in Oxfordshire by sponsoring a head of wellbeing for two years.

Some of the tasks for the jobholder will be to look at the link between student wellbeing and attainment, to investigate new ways to use classroom time to increase wellbeing and campaigning to improve mental and physical health, with a focus on exercise and nutrition  The wellbeing of the staff will also be a primary concern; as part of this pilot, teachers will receive a health MOT, which will highlight healthy changes they can make to their routines. The role will also involve engagement with the local community, in particular parents.

On the subject of wellbeing, many UK schools have introduced yoga and are seeing the benefits to their staff and pupils. The Yoga At School website offers a range of articles, case studies and resources for teachers.

F... is for Forest School

"Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Forest School is a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland education."     

Forest School Association (UK's professional body for representing & promoting forest school in the UK)

To continue with the Back to Basics series, we'll be looking at the concept of Forest School in this post. To start off with, let's set the scene with a brief look back; the Institute of Outdoor Learning has written two articles, giving a useful background to the movement. The first article discusses the early influences of outdoor learning, then gives an overview of the educational pioneers who were advocates of outdoor play and the development of a relationship with nature. The second article focuses on how forest schools have grown since 1993, the challenges faced by the movement and the impact these have had on the the future of forest schools.

If you are researching this topic, you'll be pleased to know that there is a great deal of research in this area; this literature review of outdoor learning gathers research in fieldwork and outdoor visits, outdoor adventure education and school grounds/community projects. A report  published by the Forestry Commission gives an evaluation of forest school in England and Wales and its impact on children of different ages. The Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) has a collection of articles freely available online. Don't forget the Library Portal page - Usearch and E-Resources. A search for 'outdoor learning' in the library catalogue will give many results for forest schools as well as adventure education.

There are a number of news articles that may be of interest, which also provide case studies of nurseries and schools adopting outdoor learning.

Report: Hurting inside

A new report by the NSPCC, provides an overview of  neglect to give a better understanding of the issues faced by children. It highlights how the long term cumulative impact of neglect can cause deep-rooted and lifelong physical and psychological harm for a child and at its worst, prove fatal. The NSPCC helpline and ChildLine work to provide timely and decisive action to help stop child neglect and the report offers insights into how adults recognise, report and understand child neglect.