TS-0228-20200228

“ ” THE PENNY CHALLENGE The naming convention should tip you off. It’s one of those crazes that involves (mostly) teenagers doing something idiotically stupid on camera and sharing it via social media, whereupon it inspires young viewers around the world to try doing the same idiotically stupid thing themselves in a chain of foolishness until everyone gets bored or hospitalised. We’ve seen it before with planking, the scoffing of cleaning detergent and dancing alongside moving cars, so what is it this time? Penny Challenge participants take it upon themselves to plug an iPhone charger part-way into a wall socket and try to coax sparks from it by touching the prongs with a penny, or indeed anything else flat, thin and made of metal. That’s it. Having first circulated on TikTok (because of course it did), at the time of writing it’s enjoying its five minutes of infamy in the popular press, who have widely quotedMike Clusker, Station Manager for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, as saying ‘I do think social media is an issue, giving people ideas that are probably not ideal. People should take responsibility for their own actions.” Yup. 06 teachwire.net/secondary Thinkofanumber... 4million ONE FOR THE WALL “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela Grab a coffee and spend five minutes exploring the lighter side of CPD… The newsletter “I’ve turned it off at the mains” DO SAY What are we talking about? A 13-minute drama film about about gender identity called Just Me What’s the targeted age range? Y9 and up What’s on offer? A recent addition to the RE, PSHE and citizenship resources available from TrueTube, Just Me tells the story of a young person coming out as gender non-binary to their partner, and sets out to realistically portray the challenges that those coming out can face from the people closest to them. That said, the film does finish on a positive and hopeful note. Howmight teachers use the resource? According to former secondary teacher and head of TrueTube, Bob Ayres, “My hope is that Just Me will help people to see that RSE is important because it’s not just about sex. It’s about people’s deepest feelings andmotivations, and their relationships with each other.” Where is it available? truetube.co.uk/film/just-me DON’ T QUOTE ME… “Ofstedhas,in its past inspection frameworks,playedamajorrole in creating the conditionswhere schools felt itwas necessary to narrowtheircurriculumandto teach to the test...fear-driven change is not theway to embedbetterpractice.” DrMaryBousted,joint general secretaryoftheNEU BEAT THE BUDGET The UNINFORMED teacher’s guide to… “Michael Faraday probably tried it, you know...” DON'T SAY The number of children currently living in poverty in the UK, alongside 8 million working age adults and 2 million pensioners Source: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation 345,000 The number of UK primary school children receiving less than 15 minutes of shared reading per week. Source: BookTrust 66% The proportion of schools in England providing support for students’ emotional and mental wellbeing in 2019; in 2016 the figure was 36% Source: NAHT / Place2Be