It is estimated that over 1 million people attend emergency departments across England and Wales with head injuries annually. Between 33% and 50% of hospital attendees are under the age of 15, highlighting how prevalent head injuries are in young people.  Many of these recover well without the need for medical intervention, however, it can be life-changing for some sufferers.

One cause of head injuries is road accidents. Unfortunately, road safety is not an innate sense that we are born with, so it needs to be taught. Here is why road safety education is so important.

Why road safety education matters

You may think that teaching road safety is about memorising rules, but it goes much further than that. Nurturing a sense of responsibility and awareness goes a long way in life, not just around our roads.

By teaching road safety, you are encouraging your children valuable skills such as risk assessment, following instructions and keeping focused in hectic environments. These are transferrable to other areas of their lives and well into the future.

Children often travel to school and go out with friends as they get older, so equipping them with the skills to keep safe is essential. Encouraging independence for travel helps to build confidence around their whole being.

Road safety’s main aim is to reduce accidents and injuries. Teaching kids to respect the road as well as how to cross safely, for example, reduces incidents and keeps kids safe.

The parent’s role in teaching road safety

As parents, the responsibility to teach your little ones everything can feel a bit overwhelming at times. Road safety can be integrated into everyday life, so it feels less like a lesson and more natural.

Starting early is key to grasping the basics. Even when your kids are babies, narrating what you are doing when you cross the road or identifying road signs can help them understand the idea of safety and road signs. Making these actions as normal as possible helps kids to learn and copy.

There are plenty of interactive songs and games which you can introduce to your children about road safety. Sometimes a catchy tune really helps to drive the point home!

The potential impact of road accidents

Even the most conscientious and aware child can be involved in an accident. Accidents can be devastating as the resulting injuries can be serious.

If your child is involved in a road traffic accident which results in a brain injury, it is imperative that you seek legal advice. Specialist brain injury claims solicitors will be able to help you navigate the legal complexities of making sure your child receives the care and compensation they deserve.

Inspectas Property Compliance has provided funds for the Delius Co-op Academy in Bradford to buy 50 sets of waterproof jackets and trousers to keep pupils aged from 4-11 dry when using the newly developed outside forest school area.

Delius Co-op Academy provides a personalised and ambitious curriculum for 174 children with special needs across two sites in Bradford. This year, it has introduced a forest school in the school grounds to support play, exploration and supported risk-taking through hands-on outdoor experiences.

Assistant headteacher Aimee Helie said: “Outdoor learning and forest schools are core components of our curriculum because they offer sensory experiences and opportunities for personal growth that can’t always be achieved inside a classroom. However this needs to be an all-round rather than a seasonal resource to ensure our learners get the very best out of the outdoor space we are creating. And in order to do that, we needed to invest in waterproof clothing – something the school simply didn’t have the resource for.”

Inspectas is a West Yorkshire based business which specialises in providing health and safety, fire safety and general property compliance for sectors including education, healthcare, retail and local authorities. The team were keen to support a local good cause as part of its social responsibility drive and pledged to sponsor 50 waterproof kits to ensure the pupils could play outside, whatever the weather.

Aimee added: “The support from Inspectas in purchasing all weather waterproofs is a game-changer for our pupils here at Co-op Academy Delius. With this new waterproof gear, all of our pupils can take full advantage of these enriching activities, regardless of their physical abilities or the weather.

“For our pupils with special needs, these outdoor experiences are particularly beneficial in promoting communication, motor skills and social interaction. The addition of the new waterproof clothing will mean that every child can participate fully and comfortably, whether they are building dens, exploring the woods, or learning about local wildlife!”

Inspectas Operations Director, Fiona Lindsay (pictured), added: “A large proportion of the properties we provide occupational management for include schools and universities so we are very aware of the complexities of the buildings and of the large amount of work it will be taking Delius Academy to develop their forest school.

“With so much time and energy going into this outdoor project, it was clear to us that the pupils needed to be able to benefit from it at any time of the year. So we were absolutely delighted to be able to help by providing all-weather clothing to ensure the children the forest school is there for, can enjoy it to its full potential – whatever time of the year!”

• On Outdoor Classroom Day (Thursday 23 May 2024) the National Education Nature Park programme is calling on teachers and pupils to discover habitats in their school, nursery or college grounds.
• You’ll follow prompts to find what homes for wildlife you have on your learning site, and upload your findings to see the different types of spaces that are being found across the country on this day.
• By taking part in this England-wide, curriculum-linked activity, you and your class will be ready to start creating a map of habitats on your learning site – an essential first step in the Nature Park process.

Calling all teachers and young people! Take your learning outside and be a ‘habitat hero’ this Outdoor Classroom Day – finding habitats on your school grounds as part of the National Education Nature Park programme.

By taking part in this nationwide, curriculum-linked Habitat Heroes activity, you and your learners will follow prompts to explore the homes for wildlife you have on your learning site – perhaps you have piles of leaves where worms could hide, fence panels that spiders might use for spinning webs, or pools of water where frogs and birds could go for a dip!

You’ll upload your findings and see your discoveries alongside all of the other spaces being explored in schools, nurseries, and colleges across the country on this day. This activity forms part of the trailblazing National Education Nature Park, led by the Natural History Museum working with the Royal Horticultural Society and other partners, and commissioned by the Department for Education as part of their Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy. The free Nature Park programme – which launched in October 2023 and over 2000 schools, colleges and nurseries have joined so far – sees young people leading the way in forming a vast network of green spaces by improving their schools, colleges and nurseries for both people and wildlife, all while connecting to nature and
developing vital skills for their futures.

“Whether you’ve already joined the Nature Park or not, taking part in Habitat Heroes on 23 May is the perfect way to take your learning outside this Outdoor Classroom Day, spend time in nature and see the positive impact we can have when we all work together,” says Dr Jessica Tipton, Head of the National Education Nature Park at the Natural History Museum.

The Habitat Heroes activity is a great way to start your Nature Park journey and explore the concept of what habitats are. It will prepare you and your class for the mapping your site activities, an essential first step in the Nature Park five-step process where you will explore habitats in more detail, surveying the different types of habitat you have across your site and recording these on the Nature Park map. You can then journey through the Nature Park process and turn ‘grey’ parts of your outdoor space – such as concrete playgrounds – into greener spaces by making scientifically evidence-based changes. Options range from growing pollinator-friendly plants and building small ponds, to greening walls with climbing plants and harvesting rainwater.

“We’re so excited to see what homes for wildlife pupils discover on their sites,” says Rosie Naylor, Senior Programme Developer at the Royal Horticultural Society. “We hope this activity will just be the beginning of pupils connecting to nature, developing new skills and transforming their spaces into sanctuaries for both nature and their school community through the Nature Park programme”.

The Nature Park links with other parts of the Department for Education’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy and its funded initiatives; including on the ground support for climate action planning from Climate Ambassadors (delivered by the University of Reading, EAUC and STEM Learning), and a Sustainability Support for Education digital hub of resources and tools launching soon. The hub will support schools by bringing together all the information they will need to develop, or build on, their climate action plan.

Minister for the School System and Student Finance at the Department for Education, Baroness Barran says:

“We are thrilled to see schools across the country accessing joining the National Education Nature Park to help pupils learn outdoors, engage with the natural world and to create and protect green spaces within their education settings.

“The Nature Park is one of the key initiatives commissioned by Department for Education as part of our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. It will support young people to connect with nature in ways that will develop vital skills for their futures while making meaningful improvements to biodiversity within their local environments for a more sustainable future.”

The more schools that take part, the bigger impact we will have! Get involved and find out more at www.educationnaturepark.org.uk/habitat-hero

Under the new partnership, fencing sessions will be delivered at Inspiring Learning’s 11 Kingswood centres around the country, reaching thousands of students on residentials throughout the year. Inspiring Learning will also be responsible for hosting and training British Fencing coaches in the new lesson format. The new programme will be delivered within British Fencing’s ‘We Are Forging Futures’ framework, an Ofsted-aligned Resilience and Self-Efficacy programme designed to build confidence in young people through fencing-based activities.

Grounded in outcomes-based learning, the new partnership transforms fencing sessions – traditionally focused on the technical aspects of the sport – to instead enable young people to develop the less tangible skills of resilience, such as dealing with and bouncing back from setbacks, all within in a safe game-based environment. From this, the students can take the soft skills developed back into the classroom and their wider lives.

In addition to these lessons, as further commitment to Inspiring Learning’s ethos of using evidence-based practices, the partnership includes the funding of a research programme at Sheffield Hallam University. The aim of this project is to measure and evaluate the impact of the new fencing programme on young people’s resilience levels. It will be led by Inspiring Learning’s Head of Learning and Impact, Dr John Allan PhD, who is also a Visiting Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University.

Andy Barnett, Head of Partnerships at Inspiring Learning, said “As the new Official Resilience Partner of British Fencing, we are very excited to deliver this innovative fencing programme and to improve resilience among young people. When it comes to outdoor education, it is important to look beyond the activity itself, in this case fencing, and instead explore how it can build adaptable skillsets needed in today’s society. We look forward to working with British Fencing as we continue our work in providing outdoor education to young people across the UK.”

Harry Brown, National Partnership & Engagement Manager at British Fencing, added “We are delighted to welcome this new relationship with Inspiring Learning as British Fencing’s Official Resilience Partner. Through this mutually beneficial partnership, thousands of students on residentials throughout the year will have the opportunity to not only participate in fencing activities, but also benefit from our educationally-aligned ‘We Are Forging Futures’ framework, building confidence and resilience. We are eager to begin this new journey together and look forward to seeing the impact that this collaboration brings to young people across Inspiring Learning’s 11 Kingswood centres around the country.”

Kids Country, an education programme for children from across the East of England and managed by the East of England Agricultural Society, took their popular Autumn Apples half-day workshop into Folksworth C of E Primary School, Kirkstone House School and Bellbird Primary School, to help more children have a better understanding of the field-to-fork journey of their food, and using that information to learn to make good consumer and health choices.

At Folksworth C of E Primary School, near Peterborough, headteacher Michelle Norbury said: “The practical activities combined with the way information is shared makes it enjoyable for children, but they are still learning. The event linked to the curriculum through food and nutrition too.”

Emily Lang, Year 5 teacher at The Bellbird Primary, Cambridge, said: “The children loved it and learned so much. Apples have become very popular in our class!” The event complemented some of our science and PSHE curriculum too.”

The Kids Country team were supported by AMT Fresh Partnership, Co-operative Central England, Sustainable PECT, and a squad of tireless volunteers.

Sandra Lauridsen, education manager at the East of England Agricultural Society, commented: “At Kids Country we love to make everyday and accessible British-grown food exciting, and our Autumn Apples event does just that year after year. An apple a day really does help keep the doctor away through its nutritional benefits, so to help make them and how they are grown exciting to children is great!

“Thank you to our corporate sponsors and partners, as well as our tireless volunteers and farmers, for helping this event happen – we couldn’t do it without you!”

If you would like to be involved in any way in future Kids Country food and farming events, either as a school, corporate or individual volunteer, or to sponsor Kids Country to help more schools experience the hands-on and memorable learning that Kids Country offers, please contact slauridsen@eastofengland.org.uk

To keep up to date with upcoming Kids Country events and the new 2023-24 academic year programme, you can also visit: https://www.eastofengland.org.uk/kids-country/ or follow the East of England Agricultural Society on Facebook, twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

The record-breaking numbers, published today, show that 537,759 young people are currently working towards their Award across the UK – up more than 10% on 2021/22.

The figures mark the end of the second year of the DofE’s ambitious five-year strategy to reach one million young people by 2026 – with a focus on breaking down barriers for marginalised young people and reaching more schools in deprived areas, community organisations, further education colleges, organisations supporting young people with additional needs, and prisons and young offender institutions.

The annual statistics show that:
• Participants gave 3,541,707 hours of volunteering in their communities – up 64 per cent on the previous year and equivalent to £17,035,611 in paid working hours.
• 29.9 per cent of 14-year-olds in the UK started their Bronze DofE.
• 262 secondary schools offered the DofE for the first time, including 98 in the most deprived areas of England.
• 19 secure settings started running the DofE, including prisons, young offender institutions, secure units, youth offending and youth intervention teams – with 79 now offering it overall.
• DofE was offered for the first time in 72 community organisations, 15 further education colleges, 126 centres for young people with additional needs and 36 alternative provision centres, supporting students who cannot attend mainstream school.

Ruth Marvel, CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said: “Young people are taking up the DofE in record numbers – showing they value opportunities like this more than ever. As they find themselves stuck between a brutal past few years and an uncertain future, chances to develop and grow outside the classroom are vital to help level the playing field and give them the skills and capabilities they need to succeed in future.

“Young people need our support more than ever if they’re going to have the same chances previous generations had – which is why we’re determined to keep breaking down barriers to participation and reaching as many young people as possible.”

https://www.dofe.org/

The Department for Education (DfE) has released further details of its National Education Nature Park, created to teach children about climate change and improve biodiversity across the country. Esri UK is providing a digital mapping platform and expertise in biodiversity mapping to help underpin this exciting initiative, first announced at COP26 by the Education Secretary.

The National Education Nature Park will engage young people and teachers with nature, supporting them to play a driving role in mapping and monitoring biodiversity on their grounds using citizen science and, critically, taking action to enhance it. The DfE believe this could play an important part in increasing biodiversity across the education estate and have a real impact on halting the decline of nature in England.

The event was supported by Marriage’s Flour, Ladies in Pigs, Vine House Farm, Co-op Central England, Thomas Beazley, Park Farm Thorney, and Schöffel Country – who came along as part of their new partnership with Kids Country, to be launched on ‘Black Friday’.

Folksworth C of E Primary school headteacher, Michelle Norbury, said: “We’ve worked with Kids Country many times over the years and know how exciting it is for the children to have this kind of hands-on learning experience brought to them in school. It is so important to get children excited about locally produced food and how it is grown – we are surrounded by farmland at our village school so for children to understand what that land produces, with activities like Farmer Luke’s ‘Metre Square’ is really engaging for our students.”

Children rotated around four activities – Pancake Making, Pig Zone (learning all about pig farming and tasting the difference between free range rare breed pork sausages and typical premium supermarket ones), Tractor Zone with Farmer James from Park Farm Thorney, and the Metre Square with Farmer Luke, where children learn exactly what can be grown in a metre square of farmland and the inputs required to do so.

Joining the Kids Country for the first time was award winning food writer, Jenny Jefferies. Jenny, author of the “For the Love of the Land” and “For the Love of the Sea” books, said: “It was a real privilege to come along to the Kids Country Breakfast Week today. It’s such a fantastic and inspiring initiative, and to see first-hand how school children are experiencing food provenance in an all-inclusive, enjoyable and informative way is both heartening and wonderful. This is what it’s all about!”

Alongside the usual team of Kids Country educators and volunteers, the event also welcomed Charlie Coups and Paul Tomson from Schöffel Country, who are partnering with Kids Country this year for a range of fundraising events – kicking off with their Black Friday event next week. Charlie said: “We were delighted to join the team at Kids Country for the start of Breakfast Week 2022. It was clear from the offset how passionate Sandra and her team are in helping to educate children about food, farming and the countryside. The children were excited to learn and engaged throughout the morning in a variety of hands-on tasks – it’s not every day you get the chance to see a tractor up close or do a taste test on rare breed vs supermarket sausages! I hope that over the next twelve months, Schöffel Country can help to shine a light on these countryside heroes and the incredible work they do in educating the next generation.”

The Kids Country team also took their Breakfast Week event to Fourfields Community Primary School, Yaxley, and Clough and Risegate Community Primary School, Spalding, in the same week, with a second Breakfast Week sold-out in January.

Kids Country education manager, Sandra Lauridsen, said: “Breakfast Week is always such a great event to bring to schools as children all eat breakfast in some form, so it’s really useful to engage them in not only how that breakfast is grown – whether it’s sausages, toast or cereal – but also about making healthy nutritional choices part of their decisions.”

“We are so grateful for all of our volunteers, educators, the companies donating produce and their time, and also to Jenny Jefferies, and Charlie and Paul from Schöffel Country – their engagement helps us to bring more events like Breakfast Week to more schools going forwards.”

To keep up to date with upcoming Kids Country events, please visit: https://www.kids-country.co.uk/events/

The Field Studies Council has launched its new Digital Hub to support secondary school teachers and students with the fieldwork element of geography and biology.

Scott Wycherley, Education Manager for the Field Studies Council, said: “Fieldwork was one of the casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic, so we want to support secondary schools as they begin to reintroduce field trips and fieldwork skills to the curriculum.

“During lockdown, the FSC’s Fieldwork Live digital programme provided a vital solution for more than 450,000 students and teachers. We have combined the highlights from this virtual field trip multimedia archive with a range of newly-created resources to form the Digital Hub.

“There is nothing like hands-on outdoor fieldwork – our aim with the Digital Hub is to support teachers as they help equip their pupils with the skills they were not able to develop fully during the disruption of the last few years. We also wanted to support experienced and new members to the teaching profession with follow-up ideas and inspiration once back in the class.”

The Digital Hub includes accessible, student-friendly resources for all fieldwork topics required for the main exam boards in 14-18 geography and 16-18 biology.

Resources include a range of bite-size, captioned videos, presented in the field by the FSC’s own experienced tutors, as well as downloadable worksheets, GIS story maps and CPD resources.

The hub resources help students to develop investigative skills or encourage deeper thinking, both while preparing for fieldwork and for reflection and consolidation of learning afterwards.

The Digital Hub is designed to complement the FSC’s existing free teaching resources, which can be found at https://www.field-studies-council.org/resources/

For more information, including the low-cost subscription rates, content lists, or to access a fee sample of materials, visit www.field-studies-council.org/digital-hub/