News

Company director and arts therapist Daniel Thomas tells Education for Everybody about the work Chroma does with children…

Tell us about Chroma and what you do.

We are the UK’s leading national provider of arts therapies working across a range of sectors to improve the lives of every person who works with us. Our 70+ team of experienced therapists provide a national service covering education, health and social care. We provide art psychotherapy, music therapy, neurologic music therapy and dramatherapy. 

We work with social care partners and local authorities supporting adopted children and their families, in healthcare for people who need rehabilitation from brain injuries but also those with dementia or other neurological diseases. 

Luke Swann, founder of The Prologue free personalised books scheme which aims to engage even the most reluctant readers, explains how the books work and why he feels the landscape of literacy learning needs to change in order to include children from all backgrounds…

When did The Prologue begin, and why did you set it up?

Just over a year ago, I set up The Prologue as a way to create the educational and social change I think is urgently needed. I grew up in an impoverished area where education simply didn’t work for a lot of young people. I’ve work as a teacher and a children’s author before but I had to solve some of these issues on a wider scale and so The Prologue has become my primary means to achieve that necessary change.

Israel’s Athena Fund today announced that more than 400 school and kindergarten special education teachers in the Bedouin sector have received iPads in recent months as part of the “iPad for Every Special Education Teacher” program. In addition to computers, the teachers will also receive 120 hours of techno-pedagogical training.

The distribution of iPads was carried out in the communities of Rahat, Hura, Neve Midbar Regional Council and Bir al-Maqsur.

Our journey to becoming a Thinking School began back in 2008; it has been a complex and demanding process, but the impact on our school and its pupils has been dramatic. 

What prompted it?

We had observed that a vast number of our students, who are aged 11-19,  were passive learners. They were being given information in order to pass exams but there was little opportunity for them to discover things for themselves. What we wanted was to raise the level of challenge and for them to become self-motivated and lead their own learning. 

Helen Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Northampton, who’s also an Apple Distinguished Educator, shares her thoughts on the use of technology for education and outlines some ideas for implementing technology in outdoor sessions…

Our children are increasingly spending less time outdoors exploring their environment. They spend more time engaging with the world around them in a digital format - through the various mobile devices now available to them at home and in the classroom.

They’re mixing learning, gaming, watching video content and using social media to communicate in a more interactive way than ever before. They are often way ahead of the curve in understanding technology, compared to parents, and some educators. 

Encouraging and supporting your child in their reading can sometimes be a monster task, let the Book Monster (RRP £24.99) by Thinking Gifts come to the rescue! This brilliant book holder can be propped on to any surface and keeps the book or tablet firmly in position with monster teeth to mark each page.

This gentle giant, available in green and blue, can accommodate most sizes of books, e-readers and tablets and has handy pockets at the back for storing items such as bookmarks, power cords and ear phones. Book Monster can now also accompany you on holiday – the new, inflatable Bookmonster Air (RRP £14.99) is waterproof and perfect for story-time on the beach!

City Building is one of Scotland’s largest construction firms, with over 2,200 staff. The Glasgow business is underpinned by a unique social ethos which includes providing sustainable employment for a diverse range of people including those with disabilities and other under-represented groups.

As part of its socially inclusive approach the organisation has established a comprehensive youth employment policy, which includes a dedicated additional support for learning (ASL) schools programme.

Dundee's Verdant Works and Discovery Point - two of Scotland's favourite visitor attractions - have won the coveted Sandford Award.

Independently judged, the Sandford Award is a stamp of approval for education at a heritage site. It recognises the hands-on learning, workshops and facilities at Verdant Works and RRS Discovery, which both make social history a large part of the visitor experience.

Both venues are run by Dundee Heritage Trust, an independent registered charity dedicated to preserving and portraying the city's heritage for current and future generations. The Trust has clocked up numerous awards for the top visitor attractions.

Education technology can help transform outcomes for disadvantaged pupils but is being neglected, according to a new report from the public services think-tank Reform. Reform analysis shows how using video tutoring apps instead of one-to-one tutoring could allow 300,000 additional pupils to make ‘significant progress’ at school. With the right input from schools and DfE, technology has the potential to narrow the opportunity gap.