As Damian Hinds settles into the new role as Education Secretary he has spoken of the importance of instilling children with ‘soft skills’ from a young age in his first speech.

He focused on how schools needed to prepare people for a shifting jobs market and the importance of skills in communication and developing character. He also saw technology as a way of easing workload.

Mr Hinds "Technology must have a role in our sector, as it does in other sectors, to be able to ease workload, which is a matter I know is of great importance to teachers in this country, and quite rightly so. I share their drive to wish to work on that." He is aware there was ‘trepidation’ in schools about the use of technology, it would be used to assist, rather and never replace the role of teachers. Mr Hinds said. "Let me be very clear about one thing. In the research that the Department for Education in the UK has done about classroom teaching and how it works, it is absolutely clear that direct instruction is of paramount importance. "Teaching education is a people business and it is the inspirational teacher at the front of the class that makes a child’s education."  

Soft skills
As the former minister for employment, he said he had “heard a lot from business” about the importance of "workplace" or "employability skills.” "Sometimes, by the way, [these are] also called soft skills," he said. “But I would suggest to you that there is nothing soft about these skills,” he said. The “hard reality” is that teaching children how to build “character resilience” and workplace skills is crucial for a thriving economy, he added. Mr Hinds focused on how schools needed to prepare people for a shifting jobs market - and the importance of skills in communication and developing character. He stressed the importance of the "ethos of a school, the expectations set for students" and activities such as "sport, public speaking and voluntary work". Mr Hinds said these would shape the "character, resilience and workplace skills that our young people take with them."    

Digital skills required in 9 out of 10 jobs    
He went on to say that around nine in ten new jobs created will require digital skills to some extent, and there is now a generation of children who are "digital natives" that are growing up with technology such as the internet and smartphones. He spoke of the importance of school embracing digital techniques in the classroom, adding that children should be taught how to create apps. The new education secretary also pointed to the importance of helping adults to retrain for a changing jobs market. “With our new computing curriculum we have moved beyond ability to use apps to ability to write apps,” he said, adding that millions of pounds is being pumped into improving the teaching of computer science.” In last year’s budget, the Chancellor pledged £84m to train up another 8,000 GCSE teachers for computer science, a subject that’s still in its infacy having only been added to the national curriculum three years ago.  

He said preparing pupils for the “fourth industrial revolution” – a term used to describe the technological advances made in the last decade – was crucial to their future success. “The pace of change we face today is so much greater than it has been in the past.” “We need to make sure that as our economies evolve, as our society evolves, we need to make sure that in the world of education we are absolutely on top of it.” Core academic subjects such as maths, English and science were “at the heart” of such an education, Hinds concluded. But he also emphasised teaching pupils “digital skills” that would match a “modern economy.”    

Damian Hinds becomes the new Education Secretary after in Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle

Mr Hinds, born in in London, in 1969, went to a Catholic grammar school in Altrincham, Manchester. He spent 18 years working in pubs, brewing and hotel industries before entering the world of politics. It was at the University of Oxford he studied politics, philosophy and economics and where he was president of the Oxford Union. He’s been the MP for East Hampshire since 2010 and was previously the minister for Department for Work and Pensions, prior to that he was exchequer to the Treasury.    

He sat on the parliamentary education committee between 2010 and 2012 and chaired the all-part parliamentary group for social mobility – a key issue for both the prime minister, and his predecessor, Justine Greening. In 2014 he called for the government to remove the cap that prevented the Catholic Church from opening new schools. He will now have to tackle the delayed decision on whether to change the rules to make it easier for faith groups to open free schools, pledged in the Conservatives' election manifesto.

Mr Hinds wrote on Twitter that he was "looking forward to working with the great teachers and lecturers in our schools, colleges and universities giving people the opportunities to make the most of their lives." The incoming education secretary will face pressures over school funding and decisions about university tuition fees. He’ll also need to make a decision on the expansion of grammar schools, something that was dropped in the wake of the election and omitted from the. Jules White, a West Sussex head teacher who co-ordinated letters sent to 2.5 million parents over school funding concerns, says too often schools policy has been sidetracked by "dubious ideological pursuits" or "tinkering around the edges".

Mr White said Mr Hinds would have to "urgently address" core problems over school funding and . Hinds has been welcomed to the job by Paul Whiteman, from the headteachers’ union NAHT, who called for stability at a time of immense change in education. “For the past 18 months the DfE has been building a strong relationship with the profession. Free from needless ‘big ticket’ policy announcements significant progress has been made lately on areas like primary assessment. We have also seen fresh ambitions to improve careers advice and guidance, sex and relationships education and social mobility. “Children need stability and their teachers can only provide that if the backdrop of education policy provides continuity for the profession.”

“We look forward to developing the profession’s relationship with Mr Hinds, building on the platform created by Justine Greening, working collaboratively with the profession and treating school staff with respect.” Whiteman said new education secretaries “often feel that new announcements are obligatory." “In 2018, where is still a massive challenge, education does not need more upheaval.” Education is the third largest area of government spending, and polling suggests the public now see it as the third biggest concern facing Britain.  

Damian Hinds becomes the new Education Secretary after Justine Greening refuses job in Work & Pensions department in Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle.

Theresa May appointed Justine Greening as both Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities. However, after 18 months in the role, she has now quit from government. Her resignation came after spending two and half hours at Downing Street where she refused a move to the Department for Work and Pensions.

She told the BBC: "Social mobility matters to me and our country more than a ministerial career – I'll continue to work outside of government to do everything I can to create a country for the first time that has equality of opportunity for young people wherever they are growing up." Sources from No 10 said Ms May is "disappointed" but respects Ms Greening's decision to leave the government. Supporters of Ms Greening argued that she had worked hard to improve the party’s popularity with teachers, among whom support had slumped in recent years, and had focused heavily on technical education and social mobility. Recently, she held a high-profile launch for her social mobility action plan, and just days before her resignation, she announced a series of measures aimed at boosting literacy teaching. She also secured an from the existing DfE budget for schools for two years.  

‘honour and privilege’
According to allies, Greening wanted to remain in position, focusing on young people, rather than take up her fourth secretary of state role. She tweeted that it had been an “honour and privilege” to serve since 2010 and would continue focusing on “equality of opportunity for young people”.  

Her departure came after one senior Tory told the Guardian that Greening had been seen as too close to the teaching trade unions and resistant to the party’s education policies. Another figure claimed she had been thought of as overly vocal and critical during cabinet meetings. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, expressed "disappointment" that Ms Greening had left government. “We are very sorry to see the departure of Justine Greening as education secretary," he said. "She has tried hard to tackle the school funding crisis, without any help from the chancellor or prime minister. She has demonstrated an absolute commitment to social mobility, to addressing the serious difficulties in teacher recruitment and retention, and to developing education policy on the basis of evidence. She set an ambitious agenda on flexible working which challenged the profession to do more to modernise itself.” “All of this was important work in progress. It is very disappointing therefore to lose her as secretary of state, particularly at a time when the education sector needs stability after the policy pyrotechnics and structural tinkering of recent years."  

Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the , said they had a "good relationship" with Ms Greening, and added: "She listened to teachers and the unions, although she was not able to make the necessary changes in education policy."  

Damian Hinds who takes over from Justine Greening will be thrown into the deep end as he will need to get up to speed with issues the DfE is already consulting on. He’ll have a number of important decisions to make on high priority issues.   Whilst Brexit and the NHS have been making headlines, Education is likely to move to centre stage over the coming months; meaning 10 Downing Street could be keeping a closer eye on the new education secretary.    

Happiness is dependent on the number of social media ‘likes’

  In a major study conducted by the Children’s Commissioner, children as young ten are reliant on social media for their sense of self-worth. The study looked at youngsters aged from eight to twelve and found many measured their status by how much public approval they get online, much of it by the amount of ‘likes’ received. Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, said she was worried many pupils at that stage became anxious about their identity and craved likes and comments for validation.        

32 children were interviewed in eight focus groups, and found some saying:

• _{"If I got 150 likes, I'd be like, 'that's pretty cool, it means they like you'" - Aaron, 11}
• _{"I just edit my photos to make sure I look nice" - Annie, 11}
• _{"My mum takes pictures of me on Snapchat... I don't like it when your friends and family take a picture of you when you don't want them to" - Hassan, eight}
• _{"I saw a pretty girl and everything she has I want, my aim is to be like her" - Bridie, 11}
• _{“When you get a buzz, and then you go to get it but you don’t. And then you get another buzz and another buzz, and another buzz. And then you’ve just got to go get it, and then you just go off course with your homework.” Billy, 9}

Those aged between eight and ten began to feel happy when their posts received likes. However those aged between ten and twelve worried with how many likes their posts received which suggests the need for social validation gets more intense the older they become. The report also found that children felt their friendships could be hindered if they did not respond to social media posts quick enough.  

Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Musical.ly were the most popular social networks for the children but had two sides to their use. What’s even more worrying is that Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram supposedly required users to be at least thirteen, yet children as young as eight were using them.

 Ms Longfield warned that a generation of children risked growing up ‘worried about their appearance and image as a result of the unrealistic lifestyles they follow on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, and increasingly anxious about switching off due to the constant demands of social media’.   She said: “What starts as fun usage of apps – children are using it with family and friends and to play games when they are in primary school – turns into an avalanche of pressure when children really are faced with a cliff edge of social media interaction when they start secondary school.” “While social media clearly provides some great benefits to children, it is also exposing them to significant risks emotionally.”  

Parents and schools need to work together

The Children’s Commissioner is calling on parents and teachers to do more to prepare children for the emotional impact of social media as they get older. She wants to see the introduction of compulsory digital literacy and online resilience lessons for pupils in year 6 and 7.

“I am worried that many children are starting secondary school ill-equipped to cope with the sudden demands of social media as their world expands.” She said children compared themselves to others online in a way that was ‘hugely damaging in terms of their self-identity, in terms of their confidence, but also in terms of their ability to develop themselves’. “Then there is this push to connect – if you go offline will you miss something, will you miss out, will you show that you don’t care about those people you are following, all of those come together in a huge way at once.” “For children it is very, very difficult to cope with emotionally.” Javed Khan, of children’s charity Barnardo’s, said: ‘It’s vital that new compulsory age-appropriate relationship and sex education lessons in England should help equip children to deal with the growing demands of social media. ‘It’s also hugely important for parents to know which apps their children are using.' The government said it was working with schools on online safety education.

Anne Longfield wants to see children living healthy digital lives. That means parents engaging more with what their children are doing online. "Just because a child has learnt the safety messages at primary school does not mean they are prepared for all the challenges that social media will present." "It means a bigger role for schools in making sure children are prepared for the emotional demands of social media. And it means social media companies need to take more responsibility." "Failing to do so risks leaving a generation of children growing up chasing likes to make them feel happy, worried about their appearance and image as a result of the unrealistic lifestyles they follow on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, and increasingly anxious about switching off due to the constant demands of social media."    

How much do you really know about education and schools around the world apart from different curriculums?

Here are some interesting facts which might just make you look at it with a new perspective.

1. The world's oldest school is in Canterbury, England. The King's School, was founded in 597 AD. The school is up-to-date with quality equipment and supplies and provides modern education.

2. The largest school in the world in terms of number of students is the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India.

There are more than 32,000 students attending the school on a daily basis. It has over 1,000 classrooms, 3,700 computers and goes through thousands of pounds worth of stationery and books each year.

3. The children in Holland start school on their fourth birthday so there’s always someone new in class.

While this does mean that older students get more time to settle in and make friends, it does at least mean that students should be at a similar development level by the time their first day at school rolls around.

4. Kids in Finland who rank near the top on international tests do not start school until the age of 7, which is one of the oldest ages around the world to start school. However, most do, attend high-quality daycare or preschool programs prior to that.

Also, Finnish schools are considered to be the best in the world. They’re also very hands-off: no grades until year three. There are no national tests until the 12th year and subsequently much less pressure on teachers as school results cannot be compared. Teachers are trusted and respected and they have a lot of autonomy.

5. In Chile Summer vacations in start from mid-December and end in early March. That’s 3 months off school!

6. Children in Germany receive a special cone called Schultüte, which is filled with pens, pencils, books and snacks. But the catch is that they can only open it when they start school.

7. France has the shortest school year from August to June and also the longest school day. French children go to school four days a week. They have about two hours each day for lunch. Their school day begins around 8:30 am and ends at 4:30 pm.

8. China has more students per class than most other countries. The average for lower secondary education is above 50 students per classroom in China. It’s around 23 in the United States and below 20 in Switzerland and Russia.

Business professionals are swapping their career for the classroom under a new scheme to tackle the that’s gripped schools.

The Now Teach scheme was co-founded last year (2017) by Lucy Kellaway who gave up her post as a columnist and associate editor of the Financial Times to teach maths in a “challenging” London secondary school.

Since then 46 trainees have been placed into challenging London secondary schools. Dr Simon Harkin, 59, left his former role in the civil service where he served in Europe, South America and Africa – and even worked for the Queen. He now works as an English Teacher at Ark All Saints Academy in South-East London.

It’s a completely different to anything he has done before. "I worked in the Master of the Household's Office, which is the bit of the household which actually runs the thing" said Simon. He also opened the British embassy in the Ivory Coast and was given an award by the UK government for his work in helping to tackle the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

But however vast his expertise in his previous line of work, teaching has been a wake-up call. “My IT skills are embarrassingly poor, so I have to work out how to do things from scratch,” he says. “My class are looking to me for guidance and leadership and to show them what to do and how to do it. And if I'm wobbling around and not quite sure what I'm doing, they pick that up very quickly, even unconsciously. It's alarming.” Simon says he decided to take up the challenge of teaching in the hope he could help address what an Education Select Committee described as a “significant teacher shortage” in England earlier this year. “I've come to the end of a fascinating career, and I thought, if I retire and do nothing, all that's gone to waste.”  

The Department for Education says there are currently record levels of teachers, and that it is until 2020 to attract more teachers. Simon will go onto become a qualified teacher achieving his Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) should he successfully pass his year’s on-the-job training.  The school’s head teacher Lucy Frame says recruiting people later in life, from different lines of work is a valuable new approach. “Simon has had lots of different experiences in life, which means that when he sees a problem, he is looking at it from different aspects, which brings a gravitas and confidence in dealing with things.” 

In another school, Oasis Shirley Park School in Croydon, Lynda Burns a former diplomat the UK’s deputy ambassador to Cyprus is now working as a trainee Spanish teacher after a two week intensive training course provided by the scheme. “I spent about 20 years in the Foreign Office, advising the government, ministers and Number 10 about foreign policy,” she says. Her role would sometimes involve making life-and-death decisions - including once having to manage crisis teams as a plane containing British nationals was taken hostage and diverted to Cyprus.

But Lynda likes to think there are some parallels between her past life and working with children. “In diplomacy you're dealing with different people around the world, different cultures, and different languages,” she says. "You have to find a way to express yourself and make yourself understood. “With school, I'm trying to do that with a different audience.” She has taken on the role in the hope she can give something back to children in her local community, having spent 20 years trying to do the best for her country. “From day one - from second one - of your lesson you've got eyes upon you waiting for you to take charge of the class, waiting for you to produce a great lesson.” “So although you're learning the job, you have to be credible in front of the children, and I think that's been a major challenge.”  

Now Teach includes regular feedback sessions with senior - and often younger - members of staff who act as mentors throughout the year. The children seem to give Lynda the thumbs up. “I wasn't really good at Spanish last year,” says Alfred, in her Year 7 class. “I really struggled a lot.” “But Miss has helped me a lot, and now I'm in a higher set.”    

In today’s Autumn Budget today the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has announced a £177m boost for maths as well as plans to train more computer teachers and support adult skills.

Maths skills are key to "cutting edge" jobs of the future, said the Chancellor. There will be financial incentives to boost maths after the age of 16, after concerns that too many drop the subject after GCSEs. From 2019 schools will receive an extra £600 for every pupil taking maths or further maths A-level or core maths above current levels. Professor Frank Kelly, chair of the Royal Society's advisory committee on mathematics education supported the increased uptake of maths. He concluded “Mathematics is essential for understanding the modern world and provides the foundations for economic prosperity." But Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL heads' union, said extra cash for maths was a "drop in the ocean" and schools would still face real-terms cuts. He warned that the funding offer for maths could create a "perverse incentive to enter students on to maths courses which might not necessarily be the best option for them". He also raised concerns that it would be "unfair" that schools that had already increased their number of maths A-levels students would miss out on extra funding.

Schools are continually struggling to recruit computer science teachers – therefore over the next four years there will be an additional £84m to train 12,000 more staff qualified to teach the subject which will be supported by a new National Centre for Computing. There was also a call for proposals for maths specialist schools to be opened.  

£1000 per teacher
Underperforming schools in England will be receive an extra £42m over the next three years which will be used to provide extra training to “improve the quality of teaching.” This means teachers in the selected school will have the opportunity of £1,000 worth of training. There will also be a national re-training scheme for adults, in partnership with the CBI and the TUC, with an initial £30m to teach digital skills. Further education colleges were promised £20m to prepare for the so-called "T-level" qualifications, which will be for vocational subjects.   Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn criticised the lack of movement on student debt and warned that schools in England would be "5% worse off by 2019." Many school leaders were left disappointed and angered that there was no extra cash for core school spending. Paul White, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers said “It would now be "impossible for many schools to avoid making redundancies.”

Just last month the heads of 5,000 schools had visited Downing Street calling for £1.7bn to be put back into the school budget. After today’s budget this request fell on deaf ears. The lack of movement on school funding would leave "parents and teachers deeply disappointed," said the National Education Union. Jo Yurky, a parent campaigner over school funding, said the spending plans were "out of touch with the concerns of parents" and that the maths announcement was "tinkering around the edges with gimmicky ideas."  Kevin Courtney, joint leader of the National Education Union, said: "The Budget, with no significant new money for education, shows that the Government has chosen to ignore the anger of parents and the clear evidence of the problems being created by real terms cuts to education."    

Several education unions are urging the Government to immediately increase the pay for all teaching staff by 5 per cent.

The Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers, the National Education Union, UCAC, and Voice, said teachers' pay levels have fallen behind that of other graduate professions. Ahead of the Autumn Budget unions have written to the Education Secretary Justine Greening detailing the need for the pay increase. significantly behind most other graduate professions which has led to a schools facing a recruitment and retention crisis.  In a strong labour market with increasing opportunities for graduates teachers’ pay is no longer competitive.  

The letter said: "After seven years of real terms cuts in the value of pay due to the Government's public sector pay policy, we believe that a significant pay increase is now required for all teachers and school leaders. "The situation is now so critical that it requires firm and decisive action. In order to support and secure recruitment and retention, teachers' pay levels must be restored at least to the levels that existed before the start of pay restraint in 2010. "We believe that teachers must be given an immediate pay rise of 5 per cent in 2018 as a step towards this. "It is absolutely essential that all pay rises, including any increases in costs, are fully met by additional Government funding given the reality that 88% of schools in England and all maintained schools in Wales currently face further real terms cuts over the life of this Parliament." Teacher supply is spiralling out of control, workload is increasing, of the profession before they’ve even had a chance to build a career.  

Recently, a quit teaching after just one term. Eddie Ledsham, from Wallasey found himself crying due to the pressure of impossible hours and unrealistic targets. There was only one class in the year group, which meant that Eddie said he was planning every lesson himself, rather than splitting it between other teachers in the year like some schools. Although Eddie was taught on his university course how to plan lessons, he said they were impractical for the job. Each lesson plan had to be 3 pages of A4 long and Eddie had to write seven lessons a day, five days a week - that’s a huge amount of pressure on anyone let alone an NQT. Eddie would get up at 5.30am to do marking or planning and then do more planning in his classroom before the day started. Generally he would be the last to leave school and wouldn’t get home until at least 6.30pm. Rather than socialising with teachers at lunch, he found himself back in the classroom catching up on work. Describing his isolation at the job, he said: "Most of the teachers at the school would only speak to me to inform me I’d done something wrong and, if I did something right, it usually went unnoticed."

Earlier this year teachers hopes for a rise in wages were slightly encouraged when the government approved an additional 1 per cent pay rise in areas that faced the highest skills shortages. The news was welcomed by unions and teachers but said the government would have to provide extra funding to support teacher pay rises, otherwise money would be taken from elsewhere in schools’ already over-stretched budgets. A Department for Education spokesman said: "It is vital that we have the best people teaching in our schools if we are to raise standards and ensure all pupils can reach their full potential." "Over the past four years teachers' pay has been fundamentally reformed, based on recommendations by an independent School Teachers Review body." "We are investing £1.3 billion up to 2020 to attract the best and brightest into teaching, head teachers have greater freedom to offer competitive starting salaries and teachers' pay is now linked to performance to pay good teachers more."  

Without sufficient teachers, children's education will suffer. Giving teachers a fair pay rise is a crucial part of solving that problem. Other public sectors including NHS staff and council employees are also campaigning for the cap on public sector pay to be lifted.