Have your say: Gaming in the curriculum

Can gaming in schools help with career development?


Child Gaming EsportsEarlier this month, the NHS announced a new treatment being offered to 13 to 25-year-olds who are suffering from gaming addiction, having identified the issue as an "emerging problem". This supports the recent classification of gaming disorder as a mental health condition.

There is no shortage of stories in the news about the problems which can arise from gaming, from lack of sleep, difficulties developing relationships and the potential to lead onto gambling habits - there is often lots of bad press surrounding the pastime of gaming.

However, there is an emerging career path being explored through gaming, or 'esports'.

For instance, Benjy Fish is a 15-year-old professional gamer, who has so far earned over £400,000 from gaming. There are also those who are developing careers as esports managers and coaches, as well as those who commentate through social media on gaming tournaments and championships.

Schools are now beginning to embrace gaming, with some including it into the curriculum. By doing so, they are encouraging pupils to develop programming, problem-solving, communication and networking skills amongst other career-boosting talents.


Have your say

Do you agree that gaming can help develop career skills? Do you have gaming in your school curriculum? What most concerns you about gaming? What has worked in your school? How can we ensure positive outcomes from gaming activity? Let us know your thoughts and suggestions using the comments section below.

Gaming News Story

View the BBC news story here and the BBC Newsround story here. To find out more about the NHS gaming addiction treatment, click here

Written by Safeguarding Essentials on October 17, 2019 09:23

Government adds further weight to e-safety

Nicky MorganLast month, the Government made 2 significant announcements that related to e-safety issues. The latest announcement made on Boxing Day reiterated the need for education and parental support in keeping children safe online. Here is a brief summary of the developments.

On 11th December, David Cameron announced measures that aim to protect young people from online predators. Speaking at the We Protect Children Online summit, he presented 3 strategies to help at-risk children including; blocking internet search terms; identifying illegal images and; global child protection and laws.

Further information about this story can be found in our e-safety blog

On 26th December, Nicky Morgan announced further moves to help protect children, by reaching out to parents, encouraging them to use the new whole home parental controls - introduced by the government - as well as online resources such as ParentPort and Internet Matters to help keep their children safe online. In her speech she is quoted as saying:

"From my conversations with parents I know how worried parents are about keeping their children safe online."

"This isn’t just about what they may be exposed to but ensuring that parents’ pockets are also not hit by the unauthorised purchasing of apps and games - something very easily done."

"But this isn’t just a problem for parents, schools have a role to play too, which is why we have put online safety at the heart of the curriculum and I am delighted to announce extra funding to ensure children are given the information and tools they need to protect themselves online."

To support this, the additional funding of £500,000 will be given to the Safer Internet Centre, to ensure schools and teachers are also equipped to teach our young people about how to be safe online. The money will provide advice for schools, alongside:

  • regional events
  • new multimedia resources for schools
  • funding to enable a vital helpline for reporting online criminal content to continue
  • a series of online safety events for teachers across the country

    Further details of the announcement can be viewed on the GOV.UK website.

    With e-safety now also part of the curriculum, it is clear that the Government see this as an essential part of the education agenda.

    If you would like to add your thoughts to this announcement, please use the comments section below.

  • Written by Safeguarding Essentials on January 08, 2015 13:16

    Interpreting the Ofsted Requirements for E-safety - Part 3

    Students on ComputersThis is the third in our series analysing the requirements of the Ofsted’s e-safety framework that was first issued to their inspection staff in September 2012.

    In previous articles, we looked at three sections of the framework policy document: 'Whole school consistent approach', ‘Robust and Integrated Reporting Routines’ and ‘Staff’. In this blog we are going to focus on two more areas, those being 'Policies’ and ‘Education’.

    Policies

    In the section of the Ofsted e-safety framework entitled ‘Policies’, it describes the types and content of e-safety policies that a school should have in place. In order to demonstrate good or outstanding practice, these school policies must meet a number of criteria:

  • The e-safety policies and procedures that are in place should be rigorous and clearly written in plain, understandable English. (A template that schools can use to formulate their own specific e-safety policy is available from the E-safety Support. website.)

  • It should be evident that contributions from students/staff and parents have been made to the content and construction of these policies by the whole school.

  • - A good idea is to engage students in classroom activities focusing on what they believe would be important in policies regarding subjects that directly impact them such as e-safety, school filtering and ‘Acceptable Use Policies’. (These lessons should be recorded in some way so that the evidence can be shown to Ofsted during an inspection).
    - Parents and carers should be invited to attend meetings and asked for their input into designing school policies (These events should also be recorded for evidencing).

  • Policies should be specific with regard to individual responsibilities and behaviour, technology usage etc. They should not be just generic documents.

  • - A useful suggestion is to categorise a checklist of the policies your school should have into “data protection’, ‘e-safety’ and ‘acceptable use policies’. Then, subdivide the policies in each of these categories into ‘statutory’, ‘essential’ and ‘recommended’.
    - Examples of policies and their categories are as follows:
    Data Protection policy (Data Protection, Statutory)
    Freedom of Information policy (Data Protection, Statutory)
    Data Exchange Agreement (Data Protection, Essential)
    Data Privacy policy (Data Protection, Essential)
    E-Safety policy (E-safety, Essential)
    Use of students in images policy (E-safety, Essential)
    Policy on the searching of electronic devices and deletion of content (E-safety, Recommended)
    Password Security policy (E-safety, Recommended)
    School Filtering policy (E-safety, Recommended)
    Acceptable Use Policies for students, staff/volunteers, parents, technicians (AUPs, Essential)
    Acceptable Use Policies for occasional visitors, personal devices and ‘Bring Your Own Device, (BYOD)’ (AUPs, Recommended)
    Acceptable use of ‘Twitter’ (AUPs, Recommended)
    - It is suggested that when the policies are revisited, updated and ratified, it should be carried out in a formal manner and the process recorded in some manner in order that the record can be shown to a visiting Ofsted inspector.

  • The e-safety policies should have full integration with other relevant school policies such as those concerning safe-guarding, anti-bullying or behaviour.

  • A particular important aspect in this area is the incorporation into the overall e-safety policy of an ‘Acceptable Usage Policy’ that every pupil and/or parents respect and have signed. This also applies to all school staff as well.

  • - In the case of students, they should be asked to sign the school AUP at the start of their time with the school. It would be helpful if parents countersign the document also.
    - In the case of staff, this should be done as part of the school’s induction procedure for new staff. (There are a number of ‘Acceptable Usage Policy’ documents available to E-safety Support members - further information can be found here.)

    Education

    In this section of the framework, Ofsted focuses on a schools curriculum and, with regard to good or outstanding practice, is looking for certain aspects to be demonstrated:

  • The schools curriculum should demonstrate progressiveness and flexibility with regard to the promotion of e-safety across the whole school.

  • - Evidence of this could include a programme of key-stage specific e-safety lessons and assemblies that occur regularly throughout the school year. The E-safety Support website offers a number of informative lesson plans and assembly plans, for this purpose.

  • The curriculum is relevant and engages students by teaching them the importance of e-safety and how to stay safe when using technology.

  • - Lesson resources focusing on e-safety should be age-related and revisited regularly and up-dated if necessary as technology advances or new technology-orientated issues arise.
    - Another suggestion is to engage students (maybe those involved in school councils etc.) in drawing up a school e-safety charter.

  • The curriculum should have content embedded that teaches students how to protect themselves from harm with regard to issues such as cyber bullying or contact with individuals who are behaving inappropriately.

  • - A suggestion is to use ‘what if’ case studies in lessons to teach students what the appropriate actions to take should they find themselves in circumstances that they are uncomfortable with.

  • Content within the curriculum should inform students of the importance of taking responsibility for the safety of both themselves and others.

  • - This issue can be incorporated in lessons and associated resources focusing on the development of knowledge and skills associated digital literacy and responsible use of the internet.

  • With regard to e-safety, the curriculum should demonstrate the use of positive sanctions to reward responsible use of technology and online behaviour.

  • - A suggestion is to reward good online behaviour with an invitation to be involved in online communities who promote appropriate online behaviour such as the ‘Scratch’ community. (This would require a parent or carer’s formal permission).

  • The curriculum should demonstrate clear evidence of peer-mentoring programmes.


  • We hope that you find these suggestions helpful. Please feel free to comment on the blog or if you have some other great ideas for embracing or engaging with the Ofsted e-safety framework within school please feel free to contribute below.

    Written by Steve Gresty on March 13, 2014 14:57


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