Author: Mr Roundtree

#Ditto is a downloadable e-safety magazine for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology.

There’s a lot of interesting information in the November edition. We especially liked the articles on Deepfakes, Influencers and Notifications and Immediacy.

We can all agree that reading is important, but do you realise just how important reading actually is?

The Reading Agency outlines the powerful impact reading can have for your child, for you and for society.

The benefits of reading for pleasure for your child (and you!):

• Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development – their brain power – than their parents’ level of education.
• Reading for pleasure is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.
• 16-year-olds who choose to read books for pleasure outside of school are more likely to secure managerial or professional jobs in later life.
• Having books in the home is associated with both reading enjoyment and confidence. Of children who report having fewer than 10 books in their homes, 42% say they do not like reading and only 32% say they are ‘very confident’ readers. For children who report having over 200 books at home, only 12% say they do not like reading and 73% consider themselves ‘very confident’ readers.
• Children who read books often at age 10, and more than once a week at age 16, gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.
• Reading extensively and for pleasure at home can increase literacy skills at a greater rate than through formal lessons at school.
• Incomes are higher in countries where more adults reach the highest levels of literacy proficiency and fewer adults are at the lowest levels of literacy.
• An online poll reveals that regular readers for pleasure report fewer feelings of stress and depression than non-readers, and stronger feelings of relaxation from reading than from watching television or engaging with technology intensive activities.
• Studies have shown that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and a greater ability to cope with difficult situations.
• Reading for pleasure is associated with better sleeping patterns.
• Adults who read for just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to report greater life satisfaction.

We’re often asked how you can support your child more at home. We think one of the best ways to help is to make sure you build into the daily routine some time for reading. For many families, this is a bedtime story every night just before lights out.

Happy reading!

As you know, we like to keep you updated as much as possible with how you can keep your child safe when they’re online. This is an ever-changing world and, unfortunately, it’s impossible to keep up with all current issues but there are some ways we can help. Over this year, we’ll communicate to you some factsheets about popular games and apps with some hints and tips about how you can support your child in staying safe.

The first one is some guidance around the game, Fortnite.

As always, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, please chat to someone in school.

Although it’s not yet in primary schools’ National Curriculum, most primaries provide pupils with learning around aspects of Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE), and also citizenship (in fact, sometimes, you might see or hear the abbreviation PSHCE) and financial education (I’ve even spotted the abbreviation PSHEE – Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education). Sex and relationships education (SRE, although sometimes the terms are swapped around: Relationships and Sex Education – RSE) also falls under this PSHE umbrella term. As you can see, all these abbreviations can get really confusing!

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we cover all this in a weekly subject which is popular with both pupils and their teachers: Living and Learning.

Read more about Living and Learning on our Health page and in our age-related expectations. You can also check out the weekly Living and Learning theme in our calendar – they show for each Monday during term-time.