Monday News Issue 168- 17th March 2025
- Matthew Paminter
- Mar 17
- 10 min read
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
Events this week:
March 18th- World Recycling Day 2025
March 18th- March 24th- Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025
March 20th- International Day of Happiness 2025
March 21st- Comic Relief 2025
March 21st- World Down Syndrome Day 2025
March 22nd- World Water Day 2025
Legislation/Regulation of the week
Display Screen Equipment Work: Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
As an employer, you must protect your workers from the health risks of working with display screen equipment (DSE), such as PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations apply to workers who use DSE daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more. We describe these workers as 'DSE users'. The regulations don't apply to workers who use DSE infrequently or only use it for a short time.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Please remember to review this in your policy/legislation review workbook)
Videos of the week
Siblings of Neurodiversity
Join us for an eye-opening and heartfelt exploration of the intricate world surrounding autism, focusing on an often-overlooked perspective: the experiences of siblings. This compelling show delves deep into the lives of individuals whose stories are intricately woven with the journey of their autistic siblings, offering a poignant and illuminating portrayal of their challenges, triumphs, and the unbreakable bond that ties them together.
Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
Event of the week/month
Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025
On the week of 17-23 March 2025, we will celebrate neurodiversity. Approximately 15-20% of population has a neurological difference such as Dyslexia, DCD (Dyspraxia), Dyscalculia, Autism and ADHD. But regardless of labels, neurodiversity is about recognising those who think differently. Instead of labelling people with deficits or disorders, when we use the term neurodiversity, we should take a balanced view of an individual’s unique strengths and challenges.
Many ‘challenges’ neurodivergent people face are more to do with the environment and systems they are placed in, often designed by a majority population.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
Online Actions, Real-World Consequences: How your digital footprint can shape reality
In today’s digital world, children’s online behaviour can have lasting real-world effects. The online disinhibition effect makes them feel anonymous behind a screen, often leading to impulsive actions they wouldn’t take in person. This can include cyberbullying, oversharing personal information, or engaging with harmful content.
As parents and professionals, it’s crucial to educate children about digital responsibility. Remind them that what they post, share, or say online can impact their reputation, relationships, and even future opportunities, such as college or university admissions or job prospects.
Encouraging open conversations about online safety, setting clear boundaries, and modelling positive digital habits can help children navigate the internet responsibly. Teaching them to pause and think before they post creates empathy and accountability.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 50 mins)
Protecting children from county lines
County lines is a type of criminal exploitation. Urban gangs persuade, coerce or force children and young people to store drugs and money and/or transport them to suburban areas, market towns and coastal towns1.
It can happen in any part of the UK. County lines is against the law and a form of child abuse.
Children and young people may be criminally exploited in multiple ways. Other forms of criminal exploitation include child sexual exploitation, trafficking, gang and knife crime.
County lines gangs are highly organised criminal networks that use sophisticated, frequently evolving techniques to groom young people and evade capture by the police.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Online safety - a young person’s perspective: Podcast
The online world is constantly changing, and young people are often more informed about online trends than adults. Young people are equipped with their own knowledge and understanding of what they need to know and do to stay safe online. It’s important to listen to their thoughts and opinions, and try to incorporate their voice into your online safety work.
In this podcast episode, you’ll hear from Will and Zara, two young people from the NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth group. They provide an insight into what life online is like for them, what makes them feel safe online and what online safety topics they’d like to learn more about.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
Safeguarding reviews silent on Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has today (11th March 2025) published a report about 53 children from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. These children were subject to horrific abuse, including sexual abuse, fatal assault and neglect, with 27 children dying as a result.
The report sought to understand the specific safeguarding needs of children from these specific ethnic backgrounds and how agencies helped to protect them before it was too late. It has revealed a significant silence in talking about race and racism in child safeguarding, with many local areas failing to acknowledge the impact of race, ethnicity and culture.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
What is gore content?
Gore content refers to graphic and disturbing images or videos that depict extreme violence, injury, or death. This can include real-life footage of accidents, war, crime scenes, or fictionalised violence in horror films and video games. Such content is often highly distressing and can have significant psychological effects, especially on children and young people.There have been several cases in the media where children have been exposed to or deliberately sought out graphic content online, often with distressing consequences. Disturbing videos have gone viral on platforms like TikTok before being taken down, exposing young users to shocking imagery. Some teens have been lured into visiting dark web or shock websites, sometimes encouraged by online communities that glorify violence.
Gore content is a serious online safety concern, especially for children. With the rise of social media and viral content, disturbing imagery can easily reach young audiences, sometimes with lasting consequences.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
Health & Safety
Breaking down the gender health gap
The gender health gap is a term some of you may know well, while others might have only come across it in passing. You may have never heard of it at all. While awareness of this issue varies, it's a critically important topic that impacts women's health in ways that demand our full attention. This gap represents a serious form of gender inequality in healthcare.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
What is hypervigilance?
Hypervigilance is a heightened state of awareness where an individual feels constantly on edge, scanning their environment for potential threats. While this response can be helpful in genuinely dangerous situations, for some people, it becomes a constant and overwhelming experience.
Key signs of hypervigilance trouble sleeping due to worry or fear and physical symptoms like sweating or a racing heart. Hypervigilance is often associated with trauma, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but anyone under prolonged stress can experience it.
What can help?
Grounding techniques to stay present: relaxation exercises like deep breathing or meditation and seeking professional support, such as therapy.
It's important to remember that hyper vigilance is a natural response to perceived danger, but support is available to help manage it.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
What is ‘doom scrolling’?
Internet Matters has put together a helpful article for parents and carers about doomscrolling—the habit of endlessly scrolling through negative news online.
This behaviour can take a real toll on both mental and physical health, so it’s important to recognise the signs, especially in children. The article offers practical advice on how to spot if your child is doomscrolling and what you can do to help. Taking steps to manage this habit can make a big difference in creating a healthier and more balanced online experience for kids.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Wider Curriculum
The rise of deceptive and inappropriate mobile games adverts
Social media platforms and mobile games are filled with ads, but not all of them are safe for kids. Many ads disguise themselves as fun, harmless content while secretly leading young users to inappropriate games, videos, or websites.
These ads often appear as rewarded videos in games like Candy Crush or Bus Jam, offering free lives or bonuses in exchange for watching. However, many ads promote age-inappropriate games, sexualised or misleading content, or even unsafe websites. Social media platforms also use algorithms that target kids with flashy, clickbait-style ads, making it easy to fall into a rabbit hole of content that isn’t kid-friendly.
To stay safe, avoid clicking on unknown ads, use parental controls, and report inappropriate content. If an ad feels weird or misleading, it probably is!
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
What is a VPN?
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a tool that helps protect your online privacy and security by creating a secure connection between your device and the internet. Think of it as a private tunnel that shields your data from prying eyes while you're online.
Parents and schools should be cautious with kids using a VPN because it can be misused to bypass content filters, potentially granting access to inappropriate websites or harmful material.
While VPNs offer privacy, they can give kids a false sense of security, leading them to engage in risky behavior or unsafe online interactions.
Some VPN services may not be secure or could track user activity, compromising privacy. Kids may also use a VPN to evade monitoring tools, making it harder for parents or schools to ensure their online safety. It's important to educate kids on responsible VPN use and set clear guidelines for their online behaviour.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
What is assisted dying and how could the law change?
MPs voted in support of a proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, in November 2024.
Months of detailed scrutiny and further votes in the Commons and Lords are required before the bill could become law.
At present, laws throughout the UK prevent people from asking for medical help to die.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Sustainability
The people turning beer waste into vegan bags
Scientists and industry are finding unusual new uses for brewers' spent grain – the beer industry's largest waste product.
Ponder the idea of a beer well-brewed and enthusiastic drinkers at least are likely to imagine a pint glass filled to the brim with golden nectar.
What they probably won't picture is the mountains of wet sticky shavings that pile up as the largest waste material of brewing beer.
This is what's known as brewers' spent grain, and there is an awful lot of it. Around 200g (7oz) is produced for every litre of beer brewed. Globally some 37 million tonnes is produced each year – equivalent to the weight of around 340 double-decker buses per hour. And as we drink more beer – sales are expected to rise by a third in the next seven years – only more and more will be churned out.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Who should pick up the bill for climate change? - Video
One of the biggest debates over the last few years is how much countries should contribute to a new fund that will help developing countries cope with climate change. Many developing countries argue that the world's biggest polluters, and those that have benefited economically from it, have not paid their fair share of climate finance to date.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
An Idiot’s guide to change the world- We need to talk about Money
The fight to eradicate extreme poverty has been fought for years. But despite this, over 700 million people still survive on less than $2.15 a day. So is it time we talk about cash? In this episode Gail and Loyiso dive deep into the Global Goal to end poverty (Goal 1). They are joined by two of the most exciting speakers in this field. Rory Stewart is the President of GiveDirectly, a fast growing nonprofit that is revolutionising the aid sector by allowing donors to send money directly to those in need, with no strings attached. Rutger Bregman is a historian and bestselling author and has been at the forefront of an equally simple, evidence-based solution: Universal Basic Income.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
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