International Day of Friendship

On 30th July each year, the International Day of Friendship is marked. Proclaimed only four years ago in 2011 by the UN General Assembly, the idea is that by developing friendships with each other, different communities, countries and even continents, bridges can be built and peace can come as a result.

"On this International Day of Friendship, let us cultivate warm ties that strengthen our common humanity and promote the well-being of the human family."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

All across the world, this has been celebrated. Individuals, communities and small to big organisations have spread the word. Just a quick search on Twitter shows there’s a lot going on. While many children develop friendships from a very early age, keep some, and make more, others do struggle. This may just be from time to time – facing temporary difficulties which ‘sort themselves out’, for example – but for some, they may go through year after year of finding it hard to make friends. There are many reasons for why this could be, but for this very reason, it’s essential to talk about it. This could be with someone they trust in particular, for example a parent or teacher, but as well as this, how about with their peers?

In many countries, the curriculum provides some guidance/stipulation that teachers must cover bullying for example, but not all. Plus, the way this has to be done is not usually enforced. If there was a simple way to trigger discussions in this area, with the help of some easy-to-use technology, would you try it? Even as just a starting point, then things go from there. This is why, to celebrate the International Day of Friendship, we have made our English/Citizenship/PSHE app/mystery story free for two weeks (until 7th August). While it can be used with any students you think suitable, the target age range is around 6-7 years old.

In pairs, or threes, students sit around one iPad and read 15 slips of information (interactively, on the iPad). They must start making sense of these together, helping each other to group them and work out why a young girl called Amy didn’t go to school this particular day.

It helps students:

• to recognise how their behaviour affects other people, to care about other people’s feelings and to try to see things from their points of view
• to listen to other people, and play and work cooperatively
• to understand that there are different types of teasing and bullying, that bullying is wrong, and how to get help to deal with bullying

If you want to try it, visit the App Store here now, search 'Digital Mysteries Amy' on the App Store or read a bit more about it on our website.

More information on the day from the UN’s website

“The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. The resolution (A/RES/65/275) places particular emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

The Day is also intended to support the goals and objectives of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.”

Can technology help encourage more young people to get involved in politics?

In our previous blog post, we shared with you that we created a dedicated task for 11-14 year olds to discuss the UK 2015 general election.

Over the past few weeks, it has been brilliant to hear of teachers using the app/task across the country.

On the morning of the election day itself, the team went to the largest school in Newcastle, Kenton, to work with year 8 students and see whether the task had made any difference. It was incredible to see the transformation from before to after - one student said they had 'no interest in politics', but afterwards was asking lots of great questions about the different parties. They wanted to find out more.

In a couple of minutes, this video explores the session and has an interview with some of the students who took part:

Some quotes from the students:

• "If I did have the opportunity to vote, I think I would have a better idea of who I would vote for."
• "I also think I've got a better idea, because when it's on the news, it's often just clustered together, what people said. It doesn't give you the full insight of what the different parties want to do."
• "You want to know which (parties) are good for you, so with your friends, you know you can have a conversation with them to know which one is better."
• "I think it (the Digital Mystery) gives you a better understanding of stuff and you can know what's good and what's bad and I think it would be good to introduce it at other elections."

One of our brilliant pieces of feedback from Twitter:

@Refthinking Yes, of course! Brilliant, inspiring and extremely useful.

— Dominic Newbould (@DominicNewbould) May 5, 2015

Thanks to everyone for supporting this task/iPad app, including everyone following our social media updates, those at BBC Radio, the Northern Echo, Bdaily, Schools North East and North Tyneside Learning Trust.

If you've got something to share about 'Digital Mysteries: UK Election 2015', let us know!

UK election resource for 11-14s

Where should Grace put her X on May 7th?
Free PSHE/Citizenship resource for KS3

It is election time. Wherever you look there are politicians aiming to win you over. Debates, Q and As, sensationalist headlines, tweets and Facebook posts are all around us. But while young people in our schools may be aware of something important going on, how engaged are they?

Academics at Newcastle University wanted to involve 11-14 year olds in the election – it is an ideal way to introduce them to politics and parliament. It is also something they can then easily discuss with their parents when they get home too. They approached us to create a free iPad app, which is now ready to download – just click here or search ‘election mystery’ on the App Store. Email info@reflectivethinking.com for a PDF version or click here for a Windows PC/laptop free trial.

You may think ‘oh, another attempt to interest young people’, but this time, it’s different. The app tells the story of the election through an 18 year old called Grace Feng. Bright, illustrated slips of information fill the screen which explain her background and interests plus some of her aims in life and the opinions of her family and friends. Students must use these to develop an understanding of her as a person then with this, decide who she should vote for.

A teacher at Greenfield Community College is using the app - he said “It is more essential than ever to get young people engaged in the political process and the future of our country. As a school we are running a topical scheme of work through our 'time for success' on politics and the election. When we were told about the app, it seemed the ideal task to support this. Students can engage in their own time - as a homework task - or work through the mystery in lessons.”


Three options to use this free resource:

• iPad app: Click here or search ‘election mystery’ on the App Store
• PDF version: Email info@reflectivethinking.com with subject 'election mystery'
• Windows PC/laptop: Click here for a 28 day free trial

How can you double the availability of your iPads?

More and more schools are taking up iPads, with teachers excited about the various ways they can be used. With the expense of the devices though, the plan is often to start off with a small amount at first. While cost-efficient, this does mean that some miss out as another class has already booked them.

However, did you know that the iPad can actually be the perfect device for working in pairs? Picture the scene: 15 iPads, one whole class fully absorbed in the task, or 30 iPads, two whole classes fully absorbed.

The iPad actually allows multiple touches meaning two students could be around one iPad and interacting with it, and each other, at the same time. For this to really be utilised, it does need to be with the right app, as not all make the most of this feature.

I’d like to introduce you to our free iPad app Digital Mysteries Lite: KS2. This is a result of years of academic research in Newcastle on collaborative learning and education in general. Because it has been specifically developed for true collaboration between pairs, it is ideal for schools who would like to spread their iPads out.

Whether this interests you probably depends on what the app entails. The good news is it’s a cross-curricula app which involves solving a ‘mystery’. Each mystery aligns to the National Curriculum for England, and our first version has tasks on English/PSHE, Maths and History.

Users are given illustrated slips of information which they read, organise into groups and move around the screen to show how they’ve came to their answer. This is in response to the open-ended question for each particular task.

An example is a pair working out ‘Who killed King Ted?’ by making calculations on the suspects’ whereabouts, medicine measurements and motorbike speeds.

If you’d like to try it, please click here or search Digital Mysteries on the App Store.