9th February 2017 – Raymond Briggs, the iconic children’s author and illustrator – famed for The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman and Ethel and Ernest, his graphic novel/animated film for adults, has been awarded the prestigious BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award.

The BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The award was set up in 2015 to celebrate an author or illustrator’s outstanding contribution to children’s books. The first winner was Shirley Hughes, author of Dogger and the Alfie series, whilst Judith Kerr was awarded the accolade in 2016.

The adjudicating panel is made up of six judges including writer Nicolette Jones, current Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell, author and illustrator Cressida Cowell, poet John Agard, Shami Chakrabarti, Britain’s leading human rights campaigner and BookTrust’s CEO Diana Gerald.
Briggs, who has become synonymous with Christmas, said: “It’s lovely to be given an award for all my life achievements. Drawing, telling stories and sharing these adventures is something I’ve always been passionate about. Being awarded the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award is an incredible honour and I’m so glad I’ve been able to make such an impression on people.”

Raymond’s most noted works include the classic Christmas tales The Snowman and Father Christmas, as well as Fungus the Bogeyman, Ug, The Bear, When the Wind Blows, Gentleman Jim and Ethel and Ernest.  Born in 1934 to dad Ernest, a milkman and Ethel, a former lady’s maid-turned-housewife, Briggs showed interest in cartooning from an early age and attended various art schools. He briefly pursued painting before becoming a professional illustrator, winning several awards throughout his extended career, including the 1966 and 1973 Kate Greenaway Medals from the British Library Association, the Horn Book Award in 1979 and the British Book Award in 1993 and 1999.

Discussing the impact of Raymond Briggs’ work, Judge Shami Chakrabarti said: “Raymond is a true artistic genius who has touched the hearts of millions of children of all ages. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and his particular style of illustration is unmistakable as are his understated and poignant words of narrative and dialogue. His talent expresses his values and with his choice and treatment of subjects he brings our history and contemporary challenges to life.”

CEO of BookTrust Diana Gerald said: “It is truly an honour to be presenting our third Lifetime Achievement Award to someone with such captivating and inspiring work. Raymond continues to have such a widespread impact on both children and adults and the award is so very well deserved.”

The awards ceremony takes place in London today, with the current Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell leading the celebrations.

 

• The National Education Technology conference is to be held by Naace in Leicester on 28 – 29 March 2017
• Speakers include Lee Parkinson (@ICT_MrP), Dughall McCormick, Patrick Hayes, Steve Moss, Jon Tait and many more
• The conference will examine the role of education technology alongside the main issues of education including leadership, teaching and learning, and innovation

 

2 February 2017: Today, the full programme for the National Education Technology Conference which will be hosted by Naace in March 2017, has been announced. The event, taking place at the Leicester Marriot Hotel from Tuesday 28 to Wednesday 29 March, seeks to bring together teachers and school leaders from around the country to engage in discussions around the key issues facing education and to share best practice around the use of education technology.

This year’s conference will combine four strands of discussion: leadership; innovation; teaching and learning; and technology. This will be presented by a range of keynote speakers and hands-on sessions to provide an in-depth look at the landscape of education today, examining issues such as online safety, teaching computing, and the importance of school infrastructure for the implementation of technology.

This year’s list of speakers includes: e-learning consultant and former Naace Chair, Dughall McCormick; the hugely significant teacher and ICT blogger, Lee Parkinson (@ICT_MrP); director of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), Patrick Hayes; chair of the C2K Innovation Forum, Steve Moss; and Jon Tait, a deputy headteacher with over 15 years’ experience in education and the successful integration of education technology.

Mark Chambers, CEO of hosting organisation, Naace, said: “We’re really excited to have so many inspirational speakers at this year’s conference and to have a breakout programme that is focussed on delivering practical outcomes for conference attendees. The event is a great opportunity to bring together a large number of educators to explore a range of insights on the key issues facing schools today, encourage open discussions and share best practice in using technology effectively for the benefit of students. In addition, if attendees take advantage of all the offers on the table from our conference partners then, the cost of their attendance will have been more than covered!”.

Bookings for the conference are now open and visitors can register their attendance on the Naace website: https://www.naace.co.uk/events/national-education-technology-conference-2017/

Watch video interview with Sam Preston here: www.ssscpd.co.uk/FGM

 

On International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM 2017, Sam Preston, Safeguarding Director at SSS Learning asks the big question: is this really a British priority?

 

Over 130 million girls and women globally have experienced some form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM); an extreme type of child abuse affecting girls as young as three years-old. But, as estimated statistics show, it mostly happens to girls outside the UK, so should this be a British priority?

 

“You wouldn’t look the other way at knife or gun crime, and FGM is no different. It’s a violent crime, an abuse and defilement of human rights resulting in long standing physical and emotional difficulties. Shockingly, an estimated 5,700 UK resident girls and young women have been cut so clearly FGM remains a British safeguarding priority” – Sam Preston, e-learning & training director, SSS Learning.

 

Classed as an honour-based crime, whereby acts of violence are committed to protect the perceived reputation and / or beliefs of the family or community, FGM isn’t right and certainly isn’t legal. Violence against women committed in the name of “honour” is a growing problem in Britain with UK police forces reporting 11,744 honour based crimes between 2010 and 2014. These figures include FGM abuse.

 

In most European countries, HBV is almost entirely associated with immigrant communities maintaining the tribal or cultural values of the country of origin. Research indicates that HBV is more prevalent in first-generation immigrant populations, which highlights the importance of greater integration of minority communities as key to reducing this violence.

 

From a child protection perspective, the known statistics are largely unhelpful; every girl living in the UK should be protected from abuse. As frontline professionals, it’s our legal duty to report all suspected cases to the police.

 

Amongst the vast research and projects being conducted globally, it is encouraging to see fantastic new work being done in the UK and Ireland. Just this month, ActionAid Ireland has launched new research as part of its AFTER (Against Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting Through Empowerment and Rejection) project to empower women in Ireland to reject FGM, whilst rights-based group Oxford Against Cutting is releasing its ‘Are You Ready to Know?’ film, documenting the impact of FGM on our women. Great things are also happening across Europe as we saw BanFGM take place in Rome last week. The conference drew together campaign groups, United Nations (UN) officials and government ministers to discuss how to end the practice and called for attention to be focused beyond Africa.

 

What is the challenge in Britain?

 

Whilst work around the world focuses on discouragement of FGM in practicising communities, the challenge in the UK is altogether different. Here, we must focus efforts on training our frontline professionals to proficiently spot the warning signs and intervene early, before British girls undergo FGM. We cannot afford to sit back and wait for daughters to report their families to the authorities, this is something that will just never happen.

 

“If FGM practitioners and communities are to be brought to prosecution under UK child protection law, we must arm teachers, doctors, nurses and voluntary sector workers with the right training to embed this concern in the child protection remit.” – Sam Preston, SSS Learning

 

FGM is ILLEGAL in Britain and has been since 1985 – that’s the bottom line. Interestingly, during ActionAid Ireland’s AFTER research last year, it was discovered that less than 1 in 5 women’s health service providers were aware that FGM is also illegal in Ireland and less than 30% of the participants had received some training on FGM as part of general trainings on violence against women.

 

So, what can be done in times of austerity and budget uncertainty here in the UK? If the latest news is anything to go by, then reform is much needed – just this month we’ve witnessed the closure of a top London FGM clinic, with Ealing Council citing budget constraints as the key deciding factor. The Acton African Well Woman Centre has helped over 1000 women deal with the trauma of FGM.

 

We believe that high quality e-learning is an effective solution, replacing cost prohibitive face-to-face training and embedding informed practice across the public sector. Our online training courses alone have already helped over 100,000 frontline professionals to become individually certified in the latest child protection issues. In addition, where prevention is too late, our training also ensures professionals are properly equipped to support FGM victims. A key point addressed in the Government’s ‘Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016 – 2020’ is that, in order to tackle violence against women and girls, it must be everybody’s business. From health providers to law enforcement, educationalists, employers, friends and family we all need to be equipped to play our part.

 

UNICEF says that as many as 30 million girls could be cut in the next decade – let’s work together to address this and do our part in ensuring British women do not contribute to this figure!

 

What is Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting?

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting or FGM/C refers to all procedures that involve partial or total destruction of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. In some countries around the world, mainly in Africa, FGM/C is a harmful cultural practice and an extreme form of sanctioned violence and discrimination against women.