Teaching assistants, school governors and volunteers – who needs a DBS check?
DBS checks are a key part of safe recruitment. It’s clear that teachers need a DBS check – but what about people in other roles? Keeping children and young people safe is one of the most important responsibilities schools have. In particular, schools must have robust recruitment procedures in place to help them identify, reject or deter anyone who isn’t suitable to work with children. Teaching assistants Although their role doesn’t involve as much responsibility as a teacher’s, teaching assistants should still have a DBS check. Anyone who engages in a regulated activity must have an enhanced DBS check with a check of the children’s barred list. In summary, a person will be engaged in a regulated activity if they do one or more of the following: Are responsible, on a regular basis in a school or college, for teaching, training instructing, caring for or supervising children. Carry out paid, or unsupervised unpaid, work regularly in a school or college where the work provides an opportunity for contact with children. Engage in intimate or personal care or overnight activity, even if this happens only once. A full description of the scope of regulated activity is available here. As a teaching assistant’s role falls within this scope, they should have an enhanced DBS with a barred list check. School governors Governors in maintained schools are required to hold an enhanced DBS certificate. The governing body is responsible for applying for a DBS check for any governor who doesn’t already have one. As governance doesn’t involve regulated activity, governors aren’t eligible for a check of the barred list – unless they also engage in regulated activity in addition to their governance duties. Governors of other schools and colleges should also have an enhanced DBS check. Volunteers Volunteers who teach or look after children regularly, or provide personal care in a school or college (even if it’s only once) will be working in regulated activity, and so should have an enhanced DBS check with a check of the barred list. Volunteers who don’t engage in regulated activity but do have the opportunity to come into regular contact with children – for example, supervised volunteers – should have an enhanced DBS check without a barred list check. If a volunteer is undertaking activity that would be regulated activity if it was unsupervised, then they must be supervised by a person in regulated activity at all times. DBS checks in schools DBS checks should be part of schools and colleges’ wider commitment to creating a culture of safety and promoting children’s welfare For more information on a DBS check, see the government’s Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance or click visit www.ucheck.co.uk
Teachers on social media – the dos and don’ts
2018 – everyone is online students, teachers and parents In light of recent news that one in three teachers have reported derogatory comments posted about them on social media from parents and children, the discussion around student and teacher communication practices is becoming increasingly vital. The interaction with teachers on social media raises a lot of questions: Is there a need for out-of-school hours communication? If so, what channels should they be using? Do teachers need to be more careful about revealing their identities on social media? First and foremost, we need to be clear that teachers are just as at risk from cyberbullying as anyone else in a public facing role. People can be surprised that teachers fall victim to online hate but, as students (and parents) become more and more social media savvy, some can feel empowered to make negative comments about their teachers online under the guise of anonymity. How to get the right balance Context rather than content Every school has a policy, but sometimes it can be difficult to follow especially when social media is such a natural habitat and part of everyday communication. Students in particular see social media as their communication channel of choice and recognise few boundaries in the nature and purpose of messages used on these platforms. A student with a question about their homework may think they’ll get a quicker response sending you a DM, but anything deemed to be personal (i.e. outside official school channels such as work email addresses for example) takes the conversation away from a safe transparent place; regardless of the topic of conversation, it is the channel that makes it inappropriate. Ideally, your school should have a communication platform that allows appropriate and transparent communication, so students and parents don’t feel the need to approach you on social media, and you have somewhere to drive the conversation towards if they do. If you do find yourself being contacted on your social channels, let them know about the school policy and how it would be best to speak to you. That way, they will understand it’s not you being unfriendly, but a matter of protocol. Fake names and pictures Although everyone has the right to their own personal profile, if you use your full name and have a photo of you on your profile it will make it easy for students and parents to find you. Consider using an anagram of your name and a scenic photo for your main picture. Check your Facebook settings – you are sometimes searchable by your email address or phone number. Facebook regularly change their algorithms so stay on top of your privacy settings and visibility. It is important that you have a clear separation between your personal and professional digital footprints. Your profile Before you feel overwhelmed at having to watch your every move on social media, most professions now warn of the dangers of showing too much online as being harmful to job applications or promotions. As a teacher you are a source of fascination for students who only ever know you in your teacher role. Your public profile should show minimal information. If there’s nothing to look at, there’s nothing for students to gossip about, and there’s less incentive to add you as a friend. New social media When we think of teachers and social media, the problem traditionally lies with Facebook. Not any more. Snapchat, the darling social platform of Generation Z, is a huge no-no when it comes to interacting with students – with messages and images that disappear, it can look suspicious to parents and senior staff that any communication has taken place at all. It’s the same with WhatsApp, with its encrypted messaging system, allowing complete privacy of conversation. Ignore any messages from students on these platforms and bring it back to real-world communication. Good communication Despite the risks, controversy and sensitivities, it’s important to remember the advantages to developing good communication with your students and their parents when done so appropriately. Respecting the feedback loop between parents, students and teachers is not only a good idea, it’s essential to the happy and successful progress of the student’s education – just as long as it’s done in the right way and using the right channels. “If you invest the time earlier to create structure and process around communication, planning, and goal-setting, you can prevent missteps before they occur.” Christine Tsai By Rob Eastment, Head of Learning, Firefly
Physical computing: teaching the teachers
FutureLearn offer CPD on the teaching of computing. Here, programme coordinator Dan Fisher and training manager James Robinson explain why their course ‘Teaching Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and Python’ – using the mini-computers alongside the coding programme – is changing the way teachers think about computing and how they can improve the future of programming in the UK. 1. What is “physical computing”? How is it used in industry? Physical computing means interacting with real-world objects by programming them from a computer. Examples include programming an LED to flash, reading environmental data from a sensor, or even controlling robotic objects. Applications like these are all around us in everyday life, from traffic signals and ticket barriers to driverless cars and assembly lines. Behind each of these applications are algorithms and programs that govern their behaviour. Physical computing is combining hardware and software in order to create something useful or productive, or simply just for fun. 2. Why is it important to teach physical computing to pupils and from what age do children learn these skills? Many concepts in computing are abstract and symbolic, which presents a huge challenge for learners who are new to the discipline. Physical computing connects these concepts to something concrete and tangible, where learners can see the direct impact of the programs they write. When a learner (of any age) flashes an LED for first time, it’s a literal lightbulb moment: instructions they gave the computer produce an output in the real world! From there they can go on to control other outputs, as well as reacting to inputs. A challenge in teaching computing is finding engaging contexts that learners can relate to. We think that physical computing is one of the most engaging and most useful contexts in which learners can thrive. 3. Is it a worry that technology is advancing so quickly when some teachers aren’t receiving adequate training? How can schools combat this? As technology advances, educators and learners alike need to be able to adapt to the new possibilities that it brings. However, there seems little value in focusing on learning about specific technologies, as these invariably adapt, improve, or become outdated. Instead, educators should use current technologies to learn and teach about the core concepts of computing. For example, instead of learning a specific programming language, we should instead focus on learning programming using any appropriate language(s). Teachers should club together to work on physical computing 4. What advice do you have for staff who are concerned that their computing skills aren’t up to scratch? There are many resources out there to support educators. One of the best resources is simply other educators, which is why all our online courses are created by educators for educators and have a collaborative approach throughout. Educators can also sign up for Hello World, a free magazine for computing educators, by other educators. Start an informal computing club such as a Code Club or CoderDojo, test out some ideas, and learn alongside your learners. This way you can find out what works and what doesn’t, discover what engages your learners, and trial ideas that you can then take to the classroom. More advice on how to develop as a computing teacher can be found in our Hello World article by experienced teacher James Robinson. 5. What is the next advancement in computing which you foresee teachers needing training on? As suggested earlier, new technologies don’t necessarily change the fundamentals of computing. That being said, there are areas of computing that, over time, are become more and more important. As technology becomes more and more embedded in our daily and personal lives, there is a greater need to understand how it works and the impact it is having. Topics like encryption, machine learning, AI, and computer ethics are going to become increasingly important for students and therefore educators to understand. A reasonable understanding of the principles of computing is needed in order to engage in these important and highly relevant topics. For more information on FutureLearn, see www.futurelearn.com. For information on RaspberryPi mini-computers, see www.raspberrypi.org
How teachers can use mobile apps to engage students
By Paul Swaddle, Co-founder and Chairman of Pocket App As youngster’s up and down the country prepare for school this September, education technology continues to be an extremely hot topic and mobile apps are proving to be a perfect solution for teachers hoping to enhance their classroom experience. Mobile apps can not only help teachers, but also students and their parents. Here are five ways teachers can use apps to engage their students. 1. Improve in-classroom communication Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are changing the way students communicate with each other. Many students also use social media to collaborate on group projects and organise activities. Apps can be great tools for announcing updates and information to students in a timely manner. Apps can also be used to foster communication between students through chat, forums and other features that build on in-person conversation. They’re a great option to provide students with the most up-to-date information on their performance and help them understand how to improve without having to rely on office hours. 2. Go paperless Apps are the perfect way to achieve a paperless classroom. Once the transition is made, the efficiencies that come along with it are endless. Tools like Microsoft OneNote and Google Apps for education help keep teachers organised and have several built-in tools such as lesson plan templates, note-taking options and more. Apps such as Google Drive and Dropbox allow for an organised storage system that eliminates physical filing cabinets. 3. Implement hands-on learning There are several apps that are made for in-classroom experiences. Digital whiteboards are replacing traditional whiteboards and are enabling students to have a more interactive learning experience. Industry standard for school whiteboards is Notebook. The app offers to distribute pages or new sections to students in a class quickly and easily, also sequentially review student work (for example, assignments or quizzes) as well as allowing easy navigation and browsing student notebooks through a student list. Other apps such as Doceri allow teachers to flip back and forth through PowerPoints, whiteboards and screen casts, providing students with an integrated lesson flow. Real-time collaboration features of integrated solutions such as Google Apps for Education allow students to directly contribute to a project and see the impact of their work. Chat apps such as Skype and Google Hangout also allow students to personally connect with each other and also connect with those they might not have had access to in the past. 4. Connect and share resources Teachers learn the most from other educators. It’s extremely valuable to hear about other teachers’ experiences first-hand. Teachers Pay Teachers has an app where teachers from all around the world share resources. This includes everything from lesson plans to classroom activities and decorations. 5. Keep connected with parents More educational technology apps are now being developed to keep parents in the loop. Simple tasks such as push notifications, requests for signatures and record-keeping can be accomplished with mobile apps. Apps such as BuzzMob are a good place to start. BuzzMob is a cross-platform communication tool that connects and engages classroom and school communities. It offers teachers the simplest, most effective way to send vital updates and semi-personal messages to parents and students. BuzzMob also allows teachers and school administrators to create updates and messages in one simple place (via web or mobile app), and parents and students can choose to receive communication via web, mobile app, email, or SMS. These apps not only keep parents informed but also enable them to directly contact teachers. At Pocket App, we believe mobile apps are the next wave of educational tools and have many use cases for any classroom. With all kids growing up in a digital age, the time is right to implement a fully integrated way of learning and apps offer educational establishments and parents a major opportunity to move with the times. Whether you build your own or use ones that are already available, apps are sure to improve the teacher and student experience.
Project reveals new way to combat stress and anxiety in teachers
Schools and academies across the length and breadth of the country are full of staff battling stress and anxiety, leading one Trust to explore an innovative solution to the problem. Leigh Academies Trust in Dartford decided to look at ways to combat stress in school staff by using Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) with the use of an Alpha-Stim Device. The Alpha-Stim is a portable cranial electrotherapy stimulation device that transmits tiny imperceptible microcurrents via ear-clips. It works by stimulating nerve cells in the brain stem, activating the pathways that generate increased levels of serotonin and endorphins. Its positive effects are also cumulative, suggesting that the Alpha-Stim may bring about a permanent positive change in our neurological make-up. The Alpha-Stim also encourages the production of alpha waves in the brain, which is a calming, soothing wave. The study was set up by deputy chief executive Neil Willis, HR director Richard Taylor, and educational psychologist Jo Buttle, who examined ways to improve staff well-being through the use of this device. The project involved using the Alpha-Stim portable electronic device to see if it reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression and sleep difficulties among staff. A total of 21 staff members used the device daily for between 20 and 60 minutes, over a four-week period. A number of pre and post measurements were taken to monitor changes in anxiety, depression, sleep and general welfare. Staff at the University of Greenwich kindly carried out the statistical analysis of the results. Richard Taylor, HR Director of Leigh Academies Trust said: “As a Trust, we recognise that at times the challenges that teachers face in both school and home can lead to the onset of mental health problems. Leigh Academies Trust believes that teacher wellbeing is one of the most important issues currently in education and, as a result, we have been exploring ways to help teachers maintain positive mental health. “In addition to mindfulness sessions and examining the workload challenge we have been trialling the use of cranial electrotherapy stimulation to help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as help with sleep disorders. As part of the trial we administered, in partnership with our educational psychologists, several controlled trials to see if the impact would justify a wider rollout. “The results from these trials were extremely encouraging and we saw a positive impact on the quality of life scores for nearly all those using the device. In light of the results, we are now rolling the scheme out so that it is available to all staff in the Trust. Whilst this is not the sole solution to improve teacher wellbeing it is a fantastic tool to help staff maintain positive mental health.” Jo Buttle, educational psychologist added: “It has been great to work with the Trust in supporting staff well-being. The Trust’s dynamic and forward thinking approach enabled us to adopt a creative strategy in helping reduce the symptoms of anxiety, depression and sleep difficulties amongst staff. The results are excellent and suggest this is something schools and academies should consider as part of their staff support strategy.” To determine whether the system was having a positive influence, the staff completed four scales: The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire-Short Form (Q-LES-Q-SF); Bourion-Bédès et al., 2015 The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Buysse, 1989 Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI); Beck et al., 1961 Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI); Beck & Steer, 1993 Using Q-LES-Q-SF scores, where higher scores on the scale indicate greater satisfaction, the mean scores improved from 3.3 to 3.7; a statistically significant difference in the positive direction. Using PSQI scores, where higher scores indicate worse sleep quality, following the treatment, mean scores had decreased from 1.28 to 0.76. This difference was statistically significant in the positive direction, which means that participants had better post-treatment sleep quality. Scores on the BDI tended to also display a better quality of life in terms of improved sleeping patterns and improved appetite. There are four sub-scales on the BAI scale. In terms of neurophysiological symptoms, mean scores of 0.43 pre-treatment and 0.34 post-treatment were not significantly different; however, subjective feelings of anxiety significantly changed between pre-treatment, 1.05, and post-treatment, 0.55. In addition, panic feelings significantly reduced from a pre-treatment mean of 0.46, to post-treatment mean of 0.25, whilst autonomic symptoms significantly reduced from a mean pre-treatment score of 0.94, to 0.52 post-treatment. The Alpha-Stim has numerous clinical studies behind it and after a 120 patient NHS trial that started in September last year is now being used by IAPT services to help treat patients with anxiety disorders. It retails for £549 or is available on a buy-to-rent scheme from £51 a month. For more information please visit www.alpha-stim.co.uk or call 01487 208041. Schools and academies interested in running a trial or wishing to find out more about supporting staff using the Alpha-Stim please visit www.iepskent.co.uk or call 01732 770031
How can schools improve their recruitment and retention of teachers?
It is common knowledge for everyone with an interest in education that primary and secondary schools across the UK are finding it more and more difficult to attract and retain teaching staff. The route of the problem is evident: numbers of pupils in schools are increasing year on year whilst the DfE’s targets for recruitment of new teachers are not being met. In addition to this, last year alone 42, 000 teachers left the profession and the pull of sunshine and tax free earnings culminated in 18,000 teachers leaving for schools abroad. It is not surprising that adverts for teacher vacancies are not yielding the same success as they were 5 years ago. So how can schools improve their recruitment and retention of teachers? Key Skills Education is an inner London based education recruitment agency providing teachers and support staff for schools and education centres across London and the Home Counties specifically for long term and permanent positions. The success of Key Skills has been achieved by understanding the problems faced by schools in recruiting high-calibre teachers and improving retention of the teachers once they are in post. Search and Selection Process – Advertising can still be an effective way of attracting teachers for any specific teaching role, we here at Key Skills Education advertise for teachers and support staff all year round – if there are good teachers actively looking for work then we want to know about them! However, with the current teacher shortage this however is no longer a sufficient way of finding quality teachers within restricted timescales. We have pioneered innovative search techniques that enable us to tap into passive teachers, who may not be actively looking for a new post immediately but will be at some point in the future. We continually invest heavily to attract the highest quality teaching staff, focusing on keeping in contact throughout the year, listening to their career motivations and understanding when they might be looking to progress their career. Through our extensive network we are able to reach high-calibre teachers and support staff looking for positions in London and the Home Counties that are not available to our competitors. It follows that many of our staff work exclusively with us and have done for some time – schools that work with Key Skills Education as their education recruitment agency will have access to this exclusive network of teachers and considerably improve the schools chances of finding good to outstanding teaching staff for any given vacancy. Retention of Teachers – Recruiting the right personality for your school plays a significant part in creating an ethos for success and ensuring a harmonious working environment, which in turn improves staff turnover. Having a successful strategy for retaining teachers starts at the recruitment stage – this is where schools can benefit from using recruitment experts. All our consultants here at Key Skills have completed or are working towards specific qualifications in recruitment to ensure highest quality of practice. Interviewing teachers is an integral part of a recruitment consultant’s day-to-day responsibilities. We have therefore made it paramount that our consultants are highly trained interviewers, experts in uncovering the right character attributes that will ensure they are a good match for schools we are working with. We are not just looking for teachers with a consistent work history, we are also looking to uncover classroom practitioners who have the right character attributes to fit into the unique personality of the schools we are working with and have the drive and enthusiasm to compliment the ambitions at the school. Our proficient team of consultants aspire to meet all the schools that we work with so as to accurately understand the kind of individual that will be a success at the school. Once teachers are in post, schools benefit from our continuous dialogue throughout the academic year which allows us to resolve any minor issues before they escalate. If you would like to learn more about Key Skills Education and the services we provide, please check out our website at www.keyskillseducation.co.uk.
Tackling low-level disruption
According to the teachers’ union, NASUWT, the main concern for staff in schools in all areas, is the growing pressure from ‘low-level disruption’, which is recognised as the most common form of poor behaviour. Therefore, in order for teachers to encourage productivity and boost attainment, in-class disruption must be kept to a minimum. Allie Palmer, ex-teacher and training and support manager at MINTclass, discusses the importance of creating pupil seating plans and the role they play in significantly reducing the impact of pupil disruption, making teachers’ lives easier and creating an effective learning environment. In Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) Annual Report 2012/13, concerns were raised about low-level disruption in schools. As a consequence, inspector guidance was tightened to place greater emphasis on the issue in routine inspections. In addition, HMCI commissioned a survey to ascertain the nature and extent of low-level disruptive behaviour in primary and secondary schools in England. The findings from this survey showed that teachers, parents and carers are rightly concerned about the frequent loss of learning time through low-level, but persistent, disruptive behaviour. Low-level disruptive behaviour includes talking to friends off-topic or passing notes between one another, which tends to only last a couple of minutes, but can significantly impact the flow of a lesson. As a teacher, if you are faced with low-level disruption in your class, there are some simple steps you can take to make your life easier. From my experience, it usually occurs when there’s inconsistency in school processes being applied, for example, not always sticking to a strict behaviour policy. The responsibility ultimately falls to senior leaders to enforce consistency when it comes to behaviour, which in turn, makes classroom teaching much easier and more productive. Praising the positive behaviour is also a good tactic. By focusing on the disruption, you can trigger more negativity and commotion in the classroom. Therefore, it’s important to concentrate on rewarding those students who are delivering. If those who behave are rewarded by being allowed to sit next to a friend one lesson, then disruptive students may take note and follow suit. Allie Palmer However, I’ve found that one of the easiest, yet arguably most powerful steps, is to create a seating plan! In order to avoid disruption in a class, you need to be in control of your students, right from the beginning. It’s important to set expectations; line them up outside and tell them where they need to sit as they enter. Doing this avoids any confusion and also focuses them on finding their name on the seating plan, rather than talking to, or messing around with friends. It also ensures that your students know how every lesson will start, so they’ll begin to accept the routine. Historically, teachers would have to manually create their own seating plans on Word or Excel, which means endless copying and pasting, for it to all change and be out of date after a few weeks, when the whole process would have to be created again from scratch. What may work for one subject, may not necessarily work in another, and the typical alphabetical or boy, girl, boy plans aren’t always the most effective. Thankfully, there are now digital seating plans available that make this process much easier. Once you get to know your pupils, their behaviour and friendships within the class, you can easily and quickly move them around, using the data collected to assess who they will work best with. This can be done regularly, every half-term for example, or on an ad-hoc basis, whenever a child’s behaviour suggests that they may benefit from being moved away from potential disruption. Every teacher will take a different approach when it comes to classroom organisation, but the important thing is to ensure that you have a process in place, which is enforced and integrated consistently into the routine of the lesson. It’s likely that the students will challenge your decision as they will want to sit with their friends, but remember, you have arranged the seating plan to maximise their attainment, so it’s vital to stick with it. The layout of your classroom may seem unimportant in comparison to everything else that a teacher has to deal with, but being in control of this means you can also manage disruption whenever it occurs, encouraging a productive learning environment and maintaining the highest levels of attainment.
Schools offered free service to help manage Ofsted inspections and improve results
Schools across England are being offered a high-tech solution to prepare for Ofsted inspections and improve results free of charge. Bluewave Education is offering its award-winning Common Inspection Frame work module for free to schools, as leaders face increasing budgetary challenges in the coming year. Managing director of Bluewave Education, Keith Wright, said: “Accurate assessment of a schools strengths and areas for development is an essential requirement for school improvement and school inspection. “For more than a decade Bluewave Education has provided school leaders with the structure, guidance and mechanisms to enable rigorous self-evaluation and facilitate the school improvement process. “With schools facing another year of financial uncertainty, our contribution to the sector is to remove some of the cost burden and to help them move on from the use of outdated systems based around paper and basic Word documents. “Our experience is that where schools make this transition, they rarely go back.” Bluewave SWIFT was developed by a group of education leaders who wanted to find a practical, modern day solution to managing school improvement and dealing more effectively with the processes involved. SWIFT allows schools to: – Create a clear and structured whole school self-evaluation – Identify and put in place key school improvement priorities – with direct links to school improvement plans* – Automatically feed Ofsted SEF/Common Inspection Framework evidence into other reports e.g. Safeguarding, Behaviour, Pupil Premium, Governance* – Include any or all of your staff can contribute to whole-school self-evaluation – Create departmental SEF’s/Common Inspection Frameworks Ofsted facility for academy chains In addition to offering their SEF for free to all schools, Bluewave Education is also offering a facility for academy chains, federations and Multi-Academy Trusts, whereby a Common Inspection Framework can be distributed to their family of schools and the responses can be aggregated for analysis and reporting. Mr Wright said: “This supports so many positive approaches to school-led improvement and it leads to far greater awareness and collaboration around strategic planning. “The only cost is a one-off set up fee determined by the number of schools in the family. “Whether we like it or not, schools have to act more like businesses every day. We help schools to think like a school and where necessary, work like a business. “This is recognised in our BETT award for supporting institutional leadership and management but most importantly in the feedback we get from the schools we work with”. For more help in preparing for Ofsted, see bluewavemosaic.com
Teacher absence tackled by new partnership between Schools Advisory Service and health app
The Schools Advisory Service (SAS), which provides teachers in the UK with absence insurance, has partnered with a Manchester-based healthcare company to provide members with GP appointments via smartphone. The SAS is working with Now Healthcare Group, utilising their Dr Now mobile app which connects users to a qualified doctor via Skype-style video chat. The partnership is set to begin on 1 April and will be available to the SAS’ 100,000 members nationwide. Dr Now is an ‘mHealth’ app which allows those who need to see a doctor the chance to book an appointment at the touch of a button and speak to one via video call on their Android or iOS smartphone. It can also deliver medicines straight to a patient’s home or office for ultimate convenience. The SAS previously relied upon a GP telephone service for when staff fell unwell, but this is to be Lee Dentith replaced with this new arrangement with Now Healthcare Group. Nearly 3 million teaching days are lost through sickness in schools in the UK every year, and the SAS is aiming to reduce this number by providing teachers with quick and easy healthcare – helping them avoid waiting times at the clinic and the hassle of taking time off to see a doctor. Director of Schools Advisory Service, Les Marshall, said: “Our new service from Now Healthcare Group will be an essential element of trying to prevent and reduce staff absences in schools. This service is just what teachers have been asking us to provide for years and to finally be able to provide a service of the highest quality from the market leader demonstrates why Schools Advisory Service is the UK’s largest supplier of staff absence insurance.” Founder & CEO of Now Healthcare Group, Lee Dentith, said: “Now Healthcare Group is thrilled to be working with Schools Advisory Service through this exclusive partnership. We’re looking to significantly reduce the number of sickness days lost by teachers and education workers by giving them access to a GP immediately through our mobile app platform, Dr Now / Now GP. Our partnership will benefit schools, teachers and children alike as we look to minimise disruption to pupils’ education across the country.” https://youtu.be/rHcdD0YKdbs Download the app from the App Store and Google Play.