From the Mental Elf - "Psychological decentering: seeing the bigger picture"

Interesting Results re "Distancing" technique from Marc Bennett in Mental Elf last accessed 21-12-20

Link to full blog

From Blog - 

"Characterising distancing"

"Power and LaBar offered a framework that describes distancing. The central idea is that the psychological content of difficult thoughts and memories is housed in one’s mind. This could be, for example, a mental image of being embarrassed in a social context. This content can become closely associated with the mental image one has of their self. Distancing works by separating between these two mental images and this can be achieved in four ways:

• Distance could be introduced spatially. This is done by imagining that the difficult mental content is far away (“imagine the embarrassing scene but from a distance “).
• Distance could be introduced temporally. This is done by imagining that the difficult mental content is in the past or future (“imagine the embarrassing scene but as if 20 years have passed”).
• Distance could be introduced objectively. This is done by imagining the event from the point of view of a neutral person (“imagine the embarrassing scene but as if you are that really relaxed person that you admire”).
• Distance could be introduced hypothetically. This is done by imagining the event from the point of view of a neutral person (“imagine the embarrassing scene but accept that your mental representation may not be very precise”).

It was reasoned that generating these new perspectives creates opportunities for alternative, more adaptive emotional reactions."

Provisions to support transgender children in schools - UK Parliament

 "In England, Wales and Scotland, the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against transgender children in all schools. The UK Department for Education (DfE) guidance on the Act says protections apply to those who are undergoing, have undergone, or are proposing to undergo, a  process (or part of a process) of reassigning their sex by changing physiological or other attributes."

"In Northern Ireland, guidance issued by the Education Authority says the European Convention on Human Rights may offer some protections for transgender pupils."

"As schools policy is a devolved issue, this briefing focuses on the position in England, but some information is included on relevant policies and pupil experiences in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland."

"In 2014, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published guidance on the Equality Act 2010 and how it applies to schools in England and Scotland."

"The UK Government committed to publishing an update to its guidance for schools on how to apply the Equality Act 2010 in its 2018 LGBT action plan. The Government Equalities Office said in July 2019 that the EHRC was also developing guidance for schools on supporting transgender pupils."

"Across the UK, schools are subject to safeguarding duties to protect pupil wellbeing and are required to have anti-bullying policies. Decisions on uniform, provisions for shared sanitary and changing facilities and mixed sport are primarily made by schools themselves, within their respective statutory framework. Under guidance published following recent curriculum changes in England, all pupils should receive teaching on LGBT relationships during their school years."

"A 2017 survey by the charity Stonewall found that nearly two thirds (64%) of surveyed transgender pupils reported being bullied for being LGBT. It also found three in five transgender pupils reported speaking to a member of school staff about being transgender." 

"Several local authorities have published guidance for schools, but this has sometimes proved controversial. For example, in May 2020 Oxfordshire County Council said it had taken the decision to withdraw its Trans Inclusion Toolkit and that it would instead adopt expected EHRC guidance. At the same time, the council said it was withdrawing from the judicial review of the Toolkit, which was expected in Autumn 2020."

"In England in 2014, the DfE’s advice on The Equality Act 2010 and schools noted that “a partnership of bodies in Cornwall have produced a useful guidance document for schools and families.”"

"In 2017, the NASUWT Teachers’ Union published guides for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."

Last accessed 14-12-20

Access to full report -

Press release - 90 children’s charities warn the UN that children’s rights have deteriorated in England

 From Children's Rights Alliance For England - last accessed 14-12-20

"In a new report released ahead of Human Rights Day (10 December), 90 children’s charities from across England warn that a number of critical children’s rights issues must be urgently addressed by the UK Government to prevent worsening impacts on the most vulnerable children."

"Today’s report marks the start of the UK’s examination under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Led by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), it sets out civil society’s top concerns for the UN to investigate and reveals that children’s rights have regressed in many areas since the UN’s last examination in 2016. It also highlights that the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has not prioritised children’s rights and their voices in vital policy and legislative decisions. "

"Although there has been some progress, the report concludes that children’s rights remain worryingly low on the political agenda in England. Scotland is soon to directly incorporate the CRC into domestic law, but the UK Government has refused to do so. It also outlines that children’s access to justice has been eroded since 2016 and, with the Human Rights Act now under threat, our domestic legal framework for protecting children’s human rights is at great risk." 

"The report also highlights that Black children have continued to suffer persistent discrimination across many aspects of their lives, including being disproportionately represented in school exclusions and in all parts of the criminal justice system. Despite numerous reviews, there is still no cross-government strategy for preventing and addressing systematic racism and race discrimination."

Link to further information -

"Should Santa have to quarantine? What children think about Christmas"

 From Children's Commissioner 1st December 2020

"National lockdown comes to an end this week, with new rules in place and some relaxation over Christmas, where we can meet with up to three other households over a period of five days.

We asked children through focus groups what they thought about Christmas this year, and many raised concerns and questions.

Lots of the children agreed that Christmas is likely to look very different for them this year, mainly because they wouldn’t be able to, or wouldn’t feel safe seeing their grandparents:

“I don’t think it’s going to be the same. My nan and grandad live in Spain, you can only see 3 families over a short period so they can’t come over which is sad.” – Girl, 11

“The problem with our family is that we have 7 people, and the restrictions would probably be 6 people; and then my grandma says all this stuff about you all meet up, I’ll stay, but then you don’t realise your grandparents have… a space in your Christmas tradition.” – Girl, 12

“Christmas this year will be a bit weird” – Girl, primary school

Children are very aware of how to stay ‘safe’ from Coronavirus so it’s not surprising that they asked how it was safe to meet up with other family members at Christmas when they couldn’t see them now.

“I like the idea of seeing my nan at Christmas… I really like the idea of doing that, but I don’t really understand how it’s going to be safe. If I can’t go and have a cup of tea with my nan now what difference does it make if it’s Christmas morning?” – Girl, 17

The key concern for children was the potential impact on the number of cases of Coronavirus and what that could mean for another lockdown.

“I feel like those 3 days could do so much to our like world that everything could go to pot again just because of those 3 days … cause, I feel like even if it’s not your own grandparents, you wouldn’t want anyone else in the world to feel what you could feel when it’s your grandparents. Cause those 3 days could mean another whole 6 months of lockdown again, you don’t know.” – Girl, 12

“What is [the prime minister] going to do about the obvious rise in cases? If you can socialise with three households that’s nice but is this not going to take us back to where we were at the start of the year, 25,000 cases a day again and make things a lot worse?” – Girl, 17

“I think the negative number of cases is going to outweigh the positives of spending a few days with their family” – Girl, 16

“If they are trying to stop the spread and stuff, it just goes back and everything that they’ve been trying to do, with 5 days with having restaurants and pubs open, […] and that might push the spread of the virus […] if they can go, and they give that to you, and then you give that to someone else […] it all depends if households are going and they are then staying a tiny bit apart and wear masks” Boy, 13

“My worry isn’t Christmas, my worry is the effect of Christmas…As someone who has their exams this year, if we come back from Christmas or New Years and there’s a spike in cases and I’m back in lockdown learning like I wouldn’t be able to do it, and I know a lot of people who wouldn’t either… People are like ‘Coronavirus will leave you alone because it’s festive’… I don’t mind people meeting with their friends, but I’m worried about having the social bubbles and then seeing the figures in the next few weeks go back up to where we were earlier this year to get us into lockdown in the first place or get us back into the place that got us into lockdown 2 and then the long reaching effects of that…” – Girl, 17

The issue of perceived discrimination against those from other faiths and religions came up in separate groups.

“It’s a little discriminatory against those… we are having these rules in place for our holiday which is a Christian holiday. Not every religion celebrates that and other religions like [the] Islamic religion they had to give up their celebration and no special rules were put in place for them to celebrate.” – Girl, 16

“I really don’t think Christmas should actually happen. Loads of other religions couldn’t have had their celebrations, like Diwali. So, they couldn’t really celebrate it, so I don’t think we should, why, what makes Christmas more important than everything else? I get that it’s a time for families to come together and we had someone saying oh, it might be someone’s last Christmas because they’re old, but it could be literally anyone’s last Christmas, you don’t know, you can’t decide…” – Teenage girl

Some children had already decided that they wouldn’t be visiting their extended family this year, and thought it was likely that other households would do the same.

“I am not a huge fan of Christmas, especially this year of all years. I get exactly what you are saying about going to see your families and that. I think especially this year […] but I said that I am not going to visit any of my family because I don’t want to put any of them at risk, so I will be joining virtually as well.” – Girl, 18

“I don’t think people will risk going to see their family for five days because it can cause a lot of problems for the future” – Girl, 16

Despite everything going on, there were still things to be excited about this year, even if it was going to look a bit different.

“I think it will be quite exciting this year as well because school has set some things that we are going to do for Christmas, so we are going to have a party in our class, so the teachers make it special for us as well” Girl, primary school"

Link

2020 Beacon House Advent Calendar! ...

Fantastic resource from Beacon House - Not to be missed - 24 days of resources!

Click here for link to resource