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With Stress Awareness Month now underway, the NCFE Innovation team have been reflecting on the complex relationship between stress and technology. Undeniably, our hyper-connectivity with technology often fuels stress and is a regular culprit in the media for our struggle to relieve stress. However, we’ve been reviewing how we can harness the power of technology to help prevent and better manage our stress levels.    Whether you’re an education professional, parent or student, a different approach to technology can mean better outcomes and reduced stress levels for all of us. Here are some of the technological solutions we’d like to share that could help reduce your stress levels, in the long term.

Following the publication of the Education and Policy Institute’s report on schools funding, it was reassuring that this report, once again, allowed this issue to become a focus of the media. We know that this is a seemingly perennial issue in schools, but it has been bought into particularly sharp focus of late. The report highlights that ‘two thirds of local authority maintained secondary school spent more than their income in 2016-17’ – with 40 per cent of local authority schools having declining balances for at least the past 2 years.

Having eagerly awaited the latest version of the Adult Education Budget (AEB) Funding rules, we were delighted to see them published before the Easter break. More importantly, we were pleased to see that the rules remain largely unchanged. There appears to be some minor amendments, rather than significant wholesale changes.

NCFE Policy Leader, Andrew Gladstone-Heighton examines skills growth and replacement in a post-Brexit economy in his newly published paper. In just under a year, article 50 will expire, and the UK will have left the European Union.

Apprenticeships are changing, and we’re here to help. The Department for Education (DfE) has halted turning off apprenticeship frameworks, saying that they won’t withdraw any further frameworks until 2020. This is welcome news from the DfE, after months of concern that reforms around content, procurement and funding are being rolled out too fast. It’s encouraging to see that the DfE are willing to hit the pause button and allow providers to choose what they see fit for their learners.

Recent press attention surrounding the lack of appropriate provision in schools for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils has highlighted a complex issue which seems to lack a solution for inclusivity for many children. An article by the BBC highlights the pressing matter of a cash shortfall, contrary to the government’s declaration that the money for schools and special needs had been protected. This hasn’t help many families of SEND children, with the BBC report stating that ‘4,050 special needs pupils’ in England alone, did not have a school place.

Functional Skills qualifications are changing and as an active member of the FAB Functional Skills Working Group, we want to keep you up to date with the latest developments. Consultation on the reform gives an opportunity to have an input on the future Functional Skills qualifications to help ensure they fit your learners’ needs.

Christine Bennett is a practicing Counsellor with an MSc. in Counselling Studies and extensive experience in recognising stress and trauma. In this article, Christine looks at the physical signs of stress which may manifest in yourself or your pupils, allowing you to approach and manage the situation. What is stress?

We love hearing about how technical education can change people’s lives so when we met Josh Dixon, Managing Director at YourCode Recruitment Group, we just had to share his story. Three years ago, in June 2015, I left high school without any formal qualifications having spent numerous months in my school’s isolation unit for misbehaviour, anger management issues and a generally poor attitude to education. At this time, I was on course to fail 10 out of my 12 GCSEs, with my careers advisor advising me that I should aim to become a HGV Driver as I wasn’t intelligent enough to work in business or go to university.

Neil Stocking, Vice Principle of one of our Champion Schools, Highcrest Academy, gives his thoughts on how teaching has changed over the years, the challenges he faces on a daily basis at Highcrest Academy, which many schools will relate to and the ways in which the school overcomes these challenges: