Teach Secondary Issue 14.2

4.1% Education spending as a share of national income in 2023/24; in 2010/11, the proportion was 5.6% of national income Source: ‘Annual report on education spending in England: 2024–25’ produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies We live in a digital age, with technology an integral part of our daily lives. Fromonline shopping to streamingmedia, we’re spendingmore time online than ever before –making it all the more important to prevent cyber criminals fromaccessing our devices, data and accounts. The National Cyber Security Centre is responsible for helping to make the UK the safest place in which to live and work online. Below are some learning steps we’ve put together, to help teachers shine a spotlight on the importance of cyber security for young people. UPGRADE YOUR EMAIL SECURITY Some of our most personal information and financial data can be contained within emails. If a cyber criminal manages to compromise your inbox, they could gain access to other online accounts registered to you via password recovery links, or acquire the contact information of people you know and use this to scamyou. Always activate any 2-step verification functions offered by your email provider, and use a strong and unique password. If you’re struggling to come up with something sufficiently random, try mixing three words using everyday objects with scattered numbers and symbols – e.g. Hippo!PizzaRocket1. Hard to remember passwords can then be saved to your browser settings or a dedicated passwordmanager. CLOSE-UPON... FOR THE LATEST CYBER SECURITY INFORMATION AND ADVICE, PLEASE VISIT NCSC.GOV.UK ; YOU CAN PLAY THE NCSC-DEVELOPED CYBERFIRST NAVIGATORS LEARNING GAME FOR KS3 STUDENTS BY VISITING NCSC.GOV.UK/COLLECTION/CYBERFIRSTNAVIGATORS As any teacher will tell you, if students get a good night’s sleep, they’re much more likely to have a productive time of it in the classroom the following day. Now a study by researchers at the University of Manchester has found that good sleep habits can appreciably improve students’ mental wellbeing over the span of a year – at least among girls. Drawing on survey data recorded by the #BeeWell youth programme (beewellprogramme. org), the researchers tracked around 28,000 teenagers across Greater Manchester for a period of three years, in an effort to identify connections between their sleep habits, rates of physical activity andmental wellbeing. Adolescent girls who reported getting sufficient sleep also reported better mental wellbeing after one year. This relationship was moreover found to be a reciprocal one, with better mental wellbeing appearing to predict the subsequent quality of sleep that girls experienced – especially between the ages of 12 and 14. Sleep was similarly found to be a predictor of boys’ mental wellbeing, but without the reciprocal effect – i.e. boys’ levels of wellbeing didn’t appear to predict their quality of sleep later on. That said, the study did point to boys’ level of wellbeing being a predictor of their subsequent physical activity levels. According to the project’s lead researcher, Dr Jose Marquez. “Our research demonstrates the critical role of sleep in adolescent wellbeing, particularly for girls. It is therefore vital that young people are empowered with the knowledge, practices and benefits of good sleep habits, in addition to raising awareness of the immediate and longer-term consequences of poor sleep quality.” CYBER SECURITY STAYUPTO DATE Applying the latest software and operating system security updates as soon as they’re available will help protect your devices and accounts from cyber criminals. These updates will often include revised protection fromviruses and other forms of malware, and can sometimes be accompanied by various system improvements and extra features. If you receive a prompt to update your device or any of the apps you use, don’t ignore it. The NCSC advises turning on automatic updates. Device updates can take some time to complete, however, and will typically require a reliable internet connection. It’s best to apply these at home, where you can access your personal WiFi (and preferably while keeping your device plugged into the mains). BACK UPYOUR DATA Most of us will at some point have been unable to access important data – be it school-related documents, personal photos, videos, contact details or other forms of personal information. A backup involves making a copy of your important data and then storing it in a separate (and hopefully evenmore secure) location – typically an external hard drive, or online cloud storage. If you lose your original data, you can simply restore a copy of it from the backup you’ve made. Making backups doesn’t take long, and can usually be scheduled so that it takes place automatically. 77 teachwire.net/secondary L E A R N I N G L A B