It was such an honour for NetSupport Radio to be the official broadcaster at Bett 2022. We had some fantastic chats with the guests who came onto the live broadcast each day to talk to us and give everyone an insight into all sorts of interesting topics – here are just a few of them!
Focus on mental health and wellbeing
NetSupport’s CEO, Al Kingsley, kicked off the live show each day by chatting to NetSupport Radio’s superb host, Russell Prue. On the first day, he talked about the excitement of being back at the show in person for the first time in two years, as well as the importance of looking after student and staff wellbeing. Listen to Al’s interview here.
Mental health and wellbeing consultant, Kelly Hannaghan, also talked about the importance of support for parents. She has been working to develop safe spaces for parental support, especially in this post-pandemic era, to empower them and ensure they can remain in the loop on all the changes going on in their children’s education. Listen to Kelly’s interview here.
Of course, supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing has been critical over the pandemic and will continue to be so. We were delighted to get some tips from prominent parenting coach, Sue Atkins (yes, from the TV!), who said: “Listening is the way we will help children heal from this difficult time.” She added, “Slowing down and allowing the child to tell you how they are feeling without interrupting them is a real gift you can give them.” Listen to Sue’s interview here.
Social media and digital citizenship
We all know about the benefits and pitfalls of social media, but Lord Jim Knight is involved in looking at the Government’s proposals to regulate it. He told us, “It’s the amplification of harm that’s the problem, more than the harm itself,” and explained that “we have to regulate [it] to minimise the harm and maximise the benefit.” Listen to Lord Jim Knight’s interview here.
As part of keeping students safe online, teaching them how to be good digital citizens is vital – not only to protect them from harm, but so that they can, in this world of ‘fake news’, determine what is real and what is not. Jenna Khanna from Common Sense Education came onto the show to let us know that the company has just localised all its US digital citizenship content and made it available for UK teachers and students – for FREE! Listen to Jenna’s interview here.
Super resources and services
Gemma Oaten popped along to NetSupport Radio to talk about the SEED charity that provides support for people with eating disorders. She talked about its new educational resource for schools, saying, “The Eating Disorders Education Toolkit teaches the teacher how to talk about eating disorders, mental health and wellbeing.” She added, “The key focus is to open up the conversation around eating disorders in a way where the kids feel empowered.” Listen to Gemma’s interview here.
An advocate of edtech in schools, Wolfgang Soeldner from i3-Technologies was interviewed by our Head of Education, Mark Anderson, live on NetSupport Radio. He explained the thinking behind the company’s interactive flat panel displays for classrooms and their tools to promote edtech within education – and shared how show-goers could win the panel featured on the NetSupport stand. Panels such as this are “ideal for lower age grades and contain a whole ecosystem of educational technology tools,” Wolfgang said. Listen to Wolfgang’s interview here.
Simon Blower from Pobble explained to the NetSupport Radio audience how the solution helps teachers to inspire children’s written work. “Lots of children find writing difficult so our mission is to make it a little bit more exciting,” he said, adding that the aim is for children to become published authors. Listen to Simon’s interview here.
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to come and talk to us!