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Most teachers feel confident espousing the benefits of using picture books in English lessons, talking about the importance of using the illustrations to enhance the text, engaging students and fostering a love and appreciation of literature. How many teachers passionately advocate the use of these same picture books in mathematics lessons? This author hopes to show how easily a quality picture book can stimulate mathematical discussion, introduce and develop abstract concepts, and lead into relevant and interesting mathematical activities. Picture books develop the literacy skills of students: pictures provide extra scaffolding, and there are opportunities to relate the text content to one's own background knowledge, to respond to themes, introduce problematic knowledge and so on. Using picture books to stimulate mathematical discussion and learning experiences gives students a starting point and provides a non-threatening learning environment for students with low mathematical self efficacy. Jenkins will demonstrate how four fiction texts can be used specifically to develop students' understanding of position, direction, and mapping skills.

Background: In March 2018, three patients were admitted to the Emergency Department of a District General Hospital. Originally suspected of having suffered an opiate overdose, it became clear that they were the victims of anti‐cholinesterase poisoning—the Soviet era poison Novichok. Twenty‐five days later, two further patients were admitted with the same symptoms. One of these patients died 8 days later and the second remained in hospital for 3 weeks. A Clinical Psychologist was present on the unit throughout the major incident and all staff directly involved received psycho‐educational support regarding self‐care. Aims: To examine the psychological impact of the longest running major incident in NHS history on the staff directly involved. Design: A cross‐sectional design was used, with structured questionnaires administered retrospectively. Methods: A link to an electronic survey was emailed to every member of staff in the organization. The survey included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Impact of Events Scale—Revised (to both the March and June events). Results: 540/4000 hospital staff responded (13.5% response rate) with a 29/59 (49%) response rate in intensive care staff. Frontline staff had significantly lower scores on anxiety (P <.05 for the June incident), depressive symptoms (P <.05 March and June) and subscales of burnout than managers (depersonalization P <.05). On the remaining two burnout subscales and on anxiety scores for those involved in March, results trended towards significance (P <.1). Conclusions: Staff in management roles during major incidents may experience higher levels of psychological distress than staff in front line clinical roles and should be encouraged to seek psychological support. Relevance to Clinical Practice: This article informs teams of the psychological impact of major incidents on staff in intensive care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2008.00943.x Byline: KATE JENKINS (1) Keywords: UK Civil Service; Next Steps; British Government; public management; Efficiency Unit; Thatcher; executive agencies Abstract: This article discusses the origins of the Efficiency Unit's 'Next Steps' Report, published 20 years ago which recommended the executive agency as an organisation for much of the British government. Within five years more than half the civil service had been transferred to work in agencies but the other major recommendation of the report - improving the management skills of the senior civil service received far less enthusiastic attention. From the Fulton Report, the Next Steps report to the Capability Reviews of current Whitehall the same problem is highlighted: there is still too little management competence within the public service despite the endorsement of the need for improvement by successive governments. Author Affiliation: (1)Visiting professor at the London School of Economics, and a vice chair of the Hansard Society.