Today’s Education in the Media blog looks at all the announcements we have made over the festive period, including our ambition to tackle the use of single-use plastics, the ‘activity passport’ for pupils and those in the education and social care sectors awarded with a New Year’s honour.
Single-Use Plastics
On Thursday 27 December, the Education Secretary Damian Hinds challenged schools to eliminate their use of single-use plastics by 2022. It has always been a priority for the Education Secretary to reduce plastic in society, and we will be supporting schools across the country to lead by example in creating a better environment for the future.
This story made the most impressions on social media across the festive period, with 136,000 impressions (total reach) and around 4,800 engagements (retweets, likes and clicks).
New Year’s Honours List
On Friday 28 December, the New Year’s Honours list was published. Included on the list of those receiving honours were many representatives and contributors of the education and social care sectors, including headteachers, governors, teachers, social workers, foster carers, school governors and those who work in adoption and early years.
Activity Passport
On Saturday 29 December, we published further information on the ‘passport’ of activities for school children, which will encourage pupils to engage in more activities to build resilience and embark on more unique experiences. The list includes age-appropriate tasks including painting a self-portrait, going hiking, cooking a meal, writing a poem, and many more.
Our social media content on this announcement was our most engaged with content of the holiday season.
Overall all recess stories until this point have achieved half a million impressions and around 14,000 engagements with about 145,000 media views as the department continues to spread key messages across social platforms.
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