Daily roundup 23 January: Resilience, play, and Donald Trump

Schools should teach children resilience through public speaking and sport, the Education Secretary has said. The Telegraph reports that Damian Hinds has spoken about the importance of instilling children with "soft skills", such as teamwork and communication from a young age, which should help them in the workplace. He said that teaching children how to build "character resilience" is crucial for a thriving economy.


Children will lack the work skills they need in the future because they are not spending enough time playing, a Lego executive has warned. The BBC reports that John Goodwin, head of the Lego Foundation has said that children need to spend less time in the classroom and more time playing, calling for governments to make education more play-based.


Children in the UK are more anxious about Donald Trump's presidency than nuclear war and global warming, a survey has found. The Chronicle reports that the research by YouGov, commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation to uncover the impact world events could be having on children has found that 33 per cent of children were anxious about the president's leadership, while only 23 per cent were concerned about the threat of nuclear war.


The Duchess of Cambridge has launched a mental health website for schools to help teachers dispel untrustworthy internet advice. The Evening Standard reports that Kate Middleton has visited a school in Brent to announce a pilot initiative for the Heads Together campaign. Mentally Healthy Schools is a website designed to help teachers talk to children about issues ranging from bereavement to eating disorders. It is designed to suit English primary schools and includes more than 1,500 resources.


The number of suspected incidents of online child sexual abuse referred to the Metropolitan police has increased by 700 per cent since 2014, an inquiry has heard. The Guardian reports that the National Crime Agency alerted Scotland Yard to potential paedophiles operating over the internet on 647 occasions between 1 January and 30 September in 2017, the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse was told on Monday. Evidence of the expansion of the problem was given on the first day of the inquiry's hearing into the role of the internet in facilitating child abuse.