Dear Colleagues,

I hope that you are all into the swing of the new term and are able to have a break during the upcoming Half Term. 

This month we give you news of:  

- The 2017 Video Competition - Deadline Approaching! 

- PSA Teachers' Network News 

- A round up of recent PSA Teachers' Events

FAKE NEWS: IS THIS THE END OF FACTS?

This year's Student Video Competition focuses on the relationship between politics and the media by exploring the issue of fake news and its effects on contemporary political life. 

For more information on the competition theme and entry requirements see here.

Finalists will be shortlisted and invited to attend a Jury Meeting in the House of Commons on 7 November and the winners will receive their prize at the PSA Annual Awards in December.

The event is supported by YouGov and the winners will have the opportunity to do a week's work placement with the polling company in their London offices.

The deadline for entries is 12 noon on Monday 30 October 2017.

See here for a ready to print competition poster.

For more information on how to enter please contact me via: josh.niderost@psa.ac.uk.

The PSA is keen for our teacher members to be as engaged as possible in the work of your Association. In response to this the PSA created the Teachers' Network in 2016. 

The Teachers’ Network exists to represent the interests of our teacher members and their schools within the PSA. It provides a voice for Politics Teachers in the PSA; connects them to other Politics teachers, academics and the wider discipline; allows them a space in an independent peer-led environment to develop a programme of activities to meet their needs and the needs of their students and schools; and enables them to lead outward facing activities with the Department for Education, OfQual and exam boards.

Mark Fowle has stood down as Secretary of the Network and the PSA is seeking members who are interested in this position and becoming involved in the Network Committee more generally. If this is something that interested in please do get in contact with me via: josh.niderost@psa.ac.uk by Monday 30 October. 

The PSA is now offering a termly grant of up to £500 for PSA teachers to organise and run an event in their local area.

The PSA hopes that this grant system will give PSA teacher members the opportunity to organise activities to benefit their pedagogy and their students’ education as well as support the PSA’s aim to develop membership, outreach and activities across the regions and nations of the UK.

Please let me know if you interested in applying via: josh.niderost@psa.ac.uk.

Earlier this month the PSA held a joint CPD seminar with colleagues at the Parliament Education Service in Westminster. The theme of the day was Minority Government and attendees explored what the reality of a hung parliament meant for both the Government, the Opposition and backbench parliamentarians.  

The event started with a talk by Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, who spoke about how experiences after the 2017 election differed from when she was first elected in 2015. 

You can see a piece in last Sunday's Observer about friendship across partisan lines here, which includes an article on Heidi and the Labour MP Steve Reed. 

Other speakers included Lucinda Maer from the House of Commons Library; Dr Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government; and Dr Kevin Hickson from Liverpool University. Slides for these presenters are below: 

Lucinda Maer on Minority Government at Westminster

Catherine Haddon on The Lib-Lab Pact and Minority Government in the 1970s

Kevin Hickson on John Major And His Maastricht Rebels

In September the PSA held a variety of Applying to Study Politics workshops at Nottingham Trent University, Cardiff University and Ulster University. 

In Nottingham Dr Rose Gann and Dr Ros Hague spoke on studying Politics. Dr Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton gave a lecture on contemporary US politics. 

At Ulster University Dr Kris Brown spoke about the admissions process and Professer Arthur Aughey talked about the history of ideas. 

Meanwhile in Cardiff Dr Jonathan Kirkup ran an interactive workshop on policy making and tuition fees involving Sixth Form students. 

A selection of slide are available below. 

Ros Hague on Studying Politics

Ian Stafford on The Difficulties of Policy Making

Jonathan Kirkup on The Admissions Process

Jonathan Kirkup on Youth Political Engagement

The PSA will be running more Applying to Study Politics workshops in 2018. Stay tuned for more information. 

Pearson currently have exciting opportunities for qualified teachers to join their Assessment Associate Team, as Examiners for their GCE A Level Government and Politics qualification.

If you have any queries regarding the role, please contact the AA Recruitment team on aaresourcing@pearson.com. For more infromation about Examiner opportunities at Pearson please click here.

The PSA Blog features contemporary content from academic members of the PSA in response to news or fresh research findings. 

Samantha Cooke (Warwick) asks: Moving Forward? A Woman’s Right to Drive in Saudi Arabia. 

Sergi Pardos-Prado (Oxford) looks at: The Catalan conflict: background and scenarios after repression. 

& Ben Worthy (Birkbeck) examines UK Politics in: Teaching Reality and Peddling Fantasy: Boris Johnson vs. Winston Churchill. 

Follow the PSA on Twitter or search for the #PSAschools hashtag for real time updates on all our schools' activities, news and campaigns.

As a PSA Teacher Member you have full access to the Schools’ Area of the PSA website.  Here you can find all the latest information about the following initiatives we offer to schools:

•         Free Seminars for Schools programme
•         Free professional development resources
•         Free subscriptions to leading publications, including Political Insight
•         Priority registration to PSA schools' events
•         Priority registration for student career workshops

Don't forget, members can access the Teachers' e-News archive online here.

We're always keen to hear from you, so please keep in touch or let the PSA know how we can serve you better. If you feel any colleagues would be interested in this e-Newsletter, please forward them a copy.

With very best wishes,

Josh Niderost

Programme Development and Outreach Officer

020 7321 2545
PSA Head Office, 113a Jermyn Street, London, SW1Y 6HJ.