Laramie Wire Manufacturing Case - 1539 Words

Case # 1 Laramie Wire Manufacturing: Using Analytical Procedures in Audit Planning February 18, 2011 Laramie Wire Manufacturing, a medium sized company, is planning an initial public offering of its stock in the next two to three years. Laramie operates in a single 500,000 square foot building complex. Laramie buys copper rod and plastic materials to produce insulated copper wiring. The building complex is composed of 3% office space, 57% production area, 15% shipping and receiving area, and 25% finished goods and raw materials inventory warehousing area. Laramie produces several different types and gauges of insulated copper wire. All the different products Laramie manufactures use the same raw materials, meaning raw†¦show more content†¦Therefore, more testing is needed to see if the copper wire inventory was potentially overstated in the amount of pounds in 2008. Another risk for Laramie deals with the percentage of inventory it has on hand from 2008 to support the current amount of sales. Laramie’s inventory to sales percentage increased 16.4% from 2007 t o 2008. Therefore, this increase shows either that Laramie has trouble keeping inventory accounts down or net sales are slowing relevant to the amount being produced. Also, the increase shows Laramie may have overstated inventories meaning there may be an existence issue. There is a need for further attention to the potential overstatement of inventories because the increase in inventory to sales shows that Laramie is not using its resources efficiently. When calculating the percentage change in inventories, an issue arises when using either the lower cost of market or the market value. When looking at the calculations for finished goods inventory (insulated wire) and copper rod inventory Laramie has applied the lower cost of market. However, the calculation pertaining to plastics inventory reveals that the market value should be used for classification, but Laramie has used cost. The percentage change of the plastics inventory if the $.12 per pound is used is a 27% decrease. The importance of classifying inventory correctlyShow MoreRelatedFinancial Audit and Laramie Wire Manufacturing1230 Words   |  5 PagesCase Study Assignment Prepare written answers to the following case from Auditing Cases: An Interactive Learning Approach, (3rd edition), by Beasley, Buckless, Glover, and Prawitt: Case 8.1: Laramie Wire Manufacturing: Using Analytical Procedures in Audit Planning Requirements 1. 1. Perform analytical procedures to help you identify relatively risky areas 2. indicate the need for further attention during the audit, if any. 2. Focus specifically onRead MoreAnalytical Procedure - Laramie Wire Manufacturing Essay629 Words   |  3 Pagestransactions and events, and amounts, ratios and trends that might indicate matters that have financial statement and audit planning ramifications*. First, the auditors should consider information regarding the industry in which the client operates**. In this case, average machine setup time from start to finish is approximately six hours, which is slightly below the industry average. It means the company is efficient in preparation for production. Also, the auditors should compare client data with prior period

Law Enforcement in the 21st Century - 15936 Words

Law Enforcement in a Democratic Society cha pt er 1 ISBN 0-558-46766-0 Law Enforcement in the 21 Century, Second Edition, by Heath B. Grant and Karen J. Terry. Published by Allyn Bacon. Copyright  © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. st Chapter Out line INTRODUCTION The Themes of the Book The Police Function: Social Control and the Use of Force Policing Within the Rule of Law: The Challenges of Discretion The Delicate Balance: Crime Control versus Due Process The Levels of Law Enforcement Municipal Agencies County Agencies State Agencies Federal Agencies Department of Justice Department of Homeland Security Department of the Treasury U.S. Postal Service Tribal Agencies Chapter Objectives ââ€"  Describe the concept of linkage blindness and†¦show more content†¦Grant and Karen J. Terry. Published by Allyn Bacon. Copyright  © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. st Introduction 5 agency. Given the complexity of both the intelligence and law enforcement communities and their many overlapping jurisdictions, it was inevitable that key information would slip through the cracks between agencies. The inability to analyze and link critical information across (or even within an agency) is referred to as linkage blindness and will be a major theme throughout this book. In part, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and its reauthorization in 2005 were executive and legislative responses to the problem of linkage blindness by organizing diffuse and autonomous law enforcement agencies and strengthening the government’s abilities to obtain information. Stephen Flynn (2001) provides a useful illustration of this critical law enforcement problem, referring to the arrival of a hypothetical ship with questionable cargo and a crew on an intelligence watch list for potential terrorist ties: The Coast Guard would be likely to know about the scheduled arrival of a tanker carrying hazardous cargo. The Customs Service might have some advance cargo manifest information. The INS might or might not know much about the crew, dependingShow MoreRelatedImplementing The President s Task Force On 21st Century Policing Essay1749 Words   |  7 Pagesthe President s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The Task Force Members sought expertise from stakeholders and input from the public through Listening Sessions, teleconferences and written comments as they worked to identify best practices and make recommendations to the President. 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Policing was considered reactive in nature. This began to change as did society, industrialism and urbanization, brought with it a rise in crime, causing police to shift towards a more proactive approach to law enforcement. In the 1800’s new technologies began another change with better response times and communications. The 20th century brought even more technologies which continue to aid law enforcement today. This era also brought to the attentionRead MoreCriminal Justice and Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases , Annotated Bibliography1035 Words   |  5 Pagesterms is a source reference with respect to criminal law, constitutional law, and criminal procedure. The major focus of this book includes explained mandates of over 1000 U.S. Supreme Court cases and this book details key terms and definitions. Grant, H.B. and Terry, K.J. 2008: Law Enforcement in the 21st Century. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, River, NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall. 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Just as President Johnson assembled the commission after the rise in riots in the 1960’s, President Obama signed an order in 2014 to establish the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing after the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson. In the interest of time and space I’ll try to condense it down to the basics. President Obama stated: When any part of the American family does not feel like it is being treated fairly, that’sRead MoreLaw Enforcement Education And Training1703 Words   |  7 PagesLaw Enforcement Education and Training in the 21st Century and its Relation to Police Professionalization There is a great debate over the question of whether American law enforcement has achieved the status of a profession. In order to answer this question, there is a need to define what a profession is and identify the requisite attributes that qualifies an occupation to be identified as a profession. 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Interest-Bearing Securities and Role in Portfolio Management

Question: Describe about the Interest-bearing Securities and their role in Portfolio Management. Answer: Introduction To explain the terminology of interest bearing securities, it would be simple to say that securities on which a predetermined rate of interest is due to be paid to the security holder or instrument owner. The time cycle of the payment of interest could be anything half-yearly, annually or at maturity. Portfolio management in itself is a vast area of financial market and we will be going analyzing all the areas step by step to ensure the clarity on the concepts. Securities in the financial market are of different nature depending upon their return abilities and risk bearing slots. In this analysis of financial markets, the focus country is Australia To understand the interest bearing securities and their role in portfolio management, there is prerequisite to comprehend financial market, classification of financial market into sub-divisions of money market and capital market. Financial market is all about taking decisions which are based on the information of truth and right equations rather going on hysteria situations. That the financial management issues are diverse and need elaboration and here in our analysis, we are making efforts to present the intuitions and knowledge of financial management in summary exploration. In terms of investors prospective, good returns on investment are expected but no sure shot portfolio could be set in order maximize returns or minimize risk associated with securities. The only reason of suspiciousness over returns is because financial markets are risk filled and imperfections and as output of these imperfections, inconsistency with the expectations is obvious. Risk associated with the securit ies is the crucial benchmark in evaluation of investment decision making as risk is directly proportional to returns. In a nutshell, better returns are expected when risk associated is high and low returns are expected when risk is minimal. There can be different multiplicities of risk such as business risk, interest risk, and market risk. Among them, the market risk is with highly vulnerable because no predictions can work out in situations of recession or market flip-down. In general terms, risk means that actual outcome will differ from the expected outcome and is unpredictable. Portfolio management refers to the process of creating pool of securities with different risk factors and return factors and then setting the overall expected return in combination of all requirements. Under portfolio management, aim is to select right kind of securities to invest and money is directed towards right channels. It can be observed that portfolio management is right and calculative step towards personalized investments i.e. tailored as per financial needs. (Drago , 2014) Importance of portfolio management: 1-It provides better decision making sense to investors and with better returns, decisions prove to be successful. 2- With various securities in the pool, the risk associated is lower. The only condition is not to select all the investments of high risk because portfolio is mix of lower, moderate and higher risk associated securities. 3-It also results in maximizing the control and efficiency of resources invested. 4-It brings sense of accountability for portfolio managers and they cannot easily get away with their decision of selection of certain categories. 5-Investors often are caught with financial resources crunch and PM (portfolio management) is the solution to this problem. 6-Under portfolio management, it is easy to see linkages of returns with market conditions and observation over dependencies in those portfolio which are long term. 7-With the change in business environment and economy holding better grasp over business operations, investors anticipate better decision making from the management. Investors have sole expectation to see growth in their portfolios. 8- Portfolio management provides big picture of the financial investment opportunities. (Basu, 2014) Now that we have clear understanding over portfolio, its management, uses and benefits that can be short term or long term, it is easy to move to very important divisions of financial markets-money market and capital market. Australian financial markets have by 27% since 2009 and overall volumes are even higher than the percentages itself. The AFMA (Australian Financial Management System) have integrated various reforms since the era of recession keeping the interest of the investors in good faith. With AFMA integrating the financial markets in collaboration with global markets is the initiative that essentially brought regulation and promoted efficiency towards economic growth. Basics about the Australian money market and the capital market: Money market refers to the arcade where money or its equivalent (securities) can be traded. One of the strong characteristics of money market is that here high liquidity securities are dealt and in all market situations, trading is short term. (Short term maturity). Securities such commercial papers, treasury bills, CDs (certificate of deposits), RAs (repurchase agreements) and so on. Capital market is the one where financial securities are created and dealt with the long term maturity period for the purpose of nurturing the long term needs. Shares, debentures, bonds, Euro issues, asset securitization are few examples which are traded in capital market. (Lee, 2015) All investment and securities are controlled and eyed by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission). ASIC performs the following functions: 1-It ensures right and timely information of the companies is available to the investors so that investors can make calculative decisions with their investments. 2-Prolong, simplify and improve the performance of Australian financial markets. 3- Organize events for consumer awareness and by doing this, it is valuing the hard-earned money of the investors. 4- Supervision of the market regulations and facilitating investors and dealers with minimal process requirements of trading in the financial market. With the clarity over interest bearing securities, following presumptions and facts need to be covered before studying the effect of interesting bearing securities on portfolio. 1-Risk factors affect the market value of interest bearing securities. 2-Market conditions cannot be stable in any scenarios and are volatile because of global events, news and government stability. 3-In the event of market interest rates going up, fixed interest securities will fall because new securities will be issued at higher rate than existing ones. Contrariwise, fix rate securities will increase in their value in the event of market rates coming down. 4-Inflation, business cycles and other domestic or international factors are there in the mind of investors and this become obvious cause of ups/downs of prices and interest rate of securities. 5-Reserve Bank of Australia usually intervenes in the market at the time when market conditions are very volatile either interest rates are digging the ground or touching the sky. It is necessary step to by RBA to ensure money allocations are appropriate. 6- There are also interest bearing securities which are protected against market volatility and therefore, guaranteed returns are expected from the investments with no plus/minus of any events. There are various interest bearing securities which are dealt in financial markets and below is the discussion for few important ones: Bonds Bonds are the debt security which are issued by the borrowers to raise money from the investors and there is timeline of maturity of bonds which is declared at the time they are issued. Types of Australian bonds are as follows: Fixed rate bonds- By the name it illustrates that bonds which offers fixed rate of interest are fixed rate bonds. Though fixed rate bonds are sure shot investments, but they do carry the risk associated with the goodwill of the bond issuer which is directly proportional to financial condition of the bond issuer. Floating rate bonds- Floating term denotes continuous change. Floating rate bonds are those bonds which are issued at adjusted price but that price is not constant over a period of time. The reason of this change is market interest rates which changes as per financial factors. Government bonds- Australian government bonds are issued by The commonwealth of Australia. Since they are government bonds, they offer more security, stable and regular income and the best is choice of maturities. Corporate bonds- Corporate bonds traded on ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) are issued in the multiples of $1000 or $5000 for raising funds for expansion or new projects. They are debt onuses issued by private and public corporations. Salient features of bonds are: Details contained in the indenture. Administered through a trustee. Secured versus unsecured. Mortgage/debentured Senior or junior or subordinated. Call features of the bond Bond rating. Example: Take a bond with three years to maturity, a coupon rate of 8%, and a $1000 face value. If the current market rate is 10%, what is the price of the bond? $80 $80 $1080 P = + + (1.10)1 + (1.10)2 + (1.10)3 P=$80(0.9091) +$80(0.8264) +$1080(0.7513) P=$950.24 Treasury Notes T-Notes are the safest forms of marketable investments and are termed between one to ten years with fixed interest rate and are backed full faith and credit by the government. Characteristics of T-Notes are as follows: 1-They are issued as promissory note at discount and the discount is calculated over the face value of the bond. 2-T-notes are short term and are generally issued to meet short term financial needs of the government. 3-T-notes are negotiable securities. 4- Issuing T-notes is cost friendly because transaction cost is very low. 5-They are investments with assured yields. (Amadeo, 2016) Mortgages: A debt security, secured by fixed asset such as real estate property in exchange of funds with the obligation to pay them back is call mortgage. Over the period of time, interest is paid that gets accumulated as per timeline of the mortgage. 1-The state rates on mortgage is determined by market rates, term of the mortgage and discount factors. 2-The legality of the mortgage is complex and usually protects the lender from losses. 3-Credit ratings play important role in mortgage securities 4-To free cash to be utilized in other projects, most of the mortgages are another investor by the originator. 5-With securitization of mortgages, risk is lowered and access to national capital is enhanced. Debentures Debenture is a loan instrument which is issued by the companies with the aim of generating long term funds. Issue of debentures help companies to avoid load on their existing share capital. Features of debentures: 1-It can be either category secured or unsecured. 2-No voting rights are given to debenture holders. 3-Debenture holders get paid with interest even in event of loss. 4-After a fixed period of time, debentures is redeemed. 5-Interest on debenture is tax deductible expense because they are charge against profit. (Trisha 2015) With analysis on interest bearing securities and their features, it is easy to analyze the impact of interest bearing securities on portfolio: Risk Free bonds increases value of the portfolio- Those bonds which comes with low risk factors and are immunized reduces the volatility and increases the value of portfolio. Credit risk associated with bonds- Indexed bonds are generally issued after the credit history check and then pitfalls in the validation of credit is negative onto entire portfolio. T-Notes offers stability along with good yield- T-notes comes with short maturity period but offers good value on money invested because of stability against market conditions. T-notes enhances portfolio value using features of negotiability- Bonds are negotiable and this adds to flexibility option for buy/sell. Thus, impact is better bond valuation. Mortgages offers long term financial assistance- Mortgages are long term assets and they offer firmness to the portfolio with the long term financial strategy of investing money in projects with lower payback period and higher NPV. Positive impact of free cash over other projects- In bonds, cash usually is free by changing the ownership from originator to other and thus, cash is used in other projects giving dual benefit of returns. Debentures are paid in case of loss even- Best in portfolio are debentures because they stay unaffected in all market conditions of downfall. Losses by the company do not affect return on debentures. Asset allocation The term asset allocation means diversification of investments over different ranges of assets and geographical reasons with the purpose of reducing the risk, increase the value and maximizing the potential for higher returns. Diversification is always beneficial because there may be situations where asset performance is not backed by current projects but secondary asset value may appreciate to maintain the overall rate of return required to continue the project or use the asset. In a nutshell, the up moving asset neutralizes the volatility caused by non-performing asset. Valuation In financial language, valuation is the process to determine the net present value of the asset. Going briefer on the topic, it is the process of determining the worth of the company or any project or asset. The market value of a company is generally calculated by multiplying number of shares in the market into current share price. The transaction is only concluded when buyer and seller agree on a deal price. Intrinsic value of the company creates an assumption on how l=much worth of the company will grow in future. (Vital, 2013) Duration Duration refers to the process of measuring the price volatility of the bond which is the effect of fluctuating interest rates. With the time period associated with the maturity of the bond, there are certain factors which needs presumptions: 1-All bonds are price sensitive and are affect by market rates. 2-The effectiveness of the bond is associated whether bond is short term or long term. 3-Zero coupon bonds are traded at deep rebate. 4-Duration only records small changes of market linked to bond price. Convexity Convexity refers to the process of capturing the relationship between the change in the market rates and price of the bond. This uneven change of market mechanism can also be carried away if bond issued are premium bonds. When the change in bond price is towards negative, it is generally effect of small market change and it will be more if bond price is positive in change. Immunization A portfolio is immunized when it is unaffected by interest rate changes. It is a technique of making the portfolio immune against the risk and uncertainty. Immunizations is strategized to ensure the good worth of portfolio with the amount of return by the investor. It formulates the cash flow basis to ensure better returns with low cost. Conclusion With critical analysis on managing portfolios, it is clear that results are fruitful only when calculative steps are taken in deciding the securities which are to be invested and other that need to be kept on hold. Portfolio management requires that securities invested must be variable in terms of return yield, risk associated and life span whether those financial instruments are short term or long term. The benefit of going with the diversity is that losses from one can be offset by other instruments of the portfolio and in totality, the goal of portfolio management is sure to be achieved. Recommendations In regard to portfolio management specifically with interest bearing securities, recommendations are as following: 1-Selection of the securities should not be only based on current market situations but historical performance should be considered for making better decisions. 2-Valuation and asset-allocation are beneficial for projects with high payback period and thus must be implemented on such projects. 3-Analysis of historical yield vs current yield can be result of currency fluctuations and investors should never be carried away with market hype. Instead, investors could do market analysis with their portfolio managers to ensure better value of money. 4- Few of interest bearing securities are rating based such as bonds and thus, rating should be should as one of the criteria of portfolio finalization. 5-Risk management is must for interest bearing securities because market fluctuations affect them in most prominent ways. References: Drago, H. (2014). Why Project Portfolio Management is more important than ever, Decision focus, accessed on 13 August 2016 https://www.decisionfocus.com/why-project-portfolio-management-is-more-important-than-ever-2 Trisha. (2015). Debentures: meaning, features, advantages, disadvantages, your library, accessed on 13 August 2016 https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/financial-management/debentures-meaning-features-advantages-disadvantages/43834/ Basu,C.(2014), The Importance of a PMO in Portfolio Management,Chron, accessed on 13 August 2016, https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-pmo-portfolio-management-36411.html Lee, S. (2015). What is difference between money market and capital market, Quora, accessed on 13 August 2016 https://www.quora.com/What-is-difference-between-money-market-and-capital-market Amadeo, K. (2016). What Are Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds, About money, accessed on 13 August 2016 https://useconomy.about.com/od/bondsfaq/f/Treasury_Bonds.htm Vital, A. (2013). How Startup Valuation Works Measuring a Companys Potential, FF, accessed on 13 August 2016 https://fundersandfounders.com/how-startup-valuation-works/

Sales Marketing Plan free essay sample

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business. According to Peter Drucker â€Å"There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customers so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available. † (Peter Drucker, Marketing Management, Philip Kotler). In this report, we have planned to market the service ‘Hair care’ by opening an Hair Salon in Silver spring, USA. We have analyzed different marketing strategies and designed a marketing plan for the same. SLP 01 1. NAME, LOCATION amp; NATURE NAME: â€Å"Looks† Location: Silver spring, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA Nature: ‘LOOKS’ will be one stop solution that will allow the entire family to have their hair needs satisfied in one convenient location. We will write a custom essay sample on Sales Marketing Plan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It will serve men, women, and children and it will accept appointments as well as walk-ins. ‘LOOKS’ will also sell premium hair care products. It will focus on serving the entire family in one quick, convenient visit. It will excel due to its attention on their clients, so as to build a long term relationship. Through unheralded customer attention, ‘LOOKS’ will slowly but surely gain market share as it services the entire family, creating long-term relationships. Being on one of the best location of Silver Spring, it will attract a lot of traffic. 2. SELF-ANALYSIS The US salon market accounts for approximately 60 billion dollars. Looking stylish, trendy and beautiful is one of the major concerns of the people in US today and providing this, forms the strength of â€Å"Looks†. As the mission of â€Å"Looks† aligns with this need of the market and as it has comparatively higher competency in the world of fashion it is a strong player. 3. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS The population of Silver Spring is 78,488, with a growth of 2. 5%. The population of Silver Spring consists of 48% males and 52% females. The immediate geographic target of LOOKS is Silver Spring and its neighboring communities of total 250,000 of population. Approximately 12 miles geographic radius is in need of the offered services. The total targeted population 100,000. Baby boomers, Gen-Xers and baby boomlet and the young generation are the groups that are targeted by ‘LOOKS’. 4. ANALYSIS OF  PRIMARY COMPETITORS The location chosen offers very less competition or no competition. Though there are two major competitors which LOOKS has to compete with. Ebony Barbers Unisex amp; Fenton Barber Shop are the two major competitors of LOOKS. As Silver Spring is one of the biggest hub for business it may likely to be hurt by emerging competition. LOOKS will have to face Monopolistic competition, as its competitor is able to differentiate their offerings. 5. MARKET RESEARCH The demographic segregation of Silver Spring is displayed in the graph displayed below: Age Group| %| Under 18 yrs| 23%| 18 – 24 yrs| 9. 3%| 25 – 44 yrs| 37%| 45 – 64 yrs| 21. 2%| Above 65 yrs| 9. 6%| Silver Spring is a ‘Salad Bowl’ society with ethnic group maintaining their ethnic differences, neighborhoods and culture. The Silver Spring population comprises of different racial people which are 46. 61%  white, 28. 07%  African American, 0. 44% Native American, 8.22% Asian, 0. 06% Pacific Islander, 11. 55% from  other races and 5. 04% from two or more races 22. 22% people of the total population are of Hispanic or Latino race. ‘Looks’ will concentrate on the needs and wants of all races as each group has a specific want that need to be satisfied. The Household pattern in Silver Spring is ‘diverse’ as maximum people in Silver Spring are adult live together, single parent family and single live out. 6. MARKETING ENVIRONMENT a. Political and legal factors This environment comprises of laws, government agencies and pressure groups. Business Legislation protects companies from unfair competition, customers from unfair business practices, and interest of the society. Consumer Protection is one of the most important aspect that had to be followed by the business legislation in Silver Spring, maintaining the product quality and disclosing the facts about the product is very important. Anti-competitive agreements among competitors are restrained in Silver Spring. Agreements such as price fixing and customer and market allocation agreements are prohibited in Silver Spring. Economic factors Economic environment helps in determining the strength and size of the market. LOOKS need to analyze the economic environment as the available purchasing power in an economy depends on current income, prices, savings, debt and credit availability in the economy. So its important to analyze the major trends in income and consumer spending patterns. Income Distribution The total number of household in Silver Spring is 30,374. Average household income of the area is $51,653 and the average income of the family is $60,631. The per capita income of Silver Spring is $26,357. 9. 3%(7300 people) of the population are below poverty line. The cost of living in Silver Spring is 40. 12% higher than the US average and the unemployment rate is 5. 10%. The recent job growth trend is negative. c. Social factors Silver Spring people are looking for services and products that provide them ‘Self realization’. Customers have become more value driven in choosing their products or services. Silver Spring organizes several ethnic festivals, musical and entertainment events. One of the most famous film festival i.e. Silver docs Documentary film festival is held every year in the month of June. Silver Spring also organizes Silver Spring Jazz festival which is one of the biggest musical festival which attracts more than 20,000 people. This festival is held on the second Saturday in the month of September. It also hosts American Film Institute Silver Theatre and culture, which showcases American as well as different foreign movies. Silver Spring is one of the major area of Montgomery County, the revitalization of Silver Spring has beckoned diversity of people wide variety of ideas. Thus, Silver Spring had a wide variety of culture. SLP02 7. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ANALYSIS SWOT Analysis : Strengths : * Location, centrally located * Well-trained employees with excellent styling, hair care skills * Customer focused business practice * Wide range of services * Low cost * A powerful strategy supported by competitively valuable skills and experience in key areas * A strong financial condition; ample financial resources to grow the business * Product innovation skills * Wide geographic coverage Weakness : LOOKS will cater to a diverse variety of people of different culture and races i. e. whites, African American, Native Americans, Asians and people of other communities and culture. The Social class which LOOKS will target will be Middle class, upper middle class, Lower upper and upper uppers. Psychographic Segmentation: ‘Lifestyle’ and ‘Style statement’ are one of the priorities of people of Silver Spring. LOOKS will target the audience who are straights, swingers and long hairs having different personality traits. LOOKS will personify the personality of its target audience, by giving a style to their living. 9. SERVICE DESCRIPTION Silver Spring organises lots of cultural festivals, film festivals, and musical events. So LOOKS will cater the need of style needed by the target audience during these occasions. LOOKS will provide a quality service so as to keep the customers satisfied. With the trained and specialized staff it will also be able to speedy service to the client. As people look for quality, convenience and speed. LOOKS will focus in making hard core loyals, through its customer service, quality and style. 10. BUSINESS MISSION LOOKS is committed to provide the best services to its customers, it will provide its customers best professional services in the field of Hair care and styling. With the changing environment, the company will acquire new trends and will upgrade its services to provide best services to its customers. 11. GENERAL OBJECTIVES or GOALS Financial: 1. To reach the breakeven point within two years of the business operations 2. Growth of 10% profits from the base year. Nonfinancial: 1. Expand the operations of business by including new hair care programs within five years. 2. To become one of the best hair care salon in Silver Spring 3. Attracting the customers from the areas near silver Spring 4. Providing best services all round the year. 5. Provide professional services in affordable price. SLP03 12. DISTRIBUTION, LOCATION amp; TIMING The primary base of any beauty hair salon is to provide basic hair cut and other hair styling. LOOKS will be one stop solution for all the hair care needs. LOOKS provides hair styling for the entire family. The services of LOOKS will include Haircuts, Formal Styling of hairs, Casual hair styles, coloring, highlighting, perms, deep conditioning treatment, hair care treatment, hair spas, relaxers, massage, hair extension. Service is offered on a walk in basis or by appointment. LOOKS will emphasize a customer-centric service where the customers needs are always the priority. Highlighting is one of the essential services that is demanded by the customers in silver Spring. Coifed hair is one of the famous dress code that is followed by many women at their workplace. Customers not only just look for getting their hairs highlighted, but also prefer the services as cut with waving and smoothing. The main focus of customers in today’s time is quality of service that is provided at the hair salon, they aspire quality services as work place appearance code is one the important aspects of people in Silver Spring. Colouring and highlighting of hairs helps is transforming or changing the look and appearance of the person. Hair straightening and smoothening is also one of the major services that is demanded by the customers. LOOKS will also follow the new trends of hair styling just as blowout styling. LOOKS will also provide therapies and spa treatment which will help in recovering the damage hairs, hair loss and thinning hair treatments. 13. VARIATIONS IN TARGET MARKET LOOKS will tailor its services so that it caters the needs and wants of local customer group as well as immediate neighbours of Silver Spring. People in Silver Spring are of different races and culture so the customers will have diffused preferences, the consumer preferences will be diverse. LOOKS will operate in Silver Spring and its surroundings and will cater all the local variations. It is a suburban area. With the connectivity with two major cities, Washington D. C and Biltmore, it will also target the people residing near Silver Spring. SLP04 14. INFORMATION NEEDS Information on segmentation and competition are essential. Marketing Segmentation is an effort which helps in increasing company’s precision marketing. LOOKS will practice Segment Marketing as it will help in creating large potential market, as LOOKS will provide its services at low cost, it will be able to attract customers and the low costing can help gaining higher margins in future as LOOKS will cater a large market. The main aim of LOOKS will be to create and retain customers, keeping in mind the tastes and preferences of the customers. LOOKS can also create a few fine toned services and can price them accordingly for a high class segment. 15. PERSONAL SELLING LOOKS will adopt Full Market coverage strategy, it will serve all customer groups with all the products they might need. The services and marketing will be designed in such a way that it will appeal the broadest number of buyers. It will aim to endow its services with a superior image in people’s mind. It will try and win price sensitive market by keeping low cost to the services provided. 16. TRAINING * Gap between management perception and service quality specification: This gap occurs when management correctly perceives the requirement of the client but it is not able to provide that service because of the specified performance chart. There are several guideline that a company has to follow. LOOKS will use the products of latest technology so as to serve its clients with the services and style needed. Gap between service quality specification and service delivery: This gap occurs when the personnel is not trained properly and is incapable to meet the standards. LOOKS will focus on training its stylists from few of the top styling professionals, so that LOOKS is able to deliver the specified service required by the client. * Gap between perceived service and expected service: This gap occurs when the customers misperceives the services that is to be provided by the company. LOOKS will minimize the gap between the perceived service and the expected service. It will cater to the expected needs of the clients of LOOKS. LOOKS will give importance to reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy so as provide the determined service quality. 17. INCENTIVES * Gap between customer expectation and management perception: This gap occurs when the management is not able to perceive correctly the requirement and wants of the customer. LOOKS will consult the clients to know their expected needs and wants. The stylists will be trained in the way, that they work in accordance with the expectation of the clients so as to reduce the gap between customer satisfaction and management perception. Gap between service delivery and external communications: This gap occurs when customer satisfaction are affected by statements made by company personnel. LOOKS will focus on meeting the requirement of the clients, the clients who are decisive about the style or the service needed by them will be consulted by our consulting professional who will specially focus on understanding the requirement of the client. 18. EVALUATION OF SELLING PERFORMANCE LOOKS is a customer centred organization. LOOKS has to differentiate its services from its competitors to emerge as the best Beauty Hair Salon in Silver Spring. LOOKS will provide high Performance Quality to its customers. It will provide its customers the style and services as per their specifications. LOOKS will focus on customer satisfaction; the services that will be provided by LOOKS will enable the customer to feel good. LOOKS will provide the adequate and demanded quality to its customers by consulting the customers, the stylist will provide the services as needed by the customer. LOOKS will earn a strong competitive advantage through Personnel Differentiation. LOOKS will train the employees by the best stylists to cater to its customers. The physical space of LOOKS will be another powerful image generator. 19. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES LOOKS will help women in balancing their lifestyle, taking care of their hairs. It will be a treat for women who have time. It will be one of the places where men and women can get pampered by the hair treatment, spas and other hair styling and hair care services. LOOKS position itself as â€Å"one-size-that -fits-all†, and â€Å"A mirror to your Image† 20. COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY The main objective of LOOKS is to build trust in women, once LOOKS is able to gain the trust then they tend to be loyal. Objectives of LOOKS: * Visual excitement environment * Fashion authority * Above average quality and value for money * Customer dedication * Providing unrevealed value to our customers in the quality of services provided by LOOKS * A commitment to putting customer first at all times. LOOKS will focus on building awareness, attracting traffic or eyeballs, turning first-time buyers into loyal repeat customers as it is the Holy Grail of marketing strategies. It will provide new innovative colors as well as style to their clients. As the customers in this industry have diffused preferences, the preferences of the clients will be considered and worked accordingly. The salon will focus on satisfying both Employees as well as customers because if the employees are happy they will keep the customers happy. A Fun to work environment will be adopted to add a spark in the working environment. 21. MEDIA LOOKS will follow the cheapest mode of advertising . i. e word of mouth as it will focus on customer satisfaction. Other modes of promotion will also be followed like advertising through banners and hoardings. LOOKS will position itself as ‘Mirror to your image’. * Newspaper : One page advertisement will be displayed in the leading news papers of Silver spring as Silver spring Gazette, and Mondotimes. It will help in targeting a greater audience as it covers large geographic area. * Front store Display: As these displays are visible by the pass by, it will help in attracting customers. * Banners: these displays will also help it attracting huge customer base. * Radio :Radio is also one of the most effective mode of promotion, In Silver spring there are huge number of radio stations that operate. It will also help in attracting huge customers as radio also targets huge geographical area. AM station like WACA, (1540 AM), W7OP (1500 AM), FM stations like WWDC (101. 1 FM), WCSP (90. 1 FM) * Pamphlets: To increase more awareness, printed pamphlets can be distributed near schools, shopping places, amusement parks. * Specialty advertising: In this LOOKS will advertise by few useful, low cost items bearing the company’s name and address, on few of the items advertising message will also be displayed. This will include ball pens, calendars, memo pads. Maintaining ongoing contact is essential for building relationships. It is the extension of engaging and focuses on keeping a customer. The objective is to increase the customer base, and retaining customers and engaging them on an ongoing basis results in increased product service opportunities and provides the opportunity to learn more about the customer, and forge closer relationships. 23. SALES PROMOTIONS LOOKS has to build effective communication strategy so as to capture maximum market. LOOKS has to work to develop an insight in people. LOOKS will be positioned in the mind of people as â€Å"one stop solution for hair care and styling†, one-size-that -fits-all†, and â€Å"A mirror to your Image†. LOOKS has to follow â€Å"learn-feel-do† model for determining its communication objective as the target audience has high involvement with a service provided to have differentiation. 24. ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS EFFECTIVENESS Competition and Buying patterns of people of Silver Spring LOOKS competitors include: 1. Traditional Barbers: 2. Franchised Quick Salons 3. Independent Salons Ebony Barbers Unisex amp; Fenton Barber Shop are the main competitors of LOOKS. The buying patterns of men and women are quite different. Men are more sensitive towards pricing and convenience. Women are concerned and conscious with their styles and trends that are being followed. Monitoring needs to be carried out effectively, and that the feedback gained is useful and appropriate, it is also imperative that feedback is considered in any future decision-making SLP05 25. OVERALL COSTS The average price that we will charge for the styling of hairs will be approximately $100. The fixed cost will be approximately $100,000 per year including the equipments and the variable cost will be approximately $25 which will mainly include the electricity expenses, employee cost and other miscellaneous cost. Calculating the break even point: BEP = [FC ? (P – UVC)] BEPQuantity = [$100,000 ? ($100 – $25)] = 1333 customers BEPRevenue = 1333 customers ? $100 = $133300 The above figures are tentative and subject to change with the market conditions and demand. LOOKS will follow super value strategy, it will provide high quality of service in low price, so as to attract maximum customers. LOOKS initial focus is to attract maximum customers. It will follow Market penetration pricing, this will allow LOOKS to win the largest market share. New and quality product range of the hair care products will also be kept at the salon as many people prefer these for home use as well and it will turn out to be one of the channels for sale for high premium brand products. 27. TEMPORARY PRICE PROMOTIONS A new style of services will be provide to the client, all their requirements will be considered so as to provide them with the best result, the salon will give a total new look to the client keeping in mind the texture and the nature of his hair using best products and giving best services. The salon will follow distinctive strategy for positioning. The price will be on a lower end, as main motive of LOOKS is to give customers the value for the product and their satisfaction, as Customer value and customer satisfaction are very important for any company or a brand to sustain in the market and capture the market share. LOOKS will be focusing on price-quality effect . i. e. providing high degree of quality product. 28. PROFITS LOOKS will also keep premium  hair care products  for sale as they are one of the important revenue generator, they help in providing 5% to 40% of revenue. These professional quality supplies will include shampoos, conditioners, hair colors, reconstructions, brushes, combs, and other styling aids. 29. LEARNING Attract The critical first step of the customer experience is to attract customers to LOOKS. After attracting, it then need to engage customers to obtain their interest and participation. Engage The key factors at this stage are Convenience combined with interesting and innovative services. Learn Building up a knowledge database on each customer – is an important aspect that needs to be done at LOOKS as it can create value for the customer and help build the brand-customer relationship. Relate By leveraging the multidimensional data gathered from ongoing interactions with individual customers, LOOKS can create value by providing a personalized experience. Customization and good Customer Care help to erect switching barriers and encourages customers to return and repeat the cycle. LOOKS has to focus on generating high customer loyalty by delivering high customer value by designing superior value proposition backed by superior value delivery system. LOOKS success depends on the way it creates and deliver the value which is superior than its competitors, which is develops following capabilities : * Understanding customer value * Creating customer value * Delivering customer value * Capturing customer value * Sustaining customer value LOOKS will focus in making their customers their ‘True Friends’ i. e. it will bbuilding relationships with the right customers Conclusion: The marketing strategy will seek to first create customer awareness regarding the services offered, then develop the customer base, and finally work toward building customer loyalty and referrals. The message that LOOKS will seek to communicate is that the entire family can be served quickly, professionally, with superior customer service at reasonable rates. The message will be communicated through various methods. The first is in-store and storefront displays. This will be a convenient method to attract people that walk past LOOKSs store front. The other method of communication is advertisements in two local newspapers.

Uniforms Cannot Control School Violence Essays - Uniforms

Uniforms Cannot Control School Violence Uniforms Cannot Control Violence Bomb threats, shootings, fist fights and even name calling: all of these are taking place in our schools today. School boards around the country are searching for the cause in a desperate attempt to end the school violence. Some say forcing the students to wear uniforms will do the trick. I do not think wearing uniforms will lessen school violence any more than it will win a fashion contest. Many students express who they are through the way they dress. For example, if a teenager wants to show the world that he loves Jesus, then he or she might wear a T-shirt that states a positive view on the subject. Similarly, a student might want to wear green colored clothing to celebrate St. Patrick's day. School uniforms would destroy both of these instances of freedom and even more. Just as it is with every group of people, there is going to be a few folks who strive to be noticed my others. If uniforms are enforced, the students can no longer express themselves through their clothes. Therefore, they will find new ways to let their true feelings shine through. Piercings, weird hair and dramatic make-up will become more popular. That would result in our schools consisting of stranger looking people than before. The establishment of school uniforms will not affect the amount of school violence. Clothing is not the problem. Studies have shown that the cause for violence in the schools starts at home between a student and his or her family. Teenagers who have been neglected or mistreated by their parents tend to be the ones who commit violent acts against their teachers and schoolmates. I feel that the use of uniforms will strip the student body of its individuality and cause negative creativity. Students will rebel and be uncooperative in class, thus causing more on-campus violence. We need to focus on developing a better home life before we try to change the things that it effects. In doing so, that would make all the schools around the country a safer and more desirable place to learn. Social Issues

Making Friends Essays - Friendship, Acceptance, Personality Type

Making Friends Essays - Friendship, Acceptance, Personality Type Making Friends The process of making a friend is a very unique one. It depends on the person one is trying to become friends with, it depends on one's gender, it depends on one's age, but most importantly it depends one's personality. Every individual is different and how they make friends differs just as greatly. The way I make friends depends heavily on my personality. As an introverted person, I tend to first meet potential friends through what I call forced association. After the initial meeting, I evaluate them and determine whether or not I think they should be my friend. Bonding, specifically male bonding, follows and acceptance is the final stage. Before I can delve into the sometimes mysterious process of becoming friends with someone, I have to divulge some personal information. I am a great believer in personality typing: the theory that a great majority of people fall into one personality type or another. A complete analysis of my personality is not within the scope of this essay, but suffice it to say that I am very introverted. This does not mean I am anti-social, it merely means that new and non-routine interaction with others taxes my energy. The process of making a new friend is by definition a new and non-routine interaction, therefore it is quite difficult for me to initiate the process. This is where the concept of forced interaction comes in. By forced interaction, I mean a situation where another person and I are placed in an environment where we have no choice but to interact with each other. The largest and most important type of forced interaction for me is school, and more specifically, classes. It is impossible to be completely separate from other students in a class. Consequently, I met all my best friends in school (of course, it was a place that I spent most of my time so it is not a big surprise). Another type of forced interaction comes when you meet a friend of one of your friends. It would be extremely rude to not interact with someone that your friend considered to be friend. That is the way that I met a very close friend of mine and one who I will use as an example of my friend-making process throughout this essay. His name is Andres and I originally met him through another friend of mine, Josh. We were all going to the same high school next year (more forced association), so it was only natural for Josh to try to have us all become friends. But I was not friends with Andres when I first met him. I had to figure out who he was before that could happen. Evaluation has always been very important to me. I constantly evaluate and re-evaluate myself, my friends, my schoolwork, and so forth, almost to the point of obsession. I am ruthlessly self- critical and it is only natural that this same criticism would extend to those I consider my friends. Before I can become friends with someone, I have to determine whether or not I want to be friends with them. I have been told that this is an extremely arrogant way of conducting relationships, but I find any other way to be lacking. If one's own needs in a relationship are not met then it is impossible for them to fulfill other's. The first step in evaluation is the establishment of common ground. It is very unlikely that I will become even casual friends with someone who I have nothing in common with. The more important to me the commonality is, the more likely I will desire to become close friends with someone. One of the first things I look for is intelligence. Part of my personality is the love of intelligence, which means: doing things well in varying circumstances. A very important part of a friendship for me is intellectual stimulation. If it is missing, the friendship will invariably begin to wane. So intelligence and knowledge are two things I look for almost immediately in a new acquaintance. Andres possesses both of these qualities and he possesses them in areas that we both find interesting. Both of us have an aptitude for the sciences. This contributed greatly to me finding him worthy to be my friend. But knowledge and skills alone make a person boring, so I also look for common personality traits. A love of humor is also necessary, as is a low degree of self-monitoring: the degree to which people change to match their surroundings. I am extremely low in that area

Did Globalization lead to the current Economic Crisis Essay

Did Globalization lead to the current Economic Crisis - Essay Example Although many economists were predicting the crash, their predictions did not ignite any concern until it had happened. The recession has led to many assertions and analyses on the causes and events leading up to it. There has been a reevaluation of economic and financial models to ascertain the weaknesses in the system that were over looked. Similar to the stock bubble and dollar bubble, the financial bubble burst and took the global economy with it. The events that caused this financial bubble need to be analyzed. Many experts are of the view that globalization of financial and labor markets have led to the crash, while many argue that the lack of savings and investment in the real sector caught up with the financial market. This report will analyze all these views and aims to determine the effects of globalization on macroeconomic variables. The causes of the great recession The most common perception about the recession is that the financial crisis is responsible for it. Irrespon sible banking, lack of regulation, displaced optimism and a high debt burden led to the collapse of the US financial markets resulting in ripples all over the world due to the US being the biggest economy in the world. However, these perceptions form a part of the picture but are not the underlying cause of the recession. Many economists including Alan Greenspan did not anticipate this meltdown and the fall in real estate prices was considered a minor bump in the road. Economists were focused on the integration of the financial market and the innovativeness and complexity of new financial instruments. They were excited with the increased investment and spending and the only issue of concern was the rising current account deficit. Households in the US were riding a consumption boom based entirely on credit; household spending was based entirely on credit cards. Due to the housing boom and rising asset prices, Americans felt rich, they consumed more Chinese imports and bought more hou ses on mortgage. Interest rates were low and banks had excess liquidity to lend to subprime borrowers through collateral debt obligations. For policy makers and analysts the recession was a shock; however an analysis of various factors leads to the conclusion that the recession was imminent. According to Bezemer (2009), the ignorance about the recession stems from the use of equilibrium models in macroeconomic policy making and forecasting. He advocates the use of accounting models to explain macroeconomic flows. The use of the flow of funds model, that takes into account debt, which equilibrium models ignore, is necessary to identify the effects of rising asset prices. The recession, according to him and many other experts, is the result of rising asset prices and thus greater investment in financial assets than in the real sector. The illusion of wealth that was created by the rising financial asset prices, that include real estate and insurance as well, caused the private sector to borrow more against their assets. This resulted in consumption driven by increased asset prices rather than wages and incomes. This is proven by the fact that the share of wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP dropped from 49% to 46% from the year 2001 to 2007. The resulting increase in debt and its effect was not perceived by prominent economists. The growth in debt relative to growth in GDP was unsustainable and thus resulted in the bursting of the financial bubble. According to the flow of funds view, any surplus of wealth that households own will be

Building Performance Management through Employee Participation Essay

Building Performance Management through Employee Participation - Essay Example Employee participation is a significant component of motivating them which is also necessary for both their growth and that of the organization. By virtue of their positions, employees have unique and relevant performance information that may not be obvious to those conducting the performance management process (Mayer & Gavin 44). As evidenced by the JMI case, most employees feel unsatisfied with feedback and goal setting processes used by the management. They tend to view it like a procedure manufactured elsewhere and imposed on them. Contrarily, their active participation in the process provides them with a voice in the system, developing a sense of belonging and ownership over the process (Mayer & Gavin 46). Greater employee participation will create an environment of employee support and cooperation. This will encourage developing of counseling and coaching relationships, reducing defensive tendencies and tension and making the results more acceptable to the employees (Mayer & Ga vin 46). Employees provide input on the required standards on which their performance will be based (Cardy & Dobbins 12). It is, therefore, vital to formulate standards that evaluate essential responsibilities and duties by balancing the process, individual and group participation and the outcome. Employees can have a say by contributing their suggestions on the types of rating systems that give an actual representation of their responsibilities and duties (Cardy & Dobbins 12). Studies have indicated that self evaluation increases the participation of employees while enhancing overall satisfaction when used for the purposes of development (Cardy & Dobbins 19). Employees can carry out their own evaluation by completing their own performance evaluation forms prior to the official evaluation interview (Cardy & Dobbins 12). Although it is evident that managerial and employee ratings may not always be in agreement, it is essential for both groups to remember that the process does not see k absolute agreement. Rather, it should be viewed as a process aimed at obtaining consensus from the two teams over time (Mayer & Gavin 54). As with the JMI case, the consultant interviewed the management and used the employee participation technique to solicit feedback from the organization. With this feedback, they were able to identify the problems the employees had with the performance manage system in use. They generated the employees’ support through their participation to formulate a new and acceptable system. Basing on the JMI example, performance management systems can be improved by making them more sensitive to the employees’ issues. This can be achieved through increased privacy and confidentiality; according employees the management’s undivided attention and setting time to discuss issues. Those charged with carrying out the process need to be prepared prior to the exercise (Muchinsky 21). An emphasis is also placed on performance counseling. Team l eaders are encouraged to give individual employees feedback in confidence on their job performance. This may give rise to various potential benefits such as motivating them to be more productive (Muchinsky 34). Those given performance evaluation results that may be below their expectations will also accept them since

Performing well academically and having a social life Essay

Performing well academically and having a social life - Essay Example â€Å"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.† Being a 16 years old sophomore I believe I have faced enough competition in the early academic years. Since my childhood, I’ve been a shy, reserved and quiet person. I don’t interact with people much due to my hesitation while talking to new people. I feel uncomfortable when I am surrounded by a group of individuals and I’ve always tried to stay out of group discussions. These natural personality constraints led me to the isolation from my social circle. I have had a few friends and even their knowledge was limited about my problems, likes, dislikes and issues. These personality traits seem normal and unproblematic to many people. However, I personally feel that these were the factors that affected my academic performance the most. I never wished to take a position in the class in order to avoid prominence and attention from others. I did not take part in class discussions as I felt awkward and uncomfortable speaking in front of all students and the teacher. I kept myself from asking question even if I had some confusion in my mind regarding the topic being taught by the teacher. When I was a kid, I used to avoid interactions with other kids. I kept myself isolated in the parks, play grounds and even in the school. I used to keep my feelings secret and ideas personal. All these traits resulted in inner conflicts arising in me. I felt irritated by the thought that people avoid talking to me. I felt aggressive and angry when people talked to each other and did not involve me in their conversations. Somehow these were the reactions of my responses to them when they started a conversation or tried talking to me which I avoided most of the times. My parents noticed these problems and were constantly making efforts to make me friendly, confident and sociable. At first I found the lectures of my parents and elder siblings completely meaningless. I was extremely disheartened by the way people ignored me while talking to each other. This was the most difficult phase of my life. I lost my hopes of getting good grades, having friends and making my way out of the isolation that I created in the past years. However, the constant struggles of my parents motivated me to talk to them about my issues. I started discussing my experiences, daily activities and secrets with them. Their friendliness, affection and loving nature made me confident enough to share everything with them. The main problem then, was to change myself in front of others. I felt comfortable with my parents but when it came to other people I still felt the same hesitation and shyness. I started motivating myself to take part in the conversations. I started writing a diary of my day to day activities in order to blow out the negative feelings. I used to feel relaxed after writing the diary. I made a plan to encourage myself on speaking in crowds. Firstly, I started asking questions during the class lectures when I found anything confusing. I started taking part in the classroom discussions and academic debates which greatly helped me to enhance my social skills. My class fellows started discussing their academic and other issues with me which again was considered as an encouraging gesture by me. The first effect of this step was a positive apparent impact on my

Lower And Higher Cognitive Processes

Lower And Higher Cognitive Processes In cognitive psychology, lower and higher cognitive processes are cognitive processes that governs the way different abilities, for example, perception; attention; thinking; problem solving, are being used. However, each of the processes has their unique characteristics when applying the abilities. Lower cognitive process occurs in an automated manner with lower level of consciousness while higher cognitive process exercises mental activities voluntary with controlled awareness. Nevertheless, this essay aspires to investigate the differences of each process through the introspection and examples in order to help us understand how different each process can be. The Use of Lower and Higher Cognitive Processes in Looking At Experiences Our brain lays two very important processes that govern different abilities, the higher and lower cognitive processes, in fact both processes have different characteristics that can be explicitly observed, while higher cognitive process have a more general, non-automatic, mediated memory, controlled awareness and constructive thinking characteristic, whereas, lower cognitive process a more specific, involuntary automated and unconscious characteristic, thus, lower cognitive processes are instructed and run by higher cognitive processes, (Kalyuga, 2009; Fernyhough, 1996). Nevertheless Stuart-Hamilton (1995) analysed that both lower and higher cognitive processes are linked processes as lower cognitive process is a simple and basic process which governs basics task, for example, pattern recognition, thus, with the incorporated information from the lower cognitive process, the higher cognitive process is in charge of the collection of the information. At the same time, there are differe nt levels of processes to process the received stimuli from the variety of analysing of sensory aspects to semantic and theoretical processing (Eysenck, 1990). In my past twenty-one years, I have experienced quite a number of events which are unforgettable while some were memorable and some were regrets and if there is a chance to turn the clock back to my young age, I will definitely change how I think and how I manage things. While advice was given from peers and matured people around me, I will end up deciding what I want the most and ignore what they have said when I was younger. Nevertheless, there were times where I will look into these experiences and ask myself questions like why do I want to do that and how did I manage to do it. When I was in primary school, I hate to do assignments so almost everyday after school, I will hide my assignments somewhere, places where it cannot be seen, for example, under my bed, behind the cardboard or mixing them with other books. When my mum comes back from work, I will usually say that there were no assignments for the day and I will be allowed to play at the playground or with my toys. The follo wing day, I will tell my teacher that I have forgotten to bring my assignments in order to get away and if the teacher asked again about the assignments, my answer will often be, I loss it and I cant find it anywhere, but the fact is, it is hidden somewhere. However, every half a year, my parents will receive a phone call from my teacher saying that I have not been hand up my assignments for the past few months and my mum will start searching my room. At my surprise, she is able to find most of the books and worksheets and I will be forced to finish all of them in one or two nights. This experience became a continuous cycle for few years of my primary school days. Looking back at my lower cognitive process during my experience, what I want to do is just purely playing and because of that reason, I can even hid and lie to my teachers and parents about it so that I am free from any assignments. I presume that my brain has a certain perception about assignments which causes me to run away from it and what I want is just to play and enjoy myself. According to Margaret (2005), the utilization of perception is through receiving a stimuli by a persons senses while prior knowledge is retrieved to facilitate interpretation. Thus, perception involved physical items where beliefs and concepts are involved about the items and the outlines are being maintained by memory (Hamlyn 1994). Nonetheless, the features of both the stimuli and the prior knowledge are combined by perception (Margaret, 2005). Symbolic activity is also a classification of percetion as a symbol represents something other than itself, in my case, assignments symbolises boredom (Sekular Blake, 1994). Perception is an active process as the perceiver needs to execute certain actions to perceive with the behaviour being steered by the process which motivates a higher level of activity, for example, when I receive my assignments, I will either choose to do it or hid it somewhere and not do it (Sekular Blake, 1994). This gave me an idea of why I will dislike studying so much and even though my parents know about what happened numerous times, I will still continue to do hide my assignments and run away from it. I start to look into the higher cognitive process about how it think during my experience for example, why will I choose to hid my assignments and what made me to have this thought in my mind, why do I hate studying and doing assignments so much and enjoy playing much more, why did I not think that my teacher will call my parents to inform them about the situation. According to Ruggiero (1998), thinking is engaging our minds whilst being in charge of its activity and it is a process that helps us to find an answer to a question, to come to a conclusion and to learn, however, consciousness is not often required to appear during the process of thinking. Making decisions and forming beliefs are part of the thinking where it helps us to eliminate our uncertainties while decision making helps us to reach our goals and our beliefs will determine the actions that are beneficial for us to reach the goal as belief allow us to believe very robustly about something which we determine that it is the truth (Baron, 2008). So for my experience, my belief has caused me to believe that assignments are boring and hiding it was the action that beneficial in order to escape from it. Resistance to change and stereotyping are two things that are in the thinking processes which are very subtle. According to Ruggiero (1998), resistance to change tends to ignore new concepts or procedures in seeing and doing things even before testing them fairly, thus, one of the reasons is laziness. Indeed, advice and even punishments were given to me but because of laziness in me, I ignored and continued my old ways. Whereas for stereotyping, generalization of concepts, locations and people, it creates a good environment for presorted, predetermined, prejudged ideas as each has a compartment for storage with no judgment being placed on (Ruggiero, 1998). Maybe my brain has already stereotyped assignments as boring when I was in school which made it hard to change my way of thinking. Due to my laziness, I end up scoring very badly for my Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and I got into Normal Technical. When I was holding on to my result slip, I was very upset, angry with myself and I really regretted for not studying hard. My family will regularly have lunch with my parents friends on Sundays and I will naturally focus my attention on what they talking about and also listening and playing with the other children. However, they will often talk about their childrens study and their results, so when I hear anything about study I will fully focus on what they were saying while ignoring others. And when it was about the PSLE and what school their child got in, I felt very embarrass, I felt that I let my parents down and I caused them to feel embarrass when they talk about me so I will walk away and do something else. During this period, I loss my confidence is doing things and I had a low self-esteem which caused me to think that I am not as smart as anyone a round me. But as the time goes by and I grew older, I start to learn to cope with my own thoughts and not judging myself on who I am according to how smart I am academically and understanding that I am good with other things. I was even determined to do my O levels and send overseas for two years to complete United Kingdoms General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and I scored fairly well. I was surprise on how I can divide my attention to focused to what the adults were talking while I play with other kids and when I hear about PSLE results, I am able to focus on what the adults have to say and unconsciously ignoring any other messages around the environment. I believe that it is caused by the sensitivity level about the topic which causes the division of my attention and what I choose to focus on. According to Johnson and Proctor (2004), the function of attention helps us to be aware and conscious towards presented messages or objects and also choosing the actions according to the messages or objects. According to Margaret (2005), divided attention is one of the processes of attention which helped us react appropriately to each thing while paying attention concurrently to a few things at the same time, for example, watching television and understanding what is going on while having dinner and knowing what food it is while putting into the mouth. Hence, divided attent ion uses the split-span technique which breaks two full messages into two short messages that the memory span can register the information without rehearsing into the individual ears (Johnson Proctor, 2004). While selective attention is another process which overlooks the other messages while focusing on just one message and selective attention apply dichotic listening, a technique which the individual side of the ear receive two different type of messages (Johnson Proctor, 2004). Through reading these, it made me understand how I can focus on a few conversations at the same time and suddenly when the topic is on studies, I will focus on that conversation while ignoring the others. I look at the higher cognitive process in my experience, I tried to solve the problem from being unable to study and having low confidence to picking up myself and trying hard to study to scored during the GCSE. According Bransford and Stein (1993), the problem solving process has been described as a cycle that contains different phases but it is not required to be arranged in sequence, the problem solver must; 1) discover and be aware of the problem; 2) mentally classify the problem; 3) come out with a solution idea; 4) information rearranging of the problem; 5) solve the problem through designation of information though the psychological and the physical; 6) keep close observation of the process; 7) check for accuracy of the solution that is brought up. There are two different classification of problems; well-defined and ill-defined (Davidson and Sternberg, 2003). Well-defined problems are problems that provide a distinct direction towards finding the solution for is one that is ba sed on the given information, for example, calculating the price for each person from a receipt with a friend while the amount is stated (Davidson and Sternberg, 2003). However, ill-defined problems are problems that does not provides a distinct direction towards finding the solution and in order to make ill-defined problems observable, significant work of gather of information is need, hence, it is possible to generate a number of correct solutions from the generation of solutions by the ill-defined whereas well-defined problems can only generate one solution (Davidson and Sternberg, 2003). In my experience, learning how to overcome my emotional thoughts and not judging myself, are ill-defined problems that I had to find a solution to them in order for me to start a fresh. Success problem solving requires one to be well-versed in the field of study of the particular subject or issue as well as being a competent thinker, however having only prior knowledge does not ensure that the s olution will be found as the answers are usually unfamiliar and foreign to the problem solver, whereas thinking is required, in partnership with the prior knowledge, to help one to apply the known knowledge to the context of the problem (Ruggiero, 1998). Indeed, I gain success in starting fresh as a new person after I have grown older as I am able to think deeper and better and combine what I have learnt to solve the problem of me judging myself according to my academic level. In conclusion, the lower and higher cognitive process are two different cognitive processes which are linked processes that governs different things which helps us in daily activity like, thinking, perception, attention and problem solving. Through my introspection, I realised that my attention and perception which are part of the lower cognitive process, are both were exercised automatically and unconsciously occurring. However, when I looked into the higher cognitive process, I am required to exercise concrete thinking in order to come out with solutions to solve my problems and the think for ways to run away from my assignments as solutions and ideas will necessitate mental activity.

Avant-Garde fashion history

Context Page Introduction 2 History of avian-garden 2-3 Avian-garden in fashion history 3 Contemporary fashion and avian-garden 3 Discussion of Suzan Hens' autumn/ winter collection 4 Discussion of Assistant Louse's 2011 autumn/winter collections-5 Discussion of Black Coffee's 2013 winter collection 5-6 Discussion of Luda Inglenooks 2012 autumn/winter collection 6-7 Discussion of Taboo Machete's 2012 collection 7 Conclusion 7-8 List of Illustrations 9-13 List of References 14-15 What is avian-garden and how does it fit into South African contemporary fashion design?In order for one to determine if you are for or against avian-garden, and pacifically in relations to South African avian-garden, one must first define avian- garden and explore the origin and history of the movement. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Art, avian-garden is defined as â€Å"a term originally used to describe the foremost part of an army advancing into battle (also called vanguard) and now applied to a g roup, particularly of artist, that considers itself innovative and ahead of the majority' (Chillers, 2004:42).Avian-garden therefore refers to designs that are new, innovative and cutting edge. South African avian-garden is presently a very small part of the local fashion industry, UT it is a developing fashion trend with great potential. South African avian-garden designers are constantly pushing the envelope in order to stretch the minds of the consumers and other designers. This carries great potential for the South African fashion industry as well as the economy, for if the designers succeed to be truly avian-garden, it is bound to have a positive outcome.I am therefore arguing for the existence and development of South African avian-garden and will be discussing Suzan Hens' 2011 autumn/winter range, die form, Assistant Louis 2011 autumn/ winter range, Black Coffee's 2013 winter range, WREATHE, Luda Inglenook' 2012 autumn/winter range, Anamosa, as well as Taboo Machete's 2012 ra nge, Kabob EAI Balboa. Avian-garden first made its appearance in art during die late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. A small group of artist decided to break away from the rules that bound artist into creating only an established style of art.They actively attacked the institution of art in order to separate and detach themselves from it, but also to reincorporate themselves and their art into life (Berger, 1984: xvii). The first avian- garden art appeared is the Italian Futurism, French Cubism and German Expressionism movements. These movements were so different due to their fundamentally new aspirations and origins in relation between the artist and the world as well as the subject and the object. Dadaism, Surrealism and Constructivism followed soon after, continuing in these aspirations (Cabooses, 1971 : 53).During the late twentieth century, the fashion century came to an end and postposition came into being. This new fashion movement is expressed in the reversal of the relationship between the fashion designer and follower. Since the ass's, fashion is no longer initiated by the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie and then hefted down to the general public, but now introduced by the general publics street style where after it moves into the salons of haute couture where it is adapted and mimicked (Vine, 2005: 63).In the ass's, fashion designers started implementing the use of non-fashionable elements to create the avian-garden fashion beyond fashion. Western Paris-based fashion designs and ideas were shattered and the idea of dressing oneself as a ‘man', Woman' or ‘lady became an out of date concept. The avian-garden fashion trend aimed to expose the old function of clothes that classified people into groups of age, gender and status (Geeky, 2012:103). Furthermore, avian- garden designers aimed to shock the public and not to create beautiful and luxurious clothing (Vine, 2005: 64).Today, contemporary civilization is so desensitizing to norms and values that designers struggle to succeed in using the shock treatment as a way to draw attention to their work. It is also very difficult for designers to create totally new designs, for almost everything has been done before. Due to this, as a designer, avian-garden is such a difficult movement to be apart of. South African designers therefore also tend not to be a part of the avian-garden movement, but to follow the European trends and use it as part of their design inspiration.A few South African designers has accepted the challenge of designing avian-garden garments, but are they really a match for the famous and established avian-garden designers or are they simply following in the footsteps of other avian-garden designers? In case study 1, Suzan Hens' 2011 autumn/ winter range is depicted. This range's name is â€Å"die form†, because she drew her inspiration from the anatomy of the human body (Hens, 2011). When one looks at the images, one can see that in some instances, continues lines are used to depict the flow and natural rhythm of the human body.Her aim was to reveal the inside of the body on the exterior of a garment, thus creating an exoskeleton (Hens, 2011). This is evident in every design due to the different techniques that she implemented. In this collection one can also see that the muscular and skeletal systems are taken and distorted and warped to create remarkable designs. The fracture shapes in the garments, also contributes to an anatomical silhouette. Suzan describes her collection and says â€Å"it is about inner symbolism, looking at our inner physiology and taking it outside which in turn represents the unveiling of our hidden psyche† (Hens, 2011).Suzan Hens is one of South Africans leading avian-garden fashion designers, but does her designs live up to the standards and definition of true avian-garden design? Although her range has a very interesting concept, and forms such an excellent collection, it is not truly avian-garden, for it has been done before. In 2010, Gucci had a range inspired by x-rays and the same year Jean Paul Guiltier launched his creation as part of the fall collection, inspired by exploring the concept of wearing narrower as outerwear Goanna, 2010).This proves that although her designs might have been lassie as avian-garden, it is not truly innovative. She did thus also not set a trend, but followed the trendsetters. In case study 2, one can see Assistant Louse's 2011 autumn/winter collection. In this collection, he uses different layers of fabric to represent an exploration of self- expression in the context of social, sexual and traditional cultures. At the same time it also comments on our perception of an African aesthetic (Melange, 2011).Assistant was inspired by the way that different cultures wrapped their cloths, especially the Mass' and Indian cultures as well as the ancient Greeks (Mulberry: 2011). He also explored with African aesthetics in his coll ection, which can be seen in the beaded necklines. His collaboration of different cultures' way of wrapping their clothing, led to a balance of colonial and nomadic styles. In this collection, a diverse range of high-wasted peg-leg trousers can be seen along with harem pants and pleated shoulder shawls.Loose fabrics are also used to create these different kinds of wraps and loose silhouettes. The warm and earthy colors, such as mud-grey, brown, blue, red and burnt orange, also refer back to African aesthetics. These colors bring the collection and theme to life. Colorful belts that are wrapped and folded over loose vests as well as over-sized neck pieces are also some of the accessories and styling that contributes to the feel of the overall range (Mulberry, 2011).Assistant Low is viewed as one of South Africans up and coming avian-garden designers, but these designs can not be classified as truly avian-garden. The use of fabrics, such as t-shirt fabric, and the combination of cloth ing items might be a new addition to traditional culture's wrapping cloths or way of styling, but that does not make it avian-garden. As soon as a designer uses another culture's clothing as inspiration, the ND product is likely not to be avian-garden, for it has mostly been done before.The third case study is Black Coffee's 2013 winter range, WREATHE. This range entwines together contemporary engineering and fabrics with classic and feminine silhouettes. The textures that is clearly visible and one of the key elements of this collection, is created by braiding industrial felt and the layering of mesh panels. In this collection, Black Coffee experimented with the sculptural process of carving, where the shape is exposed within and not constructed by the foundational material (Black Coffee, 2012).This also served as their inspiration for the range. With this collection, Black Coffee hoped to create a ‘collection that captivates by precision and seduces through romantic imaginat ion' (Black Coffee, 2012). This collection uses a very soft and feminine color palette in order to convey the romantic feel and to highlight the classic silhouettes. It also uses the classic clothing elements such as high-wasted pants, coats and dresses but change them in such a way that they appear as innovative garments.In 2009, Given launched a spring range with a dress that appears to be very similar to some of Black Coffee's 2013 winter designs (Style, 2012). Although that is the case, Black Coffee can still be viewed as an avian-garden designer, for it creates truly innovative designs that are beautiful and functional at the same time. In case study 4, Luda Inglenooks 2012 autumn/winter range, Anamosa, are depicted. His inspiration for the designs is traditional Xhosa bodywork, craft, symbolism and colors.He uses these in knitwear made of mohair and merino wool in order for mammograms, Xhosa initiates, to wear it after they have gone through the initiation process (Inglenook, 2012). This knitwear depicts his cultural aesthetics and is very practical at the same time. AAA of his designs is contemporary and yet culturally applicable and brings the Xhosa aesthetics to any outfit (Design Indaba, 2013). One can clearly see the use of the Xhosa patterns and the bodywork inspiration in the Jersey designs. They are also colorful, true to the Xhosa traditional colors.Furthermore, Luda has succeeded in creating garments that is formal enough for the mammograms to wear, for they traditionally have to wear formal clothing for up to six months after the initiation process, to symbolize their newly found manhood Inglenook, 2012). This Jersey-knitwear does not seem to be avian-garden design, but no knitwear has been made using Xhosa patterns and bodywork as inspiration before. If one looks at the definition of avian-garden, stating that a design should be innovative to be classified as avian-garden design, then Luda's Anamosa range can be classified as avian-garden des ign.Case study 5 depicts Taboo Machete's 2012 range, Kabob EAI Balboa, meaning blanket of the prestige (Design Indaba, 2013). Taboo uses Bassist blankets to create stunning coats and handbags. The handbags are made out of the blanket scraps, in order to eliminate as much waste as possible. By up-cycling the blankets, Taboo is also contributing to a â€Å"greener† society (Macbeth, 2013). Traditional Sotto patterns can be seen in the coats, as they are traditionally on Bassist blankets.These blanket coats can certainly be classified as avian-garden, for it is cutting edge, and has not been done before. There is currently a blanket trend amongst males, but none that include fashioning clothing out of blankets. The trend merely includes males draping blankets with fashionable patterns around their neck and shoulders, almost like an over-sized scarf (Bogart, 2013). Contemporary South African fashion does not really include avian-garden fashion designs. Most trends are simply copi ed from European fashion trends, for we are a season behind.Therefore South Africa has a very small, yet developing avian-garden fashion movement seen in the designs of fashion designers such as Suzan Hens, Assistant Low, Black Coffee, Luda Inglenook and Taboo Macbeth. These designers' works would most likely not be classified as avian-garden by famous European designers, but from a South African point of view, they would qualify. Just like the small group of artists that broke away from the bounding rules of revises established art styles, our small South African group of designers is attempting avian-garden design.They may not be the leaders of the pack, but they are certainly contending and attacking the system of following European trends. Although I have now seen that South African avian-garden is really limited and almost none existing, I am still arguing for the development of South African fashion design. I believe that the success of being truly avian-garden will lead to ex posure and publicity for the country, which in turn will lead to a positive economic outcome. 2003 words List of Illustrations Case Study 1: Suzan Hens Suzan Hens, Die Form, Audiometer 2011.

Engage In Personal Development With CYP Essay

Unit 3: Engage in Personal Development in Health, Social Care or Children’s and Young People’s settings 1: Understand what is required for competence in own work role 1.1 Describe the duties and responsibilities of own work role. As a Teaching Assistant, I have many different roles and responsibilities which mainly involve around holding paramount the welfare and safety of children and young people, their progress, development and well-being. It is my responsibility as an employee to follow the codes of practice and ensure that I continue to update my training requirements and techniques. Staff must uphold policies, procedures, rules and work alongside the teacher and other professionals to assist in preparation, information sharing and delivery of sessions, meetings, resources, information and progress. It is also important as a TA to build trusting professional relationships with children, young people and their families/guardians as well as colleagues and other agencies involved, whilst still ensuring to follow confidentiality and data protection policies. My Key Responsibilities are to work under the guidance of teaching staff/SLT and within an agreed system of supervision, to implement agreed work programmes with individuals/groups, in or out of the classroom. This could include those requiring detailed and specialist knowledge in particular areas and will involve assisting the teacher/instructor in the whole planning cycle and the management/preparation of resources. Level 3 TA’s may also supervise whole classes occasionally during the short-term absence of teachers. (3 days maximum per absence). The primary focus is to maintain a productive, well-structured working atmosphere with students being fully engaged and on task. In providing cover supervision, Teaching Assistants will need to respond to questions and generally assist pupils to undertake set activities. Specific Duties and Responsibilities Pupil Support To support pupils development and promote independence in a safe, secure, challenging environment employing strategies to recognise and reward achievement of self-reliance To support the learning of individuals and groups of pupils as identified through curriculum planning and to act as a role model, having high expectations of behaviour, effort and attainment To  focus on individual pupils as directed or when needs dictates To work with other staff to develop and implement the IEBP’s and the subsequent monitoring To encourage pupils to interact and work co-operatively with each other and adults. To observe, record and support the development and progress of pupils in order to identify individual needs and difficulties and to feed back to pupils in relation to their progress and achievement To promote the inclusion and acceptance of all pupils within the classroom To meet the social, emotional, behavioural and learning needs of the pupil according to a pupil’s Individ ual Education/Behaviour Plan whilst encouraging independence wherever possible. To monitor pupil’s attendance and behaviour To promote and facilitate learning To support preparation of lessons/tasks/activities To use data on attendance, behaviour and attainment to inform teachers planning To evaluate data on attendance, behaviour and attainment to develop specific learning programmes for pupils Teacher Support To plan with teachers the daily/weekly programme of lessons, activities and events in order to support pupils and adjust lessons/work plans as appropriate Occasional supervision of the class in the course of short term absences of teachers, focusing on maintaining good order and to keep pupils on task under the guidance of teaching staff and within an agreed system of supervision To liaise with other professionals to ensure an appropriate and stimulating learning environment (eg. Display work) To set out, prepare, use and tidy equipment To promote and encourage home school partnerships To assist on home school liaison visits To listen, support and discuss issues sensitively with parents and carers under the teacher’s/instructor’s supervision and to participate in feedback sessions/meetings with parents To monitor and evaluate pupil’s responses to learning activities through observation and planned recording of achievement against pre-determined learning objectives To provide objective and accurate  feedback and reports as required to the teacher on pupil achievement, progress and other matters ensuring the collation and availability of appropriate evidence To be responsible for keeping and updating records as agreed with the teacher, contributing to reviews of systems/records as required In class, to undertake marking of pupils work as agreed with the teacher and accurately record achievement/progress To administer and assess routine tests and assist in the invigilation of exams/tests as agreed with the teacher To provide general clerical support, e.g. administer coursework, produce worksheets for agreed activities, etc. To work within an established discipline policy in order to anticipate and manage behaviour constructively, promoting self-control and independence. Curriculum Support To prepare, plan and manage specific activities/teaching programmes, adjusting activities according to pupils’ responses/needs To help drive the school improvement plan To set out and prepare equipment indoors and outdoors To implement local and national teaching strategies, and make effective use of opportunities provided by other learning activities to support the development of skills in literacy and numeracy To support the use of ICT in learning activities and develop pupils’ competence and independence in its use To help pupils access learning activities through specialist support To determine the need for, prepare and maintain general and specialist equipment and resources School Support To promote the policies and ethos of the school, e.g. personal and social and to promote positive values, attitudes and good pupil behaviour, dealing promptly with conflict and incidents in line with established policy and encouraging pupils to take responsibility for their own behaviour To display pupils work to reflect their achievement To supervise pupils on outings and visits as required To attend staff meetings as required To be aware of and comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection, behaviour management, health, safety and security and to refer all concerns to the leadership team To treat all information relating to a  pupil as strictly confidential, and to be aware of and comply with school policy and practice To be a proactive member of the school team To establish constructive relationships and communicate with other agencies/professionals in liaison with the teacher in order to support the achievement and progress of pupils To provide appropriate guidance and supervision and assist in the training and development of staff as appropriate To undertake planned supervision of pupils’ out of school hours learning activities To attend relevant courses and learning activities in order to update knowledge as required To take opportunities to develop areas of individual/personal interest and expertise and to use these to advise and support others or to organise specific projects 1.2 Explain expectations about own work role as expressed in relevant standards In my setting, all policies and procedures are kept in the main office and are available to view on request. I am aware of all current legislation and I have read and understand my Company’s policies and procedures and follow them at all times. It is my responsibility to read and uphold all policies and keep up to date with any changes or amendments that may arise. I always work in a professional manner and ensure all information is kept up to date, and confidential by following the confidentiality and data protection policy and not discuss any information about children, their families and sensitive information about school matters to anyone unless there is an appropriate reason to do so. When I feel there could be a possible safeguarding issue with any child/young person, I know what to do and who to refer it to (STL46, STL48). I would write a form for initial concern and pass on any information I have to the Safeguarding Officer. Following the health & safety policy I record any accidents in the relevant accident book and log it on the schools monitoring system (sleuth). When an accident such a concussion or feeling unwell, a phone call home is made to notify the parent/carer of their child’s situation. Throughout the day I check the equipment, furniture and resources are safe for students to use before they come into the setting and report any hazards/faulty equipment to  the appropriate person and log it in the repairs book as soon as possible. The first aid box situated in the first aid cupboard on the main coridoor opposite the Head teacher’s office. First aiders are made known to all staff by First Aid Procedure Posters around the school. . I feel I am equipped with the skills to deal with arising situations accordingly. All members of staff, visitors and parents/carers a required to sign in and out in the book located in the office area. Supply members of staff, workmen, governors, parents/carers and professionals from external agencies also need to sign in and out and if they leave the premises. Visitors are asked to bring formal identification and need to hold an enhanced CRB to be allowed access the building. My school aims to maintain high standards of healthy eating, making sure the children have healthy options and we also provide hot meals, which caters vegetarians as well. All students get free school meals. Working in an Alternative Provision School (Formally a PRU) I assist students with various abilities in all classes and can deal with challenging behaviour on a daily basis. I also assist students with special educational needs such as ASC, ADHD, ODD or mental illness . I have been trained in Team Teach and PRICE de-escalation and positive handling techniques (STL37. STL39, STL41). I am aware of what to do in most circumstances, and the correct reporting/recording procedures to follow. I frequently attend new courses with outside agencies, a lot through my role at school, to widen my knowledge of strategies and approaches such as ASC Awareness courses, child protection, behaviour management, fire safety, Alcohol, drug and solvent abuse, violence reduction, safe guarding, emotional and disability awareness etc. In regards to relevant standards, I encourage all students to interact and work co-operatively with others (STL20) and engage in all activities and also support the inclusion and acceptance of all students within the setting (STL19). I promote the development of students through literacy and numeracy sessions, talking, reading newspaper and magazines, discussing national  issues and encourage students to share their views in these matters. This engages students to appreciate each-others opinions and views and work as a team to achieve set goals. I try to incorporate maths equations into everyday situations to encourage the students to reinforce their learning outside the classroom (STL25, STL33, STL26. As a Teaching Assistant, I am expected to support the teacher, to be reliable and build a good relationship with the children/young people in my care, helping them gain positive social and communication skills and encouraging them to achieve the best of their ability in their learning (STL20, STL24). It is important that I conduct myself in the correct manner within the school and use appropriate actions and language to my specific audience. Children and young adults can pick up behavioural traits and values from the people around them and can often mirror others actions. I try to remain professional at all times and act appropriately (STL20). My role as a Teaching assistant is to assist in enhancing children and young people’s knowledge base so they can grow in all aspects of their development. I differentiate my strategies and provide different levels of work for specific students with both lower, or higher abilities (STL34, STL38, STL40, STL44). If I know a child/young person in my class is weak in certain areas such as their literacy or numeracy or even concentration, I know when to change my level of support so they feel able to communicate their ideas effectively and are confident in the task set. Maintaining positive relationships with students helps me in my role as you get to know what levels of assistance students will need. For example, I know if I have students X, Y & Z in my class, X having dyslexia, Y having ADHD. I am aware that these particular students can get anxious when faced with a big task and/or lots of writing. I write down instructions for these students before the lesson and break them down into small and simple steps. I will then wait for the student to be far enough into the task before giving another instruction. For student Z, being on the gifted and talented scheme in previous mainstream schools. I can find a more in depth and higher level equivalent of the task and check it over with the teacher before handing it to the student (STL23, STL24, STL34). I work alongside my teacher and have daily meetings and share ideas and suggestions that I have with regards to the running of the class, for example ideas for lesson plans, displays for students work and projects (STL16, STL21, STL23, STL24, STL28, STL31). I also provide input, with documented evidence, for behaviour, numeracy and literacy targets and plans (STL30). As practitioners, we need to work as a team with other staff members and parent/carers in order to support the student and promote learning so that they will express their ideas and views and be able to voice these to a group. This will help them thrive to succeed and feel confident in doing so (STL45, STL47). As well as working with my own class teacher I can be asked to go and support other staff in a different subject. I am expected to adapt very quickly to the environment and needs of the other class group and be aware of the lesson objectives and outcomes and I am always collecting and updating my file of lesson pla ns and tasks for such occasions. (STL28, STL62) 2.1 Explain the importance of reflective practice in continuously improving the quality of service provided Reflection means focusing on how you interact with colleagues, students, and the environment. It means thinking about how you could have done something differently, what you did well, what you could have done better. How you can improve what you have done and what would work better next time. Reflecting on your practice will allow you to obtain a clearer picture of your own behaviour and a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. By doing this you can then take appropriate future action, continually improving your skills and approaches. Practitioners must review the key elements of effective practice to understand what effective practice looks like. They need to create a self-development plan and reflect on their work. If an employee doesn’t have a standard of work or the standard is unclear, then it is difficult for them to know what or how or when they should be doing it. The absence of standards makes it impossible for an employee to effectively monitor their own performance. If work standards don’t exist, then things are open to personal interpretation and this can lead to conflicting viewpoints. If some colleagues work to lower standards, it can affect the work of others. It’s  important to seek feedback from colleagues to identify what is working well, identify areas for improvement and development. To show that you can continuously improve your practice with constructive feedback and show that you are able to learn and listen to others. Reflecting and improving your own practice will help meet the needs of the individuals and to enable you to develop new strategies and approaches. 2.3 Describe how own values, belief systems and experiences may affect working practice Everyone has different values, beliefs and preferences. What you believe in, what you see as important and what you see as acceptable is an essential part of who we are. The way in which we respond to people is linked to what you believe in, consider important and what interests you. People react positively to people who share the same values and possibly less warmly to people who have different priorities. When you develop friendships, it is natural to spend time with people who share your interests and values. However, the professional relationships you develop with people you support are another matter. As a professional, you are required to provide the same quality of support for all, not just for those who share your views and beliefs. This may seem obvious, but knowing what you need to do and achieving it successfully are not the same thing. Working in any sector, you are bound to come across people whose views you do not agree with, and who never seem to understand your point of view. When there is a clash between your views and those of the people you are working with, you need to make the right responses. Awareness of differences, your reaction to them and how they affect the way you work is a crucial part of personal and professional development. If you allow your own preferences to dominate your work with people, you will fail to perform to the standards of the Codes of Practice for child care workers set out by the UK regulating bodies. The Codes of Practice require child care workers to respect and promote people’s individual views and wishes. Your own view may cause conflict with others or could help you understand others views and help improve communication with others. 3.1 Evaluate your own knowledge, performance and understanding against relevant standards As a practitioner I follow a number of codes of practice. Working with children and young persons, I have set responsibilities and work to the principals of the sector and codes of confidentiality. These responsibilities are to ensure to meet learning needs of a child, Provide an environment that is warm, welcoming and stimulating, Work with parents/carers, colleagues and other agencies. To work as part of a team that provides a quality service for both children/ young people and parents/carers. I believe I have a good understanding and knowledge base of what is expected for effective practice in my role. I am always updating this by training from internal and external agencies of various courses such as safe guarding, behaviour management, updating and amending policies, updating and sharing pupil information, how to record and analyse data. I regularly familiarise myself with updated policies and procedures and also participate in peer mentoring activities with other colleagues to improve personal practice. I work on a ‘Plan, Record and Review’ system. I think this is important to help improve my own practice. It helps me notice my strengths and weaknesses. This also helps when doing activities where you can see what event went well and what did not, how I could do things differently which may allow you to handle a situation differently in the future. It is good to get a second perspective of your performance as other colleagues could perceive situations in a different way to yourself. Getting feedback from my teacher is always helpful as they can inform me of what I did will and what possibly could be improved. I am also always learning from my own experiences which benefits me in my personal development. I believe I am able to maintain positive relationships with both staff and students which aids me to p romote positive outcomes in learning and well-being for all. 4.1 Identify sources of support for planning and reviewing on own development I get support and feedback from my subject teacher, line manager and other colleagues. I attend performance appraisals and have regular meetings with my head teacher, line manager and teams of colleagues to discuss progress. My schools ‘Peer Mentoring System’ for staff helps us all reflect on own and others practice methods and gain and share new ideas and strategies. It helps us see how different styles, approaches and strategies can benefit different audiences and activities, while widening our understanding and  knowledge base. I work closely with my class teacher who gives me daily support in maintaining and improving my own practice and teaching me new skills on the job. 5.1 Evaluate how learning activities have affected practice I have had lots of training to help me deal with situations within my role appropriately. Working with children, young people and adults, you cannot guarantee that if a strategy worked in a situation before, that it will work again. This is why reflective practice and ongoing training will help you deal with barriers that may arise. I have been fortunate enough to gain essential training on the job and with outside agencies to broaden my approaches and strategies. Having training in behaviour management, positive handling and de-escalation techniques, I know that a ‘hands on’ approach is a last resort within my setting but am confident in knowing when and how to use my TEAM TEACH training and when not to. I feel I am able to use de-escalation techniques in most situations and I am always learning and progressing my strategies and knowledge from experiences. The learning needs of my students can differ in their preferred learning styles and by using a blended learning approach it is possible to provide learning experiences that meet the learning needs of all members of the group. In planning lessons it is important not only to consider what is being taught and how but also where. In order to facilitate the feeling of an inclusive group a teacher may take into account the physical learning environment and if possible alter it to support inclusivity. Where appropriate this may be as simple as moving the desks from theatre style to cabaret or horse shoe style to encourage group communication and ensure all students can view or access their teacher equally. By arranging seating in such a way as to create clear sight lines and simple social communication a teacher will allow students to form this social bond to facilitate learning. If students progressed quickly through an activity and then begun to get bored and wandering, it would be obviou s that the task was too easy and not really suitable or beneficial for that student or group or they need another task to complete. Therefore you would need to try and make it more engaging and stimulating, perhaps by making it more difficult or time-consuming so the students really have to work hard to complete it. If the activities are  taking longer than expected and you can see that the students are really struggling, things again would need to be addressed. Most of my classes are mixed ability groups so I differentiate work to suit their ability and can simplify or choose higher grade material to accommodate for higher and lower ability students. On the other hand if a task is too hard for students, they can become frustrated and lash out as they don’t want to fail. Not providing engaging and stimulating activities could also cause other issues such as disengagement, behavioural issues or leaving the room as the student has finished the task set. It is all about knowing your audience where possible. You also have to be prepare for every eventuality and be ready for forthcoming events. I always plan extension task for my lessons to keep my students engaged while others catch up. In my setting I deal with a high percentage of students with ADHD or ODD so am confident in dealing with challenging behaviour and de-escalating situations. I believe giving the students a choice of how to complete tasks makes them feel more empowered and in control of their options. I regularly discuss with students what the point of the task set is and how this will help them make progress. The students can then see that the task isn’t pointless. If students are frustrated I will try and talk them through the task or give them a few minutes to calm down and collect themselves outside. I work in partnership with my class teacher and take it in turns to swap and ‘present a new face’ when needed in volatile situations. It is not always possible to achieve what you intended in a situation. As long as you know where you did achieve something positive, what you did well, what you could have done better and what will be your next step in resolving a situation then you can always learn from it and rectify it. Maintaining positive relationships is a big part in helping with conflict resolution and maintain open lines of communication with students, parents/carers and other staff members will help put in place strategies and plans for progress and improvement and also aid in encouragement to succeed. I partake in pupil conference meetings and writing individual educational and behavioural support plans for students under my supervision. This helps staff members in knowing a student’s strengths and weaknesses as well as triggers, likes and dislikes etc. National Standards taken from ; https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239935/NOS-SUPPORT_for_supporting_teaching_learning.pdf