Free sticker books!

Reading charity, Book Trust have produced a sticker book as part of a pilot project to encourage more families with pre-school children to visit their local library; the children can collect the book at their library and will receive stickers each time they visit, to help complete 'Bear’s Reading Adventure'. Author of the book, Gemma Malley, said, 'If a parent reads to their children every day, they will be almost 12 months ahead of their age group when they start school. Even reading to them three to five times a week gives them a six-month head-start over those who read less often.'

Duty of Care for Excluded Children

Campaigners of the School Exclusion Project are urging the government to hold headteachers to account for their duty of care towards pupils they have excluded "to ensure that such children are in practice met by a parent, guardian or approved carer".

Free School Meals

More than 100 MPs from various parties have introduced a bill to Parliament to compel local authorities to automatically register all children who are eligible, for free school meals. To set the ball rolling, the new Birmingham City Council leader, John Clancy, has pledged to set up a Free School Meals Trust to begin the process of making Birmingham a ‘free school meals city.’ It would be an incremental roll out, school by school, as funding is secured. He said the Free School Meals Trust would attract funding and sponsorship from businesses and charities to speed up the process. He hopes the trust will appeal for support from businesses, such as Asda and Primark, as part of their commitments to corporate social responsibility.  

Locked Out 2015

Thousands of children are being stopped from seeing their fathers, making it extremely difficult for them to spend quality time together. These findings have been published in the Barnardo's report, Locked Out 2015. The report is based on conversations, interviews and focus groups with children who visit their father in prison.

What's making children unhappy?

The Good Childhood Report by the Children's Society found that 10 to 12 year olds in England ranked 14th out of 15 nations for happiness, behind Germany, Spain and South Africa; the UK has also come far down similar global lists drawn up by UNICEF. Modern stress could be to blame for increasing child depression in the the UK; more teenagers are now turning to counselling to help them cope with the pressures of social media - research has also linked Facebook with depression in young adults and children. Bullying, including cyber-bullying and self harm, was reported as the main issues of concern by ChildLine last year. Overall, 35,244 of the counselling sessions held by the service in 2014/15 were related to low self-esteem and unhappiness.

Prof. Mark Williams at Oxford University, confirmed that "technostress" was growing. "Every generation thinks it is more stressed than the last. It's usually not true but this time it looks [as if] it is. That's because this is the first generation that is constantly flitting between the actual, real world and the virtual world of the internet. It's not multitasking, it's multi-switching - and there are switching costs, mainly distraction, exhaustion, irritability and mood swings."

British nine and ten-year-olds are also getting the least sleep, the main reason appearing to be the use of electronic devices in the bedroom. This was found to be a common phenomenon in affluent countries, where we are more likely to buy children electronic devices and allow them in their bedrooms. Today, children are likely to own more toys and gadgets than ever before, yet the Unicef global report on child well-being found that children are not getting happier the more they own, instead, British parents could be trapping their children in a cycle of "compulsive consumerism". As children spend more time online, social media addiction is also becoming a problem - this website offers advice to parents on how to protect their children.

Recent Stories...

Here's a round-up of research and news:

A new report, 'Supporting the attainment of disadvantaged pupils' was published in November. Written by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), it is based on national research, gathered through surveys and interviews from 1,329 primary, secondary and special schools across the country.

There has been an amendment to the DfE's ‘Getting the simple things right: Charlie Taylor’s behaviour checklists’: from January 2016, schools will no longer have an obligation to use home-school agreements and it explains the powers members of staff have to discipline pupils. A supporting guide, 'Behaviour and discipline in schools', has also been produced for headteachers and school governing bodies.

The BBC reported that super-size schools, accommodating upto 3000 children will need to be created over the next ten years to cope with the rapid rise in England's birth rate. This coincides rather neatly with another recent story about the world's largest school - City Montessori school in Lucknow, India, which accommodates about 52,000 students in 1,050 classrooms. Meanwhile, head teachers in England say schools are facing increasing difficulties in recruiting new teachers and are having to spend a growing share of their budget on supply staff.

Finally, the Royal Society of Edinburgh says having Stampy Cat, one of the world's most popular YouTube stars, deliver its Christmas lecture, was the "biggest event" in the organisation's history. Joseph Garrett's lecture offered an insight into how he makes the videos, showing children how careers could be forged in industries that did not exist three or four years ago.

Happy New Year!

A big welcome back to all our staff and students - hope you have had a restful break :0)

Many of you will have been busy revising for upcoming exams. 
To help you along, here are some useful revision tips.
Good Luck!