Posted on 17 May 2012.
The privately-owned children’s home accused of failing to protect a victim of the Rochdale sex abuse ring is being investigated by standards watchdogs. Inspectors turned up unannounced at the single-occupancy home which is now part of a group owned by an Anglo-American private equity company. The education watchdog Ofsted, which is responsible for standards in [...]
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Posted in Adopting and Fostering, Child Protection, Childcare, Family
Posted on 17 May 2012.
Security forces in Cambodia have killed a teenage girl during a clash with villagers armed with axes and crossbows in the latest of a series of violent evictions aimed at clearing land for development. Reports said that during a clash between up to 400 soldiers and police and villagers in Kratie province in the east [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Teenagers, World News
Posted on 17 May 2012.
A 15-year-old youth is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of stabbing a student to death in a row over conkers. The youth was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering architecture student Steven Grisales, 21. Mr Grisales died after he went over to remonstrate with three boys throwing conkers still in [...]
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Posted in Child behaviour, Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Parents, Teenagers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Some of London’s most deprived children will be damaged further by being struck off the special needs list, a leading headteacher warned today. Children who act as carers, those who are homeless or whose parents have died could lose out on extra support, Jo Shuter, head of Quintin Kynaston school in St John’s Wood, claimed. [...]
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Posted in At School, Autism, Dyslexia, Family, Finance, Learning, Learning difficulties, Special Needs
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Yesterday she was told in no uncertain terms to stop playing mother to her fiancé’s children. But Elizabeth Hurley is clearly a woman who doesn’t scare easily as she stepped out with Shane Warne’s daughter. The model was snapped with her betrothed and his youngest girl Summer, and her son Damian, both 10. They were [...]
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Posted in Divorce and children, Family, Media and Celebrity
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A mother whose baby died after being deprived of oxygen when he was born has told an inquest that she is “tortured” by the memory of his birth. Noah Tyler died 10 months after suffering irreversible brain damage at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, a pathologist said. A midwife admitted making “catastrophic mistakes” [...]
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Posted in Babies, Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Health, Maternity, Parents, Pregnancy, Pregnancy and Childbirth
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Schools in England will be banned from taking pupils’ fingerprints and using face-recognition technology unless they get permission from parents. New government guidance says written parental permission must be obtained to use students’ biometric data. Pupils themselves will also be allowed to refuse to participate. Schools can use fingerprinting or face scanning for recording attendance, [...]
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Posted in At School, Child Protection, Family, Internet and Technology, Learning, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
There is no clear link between performance pay for teachers and raising standards in schools, says an international survey. The OECD has examined data from its Pisa tests to find whether targeting pay improves pupil achievement. Previous studies have identified the importance of high-quality teaching. But the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher says the international evidence reveals [...]
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Posted in At School, Finance, Learning, Teachers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Childminders in England say their professionalism could be undermined, and families ill-served, if government plans to change the way they are regulated go ahead. Liz Bayram, joint chief executive of the National Childminding Association, said she was “very concerned” about signals that the government is seeking to bring “a lighter touch” to childminding regulation based [...]
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Posted in Childcare, Family, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Lady Gaga will have to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia following protests by Islamic hard-liners and conservative lawmakers, who said her sexy clothes and dance moves will corrupt young people. National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, responding to the pressure, said today that the permit for her 3 June “Born This Way Ball” concert [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Media and Celebrity, Music, Dance and Drama, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A mother-of-four who killed her children and then herself early on Tuesday morning said she wanted to be cremated with them, in a harrowing text message sent to a friend hours earlier. Sheriff’s deputies in Brevard County, Florida said 33-year-old Tanya Thomas shot her four children, who ranged in age from 12 to 17. They [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Parents, Tweens and Teens, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Women’s empowerment guru, Tyra Banks, has spoken out in support of Vogue’s decision to ban rail thin models from its pages. The 38-year-old media mogul and former supermodel praised the fashion glossy’s 19 editors today for banding together to put a stop to ‘thinspirational’ editorial and called for a toast ‘over some barbecue and burgers’. [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Food and Diet, Health, Media and Celebrity, Teenagers, TV, Theatre and Film
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Charities, teachers’ leaders and campaigners yesterday condemned plans that could remove thousands of children from the special-needs register. Ministers have announced a series of reforms in the belief that too many children at schools in England have been wrongly labelled as having special educational needs (SEN). There will be a new single category of SEN [...]
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Posted in At School, Autism, Dyslexia, Family, Finance, Learning, Learning difficulties, Special Needs
Posted on 16 May 2012.
The average family with children throws away £680 of food a year, according to research. The sum, which equals £13 a week, makes a total of £12 billion across the nation. The study found that the average household spends £68 a week on food but that 91% of households with children admit to throwing some [...]
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Posted in Family, Finance, Food and Diet, Green Parenting, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
When I was 18, I changed my name. Crucially, I gave myself a new middle name — Justine. Actually, it wasn’t new at all. It was the name my birth mother gave me before I was adopted. I can still remember the horror my teenage self felt when I saw my birth certificate and realised [...]
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Posted in Adopting and Fostering, Family, Family Law, Growing up, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A schizophrenic who knifed a schoolboy to death and wounded three other pupils after failing to take his medication was today jailed for at least 20 years. Serif Aslan stabbed Kasey Gordon, 15, in the heart in front of horrified shoppers. Aslan, 34, who was free to roam the streets despite a long history of [...]
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Posted in At School, Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Teenagers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
The global mortality rate for women giving birth has fallen by half over the past two decades, a UN report released today said. While there has been considerable progress, more work remains because a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications every two minutes, the report said. The report from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s [...]
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Posted in Death and Bereavement, Family, Just Mums, Maternity, Parents, Pregnancy, Pregnancy and Childbirth, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
UK families are wasting £270 a year (£5.20 a week) on discarded food and drink, according to a survey of their kitchen habits. Most families massively underestimate the amount of food they throw away each week, according to new research. Despite the economic downturn they admit to buying more than they need, often tempted by [...]
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Posted in Family, Finance, Food and Diet, Green Parenting
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A study led by a University of Bristol academic found that a child’s educational achievements can be harmed when a father loses his job. Using British Cohort Study data, Professor Paul Gregg studied job losses during the 1980s recession to assess the impact of unemployment on children’s academic performance. The research found that children [...]
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Posted in At School, Exams, Family, Finance, Learning, Parents, Teenagers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
My younger brother never has any money and for years my parents have bankrolled his various career changes and batty business ventures. Now he is in his thirties I feel it’s time for him to stand on his own feet. Constantly bailing him out only encourages him and I’m resentful that he’s received so many [...]
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Posted in Family, Family matters, Finance
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Terminally-ill Australian Shaun Wilson-Miller, 17, has become an internet sensation after accidentally posting a heartbreaking and inspirational farewell message to the world on YouTube. Shaun, who has been told by doctors he does not have long left to live after his body rejected a SECOND heart transplant, was only trying to post his tragic goodbye [...]
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Posted in Childhood illnesses, Death and Bereavement, Health, Teenagers, Video and Movie trailers, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Five family members were arrested after authorities found a one-year-old child and 58 dogs living in near squalor and surrounded by filth. Teresa Weldon, 48, from Springtown, Texas, claimed to run an animal rescue operation from her home and had as many as 200 dogs sent to her over the space of two years. However, [...]
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Posted in Babies, Child Protection, Family, Grandparents, Parents, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Some people are born a success, scientists believe. Research shows that much of our predisposition towards determination, sociability and self-control and sense of purpose is in our genes. In fact, our DNA plays a bigger role in influencing these traits than our upbringing and the company we keep. Taken together, these facets of personality can [...]
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Posted in Family, Learning, Maths and Science, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Police missed chances to bring a takeaway owner to justice earlier for a string of sexual offences against under-age girls, a judge said today. Several witnesses, including a 12-year-old girl, complained about Azad Miah pestering them for sex in exchange for money but no action was taken and he continued his “corrupting and degrading” sexual [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A “wicked and controlling” man who murdered his “fun-loving, mischievous” stepson has been ordered to serve at least 17 years in prison. Elvis Lee, 34, was found guilty yesterday of murdering Tyler Whelan, five. Lee admitted he kicked and bit Tyler on the day of his death but denied murder. The kick was so hard [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Parents, Parents in prison
Posted on 16 May 2012.
After giving birth to her third child last summer, one could forgive Claudia Winkleman for wanting to take it easy. However, the Strictly Come Dancing presenter tells Mandrake the new child has made her so broody her husband has had to impose a baby ban. “I’d like another baby but my husband has banned [...]
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Posted in Babies, Family, Media and Celebrity, Parents, Pregnancy
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A man accused of murdering his wife said their children would soon forget her as relatives waited for news about her disappearance, a trial has heard. Nat Fraser, 53, denies murdering his wife Arlene. Mrs Fraser was 33 when she disappeared from her home in New Elgin, Moray, on 28 April 1998. Her father, Hector [...]
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Posted in Death and Bereavement, Family, Just for Dads, Parents
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Thousands of parents whose children fall behind in reading will get vouchers to spend on private tutors under plans unveiled by Nick Clegg today. It marks a major new drive to provide “catch-up lessons” for struggling youngsters from poorer families in their first year of secondary school. Mr Clegg hailed the Evening Standard’s Get London [...]
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Posted in At School, Family, Finance, Learning, Literacy and Reading, Tutoring
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Grownup children still living with their parents get a pretty bad press. In Britain and America they’re labelled “Kippers” (Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings) or “Yuckies” (Young Unwitting Costly Kids). In Australia it’s “Slops” (Singles Living Off Parents). In Italy it’s “Bamboccioni” (Big Babies). The Japanese are even less delicate: their “parasaito shinguru” [...]
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Posted in Family, Finance, Media and Celebrity, Parents, Time Out, TV, Theatre and Film
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A homeless man was discovered sleeping on an “all mod cons” children’s ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Bosses launched an investigation after the man wandered on to the site in Bloomsbury through a fire door. Staff had apparently confused him for the parent of a patient, the hospital said today, because he was “smartly [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Health
Posted on 16 May 2012.
It took Muscadeu, a small, portly white horse, and his rider, Luke Tucker, a teenager from Yorkshire, almost six months to trek from the Camargue region of France to England. For both the trip was a job of work: they were part of the 2008 Caravan of Hope, a charitable mission to deliver Camargue horses, [...]
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Posted in Active Kids, Family, Garden and Outdoors, Parents, Sport and Fitness, Teenagers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A married couple living in Spain masterminded the kidnap of a British boy by an armed gang in Pakistan, a court heard today. Four masked men wielding assault rifles and hand grenades seized Sahil Saeed, five, while he was visiting his grandmother’s home in Punjab, prosecutors said. Muhammed Zahid Saleem and his wife Monica Neruja [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Parents, World News
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Levi Brailsford’s grandmother was reportedly driving when she heard him unbuckle the harness in his car seat and friends say she was trying to pull over to re-fasten the buckle when the door opened and he fell out. Police are investigating the possibility that Levi was then crushed under the wheels of the car [...]
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Posted in Babies, Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Grandparents, Parents, Toddlers
Posted on 16 May 2012.
A workman who cut the base of a lamp post that later fell, fatally injuring a baby, wishes he had died instead, an inquest heard today. Tommy Hollis suffered severe head injuries when he was struck by the falling lamp post as he was sleeping in a pram being pushed by his nanny in Chiswick, [...]
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Posted in Babies, Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Parents
Posted on 15 May 2012.
When Maria Concetta Cacciola drank the bottle of acid that would kill her in August last year, one can only imagine what was going through her mind. The mother of three, 31, had effectively been imprisoned in the family home in the dreary town of Rosarno, in the southern Italian region of Calabria, and probably [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Just Mums, Parents in prison, World News
Posted on 15 May 2012.
No three-year-old’s birthday would be complete without a brightly-coloured cake with candles on top. But Oscar Barlow was left in tears when police swooped on his party at a play centre – after staff said his cake was a health and safety risk. Bosses at Rumble Tumble play centre said the candles constituted a safety [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Parents, Toddlers
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Like most loving parents, Chris and Kathy Coker were anxious when their son Bradley embarked on his gap-year trip around the world. Even though they knew he was sensible, it was hard not to worry about what could go wrong. And so, the Cokers recall, they breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Holiday and Travel, Teenagers, University and Gap year, World News
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Thousands of children have lost the chance of a decent life because of the ban on mixed-race adoption, the state equality chief has admitted. Trevor Phillips said it was his greatest regret that he failed to challenge the race rules which denied children the chance of a loving family and instead left them at the [...]
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Posted in Adopting and Fostering, Child Protection, Family, History and Politics, Parents
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Mega-wealthy Chinese parents are paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds for their children to have lessons in the art of chit-chat – to help them get into Oxbridge. The families are doing their utmost, including paying out the huge sums to British ‘education consultants’ based in China in order to give their children the [...]
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Posted in At School, Family, Finance, Learning, Parents, University and Gap year, World News
Posted on 15 May 2012.
A Carlisle takeaway boss has been convicted of attempting to recruit four girls aged between 12 and 16 into prostitution. Azad Miah, 44, was also found guilty at Carlisle Crown Court of running a brothel from his business and paying for the sexual services of teenagers. The owner of the former Spice of India restaurant [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Family, Parents, Tweens and Teens
Posted on 15 May 2012.
As many as 450,000 children could be removed from school special needs registers because they have been wrongly labelled as requiring extra help, the Government will announce today. Campaigners fear the cuts could leave thousands of children “cut adrift”. One in five schoolchildren in England is on the register. The rules are designed to toughen [...]
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Posted in At School, Dyslexia, Finance, Kids, Learning, Learning difficulties, Special Needs
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Babies born this year will not get their state pension until the age of 77 – and their own children will have to wait until they are in their eighties, a shock report has revealed. The findings raise the prospect of a baby girl, born today, retiring nearly two decades older than her grandmother who [...]
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Posted in Babies, Family, Finance
Posted on 15 May 2012.
The 14-year-old half-brother of six children who died in a Derby fire says the family is “struggling” to come to terms with their loss. Five children aged between five and 10 died in the early hours of Friday after the blaze at a property on Victory Road in the Allenton area. A sixth child, 13-year-old [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Death and Bereavement, Family, Kids, Parents, Teenagers
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Parents in England are to be given control over their children’s special educational needs (SEN) budgets, allowing them to choose expert support rather than local authorities being the sole provider. In what the government described as the biggest reform of SEN for 30 years, the measures will also legally force education, health and social care [...]
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Posted in At School, Dyslexia, Family, Finance, Learning, Learning difficulties, Special Needs
Posted on 15 May 2012.
On Thursday, the education secretary, Michael Gove, eloquently described how much of this nation’s talents and capabilities are strangled at birth by the power of the old school tie. “Those who were born poor are more likely to stay poor and those who inherit privilege are more likely to pass on privilege in England more [...]
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Posted in At School, Family, Finance, Learning, Teachers
Posted on 15 May 2012.
What is it about men in the kitchen that makes them so outspoken? The latest to let off steam is the top chef, Marcus Wareing, who criticises the trainee cooks working for him as lazy and clueless, only interested in how many hours they have to work and having an exaggerated sense of entitlement. Asked [...]
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Posted in Finance, Learning, Teenagers
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Rhys Watkins is just 11 years old but he has been forced to battle cancer twice in little over a year. His latest operation, in the week before Christmas, was to remove a very aggressive, tennis ball-sized tumour from his lung. His family were not expecting him home in time for Christmas Day. However, he [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Childhood illnesses, Family, Health, Kids
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Four in 10 couples have shelved plans to start a family because they can’t afford it, according to research from the Skipton Building Society. A survey of 2,412 childless couples showed that 901 have been delaying having children for the past two years due to the poor state of their finances. Of these couples, 47 [...]
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Posted in Babies, Family, Finance
Posted on 15 May 2012.
Seventy thousand primary school leavers will take part in intensive two-week summer schools this year to keep them from falling behind during the six-week break. Nick Clegg will announce tomorrow that the “top-up” lessons will be provided to children from poor backgrounds by two-thirds of secondary schools, as part of a drive to highlight the [...]
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Posted in At School, Family, Finance, Kids, Learning, Primary Schools
Posted on 15 May 2012.
One in four women do not have a midwife present during the crucial moments of giving birth, according to a new study. The research, for the Royal College of Midwives, reveals that women across the country are being let down by under-staffed maternity services. On average, a quarter of women said they did not have [...]
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Posted in Child Protection, Just Mums, Maternity, Midwives, Pregnancy, Pregnancy and Childbirth