families, babies, kids, teens, days out, parents, tutors, childcare

Frustrated pupils ‘bored by their factory schools’

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:49:22 +0000

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

By Richard Garner, Education Editor

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Pupils are being turned into “a seething mass of bored, frustrated, alienated children” by today’s education system, a leading professor will claim tonight.

James Tooley, a professor of education policy at Newcastle University, will say modern state schools are built on a “factory model” which denies students the chance of an individual education tailored to meet their needs.

“The innovation required to transform education is dismally lacking in current schooling,” Professor Tooley will say, as he presents one of a series of lectures on education policy, jointly sponsored by The Independent and the Learning Skills Foundation.

“One of the most startling deficiencies of schooling today is that the majority of it is still carried out with 20 to 30 children of the same age in a classroom with one teacher. It is the factory model that was there when I was a child and my father and grandfather before me.”

Professor Tooley advocates the dismantling of the current system and says private providers should be encouraged to set up their own schools. Children should be urged to learn at their own pace through the internet, where they could access curriculum material prepared by academics from elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge… Continue reading

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Paedophile ‘alarm button’ was rejected by Facebook, say police

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:42:25 +0000

Social networking site defends safety policy despite killer meeting victim online

Source: Independent >> Read full article and comment

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Senior police officers last night accused Facebook of having inadequte child protection safeguards following the rape and murder of teenager who met her killer on the networking site.

Peter Chapman, a convicted sex offender, used Facebook to lure 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall to her death. Chapman, 33, set up a fake profile on the site – complete with stolen photographs – to pretend he was a boy of 19.

Yesterday, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), which is responsible for tracking and prosecuting the country’s worst sex offenders, said Facebook had so far refused to introduce an official “alert button” with which youngsters could report suspicions that they were being “groomed” by online paedophiles or targeted by cyber-bullies.

The tool, developed by CEOP in 2006, is used by other networking websites including Bebo and MSN Messenger but Facebook has refused to incorporate it into its website. Jim Gamble, the CEOP chief executive, criticised the failure to include the alert button.

Of the 267 reports that the CEOP received about suspicious activity on Facebook last year, 43 per cent concerned grooming but “only one or two” came from Facebook itself, he said.

“The vast majority are coming from people who are, ironically, having to go to other sites that have our button and send the report to us. That is just not good enough,” Mr Gamble added.

Facebook insists its reporting system is good enough to handle reports of grooming, which are dealt with by staff who liaise with police. “We have reporting buttons on every page of our site and continue to invest heavily in creating the most robust reporting system to support our 400 million users,” said a spokeswoman.

But Mr Gamble insisted: “Their argument for not putting our button into their environment, in my opinion, doesn’t hold water. The button is a deterrent to offenders and provides users with a choice of either going to their social network provider or to CEOP for a range of advice and help.

“Why would anyone want to speak to a service provider about illegal activity and not come straight to us? .. Continue reading

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Acupuncture ‘does not aid fertility treatment’

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:30:12 +0000

Acupuncture does not help women have a child through fertility treatment, new research shows.

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Published: 7:30AM GMT 10 Mar 2010

The British Fertility Society says that patients should be warned that there is no evidence that the therapy will help them to have a baby.

Studies had suggested that the traditional Chinese medicine could be beneficial and thousands of women are thought to use acupuncture to maximise their fertility treatment.

But a comprehensive review of all the available research shows no evidence of any benefit.

No matter when the acupuncture was given, there was no significant effect on the rate of birth, pregnancy or miscarriage, experts who looked at 14 studies involving 2,670 women said.

An estimated one in seven couples have trouble conceiving and there are around 33,000 cycles of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) carried out in Britain every year.

Prof Adam Balen, chair of the society’s policy and practice committee, said: “The British Fertility Society wants to ensure that all women receive the safest treatment when undergoing fertility procedures, while also maximising their chances that the treatment will be successful.

“Before any treatment can be accepted into mainstream medicine and used on patients, it is essential that it has been tested … to ensure that it does actually work and does not cause any harmful side-effects.”

He added that there was “currently no evidence” that acupuncture aided fertility treatment.

“Patients should be made aware of this fact before commencing treatment,” he said.

The experts also found no evidence that Chinese herbal remedies were beneficial to women undergoing the treatment.

Prof Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School, said that the findings were a “long-overdue clarification”…. Continue reading

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‘You wonder how to have a conversation with your children? First, chuck the BlackBerry away’

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:52:37 +0000

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

In Lifeclass this week, Lesley Garner stresses the importance of face-to-face communciation over texts and emails.

Texting can never take the place of a conversation in person Photo: CORBISDear Lesley,

I am writing u hoping 2 find the RIGHT answer. my daughters r 7 and 8. Their father has not been a part of their lives 4 almost 6 years. They have 3 older and 3 younger siblings that they don’t know about. They know who their father is and remember him somewhat but they have a stable father figure in their life now for 3 years and I feel they have finally reached a life of contentment. The DAY that the youngest sibling was born my oldest daughter told me that she wanted a baby sister (w/out knowing of this birth of course). I thought maybe this was an answer 2 my prayers that it is time 2 tell them everything – how in the world would I go about that conversation???? Thankxx – baffled. Sent from my Blackberry… Continue reading

How about saying this? U have dad and 6 siblings rnt u lucky we can start Facebook page love u mum. Sent from my Blackberry. Or not. It is amazing how technology lets us sum up a whole complex family dilemma in one text message. Or is there, maybe, something missing? Does it actually take more words to untangle a situation that involves the lives and happiness of you, your partner, your ex-partner, his present partner, six children of his, two of yours – that’s 12 people. Then we can throw in eight grandparents, unnumbered aunts, uncles and cousins, close friends – a small tribe. So a conversation you must have with your own two children is about a situation that affects many people. Maybe that is worth more than a quick text message… Continue reading

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‘Eating for two’ may harm baby

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:24:07 +0000

David Rose, Health Correspondent

Source: Timesonline >> Read full article and comment
Pregnant women are often assumed to be “eating for two”, but a high-calorie diet may also be influencing the sex and health of their child, researchers say.

A study in pregnant mice found that diets which were high in fat or carbohydrates had an effect on almost 2,000 genes in the developing offspring, including those involved in kidney function and smell.

The most striking variations were found in those of the female foetuses, suggesting that girls may be more susceptible than boys to genetic changes triggered by their mother’s diet.

Sons and daughters are also at different risk for conditions such as obesity or diabetes later in life, apparently related to either the mother’s diet or body condition while pregnant.

For instance, sons of obese mothers are more likely than daughters to become obese and develop diabetes as they get older, even though no differences in birth weight may be evident.

The study, published theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, follows previous research that suggested that a woman’s diet around the time of conception may influence the gender of her baby…. Continue reading

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Eating breakfast and fatty diet during early pregnancy increases chances of having a boy

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:00:44 +0000

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

What women eat while they are in the early stages of pregnancy influences the sex and health of their unborn baby, new research suggests.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 8:00PM GMT 08 Mar 2010

Eating a high-fat diet around conception increases the odds of giving birth to a boy, while low fat consumption with periods of long fasts favours girls Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY

Women who eat a full breakfast and a high fat diet at the time of conception are more likely to have a boy, scientists claim.

A low fat diet with periods of long fasts favours girls, the researchers have found.

The findings seem to give some credence to to old wives’ tales such as eat “bacon for boys”.

Dr Cheryl Rosenfeld, of the University of Missouri, and colleagues said: “High calorie diets generally favour birth of males over females, whereas low calorie diets tend to favour females over males.

“In humans and mice, food restriction and a suboptimal diet during the period around conception and early pregnancy also lead to a surfeit of daughters, most probably due to selective loss of male foetuses, the most vulnerable sex in the womb.”

Researchers analysed the genes in placentas of pregnant mice fed diets high in fat or carbohydrates and low calorie diets and found each one had a distinctive effect compared with a third group given normal soybean meal-based food.

As well as the changes in sex, female foetuses were more sensitive to their mother’s diet and their genes were more likely to be affected or altered, it was found.

After 12 days – just over half the animals’ pregnancy term – there were differences in almost 2,000 genes including those involved in kidney function and smell.

They concluded gene expression in the mouse placenta is “adaptive and shaped by maternal diet” with the biggest effect on the placentas of females.

The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, follows a study two years ago that found a woman’s diet around the time of conception may influence the gender of her baby… Continue reading

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Free our schools

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:38:24 +0000

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

Britain is starting to see a small but growing movement of parents who want to open their own schools. Not comprehensive, not private, but a throwback to the all-encompassing state schools of old. Father-of-four Toby Young is leading the way.

By Toby Young
Published: 12:40PM GMT 09 Mar 2010

Class act: Toby Young and his wife, Caroline, want their children to go to school with pupils from all walks of life Photo: CLARA MOLDEN

Lying awake, I often fantasise about the day my new school opens. In this dream, I’m standing off to one side watching the pupils stream past in their new uniforms, faces full of hope. No fanfare, no plaudits. Just the quiet satisfaction of knowing I’ve made a difference. I then get on my bicycle and ride off into the sunset, Gary-Cooper-style.

OK, it’s a bit pathetic. But I need something to keep me going. I’m currently leading the efforts of a group of parents and teachers in Acton, west London, to set up Britain’s first “free school” – and it’s a Herculean task. We have to find a site, devise a curriculum, recruit the staff and persuade the Government to pay for the whole kit and caboodle.

I recently met up with Jonathan Fingerhut, the leader of a parent group that has succeeded in setting up a voluntary-aided school in Barnet, hoping for some encouragement, but he was plain-spoken to a fault. “To be honest, if I’d known at the beginning of this process what I know now, I would never have taken it on,” he said. It took Jonathan’s group nine years to set up the Jewish Community Secondary School and his children are now too old to attend. I hope it doesn’t take us that long.

Our plan is to start an academy, which can be done quicker than starting a local authority-maintained comprehensive, but no parent group has attempted to sponsor an academy before. The set-up procedure is designed to be engaged in by other bureaucratic bodies, not a bunch of well-intentioned amateurs. I often feel like an astronaut bobbing up and down in the void, trying to find an entry point into a space station that’s only been designed to dock with other spaceships.

So why am I bothering? The simple answer is I have four children to educate. Admittedly, if I was devoting as much energy to my career as I am to this school project, I could probably earn enough to send them all to Eton, but I don’t want to educate them privately…. Continue reading

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Childcare helps identify vulnerable children’s needs

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:31:09 +0000

Source: BBC News >> Read full article and comment

High-quality childcare helps identify the needs of vulnerable children early on, according to a new report.

Childcarers need to work with families of vulnerable children - report

Ofsted inspectors visited 25 childminders, nurseries and day care centres in England previously judged good or outstanding for the study.

They examined how they worked with children with disabilities, speech problems and serious illnesses.

The report found regular observation and “close collaboration with families” contributed to high-quality care.

Best start

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: “The best childcare makes a big difference for children in need.

“They have a brighter future when their needs are identified at an early age and information from parents and others such as those in health, education and social care services is drawn together to ensure support is delivered in the best possible way.”

She said the best childcarers were giving children a “vital step-up in life”.

“It is important other childcarers learn from these examples of best practice.”

The report recommends all childcare providers consider how well they support children identified as being “in need”…. Continue reading
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As a teacher, I’ve realised Twitter has real potential

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:17:31 +0000

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

If Twitter can cause the casually wept lonely tear to reach the ears of a concerned peer, then it is a useful resource

Phil Beadle
The Guardian, Tuesday 9 March 2010

On Twitter you can pose a question to your network of professional allies and receive a reply almost instantly

I signed up to bury Twitter. Not to praise it. The idea was to complete a trilogy of columns I had entitled the “wind up a spod” series, and deliberately elicit spluttering outrage about Twitter from educators who have been blogging about its noodle-boggling goodness.

My first “tweets” (and I still feel slightly bilious using this word as it makes me feel like an uncle dancing at a wedding to the happy teenage couple’s favourite grime track) were brief exercises designed to satirise the somewhat ridiculous narcissism I perceived in the Twitter user. Who on earth could be so assured of their own importance that they would think their 140 character dribbles would be of any interest to anyone with anything corresponding to a life?

My first utterances included, on 25 June, “Realising I can’t spell pheasant”; to be followed four days later by “Worrying about kidneys (mine).”

But then one day I got a response to one of my tweets that started to make me rethink. “Failing to be amusing on the subject of boys’ achievement on a Saturday night,” I had written. “Work/life balance. I’ve heard of it.”

The current UK Secondary Teacher of the Year, David Miller, on recognising a soul in partial torment working too hard on a Saturday night and missing Match of the Day, used Twitter to reach all the way across from lower Dumbarton and, with it, dispensed a bit of much-needed virtual empathy. And at that very moment, my feelings about Twitter changed…. Continue reading

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Association of Graduate Recruiters: ‘Parents should save from child’s birth for university’

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:17:59 +0000

Source: Times >> Read full article and comment

Nicola Woolcock, Education Correspondent

Families should pay into a national savings scheme to meet the cost of putting their child through university, leading employers say today.

Tuition fees need to rise and parents should be encouraged to contribute to a scheme set up with banks and promoted by the Government, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters.

It also says the next Government must scrap the “artificial” target of getting half of young people into university.

The AGR represents 750 of the biggest firms including Boots, the Bank of England, Goldman Sachs, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline, who collectively recruit about 30,000 graduates a year.

In a manifesto published today -Talent, Opportunity, Prosperity - it said a phased increase in tuition fees should start immediately.

The current review of tuition fees is expected to conclude after the general election.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of AGR said: “When the class of 2010 enters the job market they will find a landscape scarcely recognisable to their parents. The concept of ‘cradle to grave’ employment is ancient history and the young people graduating this year will have many jobs, and sometimes even several careers, before they end their working life aged about 70.

Labour’s obsession with pushing 50 per cent of under-30s into higher education has devalued degrees and driven down standards, it claims... Continue reading

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families, babies, kids, teens, days out, parents, tutors, childcare

Frustrated pupils ‘bored by their factory schools’

Amazon Book Word Cloud

Paedophile ‘alarm button’ was rejected by Facebook, say police

Amazon Book Word Cloud

Acupuncture ‘does not aid fertility treatment’

Acupuncture does not help women have a child through fertility treatment, new research shows.

Amazon Book Word Cloud

‘You wonder how to have a conversation with your children? First, chuck the BlackBerry away’

In Lifeclass this week, Lesley Garner stresses the importance of face-to-face communciation over texts and emails.

Dear Baffled,

Amazon Toys and Games Word Cloud

‘Eating for two’ may harm baby

Amazon Baby Word Cloud

Eating breakfast and fatty diet during early pregnancy increases chances of having a boy

What women eat while they are in the early stages of pregnancy influences the sex and health of their unborn baby, new research suggests.

Amazon Baby Word Cloud

Free our schools

Britain is starting to see a small but growing movement of parents who want to open their own schools. Not comprehensive, not private, but a throwback to the all-encompassing state schools of old. Father-of-four Toby Young is leading the way.

Amazon Book Word Cloud

Childcare helps identify vulnerable children’s needs

Amazon Baby Word Cloud

As a teacher, I’ve realised Twitter has real potential

Amazon Book Word Cloud

Association of Graduate Recruiters: ‘Parents should save from child’s birth for university’

Amazon Book Word Cloud