Parent Pages new website

Elderly people should look after local children when they come home from school, according to Joanna Lumley.

The actress, now renowned as a political campaigner after taking on the Government on behalf of Gurkha veterans, claimed that pensioners could provide “the most wonderful care system” for young people until their parents return from work.

She imagined “adoptive grannies” helping pupils with their homework or baking apple pies with them, which would improve relations between the generations as well as providing much-needed childcare facilities and interesting activities for bored older people.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Miss Lumley said: “They could be adoptive grannies, they would be the most wonderful care system for children when the school day is ended – before their parents have come home from work, how lovely to have a million grannies making them apple pie and sitting with them doing their homework.

“Some sort of more interaction between ages so old people aren’t just shunted away.”

She also claimed that fewer elderly people would take their own lives if standards were higher in care homes…. Continue reading

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment
By Gill Hornby
Published: 5:44PM BST 09 Apr 2010

The comedy roast is a long-held American tradition. Let’s bring it over here, argues Gill Hornby.

There’s nothing wrong with a good roasting Photo: Alamy

This week, Bruce Forsyth had the good grace to be the guest of honour at Britain’s first TV Comedy Roast. The veteran entertainer grinned away while younger, less successful entertainers (Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr) hurled abuse at him: “When the dinosaurs died, was he taken in for questioning?” etc. And, predictably, didn’t he
do well?

The comedy roast is a long-held American tradition. The roastee is put “on the spit” for some “good-natured bullying”, and it’s been a regular on television since Dean Martin impaled Bob Hope in the Seventies (“You’d love this evening if you knew you were here”).

For some reason, it has never gained purchase in Britain. Yet watching Brucie warming nicely, the format seemed curiously familiar. What did it remind one of? It took a while to recognise it, but yes! That’s it! Provincial English family life in the second half of the 20th century!

You see, the definition of a comedy roast – “comedic insults with a little bit of heartfelt praise” – could in fact define the philosophy of British parenting for the post-war years. God, if you couldn’t have a good old belly laugh at your children’s shortcomings, what was the point of them? All the things that are today considered to be “issues” – skinny legs, puppy fat, sticky-out ears, spectacles – were picked up by adults and lobbed about without a care in the world. No meanness was intended; it was, like a roast, just one way of showing the love.

And it couldn’t have been more different from the way we raise our children now. The modern parent is the guardian of his offspring’s all-important self-esteem. Back then, if – if! – a child were to achieve something, that would be acknowledged.
But cautiously. For that child must, on no account, become too big for its boots.

Bigness of boots was a dreaded disorder, a terrifying thing, and the best protection against it was the affectionate insult. When I announced that I wanted to be Olivia Newton-John, I was told I was more Olive from On the Buses. When I brought home
my accomplished future husband, he was immediately rechristened “Smug”.

Looking back on it, life was one long comedy roast. And not just for me. Look at the recent run of vintage school reports in the letters page of this newspaper. We’ve all enjoyed the clever remarks of masters past – “For this pupil all ages are dark”; “At least his education hasn’t gone to his head”. These are perfect examples of the comic insult, exchanged by adults over the heads of their young victims. But imagine if a teacher tried using that sort of language today – the governors would have his guts for garters…. Continue reading

Source: Medical News Today >> Read full article and comment
Article Date: 07 Apr 2010 – 1:00 PDT

Today, the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), http://www.ianproject.org, the nation’s largest online autism research project, announces results of the Grandparents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Survey, finding that nearly one-third of grandparents who participated were the first to raise concerns about their grandchild’s development.

Since its launch in 2007, the IAN Project has helped to accelerate the pace of autism research by gathering valuable information online from individuals on the autism spectrum and their parents.

The launch of the October 2009 survey was the first time that the IAN Project has collected information from grandparents. The IAN Research Report: Grandparents of Children with ASD – Part 1, and the subsequent report that will be released later in the month, demonstrate the substantial impact having a grandchild on the spectrum has on grandparents’ lives, as well as the contributions they make through early detection – which is crucial to early diagnosis and intervention – child care, and financial support.

“It became clear that grandparents – a population largely overlooked by policymakers and researchers – had valuable insights to share when they came to us asking how they could participate in the IAN Project,” said Dr. Paul Law, Director of the IAN Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “These survey results show that experiences are remarkably diverse, but one thing is clear: grandparents often play a major part in their grandchild’s life and experience their own stresses and triumphs in these families.”

In just eight weeks, more than 2,600 grandparents completed the survey. The findings highlighted below summarize the compelling results from the Research Report released today as well as Part 2 of the report, which will be released in mid-April.

The Grandparents and their families:

Grandparents represented a wide age range, although most were between the ages of 55 and 74.

- Family relationships: Nearly 90% felt that the experience of facing their grandchild’s situation together had brought them and their adult child — the grandchild’s parent – closer, although many worried for their adult child raising a child on the autism spectrum.

- Support and coping: Of those who were married or in a committed relationship, 92% said they felt their spouse or partner supported them “always” or “most of the time.” The majority of grandparents reported that they had adjusted to their grandchild’s diagnosis and were doing “very” or “fairly” well.

- Genetics in autism: Approximately 15% of grandparents had two or more grandchildren on the spectrum. Of those with more than one grandchild with ASD, two-thirds reported that their grandchildren were siblings, while the other third reported their grandchildren with ASD were cousins.

Grandparents as caregivers:

Many grandparents played a major role in raising concerns about their grandchild’s development.

- Fully 30% said they were the first to raise concerns about their grandchild, while another 49% said they had supported others who began to raise concerns.

- Grandparents often play a major role in helping care for a grandchild with ASD: Nearly 11% reported living in the same household as their grandchild, with another 46% living within 24 miles.

- In addition, of those who were traditional grandparents (not their grandchild’s custodial parent) 14% said they and their grandchild’s family had moved closer to each other so they could help the grandchild’s family “manage all that is involved with his or her ASD,” while 7% said they had actually combined households for the same reason.

- 71% said they played some role in treatment decisions for their grandchild.

- More than 15% were providing transportation for their affected grandchild to or from appointments or school at least once per week.

- More than 31% said they provided some direct child care at least once per week.

Proactive grandparents:

- Participating grandparents kept themselves very well informed about ASDs; 99% said they “read or do research to better understand Autism Spectrum Disorders” because of their grandchild’s diagnosis.

- Grandparents were very active in advocating for their grandchildren on the autism spectrum, with nearly 50% taking part in autism walks or fundraisers, 33% involved in political advocacy, and 31% attending conferences or workshops on autism.

Financial impact:

A significant majority of grandparents reported contributing to their grandchild’s general or special financial needs.

- More than 22% reported going without something they had hoped for in order to provide for their grandchild’s financial needs. In fact, 18% had become primary babysitter so their adult child could work, 11% had raided retirement funds, and 8% had borrowed money.

- Nearly 60% had made sacrifices not provided in response choices, such as working more hours or taking on a second job, providing respite care, or leaving funds in a special needs trust.

- About 25% of grandparents reported spending up to $99 per month to meet their grandchild’s autism-related needs, while 30% paid even higher amounts. There were some grandparents spending more than $500 per month.

“It is hoped that the results of this survey will help researchers, policymakers and advocates learn about the experiences and opinions of grandparents of children with an ASD, and advance efforts to advocate for improved services and resources,” said Dr. Law.

Read more about the survey results – click here.

The IAN Project is supported by Autism Speaks and the Simons Foundation.

Source
Kennedy Krieger Institute … Continue reading Medical News Today

© Source >>  Sky News 2010

A three-year-old boy brought back from the dead after his heart stopped beating for three hours has told how he saw his great-grandmother in Heaven.

The youngster – who is named only as Paul – claimed he met his relative and she sent him back to Earth.

Paul was playing on his own when he fell into a lake near his grandparents’ house in the town of Lychen, north of Berlin, Germany.

The child’s grandfather later found him lifeless in the water.

Paul was quickly dragged to the shore but the youngster remained unconscious.

His father, who had had first aid training in the past, tried to resuscitate his son by giving him mouth to mouth and heart massage.

A helicopter took him to Helios hospital in Buch and doctors also tried to resuscitate him but he was unresponsive.

They were about to stop because the boy had been clinically dead for three hours and 18 minutes – but then a miracle happened.

The team managed to get his heart beating again, defying the laws of medicine.

The water in the lake was cold and the boy’s core temperature was just 28C – it should normally be 37C.

If the temperature had been higher, the team would have stopped trying to resuscitate after 40 minutes because the boy would definitely have been brain dead.

Cold temperatures means the metabolism slows so body can survive with little oxygen.

Professor of Paediatrics, Lothar Schweigerer, is from the Helios hospital in Buch.

He told Sky News: “My doctors were close to saying ‘we can do no more’ after two hours of thorax compression.

He said this was “because the chances of survival had gone and the little lad must have been brain dead”.

The professor added: “But then suddenly his heart started to beat again … it was a fantastic miracle.

(………..)       “Paul said to his parents, ‘I was with Oma (granny) Emmi in Heaven. She told me to go back really quickly.’” .. Continue reading full article and comment

Source: Timesonline >> Read full article and comment

Teachers of all ages should be treated fairly, says the teachers’ union

Older teachers feel they are being pushed aside and treated unfairly, a teachers’ conference is to be told.

A survey from the NASUWT union says one in five older teachers have faced discrimination because of their age.

Rather than having their experience valued, older teachers complain they are being “marginalised”.

“Abuse on the grounds of age is as serious as all other forms of bullying,” the union’s general secretary Chris Keates said.

While other forms of workplace discrimination might be publicly condemned, the teachers’ conference will hear claims that prejudice against older workers can go unchallenged.

‘Undermined’

“This survey demonstrates that ageism is still not being taken seriously enough,” says Ms Keates.

Only one in 10 schools had an anti-bullying policy which referred to the issue of age discrimination, the union’s survey found.

Delegates at the NASUWT conference in Birmingham will hear that one in three older teachers believe that they have been made to feel “less capable” than younger colleagues.

And one in five have felt that their “professional capabilities had been marginalised or undermined due to their age”…. Continue reading

Source: Independent >> Read full article and comment

Saturday, 3 April 2010

With its full-color screen and advanced features, the iPad is opening the doors for applications designed around illustrated children’s books. Among the many children’s literature apps launching with the iPad are ICDL for iPad, which links to a library of children’s literature in 54 languages, and A Story Before Bed, a service that allows users to record themseves reading a book for play back any time.

The free ICDL for iPad app links to what a press release calls “the world’s largest freely available collection of multi-lingual, online children’s books,” hosted by the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) Foundation and the University of Maryland.

The app boasts easy navigation of 4,000 titles from 64 countries in English, Arabic, Mongolian, Farsi, and 50 other languages. It allows for reading with a one- or two-page view, enabled by the iPad’s auto-rotation feature, and a “PopoutText” feature allows for clear text in highly illustrated pages.

http://www.childrenslibrary.org/

A Story Before Bed Bed, which just launched its iPad-tailored app, features an online library of more than 100 titles. Users ( parents, grandparents, etc.) select a title, then record themselves reading the story via webcam. They email the link to a child, who can view it at any time. The application syncs each page turn with the audio/video, which appears in a corner of the screen.

The free app comes bundled with a pre-recorded version of The Frog Princess by Adrian Klein and Katie Grosskopf; the price to send a book and recording is $6.99.

http://astorybeforebed.com

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

Compulsory sex education in primary schools will erode moral standards and encourage sexual experimentation, a group of hundreds of head teachers, school governors and faith leaders say today.

By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent
Published: 8:15AM BST 28 Mar 2010

From September next year, primary school pupils will learn about puberty, sexual intercourse, marriage and the risk of abuse and domestic violence Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY

In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, 640 signatories, including Catholic bishops, parish priests, university professors, councillors and doctors, call for legislation to be dropped which will see children as young as seven taught about sex and relationships.

From September next year, primary school pupils will learn about puberty, sexual intercourse, marriage and the risk of abuse and domestic violence.

Ministers have argued that currently, sex education starts too late and that improved, earlier lessons are needed to counter teenage pregnancy, increasingly explicit storylines in films and television soap operas, as well as exposure to pornography online and through mobile phones.

The Children, Schools and Families Bill, which is at committee stage in the Lords, will introduce compulsory sex education for children from the age of seven.

It will also remove the rights of parents to “opt out” and withdraw their children from lessons, once their children have reached the age of 15.

But the letter in opposition to the Bill claims the plans seek to impose a “particular ideology” and undermine parents’ rights to bring up their children in accordance with their own values and culture.

A further 1,500 parents, grandparents, youth workers and members of the public have also signed the letter. .. Continue reading

Source: Timesonline >> Read full article and comment

By Catherine Bruton

Will identifying ‘bad mother’ neurons prevent deaths such as Baby P’s, or condemn women before they even give birth?

As a little girl, Sian Busby was told that her great-grandmother had drowned her twin daughters when they were just a week old. Years later, when she became a mother, Sian was haunted by the notion that she might have inherited the same “bad mother gene”.

“My feelings of inadequacy and panic as a new mother were compounded by this sense that I might have a genetic predisposition towards infanticide or abusive behaviour,” she says. This in turn drove her to infanticidal fantasies and severe postnatal depression: “I felt completely overwhelmed by the task of mothering and at my lowest points the thought of putting a pillow over my baby’s head did flit across my mind. On those occasions, the knowledge of what my great-grandmother had done made me fear that I might actually be capable of doing the same.”

As bad mothers dominate headlines — from Tracey Connelly, Baby P’s mother, to this week’s tragic story of a ten-month-old boy who starved to death while he lay in his pram at his mother’s flat in North London — neurological research from the United States raises the question of whether a bad mother switch in the brain can be detected, and if so, whether neglectful or abusive behaviour could be prevented.

According to scientists at Richmond University in Virginia, women develop a set of “maternal neurons” that operate like “bad mother/good mother” switches in the brain. Using brain-scanning techniques, they have identified a cluster of brain cells, created during pregnancy and “switched on” after birth, that appear to correlate with good or bad parenting behaviours…..Continue reading

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By Julian Fellowes

After Sarkozy Senior’s risqué revelations about his nanny, Julian Fellowes recalls his own family’s more innocent experiences.

It seems the nanny is back in the news. This time she is accused of playing merry hell with the childish psyche, leaving boys incapable of love, commitment or tying their shoelaces. There is, however, a cultural oxymoron going on here. We are told by everyone, from television dramatists to government officials, that we must promote the right of women to have significant careers. I agree with this, actually, but any fool can see that, on some level, a nanny is essential for most women with professional ambitions.

Of course it is true that a nanny may be the first young, unrelated woman that a boy has encountered. My father found himself in this predicament in the 1920s. My grandfather had died in the Great War and some years later my grandmother married again and bore a second son when Pa was 12. A nursemaid was duly conscripted. My father was tall for his age and good looking, and it was not long before the new recruit offered to take him dancing “down the Palais”. Needless to say, he leaped at the offer and, when each Thursday came, he crept down, through the kitchens, escaped and met the girl on the corner. The palais in question was the Hammersmith Palais and over the next few months he became really quite a good dancer, rare in an Englishman, which served him well in the years ahead. This idyll lasted until the cook reported him to my grandmother. The nanny was sent packing and my father was under house arrest for some time. But, far from being damaged, he recalled the episode with gratitude for the rest of his life…..Continue reading

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A six-part series in the Guardian and Observer
Starts Saturday 27 March

Discover festivals, parks, farms, films and fun inside our six-part 1,000 things for kids to do series. Each guide is packed with inspiration for parents and grandparents to see your little ones through the Easter holidays and beyond, with a huge collection of ideas to keep the whole family entertained.

Day 1: Castles, palaces and theme parks
Day 2: Extreme sports and outdoor activities
Day 3: Parks, playgrounds and zoos
Day 4: Eating, cooking and gardening
Day 5: Museums and workshops
Day 6: Books, films and indoor activities

Source: Timesonline >> Read full article and comment

By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad and Graham Keeley in Madrid

Sahil Saeed, the five-year-old British boy kidnapped in Pakistan, returned home tonight after his family paid a £110,000 ransom to see him freed.

Sahil and his father, Raja Saeed Naqqash, 28, flew into Manchester Airport and then travelled on to the family home in Oldham after being reunited at the British High Commission in Islamabad.

Sahil’s mother, Akila Naqqash, 31, said he could expect a “big party” back home. Footage released of the reunion showed Sahil – abducted while on a family holiday to the Punjab on March 4 – sending a message to Mrs Naqqash. Prompted by his father, he said: “Mummy, I miss you. Mummy, I love you.”

A spokesman for the High Commission said: “Everyone was in very good spirits and of course delighted about his return. Sahil seemed really happy.”

The boy was found wandering alone, his hair shaved and wearing only one shoe, in a field an hour’s drive from his grandmother’s home in Jhelum on Tuesday.

The exact events leading up to his recovery remain a mystery, but Spanish police arrested three people in connection in Constanti, a small town near Tarragona in the northeast of the country, on Tuesday….Continue reading

Source: BBC News >> Read full article and comment

Sahil Saeed was taken in the Punjab region of Pakistan

Sahil Saeed, from Oldham, had been snatched from his grandmother’s house in Jhelum by armed robbers on 3 March.

The law minister of Punjab province, Rana Sanaullah, told a television reporter that a ransom had been paid.

The boy had been visiting relatives with his father, Raja Saeed, who had returned to the UK last week.

His return was against the wishes of Pakistan’s police, and correspondents say there has been speculation in Pakistan that he had returned to arrange ransom money.

Sahil was abandoned on Tuesday morning by the kidnappers 20 miles from Jhelum, near a village school in the town of Dinga, which is in the nearby Gujrat district, police officials have told the media in Pakistan.

Mr Sanaullah was asked on ARY TV whether Sahil’s father had paid £100,000 to the kidnappers, as had reportedly been demanded.

He said the money had been paid “not in Britain, but in another country”.

He added: “An international gang was involved in the kidnapping, including nationals of other countries”.

And he went on to say that the case “has been handled [by Pakistani police] in a professional manner”… Continue reading

Source: Independent >> Read full article and comment

Hotline would identify parents who had cheated on their application forms

By Richard Garner, Education Editor

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

The average family now gets together just once a month because siblings, parents and grandparents live so far apart, a study showed.

The poll of 3,000 respondents revealed more than half (51 per cent) believes their family doesn’t spend enough time together Photo: ALAMY

Hectic work schedules and increasing distances between relatives mean that typical adult family members see each other just twelve times a year.

It also emerged a third of people go a year or more without finding the time for a big family get-together while around one in ten only manage one every two years.

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• Britain ‘one of worst places to raise children’

Almost a third of people even admitted they do not plan to visit their mother this weekend for Mother’s Day.

A spokesman for Giovanni Rana fresh pasta, which carried out the study, said: ”There was a time when getting together with all of the family, including grandparents was a regular occasion.

”A big family roast every Sunday or a day out together once a week was not uncommon a few decades ago.

”Now, some people aren’t even planning on getting together with the parents and grandparents on Mother’s Day, a day that used to be set aside specifically for family time.

”It’s a shame that regular family time has fallen by the wayside, with many children potentially growing up seeing their grandparents just a few times a year.

”Many people no longer live in the same town as all of their family like we used to, and our lives are becoming busier than ever, especially if you have young children to ferry around.

”But it’s important to get together as often as possible and spend some quality time together as a family.”

The study also found two thirds of people only see their family on ‘special occasions’ such as birthday parties, weddings or funerals.

And 80 per cent even admitted there are certain family members they only ever see at these events.

The poll of 3,000 respondents also revealed more than half (51 per cent) believes their family doesn’t spend enough time together… Continue reading

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

Dear Baffled,

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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Sunday, 7 March 2010

A British break with added value that granny can come on, too. Is this the ultimate family holiday in 2010 asks Katy Holland

PRESS PICTURE
Holidays on home shores are popular this year

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Sophie Tedmanson

The children of the late pop star Michael Jackson have been embroiled in a bizarre family drama after their teenage cousin ordered a Taser gun over the internet and tested it inside one of the bathrooms at their extended family home.

(Gabriel Bouys)

Michael Jackson’s children: Paris (left), Prince Michael (right) and Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket

Child service workers are investigating the incident, which occurred at the Jackson compound in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Encino last month, where Michael’s three children live with their grandparents alongside their cousins, Jermaine Jackson’s children, and other family members.

According to Adam Streisand, a lawyer for the family matriarch Katherine Jackson, the controversial stun gun – usually only used by police — was ordered by Jermaine’s 13-year-old son Jafar, and delivered to the home where he proceeded to test it in a bathroom.

The celebrity gossip website tmz.com, which broke the news of Michael Jackson’s death last July, quoted sources alleging Jafar had aimed the Taser at eight-year-old Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket), the pop star’s youngest son. The website quoted a source saying security had allegedly “stopped Jermaine’s kids from stunning Blanket”.

“Jafar opened the package in his bathroom and tested it on a piece of paper,” Mr Streisand said.

He said that Katherine Jackson and the family’s security guards heard the sound of the Taser being used somewhere in the house and confiscated the weapon immediately… Continue reading

Source: BBC News >> Read full article and comment

Grandparents in low-income families are risking financial hardship by giving up work to help look after grandchildren, according to charity Grandparents Plus.

Grandparents often provide stability to a child, the report says

Source: Telegraph >> Read full article and comment

As a nation, we’ve educated our youth into debt, but never about debt. Yet that’s all going to change – from September next year personal finance education will be a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

By Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com

Martin Lewis: ‘Borrowing has lost its stigma yet we’re a debt-illiterate nation’

It couldn’t come too soon. Student loans have hit the grand old age of 20, yet it’s taken that time for politicians of any hue to realise that government-enforced borrowing must be coupled with government-enforced financial education.

Even so, being money-savvy needs more than just a classroom, so, as I’ll explain later, there are three vital Teen Cash Class lessons to teach your children.

It’s about breaking the debt habit

Modern Britain has a nasty debt habit. While many of the grandparental generation follow the ‘’neither a borrower nor lender be’’ mantra, some of today’s parents are debt-bingers relying on plastic as a crutch to fuel unsustainable lifestyles.

We’re left with an unnatural juxtaposition; borrowing has lost its stigma – after all we need it to buy houses or get educated – yet we’re a debt-illiterate nation. And while we need to accept that debt’s fire used correctly is a powerful enabler, too many still get burned. So the challenge is what and how we teach our children to stop passing on bad messages and break the cycle of debt.

BANK BRANDING IS OUT

For too long, the only financial educators in some schools have been banks and a cynic might say this is touting for trade, disguised as generosity.

After all, it was once calculated that people are more likely to get divorced than change a bank account. So if banks bribe 10 year-olds to join with a cheap plastic toy, they may still have them as customers half a century – and thousands of pounds in profits – later.

Not every bank aim is Machiavellian, but if we’re going to invite banks into schools, let’s ask 10 in to compete for business and show pupils how to assess their offers. This may just help teach that a bank’s prime job is to sell us products, not help.

CHECK OUT THE SWEETIES BY THE TILL

To start wee ones off correctly, we need to underpin that the modern world is all about competition and marketing. For that, there’s nowhere better than those cathedrals of consumerism we call supermarkets.

When there with under-eights, ask them “why do you think there are sweeties by the till?” And when those cherubic faces look up, explain that it’s because “a supermarket’s job is to make money, so they put the sweeties there so you won’t forget to ask mummy or daddy for them; that way they might make a little bit more money”.

WHAT’S IN THE NEW CURRICULUM?

Financial education will become a compulsory part of what’s known as Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) – a life class that also includes sex, drugs, hygiene and health education taught to all primary and secondary pupils.

Personally, I would also love to see an intensive couple of weeks taught to 16 year-olds after they’ve finished GCSEs and before end of term – the perfect moment to prepare them for the real world…. Continue reading

Britain’s policymakers talk endlessly about the needs of mum, dad and the kids, but the needs of the grandparents’ barely get a mention

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Policymakers sometimes recognise the value of grandparents as carers for their grandchildren but they often forget the needs of the grandparents.

There is a curious discrepancy across all political parties on family policy and care for older people. This same discrepancy features in media images of family life. In the Observer’s recent “Complete Guide to Family Life” there is a big picture of young mum, dad and smiling child on the cover. But where oh where is granny ?

Only in the latter pages, do granny and occasionally granddad enter, and then largely as bit players and always in terms of what they contribute to the nuclear family of mum, dad and baby. No one ever mentions what they might need themselves in terms of loving relationships, care, and support.

Somebody, somewhere, has to turn the tables on this cosy but totally unrealistic scenario and the stark and unhelpful separation of older people from the families they created.

Every so often, policy makers throw in a mention of ‘intergenerational activity – young people helping out in old people’s homes or older people reminiscing for the young – a sort of social history lesson in real time. Sometimes we even get a treatise on how valuable grannies are as unpaid carers for the grandchildren.

But nothing yet on the huge change we will experience – we must experience – if care for older people is to be achieved without ruining the lives of their children. In 30 years time (when the healthier of the baby boom generation will be in their 80s and 90s) there will simply not be enough people of working age to look after us.

Professor Ray Tallis has said that some of us at least will actually live longer, healthier lives or have what he calls “untapped potential for postponing disability”. At a recent conference for directors of social services, he was adamant that the impact of health promotion, illness prevention, the appropriate use of existing and new technologies will all make a huge difference to us leading healthier lives. In other words, “we will spend a longer time living and a shorter time dying,” as John Grimley Evans wrote in 1997. … Continue reading

‘You can do anything,’ first lady tells winners of Black History Month essay contest

Source: The Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Michelle Obama welcomes students from schools across of Islington in the White House in Washington DC. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Ten London secondary school students received a pep talk fromMichelle Obama at the White House yesterday.

The teenagers from schools in Islington, north London, were invited to the White House after winning a Black History Month essay contest, in which they explored the experience of African and Caribbean migrants in Britain.

Their visit came a day after the Guardian revealed the mayor of London,Boris Johnson, had slashed funding for Black History Month from £132,000 to £10,000.

“If Boris has cut the budget, that wouldn’t stop us spreading the word about black history, so we’re going to keep on going,” said Curtly Mejias, 18, of St Mary Magdalene Academy, shortly after reading an excerpt from an essay about his Trinidadian grandmother to Obama.

The first lady invited children from 10 different schools to the White House during her visit to Islington’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school in April, when she was in London with her husband, Barack Obama, for theG20 meetings.

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By BETH HALE
Source: Daily Mail >> Read full article and comment

Young mothers are turning their backs on high-powered careers to raise their children, a study has found.

Their mothers, or even grandmothers, lived through a time when women fought for full-time work and better pay.

But today’s generation is returning to the traditional values of home and family – and looking to men to be the breadwinners.

The about-face was highlighted yesterday in research presented by leading sociologist Geoff Dench, who has analysed responses to questions asked in the annual British Social Attitudes survey.

His analysis comes against a background of growing political pressure on mothers to go out to work.

It revealed a striking change in values in the decade since New Labour swept to power.

The number of mothers with children under four who thought that family life would suffer if women worked full-time fell in the years before Tony Blair took office, dropping from 43 per cent in 1990 to 21 per cent in 1998. But by 2002 it was rising and in 2006 had soared to 37 per cent.

Similarly the number of women in the same category who agreed that most women want a home and children fell between 1994 and 2002 to 15 per cent.

But in 2006, the last time the question was asked in the survey, that number had rocketed to 32 per cent – higher even than back in 1986 when it stood at 20 per cent.

By far the biggest leap came when women were asked whether they agreed that men and women should have different roles.

In 1986, 40 per cent of women with children under four said ‘yes’, four years later that had plummeted to 13 per cent and by 2002 it had dropped still lower to 2 per cent.

In 2006, however, that had jumped back up to 17 per cent.

Last night Mr Dench, who completed his analysis for the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies in association with the Hera Trust, said: ‘Women with young children are going back to the very traditional division of labour in which they want the husband as the breadwinner.

‘Having tried full-time working themselves they have found the home much more interesting and want to be enabled to have that – especially if the only job they have access to is a dull job.’

He said there had been a gradual move back towards ‘more positive evaluations of women’s traditional “work” in the family and informal community’.

While mothers have increased the amount of paid work they do, he said this was mostly part-time work, enabling them also to spend time in the home.

He said evidence pointed to the group fuelling the switch being young mothers aged 18 to 34 – the same age as their mothers were when they fought for the right to work on a par with men.

‘They are rocking against the Baby Boom generation, in many cases their own parents,’ he added. ‘Just as young women led the movement into higher levels of paid work, it seems to be young women who are leading a return to more traditional values.’ … Continue reading

Source: Timesonline >> Read full article and comment

How do you turn a sink school into one of the country’s best state academies? We meet the head who made it happen

Helen Rumbelow

Catherine Myers is very proud of her chairs. Myers is proud of everything and everyone in her amazingly successful state school but the new chairs, they sort of sum it up. They are from Sweden (where Myers has drawn so much inspiration for her vision), double-padded for comfort (the last detail in encouraging children to enjoy lessons) and designed with a funky slot to hook them on the desks after each class (high expectations of respect).

What makes a school good? We all know it when we see it but teachers and politicians have found it confoundingly hard to reproduce. It starts with a good head teacher — but what is it that he or she does? And it demands excellent facilities — but what should they be? And the ethos, that’s important — but a dizzying array of fashions, from strict to creative, have come and gone.

In a debate last night at the British Library, Dr Anthony Seldon, the Master of Wellington College, called for an end to “formulaic and mechanised” education at “large and anonymised” schools. Myers would beg to differ: her buzzword is “personalised” learning, even on such a busy city campus. Be you male, female, arty, practical or academic, she believes that technology enables teachers to fashion a learning plan for each individual.

The Times set out to plot how Myers transformed a sink school in the most deprived borough in England into a gleaming £32 million campus that has one of the poorest intakes and best outcomes in the country. It is a story of a woman who looked at the privilege that the independent sector offered and decided that she wanted better than that for her children in Tower Hamlets, East London. She travelled to a dozen countries and built a institution whose architecture was inspired by Reims Cathedral and whose vocational work echoes that of the Volvo high schools in Sweden. It is a story of a woman unafraid to think big and different — for example, to separate girls and boys for both learning and play. And it is a story about chairs.

As Myers, who can spot a contraband hat on a 13-year-old boy as easily as his slipped grade, says in her soft Scottish brogue, “it is all about the details”.

Myers’s grandmotherly appearance and personal modesty are deceptive. Warning: do not get in the way of what this woman wants. She was born into a working-class family in Glasgow, and doing well at school was her way out. She knew that was what she wanted to give others: after a degree in physics and a break to have her three children, she determined to run her own school that could transform the lives of the poorest.

In 1992, she found it. Bishop Challoner had been founded in the 19th century by the Sisters of Mercy nuns to save East End girls from prostitution and drink. But by the time Myers found it, the girls’ state secondary was hardly doing that. She tested the 11-year-olds and found that the highest reading age was that of an average nine-year-old. Less than a fifth of them were leaving with five GCSEs at grades A-C.

To those educationists who disapprove of testing, let Myers be a lesson to you, and to me, as I sit down in her new office (passing five girls waiting nervously outside the door). She gives all new pupils a cognitive ability test (CAT) and retests them every year. The CAT is also used to help in choosing subjects and careers. Each student is given an ambitious performance target.

Although this approach is now catching on, 18 years ago Myers was the pioneer. She can produce for me spreadsheets of each child’s progress; if pupils fall behind, she and the teachers ask them why.

“We ask children, how do you like to learn? Aside from the core subjects, there is no reason why they can’t like to learn and learn what they like.”

It also meant that Myers could test her initiatives. Did her “book box”, which got every child to review a book each week, work? Yes, she had the evidence that literacy levels were rising.

“We worked our socks off,” says Myers, who puts in a regular 16-hour day. Sure enough, now nearly 90 per cent of girls obtain five GCSEs at grades A-C, and Bishop Challoner is in the top 2 per cent of state secondaries even though more than half the pupils receive free school meals, 27 per cent have special needs, and they speak a total of 73 mother tongues .

In 2001 the local boys’ Catholic secondary failed its inspections so abysmally that it was closed down. Its head teachers were leaving every six months. Myers pushed to take it over — but on her terms. In what was then an unprecedented move, she brokered a deal with the Government to become head of Britain’s first federated school.

“It took lateral thinking. But we were doing well for the girls and I wanted to do the same for the boys, but without compromising what the girls were achieving.”

Myers is executive head of the girls’ school, the boys’ school, the sixth-form college and the community programmes, with 1,700 pupils and 354 staff. In effect, she formed a system that the Government now uses to save failing schools.

“It is like running a medium-sized public limited company,” she says, adding unnecessarily that it is “run tightly” because when we set off on a tour the corridors are eerily quiet. When she walks into a room, a deeper hush falls.

One cheeky boy dares to ask “Anything I can do for you, Miss?” and is answered with whispered menace, “Yes, see me in my office in half an hour.” .. Continue reading