News
Teaching Assistants positive role models
Tories urge childcare tax break
Rural poverty 'hits one-in-five'
Children's food high in salt and fat
Poor 'miss out on good education'
Schools “not advising on abuse”
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28 June 2006 - Teaching Assistants positive role models
Classroom support staff are believed to make significant contributions to pupils' learning, research suggests. A review of 15 studies in Europe, by London University's Institute of Education, said teaching assistants also faced a range of challenges. These included knowing enough science and maths to understand some lessons.
The institute said more work was needed on how much assistants were using teachers' lesson plans and on what pupils thought of them.
As this role develops, further training will be essential to sustain quality input and support from the range of support staff now operating in schools. The review was prompted by the big growth in the use of teaching assistants (TAs) in the UK as a result of changes to the school workforces. Parents' perceptions were also not included in the research that was looked at.
This remains a controversial area. In England and Wales the National Union of Teachers refused to sign an agreement on such changes. It objects to assistants taking lessons while teachers have a half day each week out of class for planning and marking.
A 2004 study by a former government adviser said they were failing to raise classroom standards and were no substitute for qualified teachers. The institute said assistants clearly believed that they made "significant contributions".
They were acting as a bridge between teacher and pupil, interpreting and adapting what the teacher was doing so pupils' learning was more successful, supporting groups and individuals, and promoting pupils' autonomy.
Likewise teachers were "generally positive", welcoming the support and especially the flexibility that the presence of an additional adult gave them.
Teachers and head teachers said assistants were "very valuable to them as resources and as support for their work". Their role in children's learning was increasingly important.
The review "also confirmed that the presence of additional adults in the classroom is not a guarantee of social and academic engagement".
Subject knowledge was an issue "in that they first have to understand the teacher's input if they are to be able to support learning and evaluate outcomes successfully".
"For some Teaching Assistants, this may be a challenge in specialist areas of the curriculum, such as in science or numeracy.
"As this role develops, further training will be essential to sustain quality input and support from the range of support staff now operating in schools," the institute said.
A systematic literature review on the perceptions of ways in which support staff work to support pupils' social and academic engagement in primary classrooms (1988-2003), Institute of Education, London University.
Source www.bbc.co.uk/news
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21 June 2006 - Tories urge childcare tax break
Conservative leader David Cameron is to call for working parents to qualify for tax relief on childcare. He will deem it "pretty offensive" a working man can get tax relief on his mobile phone bill, but a working woman cannot if she uses a childminder.
He told the National Family and Parenting Institute that this is among ideas to make childcare tax credit simpler and "more user-friendly".
Mr Cameron pledged to help single parents as well as married couples, and gay partners who have had a civil ceremony should enjoy the same tax breaks as heterosexual married couples.
The Tory leader, a father-of-three, is also to encourage fathers to be there for the "magic moment" of their child's birth. Mr Cameron, 39, will say that childbirth can be a key bonding moment or a "missed opportunity which leaves a couple drifting apart".
During Tuesday's speech, he set out ideas to be looked at by one of the forums he set up to develop future policy. He said it is "ridiculous" that a working woman cannot get tax relief on childcare.
"Tax relief on childcare for working parents would end this unfair anomaly and this is something that our policy review will be investigating," he said.
Making sure working parents get the money "irrespective of the child care they use" was one simple way of improving the current system.
Addressing the issue of childcare will be a "vital part" of work aimed at helping lone parent families, he said.
"Looking for, and paying for childcare is breathtakingly complex, and especially tough for lone parents, parents from disadvantaged groups, and parents with disabled children.
"So I believe that government has a duty to make good childcare affordable. Sadly, our childcare costs are now among the highest in Europe."
But Mr Cameron will say Chancellor Gordon Brown's solution - the childcare tax credit - is too complicated.
He will also propose that a policy review group looks at how to help new parents.
"Our policy review will be looking to learn lessons from successful projects around the world addressing this specific aspect of the couple relationship," he said.
One option might include "family relationship centres", like those seen in Australia, which offer support for couples.
Labour chief whip Jacqui Smith accused the Tory leader of opposing the introduction of paid paternity leave and describing family friendly legislation as "damaging our competitiveness".
"It is Labour that is giving mum and dads more choice over how they balance work and family life through paid paternity leave, extended maternity leave and the right to request flexible working - all measures that are strengthening families," she said.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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21 June 2006 - Rural poverty 'hits one-in-five'
Ministers and the private sector should address problems in rural areas where one-in-five people live in poverty, a government advisory body has concluded. The Commission for Rural Communities said financial poverty, transport, and low take-up of benefits were issues for people in the English countryside.
But in a survey of residents, 48% did not recognise there was disadvantage.
Another recent report cited high house prices, low wages and the outward migration of young people as concerns.
The Carnegie Commission for Rural Development, which is undertaking a 20-month inquiry into the countryside, said bureaucracy and short-term grants can inhibit development.
The CRC said "traditional attitudes" meant the disadvantaged in the countryside often do not want to draw attention to themselves.
There is much, too, that the wider public, private and community sectors can and should take forward
In a survey by BMRB of 1,000 people, a majority thought their area was a good place to bring up children, with low crime and good schools.
But 78% said it was difficult to find decent affordable housing, 64% acknowledged well-paid jobs were in short supply and more than 33% thought some people did not have enough money to cover the basics.
The Rural Disadvantage: Priorities for Action report also highlighted the importance of community halls, village shops and rural post offices and "network poverty" caused by lack of social interaction.
"The role of government will be critical, but there is much, too, that the wider public, private and community sectors can and should take forward," said Dr Stuart Burgess, chairman of the CRC's parent body, the Countryside Agency.
"It is also vital that policies to tackle disadvantage are not measured by over-simplistic targets that can be achieved simply by contorting on urban areas alone."
Source: ww.bbc.co.uk/news
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20 June 2006 - Children's food high in salt and fat
A survey of children's favourite foods showed some contain double the recommended dose of salt or fat. The Trading Standards Institute warned parents to be on the look out for the huge variation in the amounts of fat and salt contained in some foods.
It also called on the food industry to standardise content labels in a readily understandable format. Trading standards officers warned of an 'obesity time bomb' after analysing 279 foods popular with children.
The foods included breakfast cereals, lunch box foods, crisps, desserts, sweets, ready meals, pizzas and tinned products such as beans and spaghetti hoops. They found a wide variation in nutritional values in similar foods - for example, some sweets contained 33g fat but others only had 0.1g, and the amount of salt in ready-made meals varied from 6.9g to just a trace.
"Our survey indicates that there is a wide difference in the amounts of fat and salt present in similar types of foods"
In the course of one day a child eating the highest fat content breakfast cereal, snack, ready-made lunchbox, cereal bar, chocolate bar, ready-made meal, dessert and drink could be consuming 133.7g of fat.
The guideline daily amounts of fat are 85g for boys aged 11 to 14 and 70g for girls, including a maximum of 25g saturated fat.
If children ate food with the highest salt content they could be consuming 13.5 g of salt - more than twice the maximum recommended level for 11 to 14-year-olds and three- and-a-half times the amount for four to six-year-olds.
"Our survey indicates that there is a wide difference in the amounts of fat and salt present in similar types of foods," said Phil Thomas, TSI spokesperson on food.
"Parents should check the amount of fat and salt when choosing pre-packed food for their children - and look at the actual amount that will be consumed by eating that product, rather than the content per 100g," he said.
He commended the Food Standards Agency for its 'traffic light' initiative, which encourages supermarkets and manufacturers to use a 'red, amber, green' nutritional guide on the front of packs to indicate levels of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar
Professor Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), said: "I find it shocking that food manufacturers are still producing foods aimed at children that contain large quantities of salt. ”We know that salt acts as a chronic long-term toxin, slowly putting up blood pressure as we grow older.
"This rise in blood pressure is the major cause of strokes, heart failure and heart attacks."
Dr David Haslam, GP and clinical director of the National Obesity Forum said: "There are two problems, one is with education of the general public and one is food labelling."
"The traffic light scheme is done with good intentions but I don't think by itself it is the answer. We need education in schools and public information campaigns."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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08 June 2006 - Poor 'miss out on good education'
Children from poorer families are far less likely to go to good schools than their better-off peers, a study says. The University of Bristol-based team looked at children in England living at equal distances from a good school and an average or low-scoring one.
Researchers found children eligible for free school meals were 40% less likely to go to the good school. Report author Simon Burgess said it suggested children from poorer families were not getting a good deal.
The findings of the report, by the university's Centre for Market and Public Organisation, have been presented to the Education Select Committee.
The government is currently pushing through reforms in its Education and Inspections Bill. Part of this aims to increase the choice of school available through measures such as extending free transport available to the poorest families and providing advice.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Our bill proposals are all about promoting choice and tackling educational disadvantage.
"The trust school model - which is built on the experience of specialist schools - can and will help the most disadvantaged pupils."
Professor Burgess said part of the intention was to reduce the importance of income in allocating school places.
A useful analogy for the system is a modified game of musical chairs - there are enough chairs for everyone but some are more desirable than others.
This could be done in two ways, he said - either through a "free-for-all" ballot or by allowing over-subscribed schools to expand.
He said: "If you have an oversubscribed school you have to choose pupils somehow.
"Once you have gone through the usual route of pupils who have siblings at the school or pupils with special needs, you get to distance but that, of course, comes down to income because of the desire to live in a catchment area. Ballots are purely random.
"Another part of the strategy is to allow popular schools to expand. Obviously there are practical problems but I think in a way that would be the best outcome."
He said school choice was feasible for most secondary school pupils in that they had more than one school near to where they live but only half of all secondary school pupils attend their nearest school.
What needed to be done, he said, was to reform the system of choice so that it was accessible to all. Schools should also have a better chance of responding to this by choosing to either expand or contract.
But he added: "A useful analogy for the system is a modified game of musical chairs - there are enough chairs for everyone but some are more desirable than others.
"The point is that one person's choice of chair has implications for the places available to others."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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06 June 2006 - Schools “not advising on abuse”
Incomplete sex education in schools is leaving children confused about sexual abuse, according to an NSPCC survey. Some 93% of 2,000 children surveyed said their lessons did not include any information on sexual abuse. 82% of them did not know it was illegal for a 30-year-old man to sexually touch a 15-year-old girl. The NSPCC is calling on the government to make sure 14 to 16-year-olds are taught about sex in the context of law, relationships and peer pressure.
Chris Cloke, the charity's head of children protection awareness, said: "We must arm young people with a clear knowledge of where the law stands on sex and what constitutes sexual abuse. That way children will have more confidence to speak out on abuse."
Three-quarters of children who have suffered sexual abuse do not speak out at the time, he added. The survey was hosted on the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's websites, donthideit.com and mykindaplace.com
The survey found that, although 92% of children knew the age of consent, 88% did not consider a 23-year-old woman having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old as abusive. And 89% did not regard a 16-year-old having a sexual relationship with a teacher as an abusive situation.
Mr Cloke said: "Sex is a minefield for young people. They face a daily barrage of conflicting messages about sex and yet they don't have the knowledge to guide them through it."
The NSPCC is sending school pupils an information card detailing what sexual abuse is and where they can get advice. The survey and card are part of the charity's 'don't hide it' campaign, which encourages young people to speak out on all forms of sexual abuse.
The children's charity is also calling for Personal Social and Health Education to be made a foundation subject, and this would include sex and relationship education for 14 to 16-year-olds.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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