Goodbye DfES / ChildmindersUndoubtedly the biggest news of the last couple of days in the childcare and education sector is the break-up of the DfES. New prime minister Gordon Brown has instead created two new ministries, so in future we'll all have to get used to watching the work of the new Department for Children, Schools …
Ethnicity and EducationA new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation entitled Tackling Low Educational Achievement has been in the news this morning. Although the report takes a holistic approach to examining the reasons for the poor performance of some children at school, it seems to have made headlines primarily for …
Mature Students & ICTA slightly more personal touch to today's post... I'm currently in the early stages of a research project which will look at how effectively mature students make use of online information for their assignments. Hopefully by September a questionnaire will be circulating with more detailed information…
Leave A Comment!Did you know that you can leave comments on this blog for other users to see? If you've read a post and think that I've not mentioned a useful resource, or would like to request a further post on a similar topic, or just want to leave some constructive feedback, then you can do so. In theory this ma…
Child PovertySince coming to power in 1997, one of the main priorities of the Labour government has been to tackle the issue of child poverty. As a result, a large number of reports have been published on this topic, and you can read about some of these by looking at this previous post from 27 March.However, a n…
Religious EducationThis morning's main story regarding young people appears to be the publication of a new Ofsted report, which suggests that the provision of religious education is in need of an overhaul. The report makes a number of recommendations, including a call for a national curriculum for religious education,…
Making ConnectionsI just returned from the NAEYC Leadership Conference in Pittsburgh. I always enjoy this conference because it is made up of professional leaders and instructors in the field of early childhood. I appreciated the conference this year because of the workshops that I attended to keep my skills sharp. P…
Men In ChildcareHow many males do you know that work in an early years setting? The answer is probably very low, if indeed you've met any at all. And it's not really that much of a shock when you look at some of these statistics from the Daycare Trust on Men and Childcare.In our current equal opportunities culture,…
Listening to Families / ObesityIf you currently work in a nursery then you may soon be looking at changes to your working hours. A new report entitled Listening to Families was published yesterday by the Daycare Trust, and recommends that nurseries should open at weekends and in the evenings to suit parents whose jobs don't follo…
Another Internet TipWhen carrying out academic research, it is usually important to ensure that the information you are using is up-to-date. This can sometimes be a problem when surfing the internet, as it's not always clear when a Web page was last revised.The next time you have this problem, try clicking in the addre…
Is there a Class Divide?The latest report from the Millennium Cohort Study suggests that children from disadvantaged families are already falling behind more affluent peers in terms of their development by the age of three. A User’s Guide to Initial Findings from the study also contains detailed information on topics as di…
PhonicsA study in Belfast has concluded that a system called linguistic phonics helps children to make more progress with their reading skills.This is just the latest development in a debate over phonics that has generated a lot of research in recent years. It's impossible to do justice to the various view…
Families with Children in BritainLast month saw the publication of the seventh annual survey of the Families and Children Study (FACS), which investigates the circumstances of British families with dependent children.Families with Children in Britain: Findings from the 2005 Families and Children Study (FACS) is a hugely detailed re…
Searching An Individual WebsiteDo you ever get irritated because you are sure that the information you want is on a particular website, but you just can’t find the right page? This is often a problem with large websites such as the DfES where the sheer amount of information available makes it difficult to find the exact section t…
The First Three YearsAs I have been writing an organizational tool for caregivers of infants and toddlers, I have been amazed at the developmental milestones that occur during the first three years of life. Having grandchildren in the age range of 11-36 months, it has been nice to see how those milestones occur. It is…
PlayA new survey has suggested that parents' fears over their children's safety is preventing those children from indulging in unsupervised play, and impacting on their opportunities to form bonds with friends. The survey is part of the Children's Society's Good Childhood Inquiry, and you can read a sum…
Birmingham Council PlanA local feel to today's entry - to see where your taxes are being spent, you can take a look at Birmingham's Council Plan 2007-10. It has a number of sections on children's and community issues which may be of interest.…
Disabled ChildrenA recent report from the Treasury and DfES has examined how services for disabled children can improve their life chances. Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families was published on 21 May, and coincided with a government pledge to commit £340 million to improving services in th…
