A New YearHere we are poised to begin another new year. There is always much talk about resolutions and what we want to change about ourselves for the coming year. I have tried to make at least one resolution each year. That resolution is to contribute one important thing to the early childhood community. …
Review of 2008As this is the period when reviews of the year are published, today's post gathers together some of the most significant childhood and education reports and events from 2008.Rather appropriately, it seemed like there were a lot of reviews being published this year - the Bercow Report looked at servi…
I was out breaking the ice on our pond (winter has arrived!) so that the turtles hibernating in the bottom will have oxygen. While breaking the ice I was thinking about the discussion that happens every year at this time about saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." It all boils down to valida…
Children's Plan / Play StrategyTwo documents released last week by the DCSF:It is 12 months since the publication of the Children's Plan (see this previous post for details); now the DCSF has released a progress report which details what has been done so far across a range of areasThe Play Strategy describes how the DCSF intends …
The Child Care TransitionReaders with an interest in early years provision in other countries should be interested in a new report from UNICEF. Published yesterday, The Child Care Transition examines early childhood education and care in 25 economically advanced countries by utilising a league table system, measuring each c…
Monitoring Poverty & Social ExclusionThis week has seen the 10th anniversary of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report. The 2008 edition is slightly different from previous versions, in that it analyses trends in this area for the whole of the last decade. The conclusions are mixed: good …
Wider Workforce WeekMany of our readers may be interested to learn that this week is Wider Workforce Week on Teachers TV. All week the service (Freeview Channel 88) will be dedicating a large proportion of its schedule to programmes which focus on the roles of staff such as Teaching Assistants, HLTAs, lunchtime supervi…
Rose Review - Interim ReportSince January of this year, Sir Jim Rose has been carrying out an independent review of primary education in the UK, on the instructions of the DCSF. The importance of this review can be easily gauged by the amount of press attention that the publication of today's interim report has generated.Among…
Faith Schools & Community CohesionThe issue of faith schools is in the news again, following the release of a new report from the Runnymede Trust. This new research is likely to add further fuel to an already controversial topic; among its claims are the suggestions that popular faith schools are becoming a way of preserving privile…
Someday...I am in the middle of interviewing students from my Introduction to Teaching courses at the university. I am so excited about the number of students who are forging ahead with the teaching programs. We know all of the negatives about teaching, such as lower salaries, behavior problems with students …
Homes Fit for FamiliesSomething for our Family Support Workers today; a few months ago the Family & Parenting Institute published Homes Fit for Families: An Evidence Review. This paper explores the literature which is available on how children and families can be affected by their housing and neighbourhood, and suggests …
More Bits 'n' BobsDetails of more useful items which have been published in the last week:The latest report from Every Child A Reader suggests that the programme to help struggling children has had "spectaular" results; on average, pupils boosted their reading age by two years in just four of five months. For a close…
DCSF reportsThere is always plenty of new research and reports being published in the Childhood and Early Years sectors, but lately there seems to have been a particularly large amount of new information being made available, so the posts for today and tomorrow will be a jumble of 'bits and bobs' to fit them al…
Children's Services / BullyingHere's a round up of several items of interest from recent weeks, which fall into two broad areas: children's services and bullying.Last week saw the Children's and Young Persons Act 2008 pass into law. The act contains provisions in relation to well-being of children and young people, private foste…
Yaa..Well...There's Always Mashed Potatoes.I was excited to help in my granddaughter's first grade class recently. She has a great teacher, but I still thought about telling her to go home and let me take over. I do miss the daily interaction with young children. I really wished I lived closer because one particular boy instantly bonded to m…
Play for a ChangeSeveral students I know are doing research into children's play at the moment, so hopefully all of them (and many other readers) will find today's post useful.Last week Play England published Play for a Change - Play, Policy and Practice: A Review of Contemporary Perspectives. The organisation prese…
Education For AllThe latest edition of UNESCO's annual global monitoring report for education makes for depressing reading. In previous years the organisation had set a target to have all primary age children in education by 2015, yet the failure of rich countries to meet their aid pledges means that there could be …
New Laws on Forced MarriagesLast year the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 was voted through by parliament, and from today this legislation is to be implemented in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is the first set of laws which have been designed specifically to deal with the issue of forced marriage; among…
Children and Young People in MindWhen the Children's Plan was published by the DCSF in December last year, one of the announcements that it contained was for an independent review of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the UK. Following the publication of an interim report - Improving the Mental Health and Psycho…
What Happened?If you think the blog looks different, you'd be right! Unfortunately we had some technical problems with the previous template which was used to design the page, so have been forced to give the blog a new look. Hopefully readers will still find that the information here is clearly laid out and easy …
Pupil AttainmentThe DCSF has just released detailed statistics on pupil attainment for the last academic year, which are broken down by various pupil characteristics, including gender, ethnicity, SEN and others. For the first time, Foundation Stage results have been included too. To view the statistics, click here.…
CCInform (Again!)It's a slow news day, so I'd just like to take another opportunity to remind students about CCInform which is now located behind the 'Non-Athens Resources' link on Blackboard, and no longer requires you to remember any login details.CCInform is a service from the people behind Community Care magazin…
Working TogetherBased on recent comments, know that nothing brings out the passion in people like politics (and religion). It would be nice if everyone would take all of their passion for such topics and aim it toward improving things that will really improve the life of citizens. As I mentioned a couple of weeks a…
Ofsted Annual ReportToday sees the publication of Ofsted's annual report, which gives an overall picture of the state of education in England. The latest report differs slightly from previous years as Ofsted now has a wider remit to inspect all children's services and adult learning as well as schools. Among the core t…
Britain & BeyondFollowing on from yesterday's post, here are some details of another recent survey. Britain and Beyond is the name of a new report from the charity Youthnet; the research for the report was carried out from May-July 2008, when 850 young people aged 16-24 were asked about their attitudes to issues su…
Breaking The CycleA poll commissioned by the charity Barnardos has uncovered some rather negative statistics; according to the research which they have commissioned, more than half of the population believe that UK children are "feral" and behave like animals.The figures drawn come from a new report entitled Breaking…
School and MoneyWe are in such a shaky economic time right now that I worry about the effects it will have on educational funding. Almost 50% of funding for education comes from state money (the rest comes from local taxes and a small amount from the federal government). I knew funding was always a critical issue w…
A Mixed BagNeed some reading for the weekend? Once again the latest issue of the OnTheWeb newsletter (see this previous post for details of this excellent service) has come up trumps, so without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the latest issue...Aspirations: The Views of Foster Children and t…
Harnessing Technology 2008Becta have just released their latest annual Harnessing Technology report; this review focuses on the use of ICT in schools and further education, and provides an excellent snapshot of current provision for students. One of the key issues highlighted in this year's report is the importance of ensuri…
Raising the BarThe Daycare Trust has today published a new briefing which I suspect most of the blog's readers will support wholeheartedly. The report argues that the government should intervene on pay and conditions for early years workers, and proposes a number of recommendations as to how this could be achieved…
Educational Provision for Autistic ChildrenThe Autism Education Trust (AET) was launched last year by the DCSF, to investigate improve educational support for children in England who are on the autistic spectrum. Today the AET publishes Educational Provision for Children and Young People on the Autism Spectrum Living in England: a Review of …
Ending Child Poverty: Thinking 2020A new week, a new child poverty report...The government's pledge to end child poverty by 2020 is well known; back in June, the Child Poverty Unit and the Institute for Public Policy Research held a conference to discuss future methods of achieving this goal. A summary of the papers presented, and co…
CCInformEarlier this year I posted about an impressive new service we had introduced to the College called CCInform. Initially take-up of the new service was low as we had some issues with regards to setting up user accounts for students, but these have now been resolved and you can access CCInform behind t…
It Is History!Like many Americans, I had a hard time sleeping last night after hearing President-elect Obama's acceptance speech. His speech was filled with a challenge for future healing and a hope that America can get back on track as a land of promise. I felt the promise that we can make our country an even be…
Learning Outside The ClassroomA new DCSF backed website has recently been lauched for educators in England. It's title is Learning Outside The Classroom, and it's aim is to provide information and resources for practitioners who work in this area. The site is still a work in progress so is not yet complete, but it is worth takin…
Getting On, Getting AheadYesterday saw the publication of Getting On, Getting Ahead, a discussion paper from the government's Strategy Unit. The report is based on research carried out by the LSE and Bristol University, and suggests that social mobility in the UK (the ability of individuals to move between social classes an…
Fostering FamiliesA new publication from the Fostering Network examines an area of policy that is often disregarded; the report, entitled Fostering Families, looks at the issues that can be faced by the sons and daughters of parents who choose to offer foster care to other children. The report also contains some reco…
Information SharingWednesday's blog post talked about the role of children's trusts in coordinating services, so perhaps it's timely that this week the Government has chosen to issue some updated guidance on information sharing which is aimed at practitioners who work in health, education, or social care. The various …
Family Support WorkersToday's post is aimed at our students on the Family Support Workers foundation degree course. I spoke with some of you in the library on Monday and it was mentioned that while many of you look at the blog regularly, you'd like to see more posts relating specifically to your course rather than genera…
Are We There Yet?Today's post title is nothing to do with children in the back seat of a car...In 2003 the Victoria Climbie Inquiry delivered its final report into the circumstances of her death. Among its recommendations to prevent a recurrence of such an event was a proposal (later taken up by the Government) to e…
Hot and ColdThis past week, I had the opportunity of doing workshops in Los Angeles and Anaheim, California as well as Atlantic City, New Jersey. When I boarded the plane in Anaheim, it was 92 degrees. When I deplaned in Philadelphia, it was in the 40's. Burrrrr...what a difference. Going from hot to cold made …
Children's Survey / Gifted ChildrenOfsted has just published its annual Tellus3 survey which asks 10-15 year olds in England a range of questions covering the five Every Child Matters outcomes about their lives, concerns, and general wellbeing. You can read about some of the most interesting findings by looking at this news story, wh…
New Child Poverty ResearchChild poverty is one of those topics that seems to be perenially in the news, but even those who follow it closely may be surprised to learn that according to a new piece of research, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, child poverty is costing Britain £25 billion pounds a year. This figure apparen…
Every Child Matters articleToday's post is simply to point you towards an article which appeared in yesterday's Guardian, which some of you may find interesting. Changes for the Better interviews several professionals who work with young people to ask them how children's services have changed in the five years since the publi…
Children's Emotional Development and WellbeingThe Office for National Statistics has just released a lengthy new report entitled Three Years On, which takes a detailed look at the development and emotional well-being of children and young people. The report has made headlines for it's claim that children whose parents have separated are more li…
Families & RelationshipsThe Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) is a department of the University of Edinburgh. Research carried out by the Centre spans a wide range of topics, such as parenting styles, the treatment of older generations and cohabitation. Although much of their published output focuses…
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About ChildrenToday's post may be the longest this blog has ever seen; last months issue of OnTheWeb (see this previous post for details of this excellent service) was packed with reports that students may find useful, covering topics such as mathematics, child obesity, preschool education, play, and much more. S…
The Millennium Cohort StudyThe Millennium Cohort Study is a huge ongoing project which is examining the social conditions which today's children will encounter as they grow up, and so looks at a wide range of topics such as education, parenting, social class and more. The project is so named because it gathers its data from o…
ICT in Secondary SchoolsToday's post is for our ICT bods. Last month Becta produced a series of reports on the subject of Web 2.0 within secondary school (for an explanation of 'Web 2.0', see this previous post). Each report considers different aspects of how such technologies can be used within schools, and their possible…
Quality Child CareIn the last weeks we have been talking about quality child care in my Introduction to Teaching course. Research tells us that quality child care contributes to the cognitive and emotional development of children. This results in lower levels of delinquency, teenage pregnancy, drug use, and dropout …
Children & Young Person's BillThis week the Children & Young Person's Bill received another reading in the House of Commons, which means it is one step closer to becoming law; the Bill contains various measures intended to improve the planning and delivery of services for children in care. There are still various points which MP…
Poverty & The MediaOccasionally students make enquiries about how the media reports on early years or social issues, so if you're doing research in that area then today's post should interest you. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has recently published The Media, Poverty and Public Opinion in the UK, which makes a detai…
Round UpI was away for most of last week, so here's a quick summary of some of the new reports and research which came out during that time:A report from the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child made 120 recommendations for improving the rights of children in the UK; among its recommendations were call…
Sage Journals - Special OfferThis is just a short post to inform all readers that if you log onto Athens and choose the Sage Journals site, you will be able to access all of the articles there in full until the end of October. Sage has a lot of content that relates to education, childcare, social issues and social sciences, so …
We're in this Together!I did a math workshop in Nashville this week and it was wonderful. What a great group of teachers and caregivers! It is always such a treat to go around the country and meet other early childhood professionals. The commonality is that we all want what is best for young children and strive to be appr…
Step by StepI had an engaging conversation last evening with past early childhood friends about developmental stages in learning. I was in Orlando to talk about developmental math sequences. We expressed our frustration about how many core standards are not listed in developmental order. It is left up to the te…
DissertationsFollowing on from yesterday's post, if you're about to embark on writing your dissertation, then you're probably at the stage of narrowing down your ideas to focus on the subject which you're going to look at for the next few months.One of the most common comments which is heard at this time of year…
DCSF ResearchUsually around this time of year, our final year degree students are expected to have some idea of what topic they would like to focus on for their dissertation. In recent years one of the most popular areas for research has been to look at the provision which is available to gifted and talented stu…
Ceruk PlusCeruk Plus is a database which contains details of thousands of completed or ongoing research projects relating to education or children's services. The information is gathered from a diverse range of organisations and research bodies, and contains detailed background information on each project whi…
Foundation Stage ResultsLast Thursday saw the publication of the latest Foundation Stage results from the DCSF, outlining the achievements of children in this age group for the School Year 2007/08. This is the fifth year that these statistics have been published.To take a look at the results, just click here; some further …
Mathematics: Understanding the ScoreSeveral headlines today are devoted to the content of the latest report from Ofsted. Mathematics: Understanding the Score examines evidence from inspections of maths teaching that have been carried out from 2005 - 2007. Among the findings are suggestions that teaching in many schools is satisfactory…
As Long As It TakesThe Action for Children charity has made headlines with its latest report. Entitled As Long as it Takes: A New Politics for Children, the new publication looks back at the last 21 years of government policy, and claims to find over 400 policy changes which have had a significant impact on the lives …
Welcome Back!Judging by the higher number of visits the blog has been getting in recent days, you're all gearing up to start the new term, so today's post is just an introduction to new visitors (or a refresher for old ones!) explaining what this site is all about.The blog is designed to help keep students and s…
One-Day BloomWe have a hardy Hibiscus in our yard which bloomed for this first time this fall. It is amazingly beautiful with a dark red bloom that measures approximately 8" across. The sad part is that the blooms only last 1-2 days. As there are many blooms on our plant, we have been enjoying them for a couple …
Latest from OnTheWebAs usual the latest issue of OnTheWeb (see previous post for details) is packed with details of new reports and research relating to education, early years and childhood. So without further ado, here are some of the highlights:More Good Teachers is a report from the Policy Exchange thinktank which i…
School Food TrustIn the wake of Jamie Oliver's series on school dinners, the School Food Trust was established to improve school food and the education of children with regards to eating. At about the same time a lot of our students suddenly developed an interest in doing research into school meals (!), so the Schoo…
The Next GenerationThe Centre for Social Justice is a thinktank which investigates how solutions can be found to the problems of poverty and the lives of those living on low incomes. Within the organisation there are a number of working groups looking at areas such as the early years, youth and gang crime, asylum, hou…
Time for PlayIn June the National Children's Bureau published Play and Exercise in Early Years: Physically Active Play in Early Childhood Provision. This is a piece of detailed research which focuses on the extent to which young children (under-fives) are given opportunities to play in early childhood settings. …
Education At a GlanceOne for the number crunchers today... The OECD has just published Education At a Glance 2008, it's latest annual comparison of education systems across the world. If ploughing through the lengthy report doesn't appeal to you, why not take a look at how the Guardian or the BBC have reported some of t…
No, Not Yet!We just recently completed a deck that has been in the planning for several years. As I sit out under the tree that grows from the middle, I am not happy that fall is on the way. The temperatures are cooling and darkness is coming earlier all of the time. But, I have my deck and I want fall to stop …