Families & Childcare / PlayFollowing on neatly from yesterday's post about grandparents, the DCSF has just published a new research study of how modern families put together care packages for their offspring. The report provides a detailed breakdown of who cares for children at different stages of their lives (parents, grandp…
Grandparents & The FamilyToday's post concerns a new report from the national charity Grandparents Plus. The organisation recently commssioned Yougov to survey the public and parents to establish the contribution that grandparents make towards childcare, and how this role could be better recognised. Among the report's concl…
Intrinsic RewardsSince I don't have my own early childhood classroom any longer, I sometimes forget the feeling you get when a child learns something new. I was recently watching my excited grandson show me that he had learned to ride his bike without training wheels. He couldn't get enough riding time. He was al…
The Database StateA new report commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation claims that of all the the UK's public information databases, over a quarter are in breach of European data protection and privacy laws. Furthermore, of those affected by these issues, children are among those most at risk.The full text of …
Targeted Family SupportA rare post for our family support workers today... the charity Action for Children has just published an evaluation of their own family support services. The findings highlight the importance of early intervention with problem families, and the fact that parents are happier to ask for help when the…
Birmingham's Parenting Support PlanThose of you working within children and family services in Birmingham may or may not know about the launch of the City Council's Integrated Support Strategy for Parenting; this follows on from a clause in the DCSF's Children's Plan (see previous post for details), which provides funding for two exp…
Ending Child PovertyAnother day, another report on child poverty... The latest publication in this area is actually less of a report, and more of a manifesto from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which outlines proposals for continuing to reduce the number of children living in poverty in the UK. Nevertheless, th…
Deprivation and EducationSeveral students have enquired in recent days about information sources that examine the link between a child's background and their educational achievement. So it's quite timely that the DCSF has just published Deprivation and Education: The Evidence on Pupils in England,Foundation Stage to Key Sta…
Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of ChildrenIn an echo of last week's Laming report (see previous post for details), a new survey from the DCSF suggests that many organisations involved in the safeguarding of children are not sharing information effectively with other interested bodies or individuals (eg parents or children themselves). The r…
Fear of Youth is Worse than Ever"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"Not a contemporary viewpoint, but a quote from Plato in the fourth centur…
Social BookmarkingI've written about social bookmarking before (see previous post for details), and specifically a service called Delicious. Basically, social bookmarking sites allow you to save bookmarks so that they can be accessed from any computer, and make it easier for you to add your own tags, descriptions et…
The Protection of Children in EnglandIf you've seen the news this morning, you can't have failed to notice that today sees the publication of The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report, which was commissioned by the DSCF following the death of Baby P, and has been written by Lord Laming. The report attempts to evaluate ex…
Money for Early ChildhoodI agree with one of the comments from my last entry about the wish that all preschools and daycares can benefit from the stimulus money that has been promised for early childhood. We already know that Head Start and Early Head Start has been promised quite a chunk of the early childhood money. I do …
Latest from OnTheWebThe latest issue of OnTheWeb (see previous post for details) is as usual a goldmine of information for finding out what's been going on in the childcare and education sector. Here's a few highlights from the newsletter which should be of use to some of you:Freedom's Consequences is a report on reduc…
Does Every Child Matter?A new report which is launched today already looks like proving controversial, by arguing that child asylum seekers are not being treated under the guidelines established by the government.The first report from the new charity Refugee & Migrant Justice claims that children who arrive in the UK are o…
Disabled ChildrenThe Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services (C4EO) has recently published a series of studies which examine current provision for disabled children, and how this could be improved in the future. Links to each of the reports are below:Improving the Wellbeing of Disa…
SafariIt's a slow news day so here's a couple of pointers to help brush up on your online research skills.Safari is an interactive tutorial which helps users to learn about accessing, finding and reviewing information. The site has been developed by the Open University, and while a handful of its pages ma…
Maths Teaching: Does It Add Up?Last September, Ofsted published Mathematics: Understanding the Score (see previous post for details) which examined evidence of how maths was being taught in schools. Following on from this, Ofsted has now published two booklets for maths teachers which aim to improve teaching by shifting it away f…
CybermentorsThe Beatbullying charity has launched a new website dedicated to tackling the growing problem of cyberbullying. Entitled Cybermentors, the site enables victims of bullying to seek help and advice from hundreds of secondary school and further education students who have been trained especially for th…
Let's Hope...The economic downturn has everyone worried and many in uncomfortable circumstances. We know that when a family is in peril and stressed, it has adverse effects on young children. Now that the economic stimulus package has been signed, let's hope that (regardless of political leanings) we can get beh…
