Underachievement

Those of you with an interest in the attainment of children from ethnic minorities may be interested in a new review which suggests that teachers underestimate black pupils. The report - Black Children’s Achievement Programme Evaluation - was commissioned by the DCSF, and argues that teachers need to understand that different strategies must be employed to raise the attainment of different ethnic groups.

On a similar(ish!) note, another new research publication from the Centre of Policy Studies states that teachers are being asked to spend too much time fulfilling government initiatives with a detrimental effect on teaching quality; the report argues that white working class and black Caribbean boys are particularly affected. You can read the full text of Wasted online now.

Improving Safety, Reducing Harm

The Department of Health has recently published Improving Safety, Reducing Harm: Children, Young People and Domestic Violence. This is a practical toolkit, designed for use by practitioners who are working with children, with detailed information on risk assessment, guidance for schools, official policies and more.

A Quick Catch Up

Children's rights, mental health issues and family intervention are all covered in today's bumper post, which covers a number of recent publications...

• The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has criticised the government's record on protecting children's rights; issues highlighted in their Children's Rights report included the treatment of young offenders and media treatment of children. You can read the full text online now.

• A new publication from the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health claims that up to 80% of crime is committed by individuals who had behavioural problems as a child. The report, entitled The Chance of a Lifetime, argues that the cost of introducing parenting support for problem families at an early age is easily offset by the savings from a reduced crime rate in later years.

• New research into the government's Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) suggests that they are helping to reduce anti-social behaviour and enforced evictions.

• Improving Educational Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils What Works? is a new piece of DCSF research which takes a fresh look at a topic which has attracted plenty of attention in recent years.
  

Ofsted Under Fire

Today sees the publication of Ofsted's annual report (click here for links to the report and various supporting documents and summaries), which contains information about Ofsted's findings from the past year, grouped around the themes of looked-after children, teaching and learning, and skills for employment. In particular, a need to tackle inadequate teaching has been highlighted.

However, this year's report has rather been overshadowed by the publication of this paper by the Association of Directors of Children's Services, which argues that the inspection models which Ofsted currently uses are flawed and need to change. Further press reaction to this controversy is available in this BBC article and this piece from the Guardian.

State of the World's Children

Last week saw the publication of UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children report. This year the publication has a special theme, celebrating 20 years since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the most widely ratified human rights convention in history. The full text of the report and a summary version are online now. Further information and resources on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and children's rights around the world are available here.

EYES Search

Another slow news day so another appeal for feedback from users... From looking at the stats of visitors for this site, it seems that in recent months the number of enquiries entered into the EYES Search Box on the right of this page (see previous post for details) has risen sharply. However, I'm unable to get details on what subjects people are searching for, so I don't know if it's helping you all or not! If you've used EYES to find information, could you contact me or leave a comment with details on the search you did and whether or not the results were helpful, as it's still possible to make adjustments to this feature.

Of course, if you've never used EYES Search before, there's no time like the present... :-)

Information Workshop 2

Just a reminder (see previous post for details) that if you'd be interested in being introduced to useful techniques to staying on top of news and research in your subject area, then just contact me and I'll try to organise a session at a time that suits. I have had a couple of expressions of interest, but will need a few more people before this event can go ahead.

Anti-Bullying Week

This week is National Anti-Bullying Week, which means that a number of organisations are seeking to raise awareness of issues surrounding all forms of bullying. This year seems to have a particular emphasis on cyber-bullying, with the appearance of a number of new reports and resources devoted to this subject.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance sends out a resource pack containing various materials to schools at this time each year, and all of the contents can be downloaded from this link. Meanwhile, Bullying UK has launched a mobile version of its cyber-bullying site, which enables children to access advice and information while on the move.

For new research, take a look at Virtual Violence: Protecting Children from Cyberbullying, a new report from the Beatbullying charity; the study aims to highlight the true extent of cyberbulling in the UK. Also, Teachers TV has commissioned a new programme entitled The Bullies Playground, which conducts a detailed study of cyberbullying.

For official guidance on tackling all types of bullying, the Teachernet website has compiled this list of links to various documents and sources which have been issued in recent years. Or for further information, you could just click on the 'Bullying' link in the 'Hot Topics' menu in the right-hand column of this page, which will give you a list of all blog posts which have dealt with this topic.

Happy Birthday

If you've looked at any of the entertaining logos on Google's homepage during the last week, you've probably realised that Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th birthday. To mark the occasion, Michelle Obama is making a guest appearance, while newspapers and magazines from the UK to the US and beyond are publishing articles which (mostly!) praise the impact that it has had.

Some facts about Sesame Street (courtesy of www.imdb.com)

• The highest number of the day has been 21, the lowest has been 0
• The series was originally designed for inner-city children to help them formulate phrases in standard English; the Sesame Street neighbourhood reflects the areas where these children would be growing up
• Following the death of the grocer Mr Hooper, a special episode was commissioned to help children deal with the loss of a loved one
• The Snuffleupagus character initially interacted only with Big Bird; the producers made him visible to other characters as it was felt that it was sending a bad message to children that adults would not believe them if they had something important to tell
• Linda (an actress on the show) was the first regular deaf character on American TV
• The Guiness Book of Records lists Sesame Street as the Most Popular Children's Educational Programme, having been shown in 180 countries

Sesame Street is also surely among the most researched programmes of all time; a search for "Sesame Street" on Google Scholar returns over 13,000 hits. For classic clips from the show covering its entire history, try taking a look at the official YouTube channel.

Regulating Play-Based Provision

A new factsheet from Ofsted seeks to clarify how play providers can meet the requirements of the EYFS without altering existing good practice. The information provided in the document (entitled Regulating Play-Based Provision) outlines Ofsted's role in overseeing early years provision, and provides links to other useful materials. To access the factsheet, click here.

The DCSF will be issuing further guidance to help the play sector deliver the EYFS before the end of the year; when this information is released it will be featured on here. Readers with an interest in play may also like to take a look at the Playwork Principles, which lay out a professional and ethical framework for playwork, and are being incorporated into the Playwork National Occupational Standards.

The Really Good School Dinner

If you work in a school, is your institution involved in the Really Good School Dinner? Now into it's second year, this project enables UK schools to help children in some of the world's poorest countries. The premise is simple: on the week beginning 25th January 2010, UK children are encouraged to bring in an additional 10p per day to the price of their school dinner - all of this extra money then goes to the World Food Programme, and pays for a whole meal for a child that might otherwise go hungry.

For a more detailed explanation of the scheme, click here. For further information and to sign your school up for the scheme, you need to visit the project website.

Safeguarding Children

I've written about the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services (C4EO) site on here a few times before; for those who aren't familiar with this organisation, they carry out evidence-based research with a view to identifying effective practice in delivering children's services. Currently they are doing a number of studies on different themes, and the latest set of briefings, on the subject of Safeguarding Children, have just been published. Click on the links below to view the various reports:

• Effective Interventions for Complex Families Where There are Concerns About, or Evidence of, a Child Suffering Significant Harm
• What are the Key Questions for Audit of Child Protection Systems and Decision-Making?
• The Oversight and Review of Cases in the Light of Changing Circumstances and New Information: how do People Respond to New (and Challenging) Information?

Previous reports from C4EO have focused on Children's Services, Disabled Children and Vulnerable Children. Studies on Child Poverty, Schools and Communities, Youth, Families, Parents and Carers and Narrowing the Gap are still in progress, and details of each will be included on the blog when they are published.

20 Years of the Children Act

It's been 20 years since the passing of the Children Act 1989, a landmark piece of legislation which still governs much of how cases involving children are handled. To mark the occasion, Community Care magazine has published a series of articles which represent a range of views on the Act, from legal experts, social care practitioners and more. Follow this link to read about the results of a poll which discusses the commitment of modern Councils to the Act; at the bottom of this piece you will see links to all the other articles in the series.