Childhood and Education

Twitter for Teachers

2012-02-01T13:59:00.007Z

If you're a teacher (or trainee teacher on a PGCE) then you may be interested in The Creative Education Guide to Twitter for Teachers. This is a detailed 34 page guide put together by the team behind the Creative Education website, and provides plenty of advice, tips and guidance in using the service. Strongly recommended if you're toying with using Twitter in a professional capacity but don't know how to get started.

Child Neglect in 2011

2012-01-27T15:28:00.003Z

The Action for Children charity has just published Child Neglect in 2011, the first in what is planned to be a series of annual reviews on this topic. The research for the report was carried out by a team at the University of Stirling, and covers at definitions of 'neglect', what the UK thinks about it, how it's tackled currently and how this can be improved.

ICT in Schools 2008-11

2012-01-26T11:41:00.003Z

Ofsted has recently published ICT in Schools 2008-11, a report which reviews how ICT has been delivered at primary, secondary and special schools during the last few years. Issues such as teaching methods, the curriculum and school leadership are considered, and areas where schools could make further progress are identified.

DfE Research

2012-01-23T15:52:00.003Z

It's been a slow few days for new research, so here's the details of a couple of useful Department of Education reports which were published in December and got missed in the run-up to Christmas.

The Framework for the National Curriculum is a report compiled by an expert panel, with a view to defining the purpose, shape, size and structure of the curriculum. The report contains a number of recommendations which are designed to generate discussion and contribute to the official review of the National Curriculum which is currently taking place. More information and documents relating to this can be found here.

Also new(ish) is a report entitled Class Size and Education in England, which examines how the increased birth rate may impact of class sizes, and the impact that this could have on educational outcomes.

Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years

2012-01-16T09:32:00.007Z

The School Food Trust has just launched a set of new guidelines on nutrition for preschool children. The new advice is part of the Eat Better Start Better project, which aims to support children and their families to cook and eat well. Part of the inspiration for the new guidelines came out of a previous report which stated that some young children were being given food better suited to adults.

A practical guide for implementing the new guidelines in early years settings can be downloaded here. Further supplementary information including FAQS and example menus are available from this link.

Good Childhood Report 2012

2012-01-12T10:10:00.002Z

The Children's Society is making the headlines today with the publication of The Good Childhood Report 2012. This new research details the results of interviews with over 30,000 children aged 8-16, and investigates what factors are important in determining a child's happiness and wellbeing. The overall findings from the survey cover many different areas, though many media outlets have chosen to focus on the angle that almost one in ten children consider themsleves to be unhappy.

To read the full version of The Good Childhood Report 2012, click here. For an overview of its findings a summary version is also available, and a further publication entitled Promoting Positive Well-Being for Children, which contains advice for policy-makers is also available.

Digital Literacy

2012-01-10T14:38:00.003Z

This week the Guardian is running a campaign to improve the teaching of computer science and information technology in schools and universities. All content related to the campaign is available on a mini-site which features news stories, articles from contributors, lesson plans for teaching computing, and an interesting piece about the BBC Micro which was the first computer to be used widely in UK schools. If you've got an interest in teaching ICT, it's worth visiting the site for a few minutes to see what's being discussed.

Families in an Age of Austerity

2012-01-05T11:47:00.004Z

Hardly the most cheerful way to begin the New Year, but yesterday saw the publication of a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies entitled The Impact of Austerity Measures on Households with Children. The report examines how new benefit and tax reforms will impact on family incomes, and suggests that there will be a rise in child poverty, while middle-income families will also lose over £1000 a year. To read the full report, click here.

Review of 2011

2011-12-15T09:48:00.017Z

So what were the most important developments and reports in the childcare / education sectors in 2011? If you missed any, read on to find out...

Probably the most significant event of the year was the publication in March of the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, which has implications for all early years practitioners. Among the report's many points were recommendations to cut the number of Early Learning Goals from 69 to 17, and a change in focus to three 'prime' areas of learning. A simple guide to the proposals is available by clicking here.

Other major government projects included the publication in May of the Munro Review of Child Protection, which investigated procedures for safeguarding children and the role of social workers, and the Nutbrown Review, which is currently ongoing and is examining qualifications and career pathways in the foundation years - its final report is due next year. Those with an interest in special educational needs will have found the Support and Aspiration green paper which was published in March of great interest.

Annual reports from well known organisations are also a handy way of gauging current issues surrounding the sector. Some of the most useful ones from this year include the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey, the Ofsted Annual Report, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion, and the State of Children's Rights in England 2011. For a more international flavour, try looking at the OECD's Education At A Glance 2011, or UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2011.

Picking out individual publications from the hundreds that come out every year is always difficult, but some of the ones that seem particularly relevant to readers of this site include the recent Family: Helping to Understand the Modern British Family, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies' Does When You Are Born Matter? which examines the claim that summer born children face an educational disadvantage. While Investing in High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care is a brief report from the OECD which highlights evidence that points to the benefits of providing support for children from a young age.

And some other miscellaneous stuff... Teachers TV was axed this year, although its full archive is available for free from the Teachers Media site. The Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA) was launched, and provides full access to a growing number of educational reports published by government departments over the last 17 years. Poor Kids and Educating Essex were two TV programmes which dealt with different aspects of childhood, and are well worth watching if they get repeated in the future. And closer to home, one of the most popular posts on this site this year turned out to be one about children's songs... hardly 'academic', but quite interesting...

At the start of 2011, Nursery World published an article outlining professionals' hopes and fears for the childcare sector in 2011 - how far do you think these have been met? And what are the challenges for 2012? The Social Market Foundation's recent report The Parent Trap outlines some of the issues facing the sector over the next 5 years.

If I've missed anything, feel free to share it with other site users by leaving a comment underneath this post, otherwise that's your lot for this year. Get in the festive mood by enjoying the video below, in which veteran music legend Bob Dylan dances in a red hat and gets excited about his impending visit from Santa. Maybe he's just a big kid too...

An Introduction to Child Protection Legislation in the UK

2011-12-14T11:54:00.004Z

I'm a couple of months behind with this one, but better late than never... In October the NSPCC published An Introduction to Child Protection Legislation in the UK. This is a 13 page guide to all of the major parliamentary Acts covering child protection, providing brief, simple overviews of each one, and also helping to put them into context with supplementary information. As an introduction to this complicated subject, it should be very useful.

To read the guide in full, click here.

On Your Marks

2011-12-14T09:42:00.002Z

The Resolution Foundation has just published a new report entitled On Your Marks: Measuring the School Readiness of Children in Low-to-Middle Income Families. The rationale for this research is explained in this article by one of the Foundation's directors. To view the full report, click here.

Children's Centres & Needy Families

2011-12-09T10:25:00.002Z

The NFER has just published Targeting Children's Centre Services on the Most Needy Families. This report explains how local authority and children’s centre staff are defining, identifying and prioritising families in greatest need of support, and the practical implications of targeting for local authorities, for children’s centres and for policy.

State of Children’s Rights in England 2011

2011-12-07T10:05:00.002Z

Today the Children's Rights Alliance for England has published its annual State of Children’s Rights in England report. This year's edition marks the 20th anniversary of the UK ratifying the UN Conention on the Rights of the Child, and reviews how the government has performed in terms of acting on UN recommendations to strengthen children's rights. The main points are summarised in this article from Children & Young People Now.

To read the full report, click here.

The Modern British Family

2011-12-06T14:04:00.005Z

The Centre for the Modern Family is a new think tank which aims to investigate what constitutes a 'family' in Britain today. Today sees the publication of its first report Family: Helping to Understand the Modern British Family, which concludes that the traditional idea of 'married with 2.4 children' is no longer the norm. The report also identifies ten new family types based upon age, the individuals involved and their attitudes.

The full text of the report is available from this link, though further supplementary information is also available from the Centre's website.

Redesign

2011-12-05T16:21:00.004Z

Regular visitors will have noticed a different look to the site in recent days - I've made some changes to colour schemes, fonts and chosen a new background image more in keeping with the site's subject matter, but all of the content and archives are unchanged. Also, if you're visiting these pages using a mobile device then you'll be shown a simpler, stripped down version of the site, although all posts are still available in full, and you can switch to the full version if you'd prefer. Any feedback that users have on these changes is welcomed.

OnTheWeb

2011-12-05T11:42:00.002Z

After a gap of a few months, there's a welcome return for OnTheWeb service from the NFER. This is a monthly newsletter which rounds up details of new reports from the educational sector and provides links to the full text of items - well worth checking on a regular basis! The latest issue is available now from this link - although some of the items it mentions have already been featured on this site, there are details of approximately 100 reports in total, which are listed by subject headings.

Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2011

2011-12-02T12:52:00.003Z

The 2011 edition of Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion has just been published. This is an annual report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which uses official government data to examine in detail issues such as low income, poor education and community problems. Regular readers of this site will probably be most interested in the report's 3rd chapter which focuses on children, providing statistical analysis as well as contextual information.

The full report can be accessed from this link. A summary version is also available.

The Parent Trap

2011-11-29T13:48:00.003Z

Yesterday saw the publication of The Parent Trap: Illustrating the Growing Cost of Childcare. This report from the Social Market Foundation examines the different forms of childcare support which are available, and how the amount that families have to pay for formal childcare is likely to change over the coming years. A summary of the report's main points are provided by the author in this Nursery World article.

Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA)

2011-11-23T10:50:00.004Z

Following several recent requests about obtaining official documents, today's post is a reminder about the Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA). This site is hosted by the Institute of Education at the University of London, and offers free access to governmental reports. As a lot of government websites have been reorganised in recent years (particularly since the 2010 General Election), it's a very useful source for tracking down reports which no longer seem to be available.

At present DERA contains over 5000 items, although more are being added every week.

Ofsted Annual Report

2011-11-22T13:18:00.002Z

The latest Ofsted annual report has been published today, and contains information on schools, children's centres, teacher education and more. Press reaction to the report has been mixed; the BBC highlights some points about coasting schools, while Children & Young People Now has chosen to focus on improvements across children's services.

The different section of the report and various supporting resources are available from this link.

Sowing The Seeds

2011-11-18T13:13:00.004Z

Readers with an interest in outdoor learning may want to take notice of a new publication from Tim Gill. The report, entitled Sowing the Seeds, examines the amount of opportunities that children from London have to spend time in natural green spaces, and argues that regular exposure to such environments is important for children's emotional and physical wellbeing. Those with an interest in forest schools will also find plenty of useful material in the report.

Tim Gill was also the author of the influential 2007 report No Fear, about the importance of risk in childhood - see previous post for details.

Safeguarding Children Across Services

2011-11-15T11:32:00.002Z

Safeguarding Children Across Services: Messages from Research is a recent publication from the Department of Education. The report provides an overview of 15 separate studies carried out within England, and is aimed at professionals who engage with child protection in their everyday work.

Anti-Bullying Week

2011-11-14T11:32:00.002Z

Today is the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event supported by various charities and other organisations to raise awareness of the problems that bullying can cause. So it's with good timing that the NFER has just published Sticks and Stones May Break my Bones but Being Left on my Own is Worse - this report covers the results of a survey which asked children whether they had experienced bullying over the last 12 months, and if so why they think they may have been bullied.

To see a list of all previous posts on this subject, click on 'Bullying' in the 'Hot Topics' menu on the right of the page.

Missing Out

2011-11-07T13:59:00.002Z

Today the Children's Society has published Missing Out: a Child Centred Analysis of Material Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being. This is a study of what items and experiences children themselves think are necessary for a ‘normal kind of life’, whether lacking these items and experiences is related to their self-reported well-being, and which items or types of items seem to be the most important. A summary of the main points can be found in this article.

Investing in High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care

2011-11-04T12:49:00.002Z

The OECD has just published Investing in High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care. This is a briefing document which outlines the benefits of quality provision in the early years, and provides some comparisons between different social groups and countries.

Apps for Children

2011-11-02T11:47:00.004Z

Today's post isn't really about new research, but there's an interesting article on the Guardian website which talks about the growing market for iPad and mobile apps which are aimed at children. Most of the high profile apps to date contain a mixture of fun and educational content - speaking as someone with a four year old niece who's currently very keen on the Angry Birds game, it does seem that this is an area that will continue to develop. If it's something that interests you, then you may find the Best Kids Apps website useful.

Also interesting is the video below entitled A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work, in which a one year old child struggles to understand why she cannot interact with a printed page. Does this show how deeply technology will be embedded in the lives of future children?

Does When You Are Born Matter?

2011-11-01T14:23:00.002Z

The issue of summer-born children is in the news again, with new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which claims that children born in the summer in England are at an academic disadvantage throughout school. By contrast, babies born in September are more than three times less likely to be viewed as "below average". You can read the full text of the report - entitled Does When You are Born Matter? The Impact of Month of Birth on Children’s Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in England - by clicking here.

This topic has been examined several times in recent years. For further reading try Cambridge University's Birthdate Effects: A Review of the Literature from 1990-on, the NFER's The Influence of Relative Age on Learner Attainment and Development, or the DfE's 2010 report Month of Birth and Education.

National Adoption Week

2011-10-31T09:47:00.003Z

Today is the first day of National Adoption Week, which has been an annual event since 1997 and aims to raise the profile of adoption services throughout the UK. The Week is co-ordinated by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), who provide guidance and support for all aspects of adoption, and their website is a fantastic source of information, containing news, free reports, statistics and more.

Site users with an interest in adoption may also want to look at the BAAF blog or their links page for details of other organisations that work in this area. The Adoption Research Initiative and TACT websites are also well worth a visit.

If you know of another particularly useful adoption resource, feel free to share it by leaving a comment below.

Nutbrown Review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications

2011-10-28T13:10:00.002Z

Today sees the launch of the Department of Education's independent review of early education and childcare qualifications. The review is being led by Cathy Nutbrown, a professor of education at the University of Sheffield, and will be examining qualifications and career pathways in the foundation years. Parents, employers and early years workers are invited to submit evidence and their views on how qualifications should be developed in the future.

You can read more about the review in this Nursery World article; evidence can be submitted until 23 December.

Foundation Years

2011-10-20T08:41:00.002Z

The Foundation Years website has existed for a while for use by parents, but has now been revamped to offer plenty of information for professionals who work with children from pregnancy to age 5. The site will continue to evolve over the coming months, but already contains news stories, useful publications, links and themed areas. It's well worth bookmarking the site and checking it on a regular basis.

Where Now for UK Parenting?

2011-10-17T14:01:00.002Z

Today sees the beginning of Parents Week, an annual event run by the Family & Parenting Institute. To mark the occasion, the charity has invited 30 leading commentators and academics to examine parenting from a range of perspectives, and you can read their thoughts and contributions by clicking this link.

CORE

2011-10-12T11:53:00.007Z

Not a post about a specific childcare resource today, but rather one about a general research tool which the site's users may find helpful...

In recent years, many Universities have begun to set up Open Access research repositories, where various academic papers, conference presentations, journal articles and more produced by the academics at these institutions can be found. Access to these collections is generally free, but finding the material relies on the user knowing where the item they want is held.

Now a new service called CORE aims to improve the visibility of these items by allowing users to search across 142 Open Access research repositories simultaneously. Once you've carried out your search, all of your results also have information about the authors, date, peer review etc of each item, so you know exactly what it is you're looking at, as well as a link to the full text.

I've carried out a few searches around various childcare / education topics, and was impressed with the range of material that's available out there. So it might be worth bookmarking this site in addition to the other places that you usually look for research information.

Routledge Education Class of 2011

2011-10-04T13:31:00.004Z

It's special offer time again... Publishers Routledge are offering free full access to the most downloaded articles of the last year from their collection of education journals. The articles are divided into 10 categories to help you navigate them quickly, and approximately 150 articles are included. Many of the titles are not usually available through the resources available to UCB students.

To take a look for yourself, click here.

New from the Department of Education

2011-10-03T09:37:00.004Z

A new batch of reports have just been released by the Department of Education. There are too many to list all of them here, but here's a pick of the titles that this site's users might find most relevant:

The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2010 gives a very detailed overview of provision of these services in England. A summary of the main findings can be found here.
Childhood Bereavement: A Rapid Literature Review is a useful introduction to the issues surrounding children's grief.
Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement examines the effectiveness of interventions aimed at supporting and improving parental engagement in the education of children aged 5-19.
A Profile of Teachers in England from the 2010 School Workforce Census contains information on the teacher workforce, covering topics such as pay, ethnicity, gender, performance, qualifications and much more.

A full list of the Department of Education's publications is available here.

Key Stage One Statistics

2011-09-29T13:10:00.002Z

The Department of Education have just released the latest set of statistics on pupils achievement in Key Stage One assessments. The figures measure children's progress in reading, writing, speaking and listening, mathematics and science, and provide a detailed breakdown of the results by areas such as gender, ethnicity and other categories.

The full set of results can be accessed here. A overview of the main trends is provided in this Guardian article.

Child Abuse and Neglect in the UK Today

2011-09-23T08:32:00.003Z

The NSPCC has just published a major new study into the prevalence of child abuse and neglect. The new report is the result of over 6000 interviews with a random sample of parents and young people, and follows on from another major study which the charity published in 2000.

The full text of Child Abuse and Neglect in the UK Today is online now. You can also access a range of statistics and further reading on child protection by clicking here.

School Rules

2011-09-21T11:52:00.005Z

A few slow news days so here's another retro educational film from the archives. This one is from 1953 and is entitled School Rules: How They Help Us. As you might expect, the 10 minute clip explains the importance of obeying rules to children, and especially takes time to explain why exceptions can't be granted.

Would such a film have a place in the modern school? And what advice do you think an updated version might include in 2011?

Education At A Glance 2011

2011-09-15T10:35:00.002Z

One for the number crunchers today - the OECD has just published Education At A Glance 2011, its annual report comparing a mass of information on education in 34 different countries, from school right up to University level. A handy summary of much of the data is available from this link.

For further information about education systems in different countries, the Eurydice and International Bureau of Education sites are well worth a visit.

Children's Well-Being in the UK, Spain and Sweden

2011-09-14T08:42:00.004Z

A major new report from UNICEF has put the the issue of children's wellbeing in the UK under the microscope. It's not the first time that the charity has published research about this topic - in 2007 its report An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries made headlines for placing the UK at the bottom of a league table of 21 developed nations.

UNICEF's latest research aims to explore the issue of wellbeing in more detail by making detailed comparisons of children's experiences from just three countries: the UK, Sweden and Spain. The findings are wide ranging: a key challenge for parents in the UK was being able to spend sufficient time with children, while another cause for concern was a culture of materialism and consumer pressure. Further analysis of the points raised by the report is covered by this BBC article.

The full title of UNICEF's new report is Children’s Well-being in UK, Sweden and Spain: The Role of Inequality and Materialism and it's available from this link. A shorter summary version is also available, and there's even a simple children's version.

Effective Relationships with Vulnerable Parents

2011-09-08T09:17:00.004Z

The Action for Children charity has published new research which examines how childcare professionals can develop effective relationships with vulnerable parents, and how such relationships can make a difference for children and young people. The report concludes that an assertive approach from practitioners is essential to challenge parents to take ownership of issues that need to be addressed.

The full text of Effective Relationships with Vulnerable Parents to Improve Outcomes for Children and Young People is online now. Action for Children have also produced a skills framework for professionals working in this area, and an organisational framework outlining support and procedures which should be in place.

Is it Legal? A Families' Guide to the Law

2011-09-07T15:25:00.002Z

The Family and Parenting Institute has recently published the 4th edition of its booklet Is It Legal? A Families Guide to the Law. This contains simple advice about some of the questions you may have about children's rights and related issues, and is well worth bookmarking as something you may want to refer to in the future.

To access the booklet, click here.

The Childcare Trap

2011-09-07T09:17:00.002Z

Today the Daycare Trust publishes the results of a survey into childcare costs in the UK. Over 4000 parents were interviewed in spring this year to explore their views on access to childcare and the impact of childcare costs on family incomes and work prospects. Among the findings are that the current cost of childcare is putting some families into debt.

You can access the briefing of Making Work Pay: the Childcare Trap by clicking here.

Good Practice in Autism Education

2011-09-01T10:19:00.006Z

Features that represent 'good practice' in autism education have been identified in new research published by the Autism Education Trust. The report, which was written by a team from the IOE's Centre for Research in Autism and Education, examined practices in schools which Ofsted had judged to be 'outstanding', with a view to making recommendations for other institutions. Among the features identified were a unique curriculum and the importance of staff training and support.

The full text of What is Good Practice in Autism Education? is available now. If you have an interest in this topic, then these previous posts from November 2008 and April 2007 should also be useful.

Setting the Baseline: Reading Report

2011-08-23T10:59:00.002Z

Yesterday saw the publication of Setting the Baseline, a new publication from the National Literacy Trust which reports on the findings of an online survey conducted with over 18000 8-17 year olds in November and December of last year. The authors regard the results as portraying children as read and read-nots, with many children saying that they barely read books at all, while others get through more than ten a month. Other findings included the preference of many children to read online information rather than traditional comics.

Men Working in Childcare

2011-08-22T15:13:00.003Z

A common enquiry I get is for information about men working in childcare. Ironically, this morning's episode of Woman's Hour on Radio 4 had a feature about this topic - click here to listen to the programme (for the next 7 days anyway), the relevant section begins at about 28 minutes.

For further information on this topic, Heather Rolfe's 2005 report Men in Childcare is certainly worth a look - this was commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission. The issues surrounding the subject are also neatly summarised by a 2003 Daycare Trust leaflet entitled Men's Work? Changing the Gender Mix of the Childcare and Early Years Workforce, and by Claire Cameron's 2007 paper Men in the Nursery Revisited.

For further reading ideas, try the Men in Childcare website or Men in Childcare Ireland: Resources List.

Parenting

2011-08-11T10:13:00.010Z

A lot of debate concerning the UK riots over the past few days has focussed on the ages of those involved, and the fact that many of them appear to be schoolchildren. In particular, there have been plenty of discussion articles on the role of the parents of those involved such as 'Being Liberal is Fine, but We Need to be Given the Right to Parent', as well as this piece from an employee of the Parenting UK charity. Unsurprisingly, there are strong views on all sides.

The impact of parenting styles on a child's development and life chances has been an area that's attracted a lot of interest in recent years, so it's worth looking at what some of the research actually says. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has carried out a lot of work on this topic - take a look at Parenting and the Different Ways it can Affect Children's Lives for no less than 7 reviews of research on different aspects of parenting.

Other reports come from various sources. Only last month the think tank CentreForum published Parenting Matters: Early Years and Social Mobility, while in January the Demos think tank released The Home Front, which investigates the links between low incomes and parenting styles. Looking back a little further to 2007, the Centre for the Wider Benefits of Learning authored Parenting Behaviours and Children’s Development from Infancy to Early Childhood.

Quite a few studies regarding this area were also carried out by the previous government. Picking out the most useful ones is difficult, but readers may find The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustment: A Literature Review and Family and Parenting Support in Sure Start Local Programmes of interest.

If the above just seems like too much reading(!), the Parentchannel website is full of free videos with advice on good parenting techniques. Or for a different take on things, you may want to watch a 2008 video from Teachers TV entitled Teaching Respect and Manners, which examines how Japanese schools encourage good citizenship in children from an early age.

For further links to resources on parenting, have a look at my 'Parents' bookmarks on the Delicious site, though be aware that some of the older links may no longer be working.

Free Play Articles

2011-08-04T12:42:00.003Z

Yesterday was Playday, an annual event which celebrates the right of children to play, and the role that it has in their development. To mark the day, publishers Routledge are offering free access to a range of journal articles about different aspects of play for the whole of August. If you're considering doing a dissertation in this area, or just want to know more about the subject, this is a great opportunity to do some in-depth reading.

For links to the various articles, click here.

Parenting Matters: Early Years and Social Mobility

2011-08-04T09:10:00.005Z

A new report from the CentreForum think tank contains for promoting important parenting skills, through the use of a 'five a day' approach. Such activities might include regular playing and talking with a child, and ensuring that they are fed nutritious food. The basis for such advice stems from the report's key assertion that "what parents do is ultimately more important than who parents are."

The full text of Parenting Matters: Early Years and Social Mobility is online now. The issues raised by the report were also discussed on this morning's Today show on Radio 4.

Supporting Families in the Foundation Years

2011-08-02T14:57:00.007Z

The Department for Education has recently set out its policy vision regarding the early years sector, in a major document entitled Supporting Families in the Early Years. This new publication combines the government's response to various reviews of recent months, including Frank Field’s poverty review, Graham Allen's work on early intervention, and the Tickell review of the EYFS. Topics covered by the new report include the future shape of Foundation Years services, the role of early years workers, and proposals to identify and disseminate good practice.

To read the full text of Supporting Families in the Early Years, click here.

Unsure About Sure Start

2011-07-12T09:42:00.004Z

Anyone with an interest in the children's sector should take the time to listen to the latest episode of the Analysis series on Radio 4, which investigates what the Sure Start programme has achieved for children in the 12 years since it was set up. The programme was initially broadcast last night and is due to be repeated on Sunday 17th July at 9:30pm, or you can listen via iPlayer for the next couple of weeks by clicking here.

For further information about the debate surrounding the success or otherwise of Sure Start, try looking at this previous post or the DfE's November 2010 report The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on Five Year Olds and their Families.

Bumper Crop of New Research

2011-07-04T15:27:00.009Z

There have been several new reports in recent days which may interest visitors to this site, so without further ado:

The Cabinet Office has today published Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings. This is a report from Graham Allen MP which calls for more money to be spent improving the lives of children from deprived backgrounds.
New DfE research has concluded that a shortage of high quality childcare could disrupt the roll-out of free places to disadvantaged two-year-olds. The full report for the study can be accessed by clicking here.
Too Old to Care? is the title of a new report from the Grandparents Plus charity, which argues that many social workers consider grandparents over the age of 65 too old to raise their grandchildren.
The latest report from the EPPSE Project is entitled Performing Against the Odds, and examines how parents of disadvantaged children can play a role in helping their achievement.
The DfE has also just published Investigating the Role of Language in Children's Early Educational Outcomes, which examines the impact of the early communication environment in the first two years of a child's life.

Finally, it's National Childhood Obesity Week. To mark the event, research carried out by the University of Worcester has found that many parents are overestimating the amount of exercise that children take.

One Million Reasons for Reform

2011-06-29T13:14:00.002Z

Similar to my last post, todays post also deals with a report looking at the Big Society agenda and children's services. One Million Reasons for Reform: Unleashing the Potential of the Voluntary Sector in Early Years Services has been published by ACEVO, and examines the future role of voluntary services within the early years sector. Among the recommendations are calls for the government to create a level playing field between charities and the public sector when bidding for services.

To view the full report, click here.

Children and the Big Society

2011-06-27T12:55:00.002Z

A recent report from the Respublica thinktank examines the potential impact of the government's Big Society and localism agenda on the lives of children and their families. The publication notes that while progress has been made in family policy during the past two decades, there is a need to protect parks, play schemes, community projects and other services from closure.

The full text of Children and the Big Society is online now.

Free Nursery Education

2011-06-24T14:51:00.003Z

New figures from the Department of Education show that more than 86 per cent of all three- and four-year-olds who are entitled to free nursery places are taking up the full 15-hour offer. Well, their guardians are taking up the offer on their behalf, but you know what I mean...

A detailed breakdown of the statistics is available online. Definitely one for the numbercrunchers among you :-)

Refugee Week

2011-06-21T08:58:00.005Z

It's Refugee Week, which seems a fairly good excuse to look at resources from recent years which examine various aspects of the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking children in the UK.

Several reports have covered the circumstances of children when they first arrive in the country. The Office of the Children's Commissioner has investigated this topic by publishing Landing in Kent: the Experience of Unaccompanied Children Arriving in the UK in February of this year, and Claiming Asylum at a Screening Unit as an Unaccompanied Child in 2008. Also useful is Families New to the UK: Confident Families in Cohesive Communities, a report released by the 4Children charity earlier this year.

The body which is responsible for monitoring migration is the UK Border Agency. In 2009 they published a Code of Practice for Keeping Children Safe from Harm, which outlines the procedures which are in place to protect children's interests.

A number of charities have carried out studies which examine services available to refugee families and the difficulties that they can face in adapting to a new country. Some of these include:

Levelling the Playing Field (UNICEF, March 2010)
Breaking the Wall of Silence: Practitioners’ responses to trafficked children and young people (NSPCC, June 2009)
Does Every Child Matter? Children Seeking Asylum in Britain (Refugee & Migrant Justice, March 2009)
Living on the Edge of Despair: Destitution Amongst Asylum Seeking and Refugee Children (Children's Society, February 2008)

Although now a few years old, Jill Rutter's 2003 report Working with Refugee Children still contains plenty of useful information on how immigrant children can be supported. Also worth a read are the OECD's 2009 publication What Works in Migrant Education? and a report from the CfBT Education Trust entitled Supporting Asylum Seeker and Refugee Children which was published in 2007.

Finally, for a more local flavour, in February 2009 the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published Empowering Birmingham's Migrant and Refugee Community Organisations, with a view to influencing future policy in this area.

Childcare for Working Parents

2011-06-20T14:11:00.003Z

Finding childcare outside of the typical working day is becoming a greater problem for working parents, according to a new report from the Resolution Foundation. At present, many nurseries are open from 8am - 6pm, which creates a problem for parents who work at weekends or during the evenings.

The full text of Childcare: Failing to Meet the Needs of Working Parents is now available online. A further, more detailed report will be published later this year.

Spotlight on Kinship Care

2011-06-20T14:01:00.002Z

Children's charity Buttle UK has just published a report entitled Kinship Care, which investigates how many children are being brought up by relatives other than their mother or father. The research is based on data from the 2001 census, and found that many such arrangements between parents and relatives were informal, which meant carers were not entitled to any financial support from social services. The report also explores issues such as the ethnicity of such children, and the areas of the country where kinship is most prevalent.

Both the full version of the report and an executive summary are available from this link.

Poor Kids

2011-06-08T08:33:00.005Z

A lot of the chatter on Twitter today among the various children's organisations revolves around Poor Kids, a documentary which was shown last night on BBC1. The film follows different children who live in poverty in different parts of the UK, and they talk to the camera about their experiences of their home lives and issues such as food and money.

You can watch the documentary on iPlayer for the next seven days. End Child Poverty, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are all websites which can provide further infomation on the issues raised.

For previous posts linking to child poverty research (and there's been plenty in recent years), click on the 'Child Poverty' link in the 'Hot Topics' column on the right hand side of this page.

Technology in the Early Years

2011-06-07T08:36:00.004Z

A new study from the Open University claims that many nursery staff and parents are not allowing preschool children to engage with ICT, believing that "new technologies might damage children's wellbeing, social interaction and learning." However, Dr Rosie Flewitt, the lead researcher for the project, argues that "If early years education continues to focus exclusively on traditional forms of literacy, then it will be failing to provide all children with the skills they will need at school and in their future lives."

More information about the research can be found at the website of Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years. The very latest output is available in the June 2011 issue of the Qualitative Research journal, which UCB students can access in full via the Sage Journals Online site in Athens.

National Literacy Trust First Annual Survey

2011-06-01T14:19:00.003Z

The National Literacy Trust has just released the results of its first annual online survey, which was carried out during November / December of last year with young people aged 8-17. The survey focused on young people’s attitudes towards reading, writing and communication skills as well as technology use, and also included a question about book ownership.

Among the key findings were a strong link between literacy skills and educational attainment, and the statistic that three in ten UK children do not own a book of their own. To read the survey in full, click here.

New DfE Research

2011-05-26T09:14:00.004Z

The Department for Education tends to release a batch of research reports at the end of each month, and the latest ones have just been published. There are too many to list all of them here, but some of the new material which seems particularly useful is linked below. Remember that if the prospect of reading a 100+ pages report is too daunting, then the executive summary will give you a quick flavour of the content!

The complete Publications section of the DfE website can be found here.

Childhood and Education on Twitter

2011-05-23T13:17:00.003Z

I've recently set up a Twitter account, and so to the right hand side of this page you'll now see an area entitled 'Twitter Updates'. This displays recent tweets from my account (UCBChildEd) which will typically contain links to useful articles and other information relating to childcare and education. So in addition to the in-depth posts on this site which will continue, you'll also be able to get quick access to other items which will hopefully be relevant. Be sure to check these regularly, as there's likely to be something new every time you return!

Foster Care Fortnight

2011-05-18T09:28:00.004Z

Monday saw the beginning of Foster Care Fortnight, which seems as good an excuse as any to post some resources about fostering, as it's a topic which I sometimes get enquiries about. Foster Care Fortnight is an annual event held by UK charity the Fostering Network, which aims to raise the profile of fostering and attract new carers. It is particularly timely this year, after the recent launch of the Foster Carers' Charter.

The Fostering Network website has an area called the Resource Centre, which is as good a place as any to start researching the subject. This contains details of a large number of reports, podcasts, newsletters, statistics and other publications, many of which are free to download. The site also has a fairly comprehensive Useful Links page, to point you towards other useful organisations and relevant legislation.

Two other websites which you should visit are the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) and The Adolescent and Children's Trust (TACT). Both of these charities provide detailed information on fostering and help to link children with prospective foster families. TACT's 2009 report Aspirations: the Views of Foster Children and their Carers is also an invaluable introduction to many of the issues surrounding fostering, and there has recently been a follow-up report entitled Aspirations Three Years On.

For further research about fostering, Ofsted has released several publications on the topic over the last few years. Being Fostered (2005), Children's Experience of Private Fostering (2008) and Care and Prejudice (2009) are all worth a look.

Finally, to bring us up to date, the Guardian has today published 3 articles in its Society supplement, to tie in with Foster Care Fortnight. Foster Care: 'The Best Job I've Ever Done' examines a shortage in the number of available foster families, Reaping the Rewards of Fostering relates the experiences of a carer who fosters teenage boys, and Foster Providers Need to Make Long-Term Plans Sooner highlights the importance of stable placements in providing successful outcomes for fostered children.

Excellence in English

2011-05-16T08:46:00.002Z

A new report from Ofsted argues that creativity in the classroom allows for better teaching of English. The publication, entitled Excellence in English, examines 12 primary and secondary schools which are rated outstanding in their teaching of English, to explore how their approaches to the subject can be adopted by other institutions. Arranging for theatre trips and setting up reading groups are just two of the initiatives which impressed inspectors.

To access both the full report and a summary version, click here.

Return of Teachers TV

2011-05-11T14:10:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago (see previous post) I mentioned that the Teachers TV website would no longer be available. Since then, two separate websites - SchoolsWorld.TV and teachersmedia - have both been set up with the promise of providing free access to the entire archive of 3500 programmes very shortly.

It's a little confusing as both sites claim to be run by people who were behind the original Teachers TV website! Anyway, it seems as though fans of the original service will once more be able to view the programmes. There is also the promise of possible new videos being created so keep watching this space...

How Quiet Helps at School

2011-05-11T10:57:00.005Z

Regular readers of this site will know that while most of the posts on here deal with new reports and research, I occasionally try to introduce some variety (and fun!) by looking at materials which date back a little further. So below is a charming short US film from 1953 entitled How Quiet Helps at School, which is descibed as a "social guidance film for young children suggesting that they take their noise out to the playground."

After teachers recently complained about pupils' lack of discipline, would there still be a place for a film like this in a modern classroom? What sort of advice do you think a remake might include in 2011? Leave your comments below.

The Munro Review of Child Protection

2011-05-10T09:20:00.005Z

Today sees the publication of the final report of the Munro Review of Child Protection. The review was launched in June last year, with a brief to examine current procedures for safeguarding children and the role of social workers (see previous post for details). Since then there have been two interim publications.

The final report states that local areas should have more freedom to design their own child protection services. There are also recommendations to reduce bureaucracy, and a call for frontline social workers to have more say in deciding what is best for at-risk children. The appointment of a chief social worker to liaise between the government and the wider profession is another of the report's recommendations.

You can read the full text of The Munro Review of Child Protection Final Report: A Child-Centred System by clicking here. Further information and all documentation relating to the review is available from this site. In conjunction with the review, the Department for Education has also today published Safeguarding Children Across Services, which is an executive summary of a research programme which helped to inform the Munro review.

Anti-Bullying Strategies

2011-05-09T14:17:00.002Z

The Department for Education has recently published The Use and Effectiveness of Anti-Bullying Strategies in Schools. This project was conducted by the Unit for School and Family Studies at the University of London, and examined how successful different schools in England have been in their approach to tackling episodes of bullying.

Best Behaviour

2011-05-09T14:11:00.002Z

The Policy Exchange think tank has recently published Best Behaviour: School Discipline, Intervention and Exclusion. This is a report which proposes new discipline and exclusion policies to protect pupils whose education may be harmed by the misbehaviour of other children, as well as taking a broader view of the issue of discipline in schools.

Childhood & Education on YouTube

2011-05-04T14:37:00.013Z

Similar to my recent post on useful Twitter feeds, today's update looks at which YouTube channels are available that have direct relevance to the children and education sectors. Of course, there are literally thousands of videos on YouTube which might be useful to you, but the links below will take you to channels which focus primarily or wholly on children, education and family issues.

All of the Twitter and YouTube links I have posted can now also be found on the 'Links' section of this site (see top of page).

The list of channels is below. If you know of a good one that I've missed, please share it with other users of this site by leaving a comment.

Barnardos

Becta

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

Children's Society

Community Care

Department for Education

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

Family and Parenting Institute

National Children's Bureau (NCB)

National Literacy Trust

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

ParentChannelTV

Save the Children UK

School Food Trust

Social Care TV

TESConnect

UNICEF

UNICEF UK

Young Minds

Goodbye Teachers TV

2011-04-27T15:28:00.002Z

The Teachers TV service will no longer be available from Friday 29th April. The channel was originally set up by the previous government and broadcast through Channel 88 on Freeview, but due to funding cuts it has only been available via its website since last year, and is now set to close completely.

The Department for Education has agreed to give other information providers access to all programmes produced by Teachers TV, provided that they are streamed freely at the point of use. More information about this can be found by clicking here; if parts of the Teachers TV archive are again available in the future, then this site will provide information on how you can access them.

Latest from Ontheweb

2011-04-11T16:12:00.005Z

Ontheweb is a monthly service from the NFER which lists education-related reports and research which has recently been published. The reports it links to come from all over the globe, and cover a huge range of different topics, so it's well worth subscribing to if you want to stay on top of what's going on in the education sector - you can sign up for free alerts by filling in the simple form at this link.

The latest issue has just come out and as usual contains plenty of useful material. I've been through it and although quite a few of the reports it covers have already been mentioned on here in recent weeks, here's a pick of some of the other information which this site's readers may find interesting:

Teenage Drinking Cultures is a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which examines young people's behaviour towards alcohol.

The Office of The Children's Commissioner for England has published a study of The Experiences of Unaccompanied Children Arriving in the UK.

The End Child Poverty campaign group has produced a Child Poverty Map of the UK.

Trends Shaping Education 2010 is a report with an international focus from the OECD which "provides an overview of key economic, social, demographic and technological trends and raises pertinent questions about their impact on education."

The Commissioning Support Programme has concluded its work with the publication of The Commissioning of Children’s Services in England: Learning from the Sector, Providing for the Sector.

Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission

2011-04-07T15:01:00.003Z

This week the government has announced the creation of a Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission to oversee progress in tackling child poverty and inequality in the UK. At the same time a new Child Poverty Strategy and Social Mobility Strategy have been published, which contain detailed information on how the government intends to tackle the issue of child poverty over the coming years; they have re-affirmed the commitment of the previous Labour administration to end child poverty by 2020.

On a similar note, the IPPR thinktank has just published Parents at the Centre. This research report investigates why disadvantaged families who might be expected to benefit most from the support provided by early years services are often among the least likely to use them. To read a summary of this study, click here; if you wish to access the full report then you will need to register with the site, though this is free and only takes a moment.

Education Free For All!

2011-04-04T13:28:00.003Z

Throughout April Routledge are offering free access to over 200 Education journals on the InformaWorld site as part of their Education Free for All campaign, so if you're in the middle of doing some research then now would be an excellent time to use this service! A list of the titles which you will be able to access during this month is available from this link.

Tickell Review - Handy Guide

2011-04-01T11:57:00.005Z

As a follow-up to Wednesday's post, Nursery World have now released a simple bullet-pointed guide to the recommendations of the Tickell Review. Very handy if you don't fancy wading through the 108 pages of the full report!

To view the EYFS Review guide, click here.

Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage

2011-03-30T10:29:00.011Z

It's a big day for the early years sector with the publication of the report of the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The review was commissioned in July last year by the Department for Education with the intention of making the EYFS less bureaucratic, with plans to implement its recommendations from September.

The final report is full of proposed changes to how the EYFS operates - probably the ones that will capture most attention are recommendations to cut the number of early learning goals from 69 to 17, and a change in focus to three 'prime' areas of learning.

You can read initial reaction to the proposals from the BBC and the Guardian. Also very useful is this page from Nursery World's website which has a series of articles reacting to the review's publication, including a list of key points, a brief interview with Dame Clare Tickell herself, and other useful information.

To read the full text of the review, click here. A further report providing information on the evidence which the review considered is also available.

Education Policy

2011-03-30T09:41:00.002Z

More new research carried out by the NFER and Office of the Children's Commissioner: Children's and Young People's Views of Education Policy is a report which examines the views of almost 2000 children aged between 8-17 in interviews carried out towards the end of last year. Among the findings of the study was the idea that many children would like to have a say in selecting their own teachers.

To read the full text of the report, click here.

Trying to Get By

2011-03-28T14:22:00.006Z

The Office of the Children's Commissioner has published some new research carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which asked children and young people from deprived areas for their views on poverty. Among the findings were a fear that the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow, and concern over how this could impact on the childrens' life chances.

To read the full text of 'Trying to Get By': Consulting with Children and Young People on Child Poverty, click here.

BBC News Schools Report

2011-03-24T14:07:00.004Z

What are children today really like? The BBC set out to investigate by asking 24,000 11-16 year olds across the UK a range of questions about their lives and ideas. The survey covered such areas as religion, aspirations, home life and much more.

An article summarising the main points is available from this link. To read the full results of the survey, click here.

Helping Schools with Special Needs

2011-03-24T13:58:00.004Z

New research from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust argues that schools need to change their teaching methods to meet the needs of children with increasingly complex special needs; as more disabled children are surviving to school age, so schools need increased support in providing education to these pupils.

For now only the recommendations from the research are available to read online. From next week a dedicated website with further information about the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disability Research Project will be available.

Childhood & Education on Twitter

2011-03-23T13:52:00.009Z

Most large organisations and media outlets in the childcare and education sector now have Twitter accounts where they post little snippets of news, details of campaigns etc as and when they happen, making it much easier for interested parties to stay in touch with what's going on. Today's post simply gives you a list of links to these accounts, so that if you're a Twitter user you can subscribe to the ones that interest you. Or you could start following them all, and very quickly you should have an idea of the topics which are currently generating discussion in the sector...

I've tried to pick out the accounts which appear to be most active, and deliberately excluded some which are not updated regularly. If you know of a useful children-related account which I've not included, why not share it with other readers by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post?

Also, for the next few days you'll see a poll on the right-hand side of this page asking you about your Twitter usage. If enough readers are using it, then I can investigate setting up a Twitter service to complement this site.

Without further ado, here are the links:

Barnardos

Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

Children & Young People Now

Children’s Society

Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC)

Community Care

Daycare Trust

Department of Education

Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

Family & Parenting Institute

Guardian Teacher Network

Institute of Education

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

National Autistic Society

National Children's Bureau (NCB)

National Literacy Trust

National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Teachers TV

Times Educational Supplement (TES)

Training & Development Agency for Schools (TDA)

UNICEF

UNICEF Innocenti Centre

UNICEF UK

Young Minds

Children's Playground Games

2011-03-16T10:57:00.004Z

The Institute of Education has published the results of a study which examined children's behaviour in school playgrounds over a period of two years. The researchers found that, while children are familiar with computer games and technology, they are incorporating this knowledge into more traditional playground games.

To read the full text of Children's Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age, click here.

Breastfeeding & Development

2011-03-14T15:31:00.003Z

A new research paper from the Institute for Social and Economic Research claims that breastfeeding produces not only healthier but also brighter children. Those children who had been breastfed were found to score more highly than their peers in reading, writing and mathematics tests throughout their time at school.

To read the full text of The Effect of Breastfeeding on Children’s Cognitive Development, click here.

Support and Aspiration - SEN Green Paper

2011-03-09T10:09:00.005Z

Today sees the publication of the new green paper on special educational needs (SEN), which sets out the government's plans for reform to the support available within schools. The proposals are wide-ranging, covering plans to replace SEN statements with education and health care plans, and assessing children in a single get-together rather than having them attend a series of meetings.

You can read more about the plans from this BBC article, and this piece from the Guardian.

To read the full text of Support and Aspiration: a New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability, click here. An executive summary is also available. Those with an interest in the paper have until 30 June to contact the Department for Education with a response to the proposals.

Prevention and Response to Bullying

2011-03-07T12:04:00.003Z

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published a new study which examines the issue of prejudice-based bullying of children, on the grounds of disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Among the findings are that such forms of bullying are widespread and can have long-lasting consequences on victims, and that schools require further guidance and support to prevent this type of bullying.

To read the full text of the report, click here.

Men in Families

2011-03-07T11:37:00.003Z

A new United Nations publication provides an overview of the issues affecting men in modern families. Although the report is international in scope, it contains plenty of useful information on areas such as male carers and fathers in vulnerable families within the UK. You can read the full text of Men in Families and Family Policy in a Changing World by clicking here.

Laying the Table

2011-03-04T10:51:00.006Z

A review of nursery food has called for national guidelines on what under fives should eat and drink in early years settings. Laying the Table: Recommendations for National Food and Nutrition Guidance for Early Years Settings in England is the full title of the new report from the School Food Trust, which has also concluded that many children do not eat recommended levels of fruit and vegetables, and that over 20% of children are overweight by the time they begin reception class.

You can read the full text of the report by clicking here. If you're into tables, statistics etc, then the appendix with background data is also available.

Complex Needs, Complex Challenges

2011-03-03T14:49:00.003Z

A new report from the National Deaf Children's Society argues that deaf children with additional needs face a difficult future due to poor or non-existent support and medical care. The research, entitled Complex Needs, Complex Challenges, examines the experiences of families who have deaf children with additional complex needs - around 40% of deaf children are estimated to have an additional disability. The timing of the publication is perhaps not coincidental - later this month the government will publish a new Green Paper with proposals on strategies for dealing with special educational needs (SEN).

To access the full text of the report, click here.

Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA)

2011-02-28T16:40:00.002Z

One of the most frustrating things about being an education librarian (or any kind of Web user for that matter...) is finding that valuable links that you have saved, which connect to important reports or research are no longer working as the information has been moved to another place. Sometimes it's quite simple to find the original document again, but in a worst case scenario it's possible that it could have vanished from the Web forever.

This is where a new service aimed at the educational researcher comes in. The IOE UK Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education, and their aim is the permanent preservation of all electronic publications on education. Furthermore, the site owners are committed to making the collection permanently and freely accessible to all.

The site already contains over 1000 documents, and can either be browsed or searched using keywords. The collection will continue to grow as more reports are added, and should prove to be invaluable to anyone researching education, so I'd strongly suggest that users of this site save it to their bookmarks for regular use.

To visit the DERA site and learn more, click here.

Young Carers

2011-02-28T13:34:00.002Z

A new report from the Department of Education examines how different local authorities have developed systems and support to address the needs of families with young carers. The research explores some of the positive outcomes linked to taking a family focused approach and showcases good practice developed in this field.

You can read the full text of Improving Support for Young Carers – Family Focused Approaches by clicking here. The report is timely, given that the Carers' Strategy was updated in November - to read this, click here.

State of the World's Children 2011

2011-02-25T12:58:00.003Z

UNICEF have just published their annual State of the World's Children report, which examines the conditions of children around the globe. The theme of this year's report is adolescence - UNICEF says that while huge investment in under-tens has produced gains in health and welfare, adolescents are still often marginalised in development budgets and programming. The report also contains detailed tables showing how individual nations are performing in various important areas.

You can read the full text of The State of the World's Children 2011 by clicking here. All of the previous annual reports are available in full from this link.

Online Support

2011-02-24T15:04:00.000Z

Just a reminder that this semester all UCB students have access to a new service from the library. Connect@UCB is an online help desk which you can visit to get support in finding useful information. Simply log on during the advertised hours and a member of staff will be available to help with your enquiry - perfect if you're unable to make it into College!

The desk will initially be open each weekday from 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm.

To access Connect@UCB, you will first need a Wimba Pronto account - information about this software and getting a free account is available from UCBOnline.

A user guide for Connect@UCB is available from this link.

Severe Child Poverty

2011-02-23T13:41:00.004Z

A new set of figures from Save the Children UK suggests that as many as 1.6m children in the UK are living in severe poverty. Now the charity is calling on the government to draw up an emergency plan to tackle the issue - in some cities, more than one quarter of children are thought to be affected.

You can read the summary of Save the Children's findings here. The Guardian has also produced a more detailed breakdown of the data, which you can access here.

Children's Songs

2011-02-18T10:40:00.005Z

Something a little light-hearted for Friday... every week the Guardian newspaper has a column called Readers Recommend..., where readers are invited to send in suggestions for their favourite songs on a particular subject. This week the chosen topic is children's songs, and while I can't pretend to be familiar with all of the final list, it certainly looks like an interesting selection if you're searching for music that a child might enjoy. Here's the article in full.

Strangely the list contains no AC/DC, who my four year old niece claims are her favourite band...

Have a look at the videos below for some more ideas on music for children. The first is from an album called Now the Day is Over, a collection of lullabies released by an American band called The Innocence Mission; the second is from a 1970s series with the fabulous title Schoolhouse Rock!, and introduces children to the joys of the three times table.

Do you have any songs that you would recommend for children? If so, leave a comment below to share them with other readers. Here's how to do it.

Transitions Information

2011-02-17T16:15:00.003Z

For those of you who have been enquiring about information on transitions in recent days, today's post should be very useful. For links to reports and guidance on a range of different transitions, read on...

A good starting point is Early Childhood Transitions Research: a Review of Concepts, Theory and Practice; this is a 2008 publication from the Bernard van Leer Foundation which gathers together much of the literature already published on this topic.

The previous government carried out plenty of research on various transition types. Here's a list of them with links to the relevant reports, though bear in mind that if any official policies are stated, then they may not necessarily be the policy of the current government:

A Study of the Transition from the Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1

The Early Years Transition & Special Educational Needs (EYTSEN) Project

What Makes a Successful Transition from Primary to Secondary School?

Transfer and Transitions in the Middle Years of Schooling (7-14): Continuities and Discontinuities in Learning

The Impact of School Transitions and Transfers on Pupil Progress and Attainment

Strengthening Transfers and Transitions: Partnerships for Progress

Two other documents that may be useful are A Transition Guide for All Services: Key Information for Professionals About the Transition Process for Disabled Young People (a publication from the Department of Health under the previous government) and Support for Care Leavers, a 2009 Ofsted report which examines how effective strategies and services can help improve the quality of life for care leavers and assist them to make successful transitions into adulthood and independence.

Finally, the Teaching Expertise site has plenty of articles which are filled with practical tips on managing various transitions within education. There are far too many to list them all here, but if you do a search for 'transition' in the site's search box then you'll find lots of reading to keep you busy for a while.

Guardian Teaching Network

2011-02-15T11:13:00.002Z

A major new free resource has become available to teachers today, with the launch of the Guardian Teacher Network. The site contains materials from the learn.co.uk website, which had previously been accessible only to subscribers. You must register to use the new site, but this is free and only takes a minute.

There are a range of resources contained in the site, from tips articles and news stories, to interactive exercises and lesson plans. You can also choose to search by the level of activity, as there is material covering each level from the Foundation Stage up to GCSE. To visit the site, click here.

Connect@UCB

2011-02-12T11:45:00.009Z

This semester all UCB students have access to a new service from the library. Connect@UCB is an online help desk which you can visit to get support in finding useful information. Simply log on during the advertised hours and a member of staff will be available to help with your enquiry - perfect if you're unable to make it into College!

The desk will initially be open each weekday from 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm.

To access Connect@UCB, you will first need a Wimba Pronto account - information about this software and getting a free account is available from UCBOnline.

A user guide for Connect@UCB is available from this link.

Impact of the Early Years Foundation Stage

2011-02-10T13:53:00.002Z

New research from Ofsted has examined the impact that the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has had on provision and developmental outcomes for young children. The report forms part of Ofsted's evidence to the ongoing review of the EYFS by Dame Clare Tickell, and found that the number of nurseries and childminders judged good or outstanding has risen significantly since the introduction of the EYFS.

To read the full text of The Impact of the Early Years Foundation Stage: A Good Start, click here.

Childcare Costs

2011-02-09T12:33:00.002Z

The tenth annual childcare costs survey from the Daycare Trust has found that the cost of a nursery place for a child over two has risen twice as quickly as wages. The survey, compiled from figures submitted by family information services in England, Scotland and Wales, examines by region the cost of childminders, nurseries and after-school clubs as well as the availability of childcare.

The full report is not freely available online, although you can read a press release containing the main points and the Daycare Trust's recommendations for the future by clicking here. The Trust is also behind the Paying for Childcare website, which provides information on the different types of financial support available to help with costs of childcare.

Washing a Baby

2011-02-08T12:33:00.003Z

The silent film clip below shows a nurse from 1905 demonstrating how to wash, change and feed a baby girl. It seems that they were less gentle when handling infants a century ago, although the child seems to respond pretty well, at least until she's weighed...