News

News update: April 2010

I hope that you survived April 1st without too many practical jokes being played on you and that you have managed to have a good Easter break. This has been a busy time of year for us with lots of motorway travel and work in various cities throughout the UK. The road travel has taken its toll on the car with 2 windscreens having to be replaced in the past month due to stone damage – there does appear to be a lot of loose stones on our roads at the moment. This month’s newsletter contains a range of current news items and topics relating to behaviour. I do hope that you have a good summer term.

Easter is conference season

Each of the main teaching unions has held their conferences in the week leading up to and over the Easter weekend. Behaviour has been a key discussion point and a survey by ATL found that 60% of teachers believed behaviour was worse than 5 years ago. 90% of teachers said that disruption was routine and that they have had to deal with a disruptive pupil this year with pupils as young as 5 being violent and intimidating. 40% of teachers had dealt with physical aggression in the classroom with 25% of them saying this was directed at them.

The survey suggested that behaviour is worse with younger children with 50% of those dealing with primary aged children reporting dealing with incidents of violence in the classroom compared with 20% in secondary schools.

Kicking, spitting, using fists were common bad behaviours but 1.4% said they had to deal with a child attempting or actually stabbing someone with a pen, pencil or knife. Aggression from parents is now more common.

Boys over-masculinised and girls highly sexualized from a young age

Dr Linda Papadopoulos (Clinical Psychologist and reader at London Metropolitan University) was commissioned by the Home Office to write a report on the sexualization of young people. She states that children are having to face pressures that they did not have in the past. Society is experiencing a ‘drip, drip effect’ in which the previously unthinkable becomes widely acceptable. Some computer games, t-shirts with sexual slogans, easily accessible pornography and availability of inappropriate magazines mean children are highly sexualized from an early age. In a recent survey of 1000 girls 60% said glamour-modelling was their ideal career. 25% said they would ideally become a lap-dancer.

Some recommendations include:

• Banning provocative music videos before 9pm.

• Lads magazines to be put on top shelf and sold to over 15s.

• Website to be developed for complaints relating to marketing which sexualizes children

• Games Consoles must come with parental controls

Safeguarding children and young people who may be affected by gang activity

The Home Office issued non-statutory practice guidance in January 2010 to help agencies and practitioners respond effectively to the needs of children and young people who are at risk of gang-related violence and harm. It said that the safeguarding of young people and use of child protection procedures in relation to young people at risk of gangs is essential. The focus needs to be on ‘responding to the needs of those young people who are involved in gangs and at risk of harm as well as addressing the risk factors of other young people being drawn onto gangs in the future’.

The advice was aimed at stopping young people falling into a ‘downward spiral of violence, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour’. Government want early identification of signs to become commonplace in schools and Youth Centres.

Government thinks that teachers are ‘well placed’ to spot gang activity and believes they are in an ideal position to act when one of their pupils displays key signs.

Parents afraid of disciplining their children

A survey of 2000 parents by the Armed Forces Cadet movement found that 25% of parents are so afraid of upsetting their children that they do not discipline them at all. 30% admitted being far too easy going and a pushover with their children. They are also reluctant to discipline their children because they don’t want to be seen to be unfair or too strict and wanted an easy life. Over 50% of parents viewed themselves as their child’s friend. The survey found that children are told off twice a day on average.  Parents have given up on disciplining them because it is easier than having to deal with them kicking up a fuss.

Developmental problems impact on school performance

Findings from the Millenium Cohort study, conducted by the University of London, Institute of Education, which looked at 18818 babies born between 2000 and 2001 and tracked them for the first 5 years of their lives, found that developmental problems which result in an inability to reach certain milestones such as crawling or sitting upright can be linked to behaviour and learning problems which lead to them falling behind in their work and not getting on in class when they start school.

The report found that developmental delays affect about 10% of children and these children had an increased risk of demonstrating anti-social behaviour and had a significantly increased risk of falling behind when they started at school.

Highlighting inequalities in education

The independent National Equality Board, reporting in January, explored differences in a number of areas including educational outcomes. Its findings in relation to education were:

Gender – girls now have better educational outcomes than boys at school, are more likely to enter higher education and to achieve good degrees.

Ethnicity and religious affiliation – some minority ethnic groups with school test scores starting below the national average catch up between ages 7 and16. However, Pakistani, Black African and Black Caribbean boys have results at age 16 well below the median in England.

Occupational social class – there are large differences in ‘school readiness’ before and on reaching school by parental income, occupation and education. Rather than being fixed at birth, these widen between ages 3 and 14. By age 16, White British, Black Caribbean and mixed White and Black Caribbean boys receiving Free School Meals have the lowest average assessment of any group by gender, ethnicity and Free School Meal status.

On commenting on the implications of their findings this panel stated:

• Differences in school readiness by parental resources and social class underscore the importance of the early years and the challenges that policies face.

• Differences related to family resources widen through compulsory schooling, suggesting the importance of reducing child poverty and improving educational attainments of poorer children. The deteriorating position after 11 of low-income White British and Black Caribbean boys is a particular concern, as is that of Gypsy and traveller children.

• Considerable differences remain even after allowing for attainment at 16, in entry into higher education, and the kind of institution attended by social class, ethnicity and experience of private education.

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