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News
News update from Dave Vizard – June 2005:
June is one or the busiest
months of the year and will see me working in areas such as
Barnsley, South Wales, London, St. Austell, Torbay,
Scunthorpe, Leeds and Tamworth. I will also be doing a
keynote address to a group of London Secondary Headteachers
on Creative Approaches To Teaching and Learning.
An end to soccer violence?
Celebrities and sports stars
are important role models to the young. Recent news items on
this site have outlined examples of poor behaviour being
displayed by sports stars on our television screens. A
clampdown on violence on the soccer pitch has been promised
by the Crown Prosecution Service from the beginning of next
season. New guidelines will indicate when police and
prosecutors should take players to the criminal courts.
Sportsmen and women must
demonstrate the highest standards of behaviour because
students watch and learn from their actions.
School meals review panel
gets started
The new review panel has
started to develop tough minimum nutrition standards for
primary and secondary schools. The panel will aim to reduce
pupils’ consumption of fat, salt and sugar, and increase
their consumption of fruit, vegetables and other foods in
school meals.
From September 2005 OfSTED
will review the quality of school meals. Kitchen Staff are
to obtain qualifications in basic hygiene, nutrition and
cooking. School Kitchen facilities will be upgraded so fresh
produce can be prepared and stored.
Some school and authorities
are inspecting packed lunches brought into school. They have
found that lunchboxes contained crisps and chocolate. One in
ten children did not have a sandwich, whilst 80% had crisps.
Only 7% had any kind of vegetable.
Obesity Challenge
In England 25% of students in
the 13-17 age range and 27% of students in the 7-11 age
range are obese or overweight according to the European
Congress on Obesity. This compares with 11% in Germany and
9% in the Netherlands in the 13-17 age group. In the 7-11
age range the comparative figures for Germany are 16% and
France 19%. However, we are still behind the USA, where 30%
of children in this age group are obese.
Obesity increases the risk of
heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. The
government has recognised the problem and is developing the
Healthy School Initiative and has published a white paper
entitled ‘Choosing Health’ to tackle the problem.
Good Vibration
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Research conducted by
McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada suggested the
importance of initial close parents / baby bonding.
Parents who bounced their babies on their knees in time
to music brought a smile to the faces of both
participants. This bouncing had a profound effect on the
later musical preferences of the babies. They will
prefer in later life songs with rhythms matching the
patterns in which they were bounced.
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Professor Stephen
Stransfield from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and
Dentistry in London has found that high levels of
aircraft noise can impair reading and memory development
in children. A 3-year study by RANCH (Road, Traffic and
Aircraft Noise on Children’s Cognition and Health)
concluded that schools exposed to high levels of
aircraft noise were not healthy environments for
learning.
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Latest music gadgets are
being used to boost student learning. ‘Podcasts’ are
used for revision and learning foreign languages.
Students can study independently, walking down the
street listening to their ipods. They appear ‘cool’ and
are not perceived as ‘swots’.
Playtime is important
‘Play malnourishment’ is the
latest phenomena facing children. Parents who push their
children and ‘over-schedule’ their lives have cause playtime
to disappear. ‘Hot-housing’ can result in stressed children
who have no time to enjoy themselves.
Doug Cole
of the International Play Association suggests that children
need 3 sessions of play a day. “Play is a basic building
block of life, essential nourishment for healthy
development” said Mr Cole. The 3 sessions should include
imaginative play, free physical play and free creative play.
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