News

News update from Dave Vizard – May / June 2006:

Banning Junk Food In Schools

Education Secretary Mr Alan Johnson said that junk food would be banned from vending machines and school canteens according to new rules due to come into effect from September:

• Children must get at least one portion of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables each day

• Chips will be restricted

• Economy burgers and offal will no longer be available. Manufactured meat products will be served only occasionally and must have minimum recommended meat content

• Fizzy drinks and chocolate in vending machines will be replaced by fruit, unsalted nuts, ‘smoothies’ and fruit juices

• Meals will not contain more than 2 deep fried products per week

• Children will have easy access at all times to drinking water

• Other drinks permitted include skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, pure fruit juice, yogurt, or milk with less than 5% added sugar

• There will be 14 additional nutritional standards setting legal limits on amount of fat, sugar, and salt in school dinners.

In a recent report it stated that ½ schools have failed to reach targets for providing healthy food and making pupils more active. 54% have failed to achieve ‘healthy school’ status which is awarded to schools serving nutritious meals and offering at least 2 hours or sport each week. Up to 9 in 10 schools in some parts of the country have yet to reach this goal.

Queen Bees Play Mindbending Games

Girls are more effective bullies than boys and use psychological warfare to dominate their victims according to Valerie Besag. Alpha females use psychological techniques to bully other girls. Girls rarely use violence but use a subtle undermining of confidence of others which can be far more damaging and have lifelong effects on some victims. Valerie Besag made the discovery in research for her book ‘Understanding Girls’ Friendships Fights and Feuds’. The nasty tricks used included:

• Making a girl drop her old friends if she wants to join the in-group, then excluding them anyway

• Missing the victim out of a party invitation or encouraging a victim to organise a party then ensuring no one turns up

• Stealing a victims exercise book from the homework pile and hiding them

• Starting rumours about the victim

Friendships appears more important to girls than academic success. They fear isolation after being pushed out of a friendship group. Girl bullies are subtle and exclude girls from friendship groups and hide their possessions. According to information presented to a Commons’ Education Select Committee, girls use ‘rumour-mongering and ‘social isolation’ to control their victims. David Moore, a senior Ofsted Inspector highlighted the use of non-verbal communication as a powerful weapon. He said that a group of girls would walk up to another girl who thinks they are all friends and then walk away isolating her and leaving her publicly humiliated.

Loving Neglect

‘Some parents love their children too much to say no’ according to Mick Brookes, General Secretary of NAHT. Children watch as much television as they want, play violent video games, eat junk food, stay up as late as they want and arrive at school disrupted. Sue Palmer suggests we are ‘producing a generation of dysfunctional, aggressive, depressed, burnt-out junior casualties.’ These factors, together with the absence of old-fashioned nurturing has created a new syndrome which Sue Palmer calls ‘toxic childhood.’ She suggests that behaviour problems among young people had doubled whilst emotional problems had increased by 70%. Also rising amongst teenagers are the figures on drug abuse, binge drinking, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

Many parents have helped to generate the condition for a ‘toxic childhood’ by practicing ‘loving neglect’, where parents, through wanting to be loved by their children, are in fact losing their respect. Remembering that ‘rules set you free’ may be useful. Sue Palmers book is called ‘Toxic Childhood’ and is published by Orion.

Fish Oils Boost Exam Performance

Students taking fish oil for 12 weeks up to GCSE exams last year exceeded the results predicted for them by one grade. The pass rate for 5 GCSE’s at grade C or higher rose 7% to 34%. It proved that Omega 3 Fattyacids are an essential building block for the brain and are necessary for brain development. As the body doesn’t manufacture these it is necessary for them to be eaten.

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