Reporters can be a tad obnoxious at dinner parties. We’re experts on everything for about five minutes. But parenting good students? I won’t even begin to pretend. So I turn to those in the know: teachers.

Helena Van Rooyen recently retired from academe after 40 years, most spent at the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District. But she isn’t done helping students, as she is working on a project for the district, helping at-risk second- through fifth-graders improve their math skills.

Melinda Anaya is a well-loved kindergarten teacher at Holy Angels School in Arcadia, where she’s taught for eight years. My two nieces, ages 13 and 10, adore her and remember how fun her classroom was. My own 6-year-old cried on the last day of school because he said he’ll miss her. (Don’t show this to him when he’s 16, please.)

I posed this question to them: What should parents of young children be doing now in the run-up to school? And what we can do throughout the year to help our kids succeed?

Van Rooyen stated it simply: “Just be a parent.”

“That means, get involved in your child’s learning, teach (and live) consistency, respect for authority and for peers, the meaning of the word `no,’ fairness and that there are choices,” she said.

And not to put undue pressure on you, but what we’re doing with our kinders now will echo through the years.

“I do think that the primary grades are the most important,” Anaya said. “This is when they begin to develop their work habits and everything is a new learning experience.”

The good habits we help instill in our pre-K and kindergarteners are the foundation to that perfect SAT score later on. (OK, just a 2,300.)

So herewith, homework for us parents on how to grow good students:

Forget the preaching. Instill a love for learning by providing kids with a model. Don’t just tell kids to read when you never read or to be nice and not fight when all you do is scream.

Play learning games, even simple ones like name everything in the room that’s green, and provide kids with a variety of experiences beyond video games and TV.

Consider volunteering in your child’s classroom

Both teachers’ No. 1 activity is reading. Read to kids and later with them when they’re old enough to read to you. It can be hard with everything else we have to do, but it makes a difference.

“Talk up” school and all that can be learned there plus the new friends they’ll make.

Recognize learning and reward it.

Right about now, start waking the kids up early and getting back into the routine. Observe a wise bedtime. Have a daily schedule kids can count on.

Your Mama said it to you too: eat a healthy breakfast.

To help with first-day tears, it’s best for parents to say goodbye, kiss their child and leave. Two minutes after you leave, your kid is fine. We feel terrible all day.

After school, let them snack and indulge in a half-hour of active play (PlayStation doesn’t count, Anaya points out.) Then they can tackle homework.

Give students their own work space free of distraction. Give them all the materials they need.

Kids are apt to get sick when around other kids so keep them home when they are sick, and serve chicken soup (really.)

And lastly, both teachers remind us to love our kids, listen to them and spend time with them.

“Bottom line, learning requires attention and just plain old hard work,” Van Rooyen said.

Just like parenting.

Source: Whittier Daily News, CA
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_10294073

Guidelines for managing attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder have alarmed leading education researchers, who warn they will cause an exponential increase in children being labelled as having ADHD by schools chasing funding.

A group of 14 researchers in education, disabilities and ADHD from seven universities have written to the Rudd Government, criticising moves to instruct teachers to look out for ADHD and to allocate special funding to schools for students with the disorder.

The guidelines are being reviewed by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians at the request of the National Health and Medical Research Council. Draft recommendations were released for public comment.

In a letter to Education Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Nicola Roxon, the researchers say the recommendations will encourage over-diagnosis of ADHD and give schools an incentive to have children classified with the disorder to gain access to extra money.

“This risk is particularly acute for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.”

A survey of children’s mental health, conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in 1998, found almost 8 per cent of 12- to 17-year-olds were diagnosed with ADHD.

A study of South Australian children taking medication for ADHD in 1999 found rates highest among children from families with low incomes and high unemployment.

The lead signatory on the letter, Linda Graham from the University of Sydney, said yesterday resources would be better spent on giving teachers the skills and support to deal with a variety of children’s behaviours rather than singling out disorders.

Dr Graham said diagnosing a child as having ADHD was sometimes medicalising normal behaviour and should be a last resort, but it had become the first step in dealing with challenging children. “The diagnostic criteria for ADHD over the past 15 years has been expanding and it’s now almost possible to diagnose one of my cats,” she said.

The chairman of the group writing the guidelines, David Forbes, said between 5 and 10 per cent of children had the features of ADHD and might need special intervention to help them learn at school. He disagreed that training teachers to recognise ADHD would increase diagnosis of the disorder.

Source: The Australian, Australia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24203785-5013871,00.html

Talk with them about body image and get them involved in activities

In an appearance-obsessed culture, kids are often unhappy with the way they look. Add hot-weather clothing, and children can sink into self-consciousness or retreat indoors — defeating summer fun, fitness and freedom.

Poor body image is a common problem for girls and boys, heightened in the summer thanks to swimming outings and summer camps, says registered clinical counsellor Doug Emid.

A sense of not measuring up is one of the main issues, he says. The boys think they’re supposed to be stronger than they are, and the girls internalize a sense of needing to be more developed.

True, a growing number of kids are overweight, but Laura Mills, a psychologist with a particular interest in children, says poor body image issues “definitely” bother kids without obvious problems as well.

“A lot of body-image problems often develop from low self-esteem and not being happy with who you are as a person … being overly perfectionistic and concentrating on your faults, instead of concentrating on the good things.”

Parents can do a lot to influence that, preventing everything from eating disorders to a sense they’re not good enough.

“If a parent is too critical about their own appearance, then children pick up on that and that can lead to them being too worried about their appearance,” she stresses. “Be a good role model.” Saying “I hate the way I look in shorts” isn’t a good idea.

So how can parents help their kids get over a poor sense of their physical selves?

“Compliment children’s abilities and personal qualities, not just their looks,” she says.

Beyond calling them cute, note their ingenuity, bravery, co-ordination, curiosity or sunny disposition. “We want children to feel happy with who they are inside of themselves.”

Build your child’s self-esteem by valuing their abilities and spending time with them — even if it cuts into your own leisure preferences.

If your child doesn’t want to tackle physical activities on their own, go with them.

“If they don’t want to go to the swimming pool where there’s all those other kids around, find a quiet beach.”

Emphasize physical closeness — “lots of touch,” Emid says. Parental affection is soothing, reinforcing the idea that bodies are about moving and feeling good, not appearance.

If your child is negative about their physique, don’t dismiss them with “you don’t look fat,” or “you’re not shorter than the other kids and if you are it doesn’t matter.”

You can disagree with their viewpoint, but explore the feelings and problem solve.

Try, “I’d like you to be happier and I wonder how we could make that work,” Emid says. “You’ll hear ‘no’ a lot of the time, but the asking of the question is important.”

Look for activities that will make kids “feel comfortable in their own skin,” Mills says. Rock-climbing is one way to show strength and focus.

Examine whether looks — of bodies, homes or whatever — are too important to you as parents.

If they don’t want to wear a bathing suit, suggest a big shirt to get them in the water. “They can easily say, ‘It’s for the sun’ if anybody teases them,” Emid says.

During TV commercials, mute the sound and discuss inappropriate ways bodies are displayed and treated.

If your child is deep into the computer while you’re outside, invite them to join you gradually.

Suggest they run the first three blocks with you, then go back to their video game and meet you for the last three blocks, he adds.

Source: Canada.com, Canada
http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/parenting/story.html?id=032fec91-8d4b-453b-aabc-9df6860f8432

We soon will experience the most important time in the entire school year for children: the first two weeks. What happens during this critical period pretty much determines how the rest of the year will go.

When children return to school after the summer break, their perceptions about school and themselves as learners are mostly uncertain. It’s a new year with new teachers, new books, new classes, new schedules and new friends. All of these new things come with the hope that this year could be different and better than all previous years.

That uncertainty in students’ perceptions continues only until teachers administer the first quizzes and tests near the end of the second week of school. When teachers assign grades to those first quizzes, the grades put students into categories. And getting out of a category is really difficult.

Students who receive a C on that first math quiz, for example, begin to see themselves as C students. Their uncertainty suddenly becomes fixed, and they accept the idea that they are likely to earn Cs in math for the rest of the school year.

When the second quiz or test occurs, they expect to receive another C. When they do, it reinforces their perception. Similarly, if they receive a failing grade on that first quiz, they think all following grades will be the same.

But if they succeed on that first quiz and receive a high grade, that, too, is their perception of all that might follow.

This means that teachers must do everything they can to ensure students’ success in the first two weeks. And not fake success, but success in something challenging. The key to motivating students rests with that success. Students persist in activities at which they experience success, and they avoid activities at which they are not successful or believe they cannot be successful.

This is the reason that truancy and attendance problems rarely occur during the first two weeks of the school year. They begin to occur after the first graded quizzes and tests. In students’ minds, the grades they receive on these first quizzes establish their likelihood of future success. And why come to school if there is so little chance of doing well?

Parents, too, must be genuinely involved in their children’s education during the first two weeks. Routines established at home in this critical period profoundly affect the likelihood of success.

Daily conversations about school activities help children recognize that their parents value success in school. Providing a quiet place for children to work on school assignments and limiting the time they spend watching TV or playing on computers further increase chances for success. Checking with teachers to make sure children are well prepared and ready to succeed also can help.

Successful experiences during the first two weeks of school do not guarantee success for the entire year. But they are a powerful and perhaps essential step in that direction.

Teachers and parents need to take advantage of this critical time and use it well. It can make all the difference.

Source: Kentucky.com, KY
http://www.kentucky.com/589/story/478728.html

The secret to the academic success of many Asian students starts in the home, with a study of schoolchildren suggesting a regular homework routine carries benefits into the classroom.

The research examined the study habits of three groups of Year 3 students and found that Chinese children spent more time on their homework, completed more work and did it on a more regular basis than Anglo or Pacific Island students.

The study by University of Western Sydney researchers and the NSW Education Department challenges the myth that Chinese students perform better at school because of a cultural disposition to study.

“There has been inadequate attention given to the ways educational attainment is founded on embodied capacities, such as productive stillness and quiet, which are crucial to sustained attention and application in intellectual endeavour,” the report says.

Cathy Garde, a Year 3 teacher at Berala Public School in Sydney’s west, agreed that less attention was paid in recent years to the practicalities of learning, and training young bodies to sit still.

“I often have to start the year teaching the kids work habits, the capability to sit down and focus,” she said. “Some children struggle to control themselves. They don’t have any self-discipline. You get children who come into the classroom and start walking around the room in the middle of a task.”

The report, Cultural Practices and Learning, involved interviews with parents, teachers and 36 students in six Sydney schools, as well as classroom observation.

The study found that 56per cent of the Chinese students spent more than one hour a night on their homework, compared with 24per cent of Anglo children and 35per cent of Pacific Islander students.

But the study says the time spent on homework was not as important as the study routine.

A greater proportion of Chinese students, 40per cent, did homework in their bedroom or study at a desk compared with 13per cent of Anglo students and 25per cent of Islander children, who tended to do their homework sitting on their bed.

Source: The Australian, Australia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24115399-2702,00.html

Children who are smacked or yelled at are much more likely to develop serious mental health problems by the age of three, research reveals.

A study of more than 700 toddlers found that those who were harshly disciplined by their parents were at much higher risk of depression and anxiety in later life. Disobedience and aggression were also common problems for infants who had been smacked or screamed at.

The study by Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute showed that parental stress could also have a huge impact on infant mental health.

Children from all walks of life were studied at the age of seven months, then followed up every six months until the age of three.

Researcher Jordana Bayer, a child psychologist, said up to 50% of early behavioural problems persisted through childhood. “In early childhood, behavioural problems such as hitting and kicking and biting and saying no are very common. But if they’re at high levels by preschool age then up to half will go on through childhood and lead potentially into adolescence with conduct disorder and drug use and depression and so on,” Dr Bayer said.

“It’s important for parents to pay attention to when young children behave well and actually reward that behaviour with praise and hugs.”

The findings, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, will be used to develop family support programs.

Murdoch researcher and pediatrician Harriet Hiscock said doctors working with children should always ask about the parents’ stress levels. “There are ways to help reduce this stress and help parents manage their child’s behaviour in more calm and consistent ways.”

Source: The Age, Australia
http://www.theage.com.au/national/childs-mental-health-at-risk-from-tough-love-20080729-3mvf.html

Being born underweight leads to a shy and cautious wallflower-type personality, a McMaster University researcher has found.

People who feel inhibited in social situations, aren’t as talkative and are more anxious about taking risks, may not get these traits from their upbringing, said Louis Schmidt, lead author of the recent study and a professor of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour.

Such timidness potentially affects a person’s future and could lead to “delays in occupational obtainment, delays marrying and having children,” he added.

The study, which was published in the July issue of Pediatrics, harks back to the nature versus nurture debate about how someone’s personality gets developed.

“What plays a bigger role?” he asked. “We’re looking at how early life events and early experiences impact brain development.”

Schmidt hypothesized these personality traits could be because the underweight babies spent so much time in a neonatal unit - some for months at a time - and didn’t get the same chance to bond with their parents as normal-weight babies.

Underweight babies also are at risk for other medical problems, like compromised immune systems, and tend to face a higher rate of diabetes and heart disease as adults.

This study looked at 71 young adults, born in southern Ontario in the late 1970s and early 1980s who were underweight at birth, and compared them to 83 people who were born around the same time and region at a normal weight.

The young adults were asked a series of questions about how social they are and how likely they are to take risks.

Underweight babies typically weigh less than 2,500 grams (5.5 pounds). In Canada, one of every 16 babies are born underweight.

Schmidt’s study found the lower the birth weight, the more shy and inhibited the person is as an adult.

They have also been studying brain activity and hormones in these young adults, both those who were born underweight and at a normal weight.

The findings, which are currently under review, show being born underweight could also lead to an inability to handle stress, Schmidt said.

Source: Hamilton Spectator, Canada
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/410333

David Cameron echoed the words of Barack Obama yesterday by calling for absent black fathers to take more responsibility for their children.

The Conservative leader called for a ‘responsibility revolution’ to change patterns of behaviour.

Mr Cameron’s high-risk appeal appeared to pay off, winning widespread support from leading members of the black community. They agreed that the lack of traditional family influences is a serious problem.

One of Britain’s most prominent black police officers told the Daily Mail Mr Cameron was right to highlight a ‘crisis in fatherhood’.

Detective Inspector George Rhoden, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said: ‘We all know that young people need both parents in their lives. This is a particular issue and we should be dealing with it at a governmental level, looking at how we can encourage black fathers to face their responsibilities.

‘In the black community we are all aware that there is major concern with gun and knife crime. Clearly we are not the only part of the community affected by absent fatherhood but parental responsibility should be of major concern.’

Labour ministers have been anxious to play down the idea that the absence of fathers is a major influence on crime rates. Around 59 per cent of black Caribbean children and 54 per cent of mixed-race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent. In the white British population, the figure is 22 per cent.

MPs who have investigated the problem say that in the absence of a male role model, many young black men choose to emulate negative, violent lifestyles popularised in some black music and in films.

The charities Barnardos and Babyfather warn that boys and young men can develop ‘father hunger’, a state which leaves them vulnerable to peer pressure.

Mr Cameron said that Mr Obama had been ‘absolutely right’ to warn in a recent speech that some African American men were behaving like teenagers and abandoning their parental responsibilities.

He said that many black church leaders had expressed their concerns to him about absent fathers in the UK.

‘They are concerned about family breakdown and social breakdown, and want to see what I call a responsibility revolution take place.’

The Tory leader said the discrimination and economic disadvantage black people experienced had to be addressed, but insisted: ‘We will never solve the long-term problems unless people also take responsibility for their own lives.’

Mr Cameron has suggested that a Conservative government would introduce powers to ‘compel’ fathers to look after their children in an effort to tackle gang culture. He backs tax breaks to help families stay together and promote a ‘culture of responsibility and respecting authority’.

The Reverend Nims Obunge, chief executive of the Peace Alliance, one of London’s main organisations working against gang crime, welcomed Mr Cameron’s remarks and urged him to back them up with concrete policies.

Tony Sewell, director of Generating Genius, a charity which encourages black youths to study science, said: ‘This is an issue that needs to be discussed, and Cameron is well placed to discuss it, as it is in keeping with the current Tory agenda around social investment. This used to be very much a Labour agenda, but Labour isn’t delivering on it.’

And what do the women themselves have to say? LORRAINE FISHER interviews four women who have personal experience of the problem of absentee black fathers.

Marva Thomas, 36, lives in Hackney, East London, with her husband Owen, a 36-year-old self-employed builder. They have a three-year-old daughter, Cutania, and a son due in October. She says:

The culture with black parents is that when you split up, you don’t see each other any more. I don’t know how you can change it.

Black fathers need to step up to the plate and say to their ex-partner: ‘Let’s do this together’ because if a boy sees his father run off, he thinks it’s OK for him to leave too when he has a child.

Men leaving their children within black society is part of the culture.

Most men get involved with a woman simply on a sexual level - yet the women think they’re in a relationship.

The moment they become a father they say: ‘No, I’m not ready for that, I want to be free and single’.

In Jamaica, where I’m from, ghettos have taken over.

Ghetto people think if a man isn’t wearing this and doing that, they’re not a man. They feel they have this image to live up to.

And the girls are silly. Despite the man they’re seeing not taking care of his child at home, they move in with him, thinking it will be different for them. Of course, when they get pregnant, he moves on.

Men’s attitude is: ‘If you want a baby, I can give you a baby - but don’t expect me to look after it’.

I don’t remember my mum and dad ever living together. He was there for weekends although when I was about 11, it stopped. He was cheating and Mum wouldn’t put up with it. He didn’t really pay child support so my mum was working more than one job to support us.

It hurt me to see my friends going to the movies with their fathers when I couldn’t, but it hurts sons more, although they don’t feel able to show it. So they start taking things out on women.

My brother, who’s two years older than me, didn’t know how to talk about it. And he never forgave my father for leaving us.

He missed out on love from his father and there was no one to instil principles and values into him - like how to treat a woman and how to be a man. He has three children by three different women. He even denied the first child was his.

Because so many black men leave their families, I do worry about my daughter’s future.

I’m in a good marriage but I want her to have a career, to be independent, so she can support herself and her children if a man leaves her.

Judith Valentine, 44, lives in Ladywell, South-East London, with her four sons - Ashley, 15, Stefan, 14, and 13-year- old twins Karl and Kallum. She says:

I was divorced 11 years ago and the boys’ father doesn’t help with anything and they don’t see him.

I’ve tried to get money from him but it’s like getting blood from a stone and although he’s had the chance to see them, he hasn’t.

It’s common in the black men I know. I know they may begrudge their wife but I don’t know why they’d stop seeing their kids.

Bringing up four boys on my own has been hard. I’ve just qualified as a teaching assistant and am looking for a job, but for most of their lives, I’ve been on benefits.

You can’t give your children what they want - you try to explain why they can’t have the latest trainers but they won’t accept it.

They need a father figure. I’m just a mother, I can’t give them fatherly advice and I don’t know what they’re going through. But I’m trying to bring them up the right way.

I hope my sons don’t abandon their children, I hope they say: ‘I’m not going to do the same to my kids’.

If a mother puts her mind to it, she can be as strong a parent as a man. The problem comes if they are too soft - that’s where the children go wrong.

If a boy sees weakness, it’s natural for him to try to dominate. You have to really put your foot down.

I come down on mine like a ton of bricks - I won’t let them out at night, they’re in by 9pm. They listen to what I say.

I don’t think any more black men leave their families than white men, or fathers from other races, but it is a problem and it needs addressing.

Anne Marie Smith is a 43-year-old counsellor from Camberwell, South-East London. She has a 17-year-old daughter, Simone. She says:

There are many more black one-parent families than Caucasian or Asian. It’s a crazy situation but one that people aren’t open about.

I think they’re fearful of people playing the race card or of stereotyping black males for not being around their children.

I think it’s caused by a combination of things. There are some black men who pull their weight but not many - and women play a part in that.

If you allow your child’s father to treat you a certain way, it will continue, it won’t improve.

Black women are independent and just get on with it, but we should make sure we have more solid relationships before we get pregnant.

My daughter was about one when I split up with her father. She says she hasn’t missed out because we’re quite close and she has seven uncles.

It’s different for boys, however - they need a role model and there are no prominent positive role models at the moment.

There is no expectation that children will do well, they’re not monitored or disciplined. Discipline is hard for a single mother to administer to a boy.

I think black men have to learn they have to own their responsibilities. You can’t get a woman pregnant and walk away.

But I don’t know how you can do that. Black men need to provide the answers.

Patricia Brown is a 42-year-old factory worker from Catford, South-East London. She has three children - Joseph, 29, and Kerrin, 26, from one relationship, and Peter, 20, from another. She says:

What David Cameron says is not racist - black fathers do need to take more responsibility.

They have children here, there and everywhere because they know the responsibility lies with the mother. They need to be educated and sent to parenting classes.

It’s now getting out of hand with teenagers stabbing people - something needs to be done but there is no quick fix.

The problem is, when men leave their families, the mothers have to work so the children grow up on their own with no father figure or role model. There is no one to set boundaries or let the children know there is always a consequence.

Fathers rather than mothers have the power to make their children get home at a certain time or challenge them about why they are carrying a knife.

A single mother is often too tired to even ask how her children’s day was at school. And I should know.

I didn’t mean to get pregnant at 13 but I did and I thought I was in a good relationship.

We had a second child but then I found out he had two other children with two other women so, when my daughter was seven, I ended the relationship.

So many black men who finish their relationship with the mother also finish their relationship with their children and forget about them.

Luckily, my children’s father saw them at weekends but even so, I had to work five, often six days a week in a factory to make ends meet, then I had to go home to do all the washing, cooking and cleaning. It was exhausting.

But I don’t think my children have suffered - I’ve made them independent. Joseph is married and has an 18-month-old son. He was old enough when his father left to know he didn’t want to do that.

Kerrin has a five-year-old daughter - the father went off with someone else.

Source: Daily Mail, UK
http://tinyurl.com/5lohjs

This week there have been calls for British men to be given more paternity leave, so they can be become more hands-on dads.

Mums and dads in Britain have the most unequal rights in Europe, with dads entitled to only two weeks paternity leave compared with 52 weeks for mums.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, if men were entitled to 12 weeks’ parental leave on 90 per cent of earnings instead of the current £117 a week, they’d be more able to bond closely with their kids.

Why dads matter

I’ve always believed that fathers should be heavily involved in their children’s upbringing.

People talk of mums bonding with their babies but the paternal bond can be equally strong. Research shows that, if a father holds the baby to his chest within half an hour of birth, a bond is forged that’s just as intense. And the baby noticeably quietens and relaxes when dad picks him up in future.

This bond has long-lasting positive effects as children with hands-on dads grow up happier and more confident.

Research at Uppsala University in Sweden found that having an active father figure reduced behavioural problems in boys and psychological problems in girls. Plus boys with a good father-son relationship are also less likely to play truant or get in trouble with the law.

With two parents involved, children have a secure base, and a hands-on partner allows mum to be the kind of mother she really wants to be. With the workload halved, she has twice as much energy, affection and patience.

The good dad guide

(1) Be there from the start: Hold your baby as soon as possible after birth, preferably with a bare chest as the baby will smell the male hormones and bond strongly. Speak too, so the child bonds with your voice.

(2) Stay close: In the first few weeks and months of a child’s life dad should be holding, rocking and talking to the baby as much as possible.

(3) Split parenting 50:50: Don’t see your involvement as just “helping” - parenting is an equal job for both of you to share. Whether it’s changing nappies, cooking or dressing the kids, parents should be interchangeable.

(4) Be an activity planner: Become the leader for weekend activities such as going to the park, swimming or cycling.

Not only will this strengthen your bond with the kids, it ensures they grow up active rather than couch potatoes.

(5) Don’t use work as an excuse: Even dads with busy jobs should take part in the evening routine - whether it’s bathing, reading bedtime stories or helping with homework.

(6) Share appoinment duty: Ideally both parents should take turns to take the kids to the doctor or dentist, for instance.

Some employers still frown on men having time off for the kids so, if possible, choose an employer with family-friendly policies.

Source: Mirror.co.uk, UK
http://tinyurl.com/5hbc23

On the face of it, Luke Burton is a shining example of how someone from an economically disadvantaged background can succeed in education. His mum at one time was working in a chip shop and doing three other jobs to make ends meet, he didn’t go to a high achieving school and, by his own admission, he messed around in class more than he should have done.
Yet at 24 he is training to be an actuary with a big firm in London, has a maths degree from Oxford and an MA - the first graduate in his family. Why is it that some young people seem inoculated against less advantaged beginnings while others don’t? New UK and US studies are pointing the finger ever more clearly at particular kinds of parenting and home environments that do the trick. But the big money still doesn’t go into parenting education, despite research that proves it can be an enormous force for change. Yet stark facts suggest more finance for parenting education would be money well spent.

Attainment gap

Sizeable gaps in school readiness exist in the UK despite universal nursery education for three- and four-year-olds; in the US half the eventual gap in attainment between children from less advantaged and more advantaged homes exists when the child starts school. Here a bright but poor child can be overtaken in test results by a less bright child from an affluent home by age seven.

In England, poor children among the top performers in tests at 11 are much more likely to have lost that critical advantage by the time they take their GCSEs. All the money Labour has poured into the education system since 1997 has failed to increase the tiny numbers of young people from the lowest socio-economic groups getting into university. So why do Burton and others like him do so well?

Scratch the surface of Burton’s “disadvantage” and you soon start to see answers. He comes from Clevedon in Somerset and is the eldest of three. His father was a mechanic and his parents split up when he was small. Money was tight. His mum, Wendy Doig, had gone to what she describes as a “rubbish school - a Grange Hill type of school” where the idea of university was never considered, and she was seen as “posh” as she went on to work in an office rather than get pregnant or work in the local sausage factory.

But she chose to do part-time jobs rather than work full-time because she wanted to be in when the children came home from school. She also wanted money to pay for the Montessori nursery a friend told her was good. For Burton she feels that was a turning point. “Of all my children he was the most difficult to steer. It worried me how determined he was. I thought he was going to do something brilliant or terrible. I could see his strengths and the potential for disaster.

“I spent a lot of my time trying to find things to interest Luke. His playgroup lacked structure and it made him hyperactive. Joining Montessori was pretty key. That’s when the maths got off the ground.”

Burton remembers a male primary school teacher who told him he had potential and to stop mucking around. He remembers parents proud when he did well but who didn’t put him under pressure. He found it harder to respect teachers once he got to secondary school because there was less time to build relationships with them, but he does remember a maths teacher who took it as a given that he was going to university.

Burton’s mum remarried when he was 11, so he went to live with his dad for more freedom. His stepfather’s mother spotted a newspaper story about the Sutton Trust summer school at Oxford University for youngsters from families with no tradition of university. It was held at Magdalen College. “I thought: ‘This is quite nice. I’d like to come here.’ I didn’t know what other universities were like so it was not a big deal. It didn’t cross my mind that I wouldn’t get in once I’d decided to go.”

Doig says her own parents had been easy and supportive but she also read books on parenting to help her when the children were small.

Home learning

And it is that mindful attention to parenting style and home learning which is shown to be vital in a spin-off study from Europe’s largest piece of longitudinal research in this area - Effective Provision of Preschool Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) - which for more than 10 years has been following the educational development of 3,000 children from the age of three for the government .

The study has proved that high-quality preschool can ameliorate the effects of social disadvantage and break the cycle of deprivation, but it needs to be coupled with a good home-learning environment.

This is backed by unpublished research carried out for the Equalities Review by Iram Siraj-Blatchford, professor of early childhood education at the Institute of Education in London and a principal investigator for EPPSE, with 24 of the families whose children were succeeding against the odds in their education. Half were on free school meals, more than half were living with a lone parent, and four out of five were living in deprived areas.

In-depth interviews uncovered strong evidence of an adult or adults in the child’s life taking parenting seriously and valuing education either in the immediate or wider family or the child’s wider community, such as a religious community.

She believes the shift towards sending reading books home with children, which began in earnest in the 1980s, may be having an effect now those children are parents. In the interviews, it is clear that parents and their children think success at school is down to working hard and concentrating on what is said in class; when they hit difficulties they are not deterred. By contrast, the children from poor home-learning environments put school success down to ability and feel helpless in the face of lessons they find hard.

The crucial importance of the home is also pointed out by a new study, which has documented income related gaps in areas such as literacy, numeracy and behaviour. It shows between one-third and half of these differences are the result of parenting style and home-learning environment. But it is a particular kind of parenting, described as “sensitive and responsive”, that works.

The research is based on data from 19,000 UK and 10,000 US children born in 2000 and 2001 analysed by Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University in New York, and Liz Washbrook, a research associate at Bristol University’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation on secondment to Columbia. The analysis was delivered to a private summit on social mobility and education policy organised by the Sutton Trust and the Carnegie Foundation in New York in June. Ed Miliband, minister for the Cabinet Office, who leads the government’s efforts to tackle social exclusion, was one of the leading politicians and education figures who attended.

Detailed observation of children in the US part of the study found parenting style having the biggest impact on school readiness gaps between low-income and middle-income children, accounting for 19% of the gap in maths, 21% of the literacy gap and a massive third of the gap in language. Sensitive and responsive parenting had the biggest positive effect. Observational data was not available from the UK.

Waldfogel says sensitive and responsive parents are able to provide “warm, supportive and nurturing parenting” and can respond to a child’s changing needs. Experience of parenting received as a child may affect responses to your children as may personal temperament and stress, she says.

Parenting programmes can and do help. Sure Start has been found to improve effective parenting and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced last week that it was extending the pilot of the Family Nurse Partnership, which works with vulnerable young women expecting their first child. Early signs suggest improved aspirations among the mothers after an intensive visiting programme from nurses who work with them from pregnancy until the child’s second birthday, advising on healthier lifestyles, baby and childcare, and planning life goals.

Positive changes

Another successful and rapidly spreading UK scheme is the Peers Early Education Partnership (Peep), which has been proved to boost cognition and self esteem in pre-school children by promoting parents’ and carers’ awareness of very early learning and development, and supporting adults in their relationships with the children.

Peep programmes are delivered mainly in children’s centres but are gradually being taken direct to vulnerable parents in their homes. But the programme remains a charity rather than mainstream provision. The government is spending £1bn on its ambitious 10-year Children’s Plan to ensure a better deal for children - including making sure 90% of them are ready to learn when they go to school - but education in providing a good home-learning environment currently doesn’t figure in it.

Last week it was revealed that an 18-month government initiative aimed at helping parents of young children from disadvantaged families become effective supporters of their children as learners was successful in making positive changes to parents’ behaviour. The Early Learning Partnership Programme, funded by the DCSF and undertaken by researchers from Oxford University’s departments of education and social policy and social work, aimed to support parents in socially disadvantaged areas across England.

It brought together the main agencies in the voluntary sector working with the parents of children aged between one and three but, because it was only funded for 18 months, it could not show whether it made differences to children’s long-term learning.

One good piece of news came last week when the DCSF announced £12m in backing for the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services, which will gather and analyse information about what works in tackling a range of issues linked to child wellbeing.

This kind of work can’t come a moment too soon. Parenting is harder to influence, but without it good pre-schools and schools can only go so far - and it could take decades for the most disadvantaged to catch up.

Parental dos and don’ts

Sensitive and responsive parenting is about tuning into what your child needs from moment to moment, and adapting your behaviour.

Your child gets a new toy
Do watch how the child responds to the toy and let him/her explore it alone if he/she seems to want to
Don’t automatically show your child how it all works

A father bounces a child on his knee to cheer her up
Do watch for cues that the child is enjoying herself
Don’t carry on if the child cries. Think about what else she might need and experiment with meeting those needs, for example feeding or cuddling

Source: guardian.co.uk, UK
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2290865,00.html