Standards of reading among teenagers dipped this year, despite millions being spent to get pupils more interested in books.

Sats results reveal almost a third of 14-year-olds are unable to read to an acceptable level - three years after starting secondary school.

Just 69 per cent of pupils achieved the standards expected of their age, compared to 71 per cent last year.

Among boys, the drop was even more dramatic, prompting claims that high-profile attempts to boost reading skills had failed.

Ministers have already called for the creation of boys-only bookshelves in schools - stocked with spy novels and thrillers - to defeat the myth that reading is for girls. And £14m has been spent this year alone on booster classes in secondary schools and a greater range of books for all pupils.

But today, Jim Knight, the schools minister, appeared to point the finger at parents, saying they should play a bigger part by reading with their children.

Opposition MPs said the claims smacked of desperation.

“It is essential to teenagers’ academic progress that they continue to read for pleasure outside school,” said Mr Knight. “Reading should be fun and something children choose to do in their free time – otherwise, they will struggle when they move on to tackling more technically demanding texts in secondary schools.

“Parents have a vital role to play - reading and talking about stories together as children move towards secondary school and encouraging them to read everything from novels to magazines as they get older.”

Teaching unions branded the results unreliable following the marking fiasco surrounding this year’s Sats. Delays to the marking process mean up to one-in-six papers are not counted in today’s figures.

Results are also not broken down by local authorities as up to half the results were missing in some areas, with critics suggesting results could be inaccurate.

Nevertheless, the Tories seized on the figures, which they said proved standards had levelled out under Labour.

Almost 600,000 pupils sat tests in English, mathematics and science this year. So-called Key Stage 3 exams are seen as a key indicator of performance in the run up to GCSEs.

According to today’s figures, fewer pupils reached the expected level in English, which combines reading and writing. Despite improved writing results, 73 per cent hit overall literacy targets compared to 74 per cent last year.

Some 62 per cent of boys can read to the appropriate level, against 76 per cent of girls, as the gender gap widened.

Standards also fell in science, with just 71 per cent of 14-year-olds achieving the standard expected of their age, a drop of two percentage points on last year.

It comes just days after business leaders warned of a shortage of specialist engineers and technicians in the UK because pupils lack enthusiasm for science at secondary school.

In maths, 77 per cent of pupils made the grade, a one point rise on last year, but the same as standards achieved in 2006.

Performance also dipped in the three subjects combined, as just 61 per cent of pupils reached the required standard in the tests - level 5 - compared to 64 per cent in 2007.

It means an estimated 234,000 pupils are failing in the core subjects half way through secondary education.

Nick Gibb, the Tory shadow schools minister, said: “Yet another year has passed in which the Government has failed to raise standards in the basics of reading, writing and maths. The drops in English and science are particularly worrying.

“The Government continues to miss its modest targets and we are left with the unacceptable position that two out of five fourteen year olds are failing to achieve the necessary grades in reading, writing and maths that they will need to be able to achieve at GCSE.”

The Lib Dems called for Sats to be scrapped.

Annette Brooke, the party’s children’s spokesman, said: “After three years of secondary education, thousands of pupils are not reaching the expected level in key subjects. It’s a disgrace that on the day the results have been published, many schools will still not yet have received their marked papers.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “The Key Stage 3 tests are an irrelevance. No one will be interested in the results when young people apply for a job. In a year when Sats have collapsed under their own weight, cutting the Key Stage 3 tests would be an excellent way to reduce the excessive amount of testing our students face.”

Up to 100,000 results were not included in English because of the marking delays.

Government statisticians also said that figures were likely to be skewed following a change in rules this year, which stopped markers bumping up results for “borderline” pupils. In the past, all marks just below official targets were re-checked, resulting in many being improved, but the same criteria was not applied to those going just over the expected level. So-called borderlining was scrapped this year. It resulted in small increases in passes in previous years.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
http://tinyurl.com/54qe8d

For many adolescents, “screen time” is almost a full-time job that could lead to obesity, diabetes and other health issues, a Canadian researcher says.

Adolescents now spend an average of six hours a day in front of some type of screen, whether it’s a television or computer screen or one of the many portable devices now popular with young people, studies done by Dr. Ian Michael Janssen show. “They spend more hours daily in front of a screen than they do in a classroom in a given year,” said Janssen, a researcher at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, who is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Even if they are still playing with friends, children are increasingly likely to be engaging in more passive activities like playing video games, one reason why only half of Canadian children aged 5 to 17 get as much physical activity as they should each day, according to the Health and Stroke Foundation.

The result is a rise in obesity rates among adolescents. Twenty-six percent of Canadian children are overweight or obese, according to a government health committee report, representing a 15-percent increase over 30 years. In the United States, the obesity rates for preschool-aged children and adolescents has more than doubled over that time period, and more than tripled for children aged 6-11.

Unfortunately, fixing the problem isn’t as easy as simply cutting down screen time, Janssen cautions. While a sedentary lifestyle has been associated with childhood obesity, as reported in the Canadian Medical Association journal, Janssen says that physical activity and screen time are separate behaviors in children.

“Decreasing screen time will not automatically increase physical activity levels,” said Janssen, whose research examines how the two are related and what effects screen time may have above and beyond those on physical activity. Some active kids also spend a lot of time in front of television and computer screens, and some kids who have low screen times also have low levels of physical activity, he points out.

The long-term risk for children is that behaviors and health outcomes tend to track over time, Janssen said. “An obese youth is very likely to become an obese adult.” And because obesity-related health problems take time to develop, the longer a person has been obese, the worse off they’re likely to be. A 50-year-old who only recently became obese is in a better position than one who has been obese since childhood, he said.

Janssen’s real worry about the rise in childhood obesity rates is not that there are now rare cases of type 2 diabetes in kids, where once there were none, but the health problems these children are likely to face in the future as adults, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. When today’s obese children are adults, baby boomers will all be seniors, he pointed out, placing a huge burden on the health care system. “That’s when I’m really frightened.”

Source: Reuters
http://features.us.reuters.com/wellbeing/news/FD5592F0-64B8-11DD-AA35-6CC02BCD.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

Young children spend an extraordinary amount of time moving about: an average of three hours a day at age 9, new research shows.

But in just a few short years, all that childhood energy disappears. By the age of 15, daily physical activity is down to just 49 minutes on weekdays and about a half-hour on weekends, according to the research, being published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Experts have long believed that activity wanes as children enter their teenage years. This study affirming that belief, one of the largest and longest ever undertaken on the subject, followed about 1,000 children from around the country and, unlike many previous studies, used monitoring devices to track the activity carefully rather than relying on reports from parents.

The findings, which measured everything from moderate walking to vigorous athletic pursuits, show clearly that even the most energetic young children experience a precipitous drop in physical activity as they reach puberty.

“I was surprised by the degree of the drop; it’s a dramatic shift,” said the lead author, Dr. Philip R. Nader, emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. “Younger children appear to be naturally active, but as kids get older, they find fewer opportunities to be active.”

The research was part of the continuing Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a look at the health of American children that was begun in 1991 and is financed by the National Institutes of Health.

The authors had the children wear accelerometers, devices that measure movement, for a week at each of four ages: 9, 11, 12 and 15.

Over all, boys were more active than girls, moving an average of 18 more minutes a day.

Age 13 appeared to be a particularly vulnerable time. Though activity was not measured at that age, mathematical modeling showed it was at that point that daily weekend activity, for boys and girls alike, dropped below 60 minutes.

The percentage of children who met the government’s recommendation of one hour of moderate daily activity shifted markedly over time. At 9 and 11, almost every child in the study was moving at least an hour a day. But by 15, only 31 percent met the guideline during the week, and just 17 percent on the weekend.

The study did not measure reasons for the decline, but researchers noted that schools often curtail physical activity as children get older. Not only does recess stop, but many schools drop physical education as well. In addition, sports become more exclusive as children grow, allowing only the best athletes to compete.

“When you are younger, it’s much easier to go out and do things spontaneously,” said James A. Griffin, deputy chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the national institutes’ Center for Research for Mothers and Children. “But when you get older, kids tend to play a video game or watch television with their friends. Parents need to be aware to help them balance that out a little better.”

Source: New York Times, United States
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/health/research/16exercise.html?ref=health

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

National U.S. Department of Education studies show that high school students with strong math backgrounds are more likely to go to college, finish faster and earn more money. With today’s competitive job market, strong math skills are increasingly important for future success. Yet, the U.S. Department of Labor reports, only 20 percent of the workforce possesses the skills required by 60 percent of all new jobs early this century.

“Math skills are critical to the future success of our high school students and learning doesn’t stop in the classroom,” said Gail Burrill, math teacher and former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). “Parents are a critical part of the equation for helping teens gain a strong foundation in math and making sure their children have the background they need to succeed.”

Burrill, who has been honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, has several tips for parents to help their teen find the right path to math success:

1. Strong math skills start at home.

Whether or not you enjoy or were good at math yourself, children need encouragement to learn that hard work and persistence are important for success and understanding in math. Be sure they attend school on a regular basis. Be positive and inquisitive-ask how things are going in class, encourage your children to work hard and help them find solutions if they are struggling. By paying attention to your teen’s education and expressing high expectations for their success, they learn that their math education is a priority.

2. Math is important for any career.

People with strong math backgrounds are more likely to be employed and earn more, even if they have not gone to college. Math is also an important skill for people in all stages of life to make decisions about such issues as personal finance, health or property management. Without taking a challenging math curriculum throughout high school, teens’ career options will be seriously limited. Building a strong foundation in math should begin in middle school, allowing them to succeed in math through their high school years and beyond.

3. The right tools can make all the difference.

Math can sometimes be a challenge for even the best students, so make sure your student has the right tools for success. For example, research shows that students do better in math when they use a graphing calculator at home and in class, like the TI-Nspire from Texas Instruments. For additional help with class work, check with your student’s math teacher or counselor to see if your school provides resources, such as a homework hotline, organized study group, tutoring program, after-school program or even extra credit work. If not, check to see if your state education department or state mathematics organization offers some support.

4. Show teens that math is important in everyday life.

Showing students how to relate math to the “real world” will help them understand why it’s important. Figuring out the remaining cell phone minutes on their monthly plan, how to balance their first checkbook or the difference between the weekly cost of driving a car and taking the bus all require math skills. If students know that math can help them make good decisions every day, they are more likely to want to learn.

5. Ensure that they take four years of high-quality math in high school.

All students should be enrolled in challenging, high-quality math courses. If your student is entering high school in the next few years, plan to work with a counselor to create an academic program that allows your child to take a challenging math course every year to be sure he or she has the preparation that can open doors for career options in the future.

Source: North American Press Syndicate, NY
http://www.napsnet.com/articles/58766.html

When it comes to issues of childhood health and raising kids, mothers tend to dominate the discussion. But as the Web site PsychCentral points out today, fathers play an essential but often undervalued role in the health and development of children.
In the essay Fathering in America: What’s a Dad Supposed to Do, Massachusetts family therapist Marie Hartwell-Walker talks about the role of fathers.

“Many TV sitcoms and animated shows continue to portray dads as dolts or, at best, well-meaning but misguided large children whose wives have to mother them as well as their offspring. If an alien in another universe happens to tune in to ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Everyone Loves Raymond,’ ‘Family Guy,’ etc., he (it?) will come away with a rather skewed idea of how men function in American families.”

Dr. Hartwell-Walker notes there is little agreement about what makes an ideal father, but there are some universal qualities that seem to matter most, including:

Be there. In study after study, kids consistently say they would like to have more time with their dads. Regardless of whether a dad shares a home with the children and their mother, the kids need dad time. Working together on a chore or simply hanging out can be as meaningful as attending events or having adventures. Kids want to know their fathers. Just as important, they want their fathers to know them.

Be there throughout their childhoods. There is no time in a child’s life that doesn’t count. Research has shown that even infants know and respond to their fathers differently than they do to their mothers. The bond you make with a baby sets the foundation for a lifetime. As the kids get older, they’ll need you in different ways but they will always need you. Insistent toddler, curious preschooler, growing child, prickly adolescent: Each age and stage will have its challenges and rewards. Kids whose parents let them know that they are worth their parents’ time and attention are kids who grow up healthy and strong. Boys and girls who grow up with attention and approval from their dads as well as their moms tend to be more successful in life.

Balance discipline with fun. Some dads make the mistake of being only the disciplinarian. The kids grow up afraid of their dads and unable to see the man behind the rules. An equal and opposite mistake is being so focused on fun that you become one of the kids, leaving their mother always to be the heavy. Kids need to have fathers who know both how to set reasonable, firm limits and how to relax and have a good time. Give yourself and the kids the stability that comes with clear limits and the good memories that come with play.

Be a role model of adult manhood. Both boys and girls need you as a role model for what it means to be adult and male. Make no mistake: The kids are observing you every minute. They are taking in how you treat others, how you manage stress and frustrations, how you fulfill your obligations, and whether you carry yourself with dignity. Consciously or not, the boys will become like you. The girls will look for a man very much like you. Give them an idea of manhood (and relationships) you can be proud of.

Source: New York Times, United States
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/the-basics-of-fatherhood/

They dominate schools to the detriment of teenage boys, says parenting expert. And mums spoil their sons, too

Female teachers need to stop talking so much and at such a high pitch if they are to engage with boys in classes, a parenting expert claims.

Celia Lashlie, an education adviser and author from New Zealand, said women are important to boys’ learning, but they need to learn from their male colleagues.

Women should make more use of silence – asking a question then giving boys time to think before answering – and non-verbal cues such as raised eyebrows. They also should talk at a lower pitch.

“Don’t speak so much – just shut up,” says Ms Lashlie, a self-described feminist.

“I’ve been in classes with young female teachers, and by the end of the session my ears hurt.”

In secondary schools just 40 per cent of classroom teachers are men; in primary schools, it’s only 12 per cent. Ms Lashlie recommends heads “defeminise” the workforce by employing more men and dealing with teenage boys’ fathers rather than their mothers.

Too often, she says, parents turn up for meetings with their son’s teacher or headteacher, and the mother talks while the father is too scared to say a word. Some schools are already considering making fathers sign an admissions charter agreeing that they will be the first point of contact with the school.

Ms Lashlie, who is visiting schools in Britain next week, said boys need their fathers or other male role models to help them grow into “good men” – but instead they are coddled by mothers. “Women need to step back, and shut up,” she says.

Her comments come as the Government campaigns to involve fathers more in children’s learning. Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister, urged heads to think about fathers, as some may be put off visiting schools because they see them as “women-centred places”.

Ms Lashlie began her investigation into the influences on boys after being the first woman to be a warder in a New Zealand men’s prison. Her book, He’ll Be OK, has become a bestseller in Australia and New Zealand and is to be published in the UK next week.

It urges mothers and teachers to allow “boys to be boys”. They will take risks, she says, but with the right male role models those risks will not land them in prison.

Mothers need to stop making their sons’ school lunches and ironing their shirts. It is often because boys never learn to make their own decisions and face the consequences that they take risks with alcohol, drugs, sex and fast cars.

Ms Lashlie interviewed 180 classes at 25 boys’ schools in New Zealand for the Good Man Project to discover how schools can help shape teenage boys’ futures.

The lack of good male role-models contributes to Britain’s problems with teenage suicide and knife violence, she says. Schools need to work with fathers, “to keep more of our boys alive”.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said Ms Lashlie’s proposals for schools were “a load of claptrap”.

“It is disappointing that a woman has felt the need to pander to the views of a tiny group of men who present themselves as the oppressed minority,” she said.

Becky Francis, professor of education at Roehampton University, said teachers – male or female – needed to help boys develop their communication skills, rather than playing to stereotypes of boys as incommunicative.

“In fact, the profound gender gap in literacy and communication suggests that boys have got a lot to learn from girls,” she said.

Source: Times Educational Supplement, UK
http://www.tes.co.uk/2635135

Teens whose high schools have a delayed start time sleep longer and report less daytime sleepiness, say researchers at Norwalk Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center in Connecticut.

The study included 259 high school students who reported sleeping about 7.03 hours per school night, with a mean bed time of 10:52 p.m. and a mean wake-up time of 6:12 a.m. when school started at 7:35 a.m.

After the school start time was switched to 8:15 a.m., the students’ total sleep time on school nights increased 33 minutes, mainly due to a later rise time. Their bedtime on school nights was slightly later, and there was a slight decrease in weekend sleep time. After the change in school start time, more students reported having no problem with daytime sleepiness.

“Following a 40-minute delay in start time, the students utilized 83 percent of the extra time for sleep. This increase in sleep time came as a result of being able to ’sleep in’ to 6:53 a.m., with little delay in their reported school night bedtime. This study demonstrates that students given the opportunity to sleep longer, will, rather than extend their wake activities on school nights,” study corresponding author Dr. Mary B. O’Malley said in a prepared statement.

The research was expected to be presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, in Baltimore.

In other study results expected to be presented at the meeting, researchers found that teens who don’t get enough sleep suffer lower school grades and lack of motivation and are increased risk for serious emotional and behavioral problems.

The University of Kentucky study of 882 high school freshmen found that they slept an average of 7.6 hours per school night, with 48 percent reporting less than eight hours.

The researchers found a strong association between hours of sleep per school night and GPA, level of motivation, emotional disturbance and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Each additional hour of sleep on school nights reduced the risk of scoring in the clinically significant range of emotional disturbance and ADHD by 25 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

“Since these findings are based on associations rather than direct experimental manipulation, they cannot conclusively prove that insufficient sleep causes a loss of motivation, poor grades, ADHD and emotional disturbance during adolescence,” study author Fred Danner said in a prepared statement.

“These results, however, are consistent with a growing body of research that many adolescents do not get sufficient sleep, and that even mild chronic sleep deprivation has serious effects on their psychological functioning. Lack of sleep should no longer be considered a traditional adolescent rite of passage, because it can have serious consequences,” Danner said.

Source: U.S. News & World Report, DC
http://tinyurl.com/3hcehl

Electronic gadgets too distracting, scientist says

British teenagers are damaging their health by not getting enough sleep because they are distracted by electronic gadgets in their bedrooms, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Advice body The Sleep Council said “junk sleep” could rival the consumption of unhealthy junk food as a major lifestyle issue for parents of teenage children.

Its poll of 1,000 youngsters aged 12 to 16 found that 30 per cent managed just four to seven hours of sleep as opposed to the recommended eight or nine hours.

Almost a quarter said they fell asleep more than once a week while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic gadgets.

“This is an incredibly worrying trend,” said Dr. Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre.

“What we are seeing is the emergence of Junk Sleep — that is sleep that is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school.”

However, just 11 per cent said they were bothered by the lack or quality of their sleep.

“I’m staggered that so few teenagers make the link between getting enough good quality sleep and how they feel during the day,” Idzikowski said.

“Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to feel well, perform well and look well, they need to do something about their sleep.”

Source: Canada.com, Canada
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