So it’s coming to that time of the year when the kids start being marketed to by the media. Are your children pester ninjas? Do you feel under pressure to fulfill your child’s Christmas list? Well a survey today by the charity Mothers’ Union has called for an end to “pester power.” Some 84 per […]
As a former Deputy Headteacher I read with dismay a rather unhelpful tweet from Lord Andrew Adonis to say he’d written to Ofsted chief, Amanda Spielman, concerned that schools are not providing enough online learning. Teachers who were just recovering from Sir Michael Wilshaw’s Newsnight suggestion that schools should work evenings and weekends to […]
As Christmas approaches, men trussed up in red suits and sporting fluffy white beards become a ubiquitous sight on high streets up and down the country don’t they? Parents of young children can guarantee that several versions of Father Christmas will be doling out presents and sprinkling a bit of festive magic in the shops. […]
I’m speaking on BBC Radio Sheffield about the increase of young children being excluded from school from as young as 5. Recently I wrote about ‘School Readiness’ as this is a complex subject not easily dismissed by the taxi driver who said to me, ‘All they need is a good smack.’ Here is an article […]
I have been working with a Mum going through a difficult divorce who has 3 children. She is bitter, angry and furious that her husband had an affair with his young secretary and split the family up. She is incandescent that she had to leave their family home and […]
I remember being very upset by the UNICEF Report many years ago that showed that the UK was among many countries where children were unhappy and extolling the virtues of the Scandinavian way of raising happy, confident children. So I was fascinated to read an article published in The Telegraph claiming that Sweden’s […]
As a former Deputy Head and Class Teacher I read with interest today’s article in The Telegraph about a campaign to delay the start of formal education until the age of seven which is backed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. While I can see that we have gone too far along […]
I read with interest today about the rise in “Motherism” as new term to describe prejudice against stay at home mums! Stay-at-home mothers are increasingly facing a damaging but unspoken prejudice that assumes they are stupid, lazy and unattractive, a leading child development expert has warned. Dr Aric Sigman, a biologist and psychologist, said that what he […]
More than a million children are growing up without a father and numbers are set to increase, a think tank has warned today. It’s a staggering statistic and a worrying trend as so many children are growing up with a lack of male role models in their lives. The number of single parent families is […]
Are your kids out in the snow throwing snowballs, climbing trees and having fun – or are they stuck inside on their iPad and watching hours of TV? Prof Tanya Byron said that children’s natural development was being stunted after being refused the chance to play outside, banned from throwing snowballs and prevented from walking […]
I thought Clare Balding was fantastic during the London Olympics – her knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm was infectious. In this interview in The Telegraph Clare says female sport should be given the TV coverage it deserves, as it has the power to reduce obesity, teen pregnancy and female youth offending. Emma Barnett talked to Britain’s newest […]
