Latest blog posts 
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Maths - geekdom or artistry?
Friday 3 February 2012
Categories: Education, Media Influence, Role Models
I wonder if it’s time for a rethink. I’ve always believed that the reason many girls – particularly those in co-ed schools – tend to dislike maths is because anything they find difficult brings about a fear of failure. I have taught girls maths for years and experience tells me that, to succeed, girls need to feel safe – safe to make mistakes, safe to admit their misunderstandings and thus safe to fail.
I thought this meant that the main thing girls need to succeed in maths is...
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The rise of parent power?
Monday 30 January 2012
The Times Educational Supplement (27 January) reports on the developing role of parents with respect to their children’s education. It talks of the rise of parental influence and how this is changing the relationship between schools and families – in some respects positively, in other respects perhaps worryingly. The article explains: ‘Long gone are the days when the majority of parents turned up unquestioningly at the school gates, dumped their kids and headed off.’
To what...
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Body image - it's all about perception
Friday 27 January 2012
Categories: Health, Media Influence, Self-esteem
Young people have always been concerned about their appearance, but this generation is under greater pressure to look good than ever before. On average British children are spending between six and eight hours a day looking at screens, during much of which they are being bombarded with images of the “beautiful”. Men’s and women’s magazines present distorted images of human perfection. At present the average model weighs 23% less than the average British woman, so it is no surprise that at...
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How can we help girls to be more confident?
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Categories: Education, Parenting, Self-esteem, Teenagers
Our bright, talented, good looking, hardworking girls should be proud of themselves but all too often they lack confidence. Why is this? As parents we may praise, reassure and encourage our daughters but somehow this can fail to penetrate their fragile egos. Once adolescent hormones kick in many girls become self-conscious about their looks, their bodies and their talents. They compare themselves, unfavourably of course, with their peers, with the images they see in the media and their...
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Follow your star...
Thursday 22 December 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Role Models
Now girls have a role model who parents will heartily endorse – Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock – a female Professor Brian Cox. She may not have been in a rock band in a previous incarnation but she has triumphed over her dyslexia to become the lead scientist at a British space technology company. Dr Pocock now tours inner city schools urging pupils, and especially girls, to study science.
Appropriately in this festive season her message is one of hope. As Dr Pocock goes round schools breaking...
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Should children do homework in the Christmas holidays?
Monday 19 December 2011
Categories: Education, Extra curricular, Family Relationships, Homework
I’m actually a big fan of homework. I think the school-related work children do at home can be important consolidation or extension of what they have learnt at school. Time spent reviewing work at home can provide the valuable opportunity for reflection and reinforcement. Sometimes if your child’s interest is sparked by something at school, they can find the space to do further reading and research in their own time, including on the internet, which can extend their learning and...
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Seeking role models for women's sport
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Categories: Extra curricular, Health, Media Influence, Role Models
I am encouraged by the recent press coverage in response to the BBC Sports Personality shortlist, particularly concerning the responsibility the media have for raising the profile of women’s sport.
Last week I turned to the section in a Sunday newspaper laughingly entitled sport. Of the 20 pages dedicated to sport I found no mention of women other than an article in which an American skier in her twenties had accompanied a much younger skier to his high school dance. The point? ...
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Help - I've got homework!
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Categories: Education, Extra curricular, Family Relationships, Homework
Homework is a bit like riding a bike. You have to practice to get it right but, once you’ve mastered the skill, you never forget how to do it.
Like it or not, homework is part of school life – or should be. Yes, the teaching day ends around mid afternoon and young people need downtime to re-charge their batteries. No, that does not mean lessons should be forgotten until class the following day.
Why? Because children need to get into the habit of thinking for themselves and doing...
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There's more to relationships than body parts...
Monday 28 November 2011
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Growing up, Sexual Relationships
‘There’s more to relationships than body parts’ attested a recent article in The Education Guardian. Absolutely. We have to recognise that Sex and Relationships Education requires far more than giving information about the biological elements of human reproduction. Our sons and daughters need support as they address the emotional aspects of a developing interest in the opposite sex, and unless schools and parents work together to provide this support, they will look to each other,...
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Don't strip the curriculum of subjects that matter...
Saturday 19 November 2011
Categories: Education, Media Influence
Over the past two decades, many schools have become slaves to league tables. The pressure, from government and elsewhere, to measure success in terms of examination results has been immense. Much attention is focussed on predetermined ‘core’ areas, namely Mathematics, English and Science.
Of course, giving young people a sound grasp of numeracy and literacy is crucial. They would be seriously disadvantaged without it.
But what has all the target-chasing done to our national...
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Categories
- Careers (9)
- Drugs and Alcohol (3)
- Education (50)
- Extra curricular (11)
- Family Relationships (17)
- Growing up (17)
- Health (9)
- Homework (6)
- Letting go (5)
- Media Influence (29)
- Parenting (26)
- Personal Safety (10)
- Role Models (21)
- Self-esteem (8)
- Sexual Relationships (5)
- Technology & the Internet (6)
- Teenagers (14)