The statistic that one in four adults in Britain will experience a mental health problem in any given year is well known (if still debated), but a recent report by the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition revealed a lack of such statistics for children. The report also highlighted that Office for National Statistics [read the full story…]
It is estimated that 20% of children up to the age of 18 will have suffered an emotional disorder of depression or anxiety (Costello et al., 2003). These two mental health conditions commonly occur together and can significantly influence daily functioning, relationships and education in this age group. Effective and evidence-based psychological treatments have been [read the full story…]
Suicidal ideation and behaviours are widespread and serious amongst adolescents (Husky et al., 2012). One theory suggests that suicide in this age group is caused by ‘suicide contagion’ (exposure to a suicide may influence an individual to attempt suicide). Ecological studies have indeed demonstrated this and show that suicide rates increase following a highly publicised [read the full story…]
Making the move from primary to secondary school can be stressful for all involved and if you are a young person with a learning disabilities or other special educational needs these stresses can be magnified. Moving to secondary school often means lots of change at once – new building, new routes to learn, new classmates, [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline for depression in children and young people was published way back in September 2005. Any elf worth his salt will tell you that a whole heap of evidence has been published since then, so it’s good to see an evidence update appear this week from NICE, which brings together research published from 17th [read the full story…]
This new Cochrane review looked at school-based interventions aimed at changing behaviour related to toothbrushing habits and the frequency of consumption of cariogenic food and drink in children between the ages of 4 and 12 years. The Cochrane Oral Health Group’s Trials Register, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) ,Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, [read the full story…]
The impact of poor behaviour in schools can have wide-ranging detrimental affects on learning, wellbeing and social development. School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS or PBIS), originally created by Horner and Sugai (2006), is a whole-school behaviour intervention program. It has been widely implemented in more than 16,000 schools across the United States, with [read the full story…]
I remember discovering the joys of storybooks in the 1970’s, as Grandpa Elf and I would sit in the dappled shade of the trees, reading story after story set in the woodland. For human children, tucked up in their beds, tales of deadly wolves and evil grandmothers may well have had a scary edge, but [read the full story…]
Governments across the world are increasingly realising the importance of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in determining the success of economic futures. Postgraduates of STEM subjects can play an important role in steering the economy in the right direction by driving innovation, undertaking significant research and providing much-needed entrepreneurship. Teachers who are confident with [read the full story…]
National and international research consistently shows that the most significant factor in raising educational achievement is the employment and retention of good quality teachers. Teacher recruitment and retention; an historical context In recent history, the UK Government has introduced many initiatives to tackle the problems of teacher recruitment and retention (Menter, 2002), including bursaries for [read the full story…]
