While the reading wars in education have raged for decades, most people agree that literacy is crucial for children and that the path to strong reading and writing skills begins in the home. But focusing…
One in three people in Britain describe themselves as being very or a little racially prejudiced, according to a recent British Social Attitudes Survey. How are middle-class black families coping with…
Proposals to force all schools to teach a compulsory sex education curriculum from primary level up and to restrict the right of parents to opt-out their children are back on the parliamentary agenda…
Childcare is likely to be a key battleground for the UK’s 2015 general election. The Labour party has committed to a universal quality childcare service. It sees it as a strategic political, social and…
Parents could soon face fines for parking too near to a school, according to a new Manifesto Club report on new Public Spaces Protection Orders. This comes after a record number of 63,837 fines were imposed…
As another teachers’ strike looms on July 10 it is worth setting out the reasons that teachers are unhappy with their profession. It’s not just because of conditions of service, pay, and pensions. Teaching…
Singing, dancing, touchy-feely school governors are in the firing line. A new website designed to attract and inspire more school governors was launched on May 15 by Michael Gove, the secretary of state…
Cognitive difficulties are very common in children from impoverished backgrounds, putting them at risk of educational failure. However, it is not clear what influences the development of cognitive abilities…
In the summer of 2010 as England was being knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa, something all together more hopeful was happening in London. A group of scientists, social researchers, parents…
A new survey by the teachers union NASUWT has provided further evidence to confirm that teachers too, as well as pupils, can be targets of online bullying. In the research, just more than a fifth of the…
Homework is the perfect platform for parents to help children unravel the mystery to learning. Parents are in a unique position to hang the academic concepts that children learn at school onto their real-life…
A recent report from the Sutton Trust is the latest in a line of recommendations for family policy to focus on promoting secure attachment between parents and their children. What puzzles me is why the…
When it comes to the topic of conservative Christian home schooling, the term “politically tolerant” usually doesn’t spring to mind. Even while the home schooling phenomenon continues to grow and diversify…
Philip Noden, London School of Economics and Political Science
As parents across England wait nervously for news of where their children have been allocated a secondary school place, new admissions policies of banding and ballots have come under scrutiny. The recent…
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary