There was a party going on in London E5; a house party in one of the Victorian terraces that line the streets in this modest area of east London. There had been parties on the street before, only on this particular Friday evening two months ago, guests wore Ray-Bans, deep-cut v-neck T-shirts and skinny jeans. They were also, according to one partisan report, in possession of “a sound system [

continue reading Hipsters? they are getting on some people’s nerves, or so it seems

you sleep under the security that my silence provides

The study by the National Literacy Trust suggested a link between regular access to books outside school and high test scores.

Almost nine-in-10 pupils now have a mobile compared with fewer than three-quarters who have their own books in the home, it was disclosed.

Children ‘more likely to own a mobile phone than a book’ – Telegraph.

continue reading Children ‘more likely to own a mobile phone than a book’ – Telegraph

GIVE IT UP AND MATRICULATE LIKE IT MATTERS

“At night, I can text or watch something on YouTube until I fall asleep,” Francisco Sepulveda, 14, said of his smart phone.

Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a [

continue reading If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online

“Blundering interventions into family life, like lunchbox inspections, undermine this special bond. Suddenly, even from an early age, children are told that parents are not the best people to protect their interests; apparently that job should fall to the state instead. When a child is given a letter to take home from school for having brought in the wrong food – or even sent home themselves in disgrace – that child is being told that mum and dad are an embarrassing failure. Schools, which should be concentrating on providing a stimulating education, are forced into battle with parents over [

continue reading Put the lunch police back in their box

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…and what do the young people see parents, teachers and admin-staff eating?

Have you seen the size of many teachers and school admin staff? Have you seen the cakes, chips and kebabs taken to staff-rooms at lunchtime? The tins of Quality Street and boxes of Roses in the school office.

At every school function school-raffles mean head-teachers hand bottles of wine and scotch to staff and parents and boxes of chocolates are everywhere in front of the same kids humiliated in every lunchtime stop & search.

Witness the amount of kids walking to school with [

continue reading “Junk food fills children’s lunchboxes” – SO WHAT!

“Sedentary lifestyles are making children less fit – even among those who are not obese, a study suggests. Essex University staged fitness tests on 600 10-year-olds a decade apart in an area with low levels of obesity. They found significant falls in fitness levels, concluding the average 10-year-old in 1998 could beat 95% of youngsters in 2008 in running tests.”

(CLICK HERE FOR MORE -> BBC News – Child fitness levels ‘declining even in affluent areas’: .)

Sir Liam Donaldson accused some parents of a “laissez-faire” approach and said letting children taste alcohol to ready them for adulthood was “misguided”.

“It is a major public health problem. Alcohol has a ruinous effect on the foundations of adult life. We see the tyranny of alcohol in our towns and city centres and too often childhood is robbed of its clear-eyed innocence and replaced with a befuddled futility that comes with the availability of dirt-cheap alcohol,” he [

continue reading BBC News – Parents who let children drink ‘fuel binge drinking’