It's the Year of the Horse!

People born in the Year of the Horse are said to be bright, energetic, bad tempered and easily distracted!

Gung hay fat choy!

It’s Data Privacy Day – an opportunity to discuss with your children the importance of thinking before they send any dubious Snapchat messages.

Children who regularly sit down to eat meals with their families are much less likely to skip school, a new report says. The study from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development underlines the serious impact of missed lessons on school performance, but shows that attendance is more closely linked to positive engagement between schools and families than whether a child is from a rich or poor home. In the developed world, 18 per cent of teenagers skipped school at least once in the two weeks prior to the study being carried out in 2012, with Japan showing the lowest rates and Latvia the highest.

Open a tinnie and stick a shrimp on the barbie – or indoor equivalent if you’re in slightly cooler climes. It’s Australia Day, which commemorates the 1788 arrival of British ships into Sydney Cove.

Please feel free to comment on your experiences whilst working with me, either as a teacher, a tutor, a colleague or a consultant. The more posts the better! I'm feeling very brave!!!!

We’ve all seen the wide-eyed stare and agitated body language of some students at 9am: clearly, two cans of caffeinated pop and a packet of Monster Munch crisps do not a healthy breakfast make.

As caffeine surges around the still-developing brains of children and their behaviour spins out of control, staff long for the times when students slumped passively across their desks. Where once glassy-eyed zombies haunted the corridors, now hyperactive youths practise karate on their friends at 8.15 in the morning.

This week, school food adviser John Vincent called for a ban of the sugar-loaded pick-me-ups. He described energy drinks as “another form of drugs”. We atTES applaud him – surely schools should be offering calming milk drinks for break time, not fizzy caffeine hits.

How could schools police it, though? It is almost impossible to control what children are eating and drinking before they make their way through the gates.

We would make one exception: teachers. School staff don’t generally get a lot of sleep (what with all the planning and grading) and sometimes an energy drink packed with guarana and caffeine is required. So don’t forget to stock the staffroom with cans of the most potent variety while simultaneously whipping them out of the hands of your charges.

Expert claims risk-taking and mistake-making aid learning

IRENA BARKER

TEACHERS NEED to encourage children to do the “dumb stuff” of youth or risk turning their schools into “learning graveyards”, a leading child psychologist has said.

Allowing children to be impulsive and reckless helps them to learn more effectively than over-planned lessons, which make schools too homogeneous, according to Dr Chris Thurber, a teacher at one of the US’s most elite boarding schools.

“Kids do dumb stuff – it’s built into their brains. It’s simple biology,” Dr Thurber said. “However, safety measures can retard learning when taken to an extreme. There is a three-way balance between protecting young people, engineering outcomes and allowing learning to happen. We can only achieve that balance when we recognise the value of dumb stuff.”

Children should not be actively encouraged to do dangerous things, such as skateboarding without pads, but should be given the freedom to make their own mistakes, he added.

What are you opinions on this?

On the naughty step

CONDUCT THAT DESERVES A TICKING OFF

Naughty parents on the school run.

Primary teachers everywhere are involved in the vital business of imparting social mores to the youngest members of society, who have too little life experience to be aware of the importance of taking turns, conceding graciously and not pushing in or shouting at others.

But what to do when it is the parents who start squabbling? According to a survey released this week – admittedly carried out by an insurance company – as many as 75 per cent of the 1,000 people polled have seen other drivers behaving badly over parking spaces during the school run.

This is a prime time for tension. And us telling parents to allow extra time in the winter, park further from the school gates, walk to school or arrive in cars rather than vehicles fortified for use in war zones is only likely to add to that tension. 

But let’s do it anyway. It is, after all, teachers who have to share the classroom with students after they’ve been chucked out of the back of the Hummer with curses ringing in their ears.

So, parents who behave badly on the school run, prepare for a spell on the naughty step. And don’t worry, we’ve reserved a space for all of you.

What do you think?