The death of classroom textbooks is predicted today by the new leader of the country’s top girls’ schools.

In future, pupils will access texts through smartphones and e-readers, Louise Robinson, the incoming president of the Girls’ Schools Association, said in her first interview.

“Taking on board the fact that textbooks will be on your mobile, whatever shape, name or type of fruit your mobile relates to… anywhere, any time, any place – it’s a huge possibility,” she said. Pupils could learn more from the “magic” of using smartphones and tablets than from simply reading a book, she argued. In addition, they can access information in advance of lessons. “If you say: ‘The next lesson is going to be on the skeleton’, what you can see online now in terms of the skeleton and where you can go with it makes children have far more control over their learning that they ever could do before. One click and you’re into another world,” she added.

However, children would have to be taught how to access information properly online, she cautioned. “You and I wouldn’t send a child into a library and say ‘Go and have a look’,” Mrs Robinson said. “You’d actually help them, show them where the information is to access and which bits they should be looking at for their age and stage.”

Source: The Independent

Unemployed young people face a “very real challenge”, Employment Minister Chris Grayling has admitted. But he said he was determined to get them into work as soon as possible and promised the government would not leave them “sitting there indefinitely”.

His comments to the BBC come a day after figures showed a record 1.027 million 16 to 24 year olds were unemployed.

Chris Grayling’s comments came before the government announced further measures aimed at reducing youth unemployment. Under its plans, £4.5 million will be given to colleges in areas of especially high youth unemployment to set up around 250,000 extra work experience placements.

Mr Grayling stressed the importance of such measures, stating that “we are seeing something like half of the young people who go into work experience placements getting into work afterwards”.

The new plan brings together many elements of the government strategy which was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last month.

The strategy aims to put into effect many of the recommendations made by the recent Wolf report on youth unemployment. It targets improving basic skills by combining work experience with ongoing English and maths lessons to form new vocational courses.

Source: BBC Education & Family

Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year – over 130,000 in total – are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.

Tobacco is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report.

Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men’s diets, while for women it is being overweight.

The report is published in the British Journal of Cancer. Its authors claim it is the most comprehensive analysis to date on the subject.

Lead author Prof Max Parkin said: “Many people believe cancer is down to fate or ‘in the genes’ and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it. “Looking at all the evidence, it’s clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change.”

For men, the best advice appears to be: stop smoking, eat more fruit and veg and cut down on how much alcohol you drink. For women, again, the reviews says the best advice is to stop smoking, but also watch your weight.

Source: BBC News

Friendly confidential drugs advice.

The BBc reports that as many as 140,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds could have free nursery places under a scheme planned to be rolled out in England.

Plans to give 15 hours of free “early education” a week to all two-year-olds from poor homes were announced last year but details have now been set out.

A pilot scheme, first started under Labour, is due to be extended nationwide from September 2013.

All three and four-year-olds are currently entitled to 15 hours of early education for 38 weeks a year. This can be in nursery schools and classes, children’s centres, day care nurseries, play groups, pre-schools and with accredited child minders.

Under the new plan, which is out for consultation, parents will be able to use their allocated time flexibly, between 07:00 and 19:00. So for example, they could have seven-hour slots for two days a week, to make it easier for them to work.

Source: BBC Education and Family News

A small number of children as young as 12 claimed they drank the equivalent of 19 glasses of wine a week when questioned for a health survey.

Research by the Independent Schools Health Education Unit suggested that 4% of those questioned aged 12 or 13 claimed they drank 28 units or more.

However, the overall trend in the survey of almost 84,000 youngsters was for fewer to be drinking and smoking.

The Government says it is cracking down on those who sell alcohol to children.

The data was collected from 1,100 primary and secondary schools across the UK, covering 83,724 youngsters between the ages of 10 and 15. They were asked more than 100 health-related behaviour questions on what they do at home, at school, and with their friends.

Dr David Regis from SHUE said the poll painted a mixed picture of young people’s attitudes to drink. “When we’re looking at the alcohol figures there’s good and bad news in there at the same time,” he told the BBC. “We’ve got an increasing number of pupils who are saying as far as they’re concerned, alcohol is not for them at all, so the number of teetotallers has been going up in recent years, but we’ve also seen those youngsters that do drink maybe more likely than ever to go over the top.”

A Department of Health spokesman said its drug strategy included measures to prevent alcohol misuse by young people. “Children under 15 shouldn’t be drinking at all,” he said.

Source BBC Family News

Ofsted has warned of “shortcomings” in the safeguarding of babies under the age of one.

The watchdog, drawing on the findings of serious case reviews, warns that the risks to babies from their parents’ lifestyles could be “underestimated”.

The report says it found repeated examples of a lack of attention to risks such as drug and alcohol misuse.

Ofsted chief Miriam Rosen said the report highlighted “potential gaps in protecting children”.

The report warns of the particular risk to this vulnerable age group of babies before their first birthday. It says that more than a third of serious case reviews between 2007 and 2011 related to babies below the age of one.

In particular the report raises concerns about a lack of attention to the risk factors in parents which could be a danger to their babies – such as alcohol, drugs and domestic violence – or where parents had a personal background which needed to be taken into account.

It says there were were repeated examples of a lack of response to such risks. Where parents are very young, it says that there has too often been inadequate support and that the parents might need to have been considered as “children in need in their own right”.

Source: BBC

Free parenting classes are to be trialled for all parents with children aged five and under in three areas of England, children’s minister Sarah Teather has said.

They are intended for parents even if they are not struggling with raising children, she said.

About 50,000 parents in Middlesbrough, High Peak, and Camden will be offered vouchers for the classes from mid-2012.

The classes, provided by parenting experts, are likely to cover areas such as communication and listening skills, managing conflict and “strengthening positive relationships in the family”, as well as the importance of parents working as a team.

There will also be a stress on discipline, with “firm, fair and consistent approaches” encouraged and the importance of “boundaries” being set out for children. And there will be advice on appropriate play for children’s age and development.

Ms Teather said she wanted to get rid of the stigma over asking for help.

Source: BBC Family News

Four in 10 disabled children in the UK live “in poverty”, according to the Children’s Society.

In the population as a whole, about one-in-three children lives in poverty.

The charity is calling on the government to rethink planned changes to welfare benefits in the UK, saying more than 100,000 disabled children could lose up to £27 a week.

The government says the most severely disabled children will receive more money under the changes.

Its Welfare Reform Bill is nearing its final stage in parliament before it becomes law.

From 2013, it will bring in a single monthly payment – known as a Universal Credit – which will replace a range of benefits.

The Children’s Society says a new study it has carried out shows 320,000 disabled children in the UK live in poverty. That is defined as being in a family where the income is less than 60% of the national average.

The charity says nearly a third of the 320,000 live in “severe poverty” – where the income is less than 40% of the average.

Parents are failing to put enough fruit and veg into their children’s packed lunches, health experts have warned.

The School Food Trust, which examined 3,500 packed lunches in England in 2009, says about 40% of lunchboxes do not contain any fruit or vegetables, compared with 10% of school dinners. It said parents should consider switching to school meals.

Meanwhile, the World Cancer Research Fund has set up a website to give parents advice on healthier lunchboxes. It says the same sort of changes as those made when TV chef Jamie Oliver championed school dinners are now needed. It wants parents to ensure their children’s packed lunches always contain at least two portions of fruits and vegetables.

WCRF head of education Kate Mendoza said: “There is no doubt Jamie Oliver helped achieve great things for the food served in school canteens. But as the nutritional content of school canteen meals has improved, the healthiness of the content of lunchboxes has been left behind”. “It is disappointing that children are going to school with lunchboxes that are not playing their part in helping to encourage the kind of healthy diet that is so important for their future”.

Source: BBC Family News