Putting the bang back into Chemistry

For many of a certain age, Chemistry at school conjures up images of flaring magnesium whizzing around a bowl of water, tests for hydrogen resulting in satisfying explosions and exciting reactions which result in a change of colour or, even better, an exothermic reaction!

But living in the decade of Health & Safety as we are, all that might be about to come to an end, as Mike Kent writes in the TES.

SATs - Stress About Tests

A little controversy for a Tuesday night.

According to last week's TES, an online survey has revealed that many parents believe SATs cause too much stress in children and that they also have little or no confidence in the abilities of their children’s teachers.

Now - putting the SATs thing to one side for a moment - as a teacher and the parent of a child at school, I immediately feel very defensive about such a finding. But the fact remains that many parents do perceive teachers in this way, which is as much a damning comment about the image of education in this country as it is about any particular teacher's ability to do the job.

And certainly exams will always bring with them a certain amount of anxiety but the important thing is to learn to manage this stress. I suspect that some of those parents who think that SATs are too stressful for children are also the ones worrying about how their children will fair and so impose their own anxieties onto their children, making the whole thing a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To read more about this topic click here. To find a simple solution to exam stress, click here, and take with a warm drink at bedtime.

Parents and teachers, working together

Being a teacher myself, I have known for a long time that children make the best progress at school when teachers and parents effectively work in partnership. This means more than simply helping with homework, and relies on teachers and parents creating the means to partake in an ongoing dialogue, between home and school.

An article in this week's Times Educational Supplement, specifically about The Compton School in Finchley, north London, makes the point that by involving their parents, pupils’ behaviour and results can be improved.

If you would like to read more about this topic yourself, click here.

Who was your best teacher?

Was it your very first teacher when you first started school? Was it your last primary school teacher who made the biggest impression on you? Was it the Games teacher who coached the first 15 at secondary school, or that slightly hippy, trendy Classics teacher?

Or was it your dad?

It was for actor James Nesbitt, and you can find out why over at the TES website.

Obviously, unlike James Nesbitt, not everybody's mum or dad is going to be a teacher but Nesbitt's comments made me think. In fact, I would argue that everybody's mum and dad - or whoever it might be who nurtures them early on in life - is a teacher! They teach you to speak, by talking to you, they teach you what love is, by loving you, they show you how to brush your teeth, get dressed, tie your shoelaces... you get the idea.

And this is where I bring it all back to Match Wits with the Kids.

Match Wits is the ideal book to help parents continue to have an active and positive part to play in their child's education. Children succeed at school when parents and school work in partnership. A child doesn't only learn when lessons begin at 9 o'clock; they're learning all the time. However, what a child learns is up to you.

Children learn what they live

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.

If a child lives with jealousy,
He learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice.

If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.

If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find life in the world.