Did the nine- to 13-year-olds who voted Wayne Rooney their top choice for Prime Minister do so before or after The Sun splashed the front page headline "Crazed Rooney thumps Coleen"?

The Daily Mail and The Guardian reported that voters in the kids' general election survey, compiled by television channel Cartoon Network, picked out the premiership footballer as their favourite candidate for the, er, premiership. He was followed by Harry Potter. Tony Blair got just eight per cent of the vote. He tied with McFly star Danny Jones.

That was on Wednesday last week. The previous day The Sun had given its version of a nightclub row in which it said Rooney hit his fiancee across the face.

It seems unlikely that the young voters knew this. The time was too short.

But anyway, the same survey showed they thought the most important issues for a prime minis-ter were bullying and violence in schools. They would scarcely have voted in large numbers for someone who hit his girlfriend.

Then again, perhaps they were not inclined to believe everything they see splashed by a tabloid. The Mirror and other papers reported denials that the slap ever took place and quoted sources saying so.

So very confusing for a young voter.

- Research in primary schools has found that children who move their hands around freely are better at learning than pupils who are not allowed to fidget. The psychologists from Hertfordshire university believe that hand movements and gestures can help children to think, speak and learn.

They discovered that children were more able to find the correct answer to a question if they were able to wave their hands around than when they were forced to keep them still. They tested this by putting their hands into a pair of mittens attached to the table.

If BBC political editor Andrew Marr appears on television with his hands in mittens tied to a table, you'll know that psychologists are trying the same experiment on adults.

- If a Year 9 class has had 10 maths teachers in two terms, how many will they have had by the time they take their GCSEs?

It sounds like one of those old-fashioned algebra questions about workmen digging holes and how long it would take them to run a bath with two taps running and the plug out. But it is more serious. Ten maths teachers in six months has been the reality for 30 pupils at Marple Hall School in Stockport, according to a report in The Sun.

A spokesperson for the education authority said the school "is very willing to discuss the situation with parents". No-one has yet issued a statement saying the school is willing to hire 10 different supply teachers to discuss the situation with the young people.