School leaders who allowed a pupil to cut herself with razor blades at school are facing investigation by the Teaching Agency, the Telegraph reports. The “controlled self harm” policy for the teenage girl required teachers to let her access sterilised razor blades and to escort her to a bathroom where she could cut herself. Staff at Unsted Park School in Godalming, Surrey, which offers specialist care to children with Asperger's syndrome and higher-functioning autism, were asked to wait outside the bathroom, and dress and clean her wounds. The policy ended after five days following complaints from staff to the local authority.
The challenge of combining work and childcare is leading to families having fewer children, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The Daily Mail reports that the ONS’s latest Labour Force Survey shows that almost half of families in the UK have one child. The number of one-child families has increased by almost 700,000 in 15 years. The ONS said that larger families were under pressure because of “the greater challenge of combining work with childcare with three or more children compared with one or two”.
Schools are holding back children who suffer from migraines by denying them access to medication, a charity has claimed. The Migraine Trust said that as many as 80,000 school-age children suffer from migraines and that a lack of understanding and support from schools was hampering their education. It said that as well as being denied medication when a migraine strikes, children were not getting enough help with catching up on missed work and facing unfair disciplinary measures after being unable to complete their homework due to the migraines. The charity said schools should be required to assist children who have the condition.
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), has accused Education Secretary Michael Gove of “poor judgment” and “a blind devotion to political dogma”. In a speech at ATL’s annual conference, the teachers' union boss said Gove’s education reforms had left teacher morale at “rock bottom”. She also accused the Department for Education of using “threats and blandishments” to push primary schools into becoming academies.
Five children’s centres in Blackburn and Darwen have been saved from closure but will be downgraded instead. The Lancashire Telegraph reports that Blackburn with Darwen Council will designate eight children’s centres as ‘hubs’, with the five that faced closure becoming ‘spokes’ that offer reduced services. The council hopes that private, voluntary or charity providers will take over running of the spoke centres.
And finally, watching television does not cause children to behave badly, research has found. A study of more than 11,000 primary school children conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC) concluded there was no link between television or any screen time and other issues such as hyperactivity or problems interacting with friends. Alison Parkes, head of the MRC's social and public health sciences unit in Glasgow, told the BBC: "Our work suggests that limiting the amount of time children spend in front of the TV is, in itself, unlikely to improve psychosocial adjustment."
