National children’s charity, School-Home Support UK (SHS), revealed that of the 13,000 children they support each year, most of them on Free School Meals (FSM), nearly half don’t feel safe at home. SHS identifies and supports children who have trouble being in school and being ready to learn.

SHS’s annual survey revealed that, in the preceding twelve months, their school-based professionals dealt mainly with children in homes where financial problems or poverty, the threat of homelessness, poor housing conditions, domestic violence, family breakdown or bereavement and mental health issues were prevalent.

SHS Chief Executive, Jan Tallis, commented “Children worry greatly about home and this can mean that they find it difficult to fully engage with their education. Nearly one million kids truant on a regular basis but many are afraid to leave home for school in case something awful happens or because their basic support needs – such as clean clothes or breakfast – are not being met. When we do get them into school they often exhibit poor concentration and disruptive behaviour.

This affects their ability to learn, affects peer learning in the classroom and creates a route to poor attainment and success later in life. With the highest ever recorded number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) this is clearly a very big issue.”

Tallis says they expect to see an increase in these figures over the next twelve months as economic hardship escalates, impacting on other issues such as mental and domestic wellbeing. SHS creates early interventions to tackle these problems in the personal and home lives of children so they can improve attendance and behaviour at school.

“Our main aim is to ensure all children stay in school and do well so they can achieve their dreams and enjoy good lives. A recent survey among disadvantaged children revealed many don’t think they will go to university, have a good job or earn good money. This is tragic,” says Tallis.

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The bicentennial celebrations of one of Britain’s most beloved and enduring authors have kicked off with a Victorian-themed event at the Ulster Hall in Belfast.

Helmed by Dr. Leon Litvack of Queen’s University Belfast, Dickens 2012 NI got off to a rousing start on Wednesday January 25 when scholars, politicians, community workers and artists came together to deliver a morning of music, drama, speeches and costumes.

Among those who also addressed the crowd were Michelle McIlveen and Lynda Wilson from the Member of the Legislative Assembly and Barnardo’s Northern Ireland, respectively. Collectively, they stressed the importance of an event such as Dickens 2012 NI in encouraging citizens of all ages to become engaged in reading novels, studying history and taking an interest in social problems.

Wilson in particular raised two startling statistics, revealing that over 100,000 children in Northern Ireland can be classified as being currently ‘in poverty’ and one in five leave primary school with below standard literacy and numeracy skills. Therefore, Dickens 2012 NI could become a useful tool for helping to combat these issues if it continues with the type of creative and inclusive events that it is hosting this year.

However, there was still plenty of fun to be had at the launch event as Litvack and members of the Belfast Pickwick Players performed a selection of musical numbers, while classically trained actor and voice coach Rosie Pelan received a rave reception for her dramatic reading of the infamous “Please, Sir, I want some more” passage from Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist.

This was just the first in a long series of events which will be held across Northern Ireland over the coming months. Further highlights include: monthly screenings of film adaptations of Dickens’ texts at the Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast – beginning with David Copperfield on Sunday February 5 and ending with The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sunday December 9; as well as: a read-a-thon of David Copperfield at John Hewitt Bar; a one-man play written and performed by Sam McCready at the Ulster Hall;

A competition for professional designers and school children to design their own book cover for Oliver Twist, Great Expectations or Edwin Drood; and a drama workshop with Rosie Pelan in Carrickfergus Library. Dozens of other events will take place right up until December, with the potential for more to be organised as the year progresses.

In the official festival program, Litvack explains:

“His work transcends time and place, language and culture. He has a massive contemporary influence throughout the world, and his writings continue to inspire film, television, radio, theatre, art, and literature.

Here you will find a rich and diverse calendar of events, appealing to enthusiasts of all ages … To this end, we bring you films, theatre performances, exhibitions, musical events, lectures, read-a-thons, dramatic readings, and many programmes specifically for young people.”

In fact, attending the launch event were two schoolboys dressed as chimney sweepers, proving that the festival is committed to integrating this public festival with a younger generation of readers who are perhaps not as familiar with Dickens, or other novelists in the genre, as would be necessary to effectively tackle the unsettling statistics put forth earlier by Barnardo’s Director Lynda Wilson.

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While K-12 schools around the country search for funding to provide iPads to every student, an education researcher in North Carolina has found that even a single iPad can make a huge difference in the classroom.

The results of her experience with student teachers at Wake Forest University appear in the December/January issue of Learning & Leading With Technology, the magazine of the International Society for Technology in Education.

“Because they’re truly part of the digital generation, our pre-service teachers and the K-12 students they teach have a natural aptitude for tablet devices,” said Kristin Redington Bennett, an Assistant Professor of Education at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Though iPads can cost more than $500 with 3G access and a budget for apps, Bennett said, “Don’t discount the device because of its price. We found that just one iPad allowed teachers to design creative lesson plans tailored to individual learners.”

One of her pre-service teachers even used the iPad to solve a problem with a disruptive student who made trouble in the reading center every morning. When the teacher showed the student how to download books on the iPad, he read with focus for 20 minutes each morning – a goal he had not achieved until then.

“Anything new and different is engaging for kids,” said Nancy Davidson, a senior elementary education major at Wake Forest who used an iPad in her student teaching last semester. “Tracking student growth through apps, pictures, and videos became more efficient for me and more interesting for the children. Using the iPad in class started as a luxury, but quickly became a normal part of their learning process.”

Bennett’s pre-service teachers used the iPads in three ways:

*Comparing students’ progress on identical tasks using the iPads, interactive whiteboards, and desktops to see if the less-expensive iPad would work as well.

*In groups of two or three, working out a problem together. This approach required a set of rules (only one set of fingers on the iPad) and specific tasks for each team member. The group would capture an image of their work and store it in the iPad’s photo album for teacher review.

*For the teacher only, taking the place of other digital displays. One teacher took photos around the school and flipped through as she explained geometric shapes occurring in the school and in nature.

“What often happens in schools is that they purchase this new technology and expect teachers to use it with little training in how to design successful instruction with it,” Bennett said. “My goal is to train our elementary education candidates to graduate from our program with the skills and fluency in the use of mobile technology to support teaching and learning. This has allowed many of our graduates to be leaders in their schools even as a first-year teacher.”

Based on her experience, Bennett recommends these top 10 apps for use with elementary-school students:

1. Google Earth: (all ages) Take a virtual field trip to anywhere through this app that uses global satellite and aerial imagery with a swipe of a finger.

2. DoodleBuddy: (all ages) Students and teachers can use this across all content areas as a whiteboard equivalent to paint, draw, sketch, and write.

3. Story Buddy: (K-2nd) This app allows kids to create, read, and share stories that they create with the iPad.

4. Stack the States: (2nd-6th) An animated, game-based way to learn state locations, capitals, shapes, abbreviations, and nicknames.

5. Geocaching: (3rd-6th) In this global treasure hunting game, participants hide and seek containers, called geocaches, outdoors, then share their adventures online.

6. Numberland HD: (PK-1st) Twin heroes teach numbers using the Montessori Method.

7. Corkulous: (2nd – 6th) This app allows students to collect, organize, and share ideas through notes, labels, and photos.

8. iThoughtsHD: (3rd-6th) This mind-mapping tool can be used to sequence ideas, write mind-maps, organize thinking, and assess interrelatedness.

9. Coin Math: (K-3rd) Students learn both sides of a coin, how to add them, and how to pay for something with the correct coins.

10. StarFall ABC’s: (PK-1st) Students learn to recognize letters and develop skills as they begin to learn to read.

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Pet Care Trust develops a program that successfully reached out to 1 million children in 30,000 classrooms across the United States.  The program provides grants of $100-$150 to purchase or adopt a new pet in the classroom with the required supplies or $50 to support the adopted classroom pets.  Pet Care Trust was incorporated in Washington DC in 1990 and then established in 2009 – a non-profit, charitable, public foundation.

The Pets in the Classroom program teaches students at an early age long term pet care and responsibility.  Studies have examined that human-animal bonding provides psychological and developmental benefits.   It’s a positive effect teaching children responsibility, nurturing, affection, and building self-esteem as well as improving school attendance.  Waltham center has conducted studies that children with pets have a higher self-esteem and confidence than those without pets.  The recipients of the pets in the classroom program confirm that it’s a big impact on its students.

Steve King, Executive Director of the Pet Care Trust says:  “The Program has had a powerful impact in elementary school classrooms throughout North American.  In just one year the program has awarded grants to nearly 3,000 classrooms, giving up to 90,000 kids the opportunity to interact with a pets every day.  “The feedback we are receiving from teachers is overwhelmingly positive,” King says.  At a time when school budgets are being slashed nationwide, a pet in the classroom allows the teachers to provide valuable enrichment activities through a classroom pet of their choosing.”

The program teaches science of what the pet eats and world geography of where the animal originates.  Math is used to weigh and measure the animals as well as the proper grammar that is being used to describe the pet.   Students participate and design presentations about the pets.  The learning approach of these subjects motivates excitement and interest.   Children that have never been exposed to pets in their environment will make a connection that will develop sensitivity and awareness interacting with animal and humans.

Sixth grade teacher Susan Dougherty-Fitzpatrick is excited about the program, explaining: “This year, our entire fifth grade of over 150 students was allowed to learn about the tree frogs and hermit crabs in our unit ‘Systems and Survival.’ Without your help and support, we would not have been able to under take such a project and cannot thank you enough.”

“My students are learning how to be responsible care takers and best of all, my very shy student and English learners are talking now!” says Mrs. Johnson, a first grade teacher from Kentucky.

Since the program was established in the first year, reptiles, amphibians, birds and the most popular pets such as snakes, lizard, turtles and frogs -comprise of one third of funding.  An additional one third has funded small animals as guineas pigs, rabbits and hamsters.  The final one third funded freshwater aquariums.

For more information about grants and donations regarding the program go to www.petsintheclassroom.org

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