The Schools Blog

When school administrators and bursars want to know how to do something, then tend to write to the School Admin news service.

Lynne Dring, Finance and Administration Manager at Humberston School in Grimsby did exactly this when she wanted some help with writing a performance management document for school support staff.

24 hours after we circulated her request for information she wrote back saying, “what an unbelievable and fantastic response! I’ve had almost 40 replies already – all saying what’s going on, many willing to share policies and some asking for info to be passed on: a big thank you to all concerned (I have replied to everyone!). 

“I’ve previously answered a couple of queries myself but didn’t realise just how well the site was working (more responses than NCSL and NBA sites put together) – I’ll recommend it to everyone I meet from now on!”

And here’s some more good news.  The School Administrators’ news service is totally free of charge.   You simply send an email to ed.admin@schools.co.uk and write the word SUBSCRIBE in capitals in the subject line, and you are in.

You will get one or two emails a week, some carrying news about (for example) the activities of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB), and other such issues, other carrying requests for information and help – as Lynne Dring’s email did.

And that’s it.  If you want to leave the group, you send another email.  We promise never ever ever (not even once) to let anyone else see your email address, and (because we are the School of Educational Administration) we really do try and answer individual enquiries and questions within a couple of working days.

There’s more about us on www.admin.org.uk - but specifically I do hope you will send an email to ed.admin@schools.co.uk with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line, so you can join our news service.

UK children’s physical activity levels have been greatly overestimated, with true levels likely to be around six times lower than national data suggest, finds research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood .

Annual health survey data are used to inform UK public health policy and practice, and the figures indicate that the UK population takes a lot of exercise, and that children have been increasingly physically active over the past few years.

But - and this is the big problem - data collected on children’s physical activity levels rely on information supplied by parents.

In a bid to assess the accuracy and reliability of this data source, the research team monitored actual levels of physical activity in 130 children aged between 6 and 7 years over one week, using a portable recording device (accelerometer) carried on a waist belt.

They compared the readings with the information supplied by their parents, using the Health Survey for England annual questionnaire.

To maintain good health and stave off obesity and other serious illness in later life, it is recommended that children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, such as brisk walking, running, and sports.

Parents said their children were moderately to vigorously physically active for an average of 146 minutes a day.

But the accelerometer readings showed that this figure was actually 24 minutes a day, with boys managing 26 minutes and girls 22.

According to the survey data, 83% of boys and 56% of girls complied with the recommended daily amounts of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

But the accelerometer showed that only 3% of boys and 2% of girls actually did so.

The authors say that these findings back up national figures, showing an increase in car journeys children take, as well as their expanding girth.

“Marked improvements in surveillance of physical activity will be necessary in order to meet the major public health challenges of the 21 ^st  century, particularly where physical activity has been implicated in the aetiology of diseases, such as obesity and related disorders,” they comment.

If you are working in education and would like to receive a regular briefing on education news related to your specific subject just click here and choose your subject.  There’s no charge, no form to fill in, and you can leave the service at any time.

Tony Attwood