Blog List

Caffeine could be preventing your child’s brain from developing properly. Swiss scientists say caffeine present in fizzy drinks and coffee are preventing adolescents from falling into a deep sleep – an incredibly important time for brain development. With teens’ caffeine consumption rising 70% in just 30 years, there are worries about the effects of caffeinated drinks on teens, with problems...

Schools in Britain will be given guidelines on how to monitor children’s happiness levels under a new public health initiative. While teachers will be encouraged to take note of the effect school activities and extra-curriculars have on children’s emotional state, parents will be taught to create stable home environments. The initiative aims to create good relationships between teens and the...

Parents and pupils face school disruption from next week as teachers finalise plans to put a ban on meetings outside school hours. The move is one part of ASTI’s plan for industrial action and this will have a particular impact on Junior and Leaving Cert students. ASTI members will pull out of its previous deal to work an extra 33 hours a year and hold parent-teacher meetings outside of working...

Irish children are less likely to smoke or drink alcohol than they were in the late 1990s. The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study found 12% of Irish children were smoking in 2010 compare to 21% in 1998. Of this 12%, almost half had started by the age of 13 or younger, down 11% on previous years. 28% of youngsters reported being drunk, down 1% from 1998 figures, while 8% admitted using...

A new study has revealed that parents will chauffeur their kids over a distance of 125,817 miles before they turn 18. To put that figure in perspective, that’s about half the distance you would travel to get to the moon. Over one third of parents now have a car each and those with children in primary school make an average of 134 trips each month. For the average family, children’s trips...

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister is to announce the introduction of a free school meal scheme in schools for infant children. The £600million plan is expected the save families an average of £437 a year per child. Under the current system, free school meals are limited to 400,000 of the poorest families. Nick Clegg will tell delegates today that he believes ‘every primary school pupil should...

Almost two in five nine-year-olds in Ireland have reported being bullied, according to figures revealed during a conference in Dublin yesterday. The findings also showed that while boys were bullied more than girls, girls were more likely to experience cyber-bullying. It was highlighted that with cyber-bullying extending outside of school hours, children experiencing this were being denied a safe...

The British Education Secretary has been criticised for claiming that every child needs a “room of one’s own” to reach their academic potential. Critics have pointed out that new rules introduced in the UK say that children under 16 in a home receiving housing benefit have to share a room with a sibling of the same gender. The measures, dubbed a ‘bedroom tax’, also state that brothers...

In an attempt to combat the growing problem of childhood obesity in America, schools in 19 US states are weighing children and measuring their body mass index. Pupils are being sent home with report cards informing their parents whether they are “healthy” or “overweight”. While officials say the measurements are useful in tackling obesity, many parents have criticised the practice...

New research shows children in the UK are now working over 54 hours a week between school and extra-curricular activities. The study found parents are over-timetabling their children with extra-curricular activities in addition to their school commitments in order to give them an advantage. Most children already complete 32.5 hours at school Monday to Friday, as well as seven hours and 28 minutes...