The achievement of children with high scores on the behaviour rating scale replicated previous studies which investigated the achievement of children with ADHD. The behaviour rating scale could be a useful tool for raising the awareness of teachers to young children with severe behavioural problems of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity who have not been diagnosed as having ADHD but may nevertheless be at risk of similar outcomes.

A number of countries are running role model recruitment drives under the assumption that like is good for like: ethnic minority teachers should teach ethnic minority children, women should teach girls, and so on. The empirical basis for this would appear to be case study and personal reflection. This article will examine quantitative data to test the hypothesis that male teachers produce more positive attitudes amongst boys and female teachers amongst girls. Using data from the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) Project, information from 413 separate classes for 11 year-olds (in England) was examined. One hundred and thirteen were taught by males and 300 by females. All the pupils completed questionnaires that were designed to measure attitude to school, reading, mathematics and science. In addition, background data on those pupils were collected, including cognitive measures, attainment scores, ability measures and home background measures. The data were examined to look at attitudes using multilevel models controlling for background factors. The analysis concentrated on interaction effects between the gender of the teacher and the gender of the pupil and the results gave little support for those who advocate recruitment drives with role models in mind.

In England children must start school after their fifth birthday, but it is common for children to start when they are four in what is known as the Reception class. The Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) project collected data on 1700 pupils' early mathematics and pre/early reading levels at the start and end of their Reception year. The on-entry assessment proved to be a good predictor of performance in reading and mathematics at the end of reception and the progress which each child made was estimated. This progress was found to vary considerably between schools and the variation was much greater than that typically found in school effectiveness studies. The data provided a unique opportunity to compare the progress of children who had, and had not, been to school. The Reception year was found to have had a major impact on the literacy and numeracy of children. Multi-level models were employed for the analysis and from the models Effect Sizes were computed to assist in comparing the importance of variables in the study. This approach provides a mechanism for comparing the findings of school effectiveness studies with experimental studies and meta-analyses. This paper aims to explore the progress that children make between the beginning and the end of their first year at school in England, known as the Reception class. The age of pupils varied from just four years to nearly five. A Reception assessment was carried out by teachers shortly after the children entered full time education in the Reception class, and this was repeated at the end of Reception. The results were analysed using regression techniques including multilevel modelling to try to establish

2011) 'Improving attainment across a whole district : school reform through peer tutoring in a randomized controlled trial.', School eectiveness and school improvement., 22 (3). pp. 265-289. Further information on publisher's website: This is an electronic version of an article published in Tymms, P. and Merrell, C. and Thurston, A. and Andor, J. and Topping, K. and Miller, D. (2011) 'Improving attainment across a whole district : school reform through peer tutoring in a randomized controlled trial.', School eectiveness and school improvement., 22 (3). pp. 265-289. School eectiveness and school improvement is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=articleissn=0924-3453volume=22issue=3spage=265Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Despite limitations the study demonstrates that it is possible to carry out a clustered RCT on a large scale working with districts and suggests that peer tutoring has promise when scaled up.

To investigate the impact of early schoolbased screening and educational interventions on longerterm outcomes for children at risk for attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the predictive utility of teacher ratings.Design: A population-based 5-year follow-up of a randomized, school-based intervention.Setting: Schools in England.Participants: Children between 4 and 5 years of age with high teacher-rated hyperactivity/inattention scores. Follow-up data were collected on 487 children in 308 schools.Interventions: Following screening, using a 2 ϫ 2 factorial design, schools randomly received an educational intervention (books about ADHD for teachers), the names of children with high hyperactivity/inattention scores between ages 4 and 5 years (identification), both educational intervention and identification, or no intervention.Outcome Measures: Parent-rated hyperactivity/ inattention, impairment in classroom learning, and access to specialist health services for mental health or behavioral problems.Results: None of the interventions were associated with improved outcomes. However, children receiving the identification-only intervention were twice as likely as children in the no-intervention group to have high hyperactivity/inattention scores at follow-up (adjusted odds ratio,2.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-4.00). Regardless of intervention, high baseline hyperactivity/ inattention scores were associated with high hyperactivity/ inattention and specialist health service use at follow-up. Conclusions:We did not find evidence of long-term, generalizable benefits following a school-based universal screening program for ADHD. There may be adverse effects associated with labeling children at a young age.

Transformation drama project on young pupils' reading, mathematics, attitude, self-concept and creative writing in primary schools. Two of the schools taking part in Transformation were matched to two Control schools in the ®rst two years of the project. Assessments were administered to all pupils at the start of Year 3 as a basis for comparison at the end of Year 4. The assessments were developed by the Performance Indicators in Primary School (PIPS) project, Curriculum Evaluation and Management Centre based at Durham and are widely used by schools across England. This meant that comparison could be made against a nationally representative sample of schools. Although the sample was small, the research project had interesting ®ndings. The value-added scores of pupils in the Transformation group were frequently higher/more positive than the scores of pupils in the Control group.The self-concept of the pupils in the Transformation group as determined by the questionnaires was signi®cantly more positive than the pupils in the Control group at the end of Year 4. The article raises questions both about the type of research worth pursuing in the arts and drama, and what research in the arts should seek to achieve.It is a fairly common convention when writing a research paper or thesis to include a disclaimer somewhere near the end pointing out the limitations of the research. This is not unreasonable in the case of an examination thesis where a central aim is to display not just to contribute to knowledge and understanding. It can be more frustrating in a research article when the inevitable paragraph which points out the limitations of the research can come as something of an anti-climax for the reader, inviting the questioǹ what then was the point?' The frustration can be compounded when the disclaimers

(2015) 'Predictors of and barriers to service use for children at risk of ADHD : longitudinal study.', European child adolescent psychiatry., 24 (5).pp. 545-552. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0606-z Publisher's copyright statement:The nal publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0606-z. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. MethodsThis is a five year follow-up study of children who participated in a cluster randomised controlled trial, which investigated school-level interventions (provision of books with evidence-based information and/or feedback of names of children) for children at risk of ADHD. 162 children who had high levels of ADHD symptoms at age 5 (baseline) were followed up at age 10 years. Using baseline data and follow-up information collected from parents and teachers, children who had and had not used specialist health services over the follow-up period were compared and predictors (symptom severity, comorbid problems, parental perception of burden, parental mental health, and socio-demographic factors) of specialist service use investigated. ResultsThe most common parent-reported barrier reflected lack of information about who could help. Amongst children using specialist health services who met criteria for ADHD at followup, 36% had been prescribed stimulant medication. Specialist health service use was associated with each one-point increase in teacher-rated symptoms at baseline (inattention symptoms (adjusted OR = 1.40; 95% CI 1.12-1.76) and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms (adjusted OR = 1.23; 95% CI 1.05-1.44)). Parental mental health problems were also independently associated with service use (for each one-point increase in symptoms, adjusted OR = 1.41; 95% CI 1.04-1.91). ConclusionsSeverity of teacher-rated ADHD symptoms in early school years is a determinant of subsequent service use. Clinicians and teachers should be aware that parental mental health problems are independently associated with service use for children at risk of ADHD.

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