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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.

Early detection of child mental health problems in schools is critical for implementing strategies for prevention and intervention. The development of an effective measure of mental health and well-being for this context must be both empirically sound and practically feasible. This study reports the initial validation of a brief self-report measure for child mental health suitable for use with children as young as 8 years old (“Me & My School” [M&MS]). After factor analysis, and studies of measurement invariance, 2 subscales emerged: emotional difficulties and behavioral difficulties. These 2 subscales were highly correlated with corresponding constructs of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and showed correlations with attainment, deprivation, and educational needs similar to ones obtained between these demographic measures and the SDQ. Results suggest that this school-based self-report measure is psychometrically sound, and has the potential of contributing to school mental health surveys, evaluation of interventions, and recognition of mental health problems within schools.

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.

ObjectiveTo assess the effectiveness of 2 interventions in improving the physical activity and well-being of secondary school children.DesignA clustered randomised controlled trial; classes, 1 per school, were assigned to 1 of 3 intervention arms or a control group based on a 2×2 factorial design. The interventions were peer-mentoring and participative learning. Year 7 children (aged 11–12) in the peer-mentoring intervention were paired with year 9 children for 6 weekly mentoring meetings. Year 7 children in the participative learning arm took part in 6 weekly geography lessons using personalised physical activity and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. Year 7 children in the combined intervention received both interventions, with the year 9 children only participating in the mentoring sessions.Participants1494 year 7 students from 60 schools in the North of England took part in the trial. Of these, 43 students opted out of taking part in the evaluation measurements, 2 moved teaching group and 58 changed school. Valid accelerometry outcome data were collected for 892 students from 53 schools; and well-being outcome data were available for 927 students from 52 schools.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcomes were mean minutes of accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity per day, and well-being as evaluated by the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire. These data were collected 6 weeks after the intervention; a 12-month follow-up is planned.ResultsNo significant effects (main or interaction) were observed for the outcomes. However, small positive differences were found for both outcomes for the participative learning intervention.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that the 2 school-based interventions did not modify levels of physical activity or well-being within the period monitored. Change in physical activity may require more comprehensive individual behavioural intervention, and/or more system-based efforts to address wider environmental influences such as family, peers, physical environment, transport and educational policy.Trial registration numberISRCTN82956355.

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

Value-added approaches aim to make fair comparisons of the academic progress of pupils in different settings. They rest on measurements at two time points and it has been suggested that the assessment of 4-year-olds cannot provide a sufficiently strong base from which to make comparisons at the end of Key Stage 1. Data on a range of potential predictors from the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) are related to measures of reading and mathematics in Year 2. The questions addressed include: a) To what extent is it possible to predict the reading of 7-yearolds? b) Which measures of 4-year-olds are the most predictive of later success? c) What are the implications for baseline assessment nationally? The results suggest that on-entry assessments, which last about 20 minutes, can predict the reading and mathematics scores of seven-year-olds with correlations around 0.7. Several measures are identified as potential predictors. The quickest to administer reliably include digit and letter identification, counting, writing and doing simple sums. The analysis suggests that value-added measures are possible for schools but that individual pupil predictions remain problematic.

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.