Every Child Matters Research Articles

Body policies and body pedagogies: every child matters in totally pedagogised schools?

This paper documents how health is storied into existence by ‘obesity discourse’ to become part of the ‘natural attitude’ towards the health of individuals or populations. We draw attention to some of the major policy documentation influencing thinking on ‘health’ and school health education in the UK over recent years, especially, every child matters (ECM) and subsequent, related measures, for example the National Healthy Schools Programme (NHSP). We suggest that these measures have helped shape and make a ‘totally pedagogised society’ and ‘totally pedagogised schools’ in which ‘health’, reduced to an issue of weight, exercise and diet, becomes everyone’s concern, everywhere. The analyses highlight the socio-political and psychological leanings of such policy documentation and its potential effect on the identities of children and young people when institutionalised and ‘authorised’ through state policies and the body pedagogies of schools and multiple other agencies.

The impact of Every Child Matters on trainee secondary teachers' understanding of professional knowledge

This study is concerned with the way in which the introduction in England of Every Child Matters (ECM), a mandatory framework for the well‐being of all pupils, has created new intraprofessional and interprofessional expectations about the development of professional knowledge for pre‐service secondary school teachers. In the light of current literature, the paper seeks to establish whether ECM for secondary teachers provides a simple reconciliation between subject expertise and the facilitation of human learning or a much more profound challenge to the development of values‐based autonomous professional knowledge. The research undertaken using questionnaires and interviews with cohorts of trainee secondary teachers between 2005 and 2008 aims to identify the impact of ECM on the development of their pre‐service professional knowledge. The data demonstrate a degree of movement in emphasis from an organic, values‐based understanding to a propositional, skills‐based understanding of professional knowledge. It is argued that this movement in emphasis is, to some degree, related to the instrumental implementation of a social justice policy that may have contributed to the weakening of the intrinsic relationship between teachers' values, ownership of professional knowledge and pupil well‐being. The study concludes that the challenge for teacher educators is to find the critical questions and pedagogies to counter the view that professional knowledge is simply the acquisition of strategies, skills and safeguarding knowledge that ensures accountability and legality in the classroom.

How listening to student voice can enable teachers to reflect on and adjust their use of physical space

The carpet as a learning space has become the received way of delivering literacy and numeracy in English primary schools, yet remains little examined either academically or professionally. Different understandings of teaching and learning have different implications for carpet-time. As carpet time is so widespread it seems important to find out how and why it is used, and how children and teachers respond to this use of space.This research comprised a mixed-method study of carpet use in an English primary school. Government policy has stated through the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda that the child should be at the centre of teaching and learning (DfES, 2004). This study, therefore, asked both children and adults for their ideas about carpet-based teaching and learning. Results show a mismatch between what children think, what teachers think and what actually happens. They also demonstrate the potential to overcome these contradictions: obtaining children’s views on teaching and learning can enable teachers to reflect on (and improve) their use of physical space.

Conflating risks: Implications for accurate risk prediction in child welfare services

Improving outcomes for children is a major concern in developed countries. This article examines the Every Child Matters (ECM) policy in England that seeks to integrate strategies for tackling a range of risks in relation to children, both risks of harm to themselves and harm they may pose to society. The emphasis is on early identification and intervention to reduce the numbers who go on to experience serious problems. The government cites research as providing the evidence to permit screening and targeting of ‘at risk’ children. However, ‘at risk’ refers to a range of adverse outcomes with different, though overlapping, causations. This article questions whether the research base permits an acceptable level of screening for individual children at risk in some general sense and raises concerns about potential harmful consequences.

‘Making children count’: an exploration of the implementation of the Every Child Matters agenda

This paper reports on the findings of a funded research project that explores the implementation of the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda within the Greater Merseyside area. The research team explore how primary schools and external agencies are currently working together to deliver this agenda in order to highlight areas of good practice as well as potential sites of conflict. The aim is to develop an effective response to the challenges currently faced by schools and other agencies in meeting the requirements of the principles underpinning the ECM agenda. The research project implemented a mixed-method case-study approach, using questionnaires, policy documentation and stakeholder interviews as data sources. Responses were elicited from members of school staff, parents and professionals from the education welfare, health and social services to gauge their perceptions of how well they felt schools and agencies were responding to the challenges of implementing the ECM agenda. There is strong evidence of effective multi-agency working, particularly in relation to children who are ‘at risk’ or have special educational needs, and in terms of contributions to the curriculum and life of the school for all pupils. There are also clearly identified areas for further development, for example on shared operational frameworks. There are also concerns that poor resourcing and a lack of practical support could hamper the embedding of reforms.

Milkshakes, lady lumps and growing up to want boobies: how the sexualisation of popular culture limits girls' horizons

AbstractThis article explores research evidence on the harmful impact of sexualised popular culture on girls and young women, and draws implications for the Every Child Matters (ECM) framework (Department for Education and Skills, 2004). The key theme is how sexualisation narrows girls' ‘space for action’, their aspirations and achievements by re‐defining femininity and beauty as of most importance, but also the negative impact on sexual relationships and interactions, with a specific focus on portrayal of black girls and young women in terms of the intersection of race and gender. Recommendations are made for a gendered analysis of sexualisation to be incorporated into ECM indicators and relevant policy measures. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Every Child Matters outcomes: What Do They Mean for Disabled Children and Young People?

To date, little attention has been paid to the appropriateness of the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes framework to disabled children.1 This article reports findings from a research project which sought the views of disabled children and their parents about their desired outcomes. Twenty‐nine children and 90 parents were interviewed. The findings indicate that ECM outcomes are appropriate to disabled children but can have different meanings. In addition, the need to recognise the importance of maintaining outcomes, as well as progress, is highlighted.

Enjoy and Achieve: finding opportunities to action the Every Child Matters framework to provide opportunities for children and adults to work collaboratively on an outdoor learning project

Every Child Matters (ECM), an agenda for agencies working with children, was introduced following the tragic death of Victoria Climbie in 2001. Lord Laming produced a report that proposed a new way of working for all professionals working with children. In June 2003, under a Labour government, the first Children's minister was appointed and the ECM agenda was actioned. The agenda outlined radical change for children's services and individuals working with children. In 2003 I was employed as a science teacher in a South East London mixed comprehensive. I implemented and managed the Healthy Schools initiative. At the time I struggled to find a tangible definition of ECM and what form it could take in a school setting. Now, working with students, training to become professional educators I introduce ECM as a framework. It enables individuals within an educational setting to start to share ideas that are context specific and relate directly to those it affects. In order for the framework to be successful it needs to be focussed and recognise all successes, small and large.

Hearing pupils' voices: revealing the need for citizenship education within primary schools

Citizenship education (CE) is a recent innovation within the National Curriculum in England, key aspects of which have a clear relevance to the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda. Both CE and ECM strongly articulate a commitment to democratic principles and express a concern over children's perspectives being taken into account in order to help services to be built around their needs. This paper presents the findings from the primary school strand of an action research project that used a consultative approach to the implementation of CE. Through hearing their pupils' perspectives on local and global issues of concern the aim of the project was for teachers to be better informed as they sought to create engaging and enjoyable citizenship education opportunities. The central proposition of this paper is that children have valuable and often caring perspectives on their communities and the wider society in which they live. Due to the nature of the children's interest in both local and global issues and also their enthusiasm for making a difference within their communities CE within primary schools represents an excellent opportunity for fulfilling some of the key well-being objectives of the ECM agenda. In particular, the study found the potential for strong links between CE within primary schools and specific aims within the two ECM outcomes ‘making a positive contribution’ and ‘enjoying and achieving’. CE was also found to provide fresh opportunities for the overarching goal of ECM, that different agencies form partnerships and work together for the benefit of the children whose well-being and development they are ultimately seeking to serve.

Learning and caring in the age of the five outcomes

At its heart Every Child Matters: change for children endeavours to engender an ethic of ‘care for’ the client group. However, although its raison d'être might well espouse such orientations, it has a certain level of internal ambiguity which if not considered might lead education to position subsequent operationalization in ways antithetical to the underpinning Every Child Matters (ECM) ethos. Similarly, external to ECM is the OfSTED inspection, which, although having undergone reorganization, further supports a standards-driven, performative orientation for contemporary primary education. This article argues that if the holistic ideals of ECM are to be realized then all those involved in education's response to ECM must consider how they are to operate within an ethic of ‘care for’ children rather than ‘care about’ standards and associated narrow definitions of teaching.

Delivering Every Child Matters: the central role of social and emotional learning in schools

Schools are seen as having a central role to play in the Every Child Matters (ECM) effort, which many are finding somewhat challenging, an additional pressure and something of a departure from their usual role. One way forward may be to help schools make links between ECM and other activities with which they are starting to engage but with which they may not necessarily have made connections. This paper will, therefore, explore the links between the ECM agenda and efforts being made to develop work on social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools and suggest that SEL is absolutely central to the achievement of ECM and share some fundamental principles and concerns with it.

The whole child matters: the challenge of Every Child Matters for pastoral care

Pastoral care embodies the idea that schools should not limit their activities to the transmission of knowledge but should educate the whole child. This paper outlines five ‘pastoral tasks’, casework, preventive work, pastoral curriculum, community building and management, and considers how each might contribute to the five desired outcomes of Every Child Matters (ECM). Collaboration between schools and agencies, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, is stressed, and self-harm is considered as an example of the kind of challenge which ECM poses for schools. A review of pastoral care in schools in the light of ECM is advocated.