Schools In Hampshire Research Articles

‘It does happen here’

In predominantly white and affluent communities, it is a common belief that race and racism are irrelevant because there is little to no racial diversity in these communities. Elyse Hambacher and Denise Desrosiers describe how a New Hampshire school district in a mostly white community navigates teaching and leading for social justice despite divisive concepts legislation and acrimonious debates about racism and other forms of injustice. They offer four practices the district employs to continue to promote inclusivity and social justice in contentious times.

T‐tapping in Standard Southern British English: An ‘elite’ sociolinguistic variant?

AbstractSocial class is one of the key axes of sociolinguistic variation, but the speech of those at the top of the class spectrum—the elite—is rarely studied. While T‐glottalling has spread widely across British English accents, a competing variant—T‐tapping—has attracted little scholarly attention in the United Kingdom. This article presents a study of elite speech by examining sociolinguistic variation in T‐tapping among adolescent speakers of Standard Southern British English. Data were collected from interviews with teenagers aged 16–19 at two schools in Hampshire, UK. T‐tapping is led by those who previously attended private school and is used more by boys than girls in formal speech. The findings suggest that T‐tapping may be used to index a combination of authority and informality, which is invoked by elite speakers to assert themselves from a position of privilege while maintaining an image of openness and approachability.

Exploring the Role of Positive Leadership for Mobilizing Innovative Practices: A Social Network Approach

An emerging body of literature suggests the importance of positive leadership for school and district improvement (e.g., Cherkowski, 2018; Louis & Murphy, 2018). A number of lines of evidence have converged upon how positive leadership principles can influence behavioral outcomes (e.g., collaboration among school staff), attitudinal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction), leader-related outcomes (e.g., trust for leadership), and performance outcomes (e.g., collective efficacy), as well as a wide variety of moderating and mediating variables for these outcomes (Murphy & Louis, 2018). At present, there is little evidence about the role of positive leadership in relation to the mobilization of innovative teaching and learning practices, particularly practices that advance well-being and positive mental health for students and teachers. This article reports on a study that examined the associations between school staff perceptions of positive school leadership, their behaviors related to innovative practices, and their connections to other staff within a multi-school network. The question guiding our work was, "How do school staff perceptions of positive leadership alongside information about their school roles and social connections influence the potential for mobilizing innovative practices?" A cross-sectional survey methodolog y combining traditional and social network data collection methods (Carolan, 2014; Groves et al., 2009) was employed to generate an understanding of the interconnectedness of relational patterns within schools, perceptions of positive leadership, and individual efforts toward innovation. The case for this study was a federation comprising three infant schools in Hampshire, England. In total, 31 teaching staff completed the survey: a response rate of 84%. Our analysis suggests that well-being and positive mental health leadership roles are important not only for mobilizing advice about teaching practices and classroom management, but also in galvanizing the expressive social networks that promote self-governance in school staff. Furthermore, expert uses of innovative practices related to well-being appear to be concentrated on the staff holding well-being leadership positions. Although it is intuitively beneficial to have this concentration of expertise in individuals explicitly charged to promote and support well-being, comparisons between the instrumental and expressive networks suggest that some school staff were not strongly influenced by these leaders. We view this finding as reflecting the importance of paying attention to how practices are mobilized throughout school networks. Against the backdrop of positive leadership, mobilizing practices requires that leaders have an authentic understanding of their staff, an attentiveness to their needs, and an ability to attune their behaviors to those needs.

Left Behind by Policy: A Case Study of the Influence of High Stakes Accountability Policy on Data-Based Decision Making in One Small, Rural New Hampshire School

The high-stakes accountability policies that stemmed from NCLB and Race to the Top required minimum group sizes in order for school performance to be analyzed through state accountability formulas. Small rural schools have frequently been left out of this equation due to a lack of consistently reportable aggregate groups and sub-groups. The evidence of this has been seen through the lack of needed data-based decision making (DBDM) practices. In order to begin to understand the DBDM practices of small rural schools and the relationship to educational policy we engaged in case study research of a Pk-12 school of 100 students from 2014-2015. The school, located in New Hampshire, provided us with insights into the potential gaps that exist between policy and practice in small rural schools. In addition, questions of educational equity began to emerge as we considered the gaps between student achievement data and the professional development of educators.

Temporary rules in place for N.H. Medicaid to Schools expansion

New Hampshire schools can now start getting federal money to provide mental health counseling, speech therapy and other services to more students, The Associated Press reported Sept. 1. In the past, the Medicaid to Schools program applied only to students with Individual Education Plans. But after the federal government revised its guidance, lawmakers expanded the program last year to cover any Medicaid‐eligible student with medical needs. The bill required the state Department of Health and Human Services to start working on the changes by Sept. 1, 2017. Parents and advocates expressed frustration in late July that the expansion hadn't been implemented. A few weeks later, Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers said temporary rules are now in place that will allow schools to begin billing early in the 2018–19 school year. “The expanded program will allow school districts to better support children and their families by enabling the districts to be reimbursed for providing medically necessary services to all Medicaid‐eligible students,” said Becky Whitley, policy coordinator for the Children's Behavioral Health Collaborative.

Proposal to boost pupil behaviour

A Hampshire school's inclusion unit may provide a blueprint for addressing behavioural problems of pupils

Handbook of Children's Rights: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Book Reviews 184 Handbook of Children’s Rights: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives Martin Ruck, Michele Peterson-Badali, and Michael Freeman, editors (2017). New York: Routledge, 618 pages. ISBN: 978-1-84872-478-5 (hardback); ISBN: 978-1-84872-479-2 (paperback); ISBN: 978-1-315-76630-0 (ebook) At the beginning of this review, I need to disclose that, with my colleague Willem van Vliet—, I authored a chapter in this latest edition of the Handbook of Children’s Rights. It represents, however, only 17 out of this volume’s 618 pages, so that I was largely able to review this book with the eyes of a new reader. When I received my copy of the book and began to read other chapters, I realized that many of them are relevant to readers of Children, Youth and Environments who already apply a rights perspective in their work, as well as readers with a general interest in knowing how the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to the environmental dimension of children’s lives. I am writing this review with an emphasis on these chapters. For readers who want to ground their work historically, there is a fine opening chapter on “The History of Children’s Rights” by Peter Stearns that traces evolving ideas about human rights, their extension to children in the nineteenth century, and the development of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by the United Nations in 1989, with a few provisions added since that date. The Convention defines “children” as people under the age of 18, thus covering the periods of infancy through adolescence. Today, the United States is the only member state of the United Nations that has not ratified the Convention, but this does not prevent child advocacy organizations, schools, local governments and other groups in U.S. civil society from committing to child rights principles. In other countries, civil society organizations have an obligation to honor children’s rights in their practice. Other basic chapters include “The Convention on the Rights of the Child After 25 Years” by Ursula Kilkelly, “Children’s Rights and Well-Being” by Asher Ben-Arieh and Noam Tarshish, “Children’s Voices about Children’s Rights” by Martin Ruck and others, and perspectives on children’s rights from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, economics, and neurodevelopment. Authors include many leading names in these fields. Several chapters on children’s rights in different settings of their lives have implications for the physical provision of spaces for children. “Health and Children’s Rights” by Priscilla Alderson covers not only hospitals and other healthcare settings but also children’s rights to safety and protection from violence, pollution and other environmental risks. “Implementing Children’s Rights in Schools” by Katherine Covell, Brian Howe, and Anne McGillivray shares results from a longitudinal evaluation that covers nearly a decade of the Rights, Respect and Responsibility initiative in schools in Hampshire, England that gives students a democratic voice in all school practices. Although most practices involve school rules, codes of conduct, curricula, and classroom functioning, the initiative extends to the physical Book Reviews 185 environment such as decisions about school renovations. Outcomes include notable improvements in student motivation and behavior, student attendance, teacher satisfaction, and student scores on standardized tests, with the most disadvantaged children making the greatest gains. “Children’s Education Rights: Global Perspectives” by Laura Lundy, Karen Orr and Harry Shier makes the case for accessible, safe and well-provisioned schools. “Children’s Right to Play” by Stuart Lester advocates a radical revision of the way adults think about play, space, and rights, given that wherever children are is where they play, whether it is a designated “play space” or not. Lester stops short of sharing specific ideas about how the design of mundane city spaces, such as a bus stop, could accommodate children’s inherent playfulness, but he invites readers to re-imagine spaces from this perspective. Although I am sympathetic to his argument, as a design researcher I need to note that James Gibson’s concept of “affordances,” and later work by ecological psychologists such as Edward Reed about how affordances are...

Drug Product Life-Cycle Management as Anticompetitive Behavior: The Case of Memantine.

No outside funding supported this research. To support his work at PORTAL in the summer of 2015, Capati was the recipient of the University of New Hampshire School of Law Rudman Center Public Service Fellowship. Kesselheim's research was supported by Greenwall Faculty Scholars program, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science. In 2013, Kesselheim served as an expert on behalf of a class of individual plaintiffs against Warner Chilcott regarding potential antitrust violations Kesselheim was responsible for concept and design of this commentary. Capati took the lead in data collection and analysis, along with Kesselheim. Capati wrote the manuscript, which was revised by primarily by Kesselheim, along with Capati.

£2.5m funding boost for Hampshire school nursing service

£2.5m funding boost for Hampshire school nursing service

Learning through research

We hear from Jean Filtness, headteacher of Mengham Junior School in Hampshire, and Dr Neil Saunders, an education researcher, about their year-long project to implement an action research approach to leadership learning at the school

Engagement with the National Healthy Schools Programme is associated with higher fruit and vegetable consumption in primary school children

Improving children's diets is currently a government focus. However, fruit and vegetable consumption, a key target, is still far below the government guidelines of five portions per day. The present study aimed to assess the impact of engagement with the National Healthy Schools Programme (NHSP) on fruit and vegetable consumption in a sample of primary school children. A sample of 511 children, aged 7-9 years, who were attending 10 randomly selected schools in Hampshire, completed the Day in the Life Questionnaire, a validated 24-h recall method of dietary assessment. Fruit and vegetable intake in pupils attending schools engaged with the NHSP was compared with that of pupils attending schools not engaged with the programme. Children attending schools engaged with the NHSP ate a median of two (interquartile range, 0-8.0) portions of fruit and vegetables, compared to one portion (interquartile range, 0-8.0) consumed by pupils attending a school not engaged with the programme (P=0.001). Gender was also a significant predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption, with girls being 1.68 times more likely to consume 2.5 or more portions of fruit and vegetables. After adjustment for free school meal eligibility (as a measure of socio-economic status) and gender, pupils attending schools engaged with NHSP were twice as likely to eat 2.5 portions of fruit and vegetables or more per day. Engagement with the NHSP may be an effective way of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in primary school children. Further evaluation of the programme is recommended to determine which aspects of the NHSP are successful in achieving this.

An inspirational year

When Tom Donohoe, headteacher of Anton Junior School in Hampshire, came up with the idea of raising funds for a new music, dance and drama room, people said he was mad. Eighteen months on and they have smashed their target of £150,000.

Implementing children’s human rights education in schools

Evaluations of a children’s rights education initiative in schools in Hampshire, England — consistent with previous research findings — demonstrate the effectiveness of a framework of rights for school policy, practice, and teaching, for promoting rights-respecting attitudes and behaviors among children, and for improving the school ethos. The value of rights-consistent schooling is seen not only in its contemporaneous benefits on children, but also in its capacity to have a long-term effect on the promotion and maintenance of a rights-supporting culture. To this end, we provide data on how Hampshire educators were able to successfully implement their program. We examine schools that were very successful in incorporating children’s rights across the curriculum and throughout all school policies and practices, and compare their implementation efforts and experiences with schools that were less successful. By identifying the key variables that differentiate success, we aim to facilitate the implementation of rights-consistent schooling.

Early initiation of tobacco use in adolescent girls: key sociostructural influences

Background An important developmental task during adolescence is ego development. Millions of adolescents choose to initiate cigarette smoking at a young age as a result of transitional conflicts during this phase of normal developmental progression. Unfortunately, the decision to use tobacco compromises both the short- and long-term health status of smokers as well as the health of those around them. Objective It was hypothesized that in early adolescence, girls choose to begin smoking cigarettes as a result of sociostructural influences, including media, peers, and family. The purpose of this study was to investigate what modifiable sociostructural variables will decrease the risk of initiating cigarette smoking before the age of 12 years among adolescent girls. The aim of the study was to develop a risk reduction model that increases the likelihood of healthy behavior choices in girls during early adolescence. Method Data collected for the New Hampshire Teen Assessment Project survey were used for this secondary data analysis. The original study included a multicommunity sample of 7,648 students from eight school districts enrolled in New Hampshire schools between January 2000 and October 2001. This current analysis focused only on the health behavior of the adolescent girls enrolled in the larger study ( n = 3,775). With the use of a socioecological theoretical framework as a guide, this secondary data analysis first identified correlates of the early initiation of tobacco use using Pearson's correlations. Then, the data were explored for variables that decreased the relative risk for the early initiation of cigarette smoking among adolescent girls. The dependent variable of interest (i.e., early initiation of tobacco use) referred to girls who reported having smoked their first cigarette at or before the age of 12 years. Twenty-eight percent of the sample had initiated tobacco use before they were 12 years old. Multiple logistic regression was used to predict the final risk reduction model. Results The first level of analysis confirmed previously reported evidence that there is a correlation between adolescent girls' initiation of smoking early ( n = 1,047) and their engagement in other health risk behaviors such as daily use of alcohol ( n = 859), daily use of marijuana (93%), and engaging in unprotected intercourse (15%). Next, logistic regression was used to predict a risk reduction model that demonstrated the importance of community, family, and school variables in decreasing the relative risk for the early initiation of tobacco use. Those sociostructural variables that decrease the relative risk for the initiation of tobacco use were noted in the following: (1) 71% of the girls who feel that it is important to contribute to their community (odds ratio [OR] = 1.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.31–2.23) are less likely to initiate tobacco use and (2) 54% of the girls are more likely to feel that their community is a good place to live in (OR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.20–1.97), are more than twice as likely to have parents who think smoking is wrong (OR = 2.09, 95% CI = 1.77–2.48), are 9% more likely to have parents whom they can talk to when they have personal problems (OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.02–1.17), and are 38% more likely to enjoy school. Discussion The findings of this study may be an important portal for prevention intervention in the area of early adolescent tobacco use. A risk reduction model is presented based on the theory that both the environment and modeling play an important role in the development of health behavior.

Ruth Annette Janie Willatt (née Evershed)

Ruth Annette Janie Willatt (nee Evershed) was born in South Bersted, West Sussex, on 14 June 1915 and died 27 March 2009, aged 93. She was a highly gifted schoolgirl...

Understanding School-Age Obesity

This study aimed to assess current levels of overweight (obesity) and fitness among school students using objective data. School-based action research teams were recruited statewide by the New Hampshire Healthy Schools Coalition, the state team of the National Action for Healthy Kids Coalition. Action teams consisted of a physical education teacher, a school nurse, and a school administrator. Data were collected from 6,511 student participants aged 6 to 14 years, which was a representative cross-section from New Hampshire school districts. Key variables of interest in the study were body mass index, and ability to pass five fitness tests using FITNESSGRAM. Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationships among body mass index, age, gender, and the percent of students that passed FITNESSGRAM tests. The ability of participants to pass the FITNESSGRAM tests declined markedly with age and differed between boys and girls, although the healthy fitness zones for any particular test was lower for girls. Body mass index was significantly negatively correlated with performance on all tests. Age was also statistically negatively correlated with performance on all tests; the relationship between gender and performance on the tests was less striking. Results reflected an increase in the prevalence of overweight school children, even in New Hampshire, which is purported to be one of the healthiest states in the nation. Results offered evidence that body mass index is a valid proxy measure for fitness levels and that fitness programs are necessary to effectively combat the obesity epidemic. Evidence-based changes need to be implemented to address obesity-related factors in schools, because children spend many of their waking hours in that setting. Physical activity during recess and physical education classes could help to increase energy expenditure and develop sound minds and bodies. Schools should consider the development of school-based wellness teams to advise and advocate improved school-based wellness policies. School nurses can take an active part in these initiatives.

Helping Children Thrive at School: The Effectiveness of Nurture Groups

This paper describes a nurture group pilot project that took place in three schools in Hampshire. Results suggested that children in the nurture groups made significant social and emotional gains after attending a group. These gains were recognised by the children themselves and their parents. They were also generalised into the classroom. Teachers at the end of the pilot project felt more empowered to meet the needs of children presenting with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. This paper concludes by identifying factors which contribute to the success of nurture groups and highlights future research issues.

Young people's demand for countryside recreation: A function of supply, tastes and preferences?

This paper examines the influences on young people's demand for countryside recreation. Although there is information in the public domain concerning the recreational patterns and motivations of adults, there is relatively little data concerning young people's participation and none of it is countryside specific. This is a significant gap in the knowledge base of countryside recreation planners, particularly when it is considered that recreation patterns in adults are often strongly influenced by childhood experience. The methodology employed by this study was to survey 1,079 young people in secondary schools in Hampshire concerning their use of, latent demand for and attitudes towards the countryside. The study found that demand was closely linked to supply, meaning that if there were accessible countryside facilities close by then young people would tend to use them, regardless of their socio-economic background. The study also found that demand for countryside recreation is strongly influenced by tastes and preferences and the availability of alternative forms of recreation. The paper concludes that in order to increase demand amongst young people, interventions need to be aimed at altering and developing the tastes and preferences of young people. Interventions designed to encourage young people to place a higher value on countryside recreation are more likely to be successful than simply removing unsubstantiated ‘barriers’ to participation.

Science and the humanities: the case for state humanities councils

Science and the humanities: the case for state humanities councils

Developing provision for visually impaired young people in Hampshire schools

The question of where to locate the resources required to meet low incidence special educational needs has challenged many LEAs over the years. This account, from Robin Thomas and Alec Gillies, of a ‘new build’ primary school in Hampshire, shows how this question is addressed in one LEA inrelation to the development of provision for visually impaired (VI) children and young people. Readers will be interested in the practical detail provided, including the approximate costs of such an initiative.