Working Together for Childhood
The Alliance for Childhood serves as a network that facilitates reflection and action by people with concerns about the care and education of children. It is not a conventional organisation, but an expression of a willingness to work together for the betterment of the experience of childhood. It exists in the shared work and spirit of cooperation whereby all partners can find mutual support. It is a collaborative approach that is created by commitment and by the activity itself.
Alliance for Childhood Newsletter No 4
Available here
The Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Wellbeing
Report of an Independent Assessment
For the Department for Children, Schools and Families
and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
An independent report on commercialisation aimed at children has just been published. Read it here.
Children’s Food Campaign
Product placement of junk food?
The Children’s Food Campaign is not alone in being alarmed by the recent announcement by Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Ben Bradshaw to lift the ban on product placement on British made TV shows . If this ban is reversed the result could be junk food brands appearing in programmes popular with children such as Britains’s Got Talent and Coronation Street.
PLAYDAY
2010 CAMPAIGN THEME
What do you think the issues are around children's play?
Consultation on next year's theme is currently underway. Tell us what you think the Playday 2010 campaign theme should be.
Extended interview with Susan Greenfield
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 19/03/2009
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield, an eminent brain expert who commands enormous respect in her field has sounded a cautionary note about the screen culture of the computer age that she says may be changing our brains, in ways that could have a serious impact on personality and behaviour. Professor Susan Greenfield speaks with Kerry O'Brien from Adelaide. Transcript and video
Sally Goddard Blythe on Physical interaction and social engagement - essential ingredients for learning
Sally Goddard Blythe has recorded a 1 hour tele-seminar with Pinky McKay a former editor of 'First Steps' magazine in Australia. You can listen to it. Either replay or download to MP3 player
New publication
Childhood, Well-being and a Therapeutic Ethos
Edited by Dr Richard House and Professor Del Loewenthal
University of Roehampton Centre for Therapeutic Education
From Press Release:
A new book calls for a greater focus on the experience of childhood, and a step away from scientific and technical imperatives, in a bid to capture a higher quality childhood and thereby to lessen the current young generation’s’ need for adult therapy in the future.
Childhood, Well-being and a Therapeutic Ethos follows widespread debate surrounding the issue of ‘toxic childhood’, questioning current policy and practice and its impact on the welfare of children.
Edited by Dr Richard House and Professor Del Loewenthal from the University’s Centre for Therapeutic Education, the collection of essays explores the need for an approach to forming policy that is informed by therapeutic values, if we as a society are to enhance children’s well-being.
Contributors include: Oliver James, Sue Gerhardt, Sue Palmer and Christopher Clouder
Full Press release Book Contents
Foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams
Quote of the month
Greener neighbourhoods may help to reduce child obesity. In December 2008 the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published the results of a two-year study that followed 3,800 inner-city children; researchers found that trees and other vegetation were associated with slower increases in children’s body mass
Richard Louv Author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder