Editorial

This is a new project that will be launched on 2 November 2006, aimed at bringing together social work practitioners in children’s services and academics to review new and earlier literature on the subject of children. The idea came about from work with students undertaking the MA Child Care Studies and the Post-Qualifying Child Care … Read more

Religious faiths have been in the news a lot recently. There was the teaching assistant dismissed for wearing a veil. There has been the attempt by the Government to insist that a quarter of the intake of state-funded faith-based schools should be pupils of other faiths. And there is the ever-present unease that the wars … Read more

A mixture of news items, future events, sales pitches, comments and whimsies, including a pilot programme for changed hours at school, colic and crying babies, predicting problems, prequels, priests, the Pope and products being pushed. Conventions and Change It is reported that a pilot programme has been set up at Bridgemary Community Sports College, which … Read more

January 2002 This was a packed issue, with some good articles which we might come back to another time, but the key contribution was an appreciation of the life of Christopher Beedell, Teacher and Thinker. He was an outstanding teacher of residential child care who influenced a wide circle of students and colleagues. There were … Read more

Having been working in or around child care for over forty years now, one of the key lessons we have learnt is how little people learn from the past mistakes of others. It is quite extraordinary the way that Ministers introduce rafts of new legislation, strategies, policies, methods of work and pilot schemes without first … Read more

Keats may have thought of autumn as a season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, but that’s not what’s at the top of the minds of millions of school children and students. Autumn is the time when they go back to school or college to get on with studying, the time when holidays are over, when … Read more

October 2001 There are some events which shape world history, giving people a new perspective on things. The October issue of the Webmag in 2001 reflected the tragedies of 9/11. Here was a cycle of events covering only a few hours, but which has influenced Government policies, security measures and a host of other things … Read more

A mixture of news items, future events, sales pitches, comments and whimsies, including ACAL, smacking, teenage pregnancies, reporting on Ofsted, shoes, brains, obesity and tennis. Smacking Children Are Unbeatable has been carrying out another campaign to keep their aim of obliterating smacking in the forefront of MPs’ minds. This time it’s been an Early Day … Read more

When looking at articles published some time ago, it is interesting to see what has changed and what stays the same. In July 2001, Terry Hoon was looking at the impact of the release of the two young men who, as boys, had murdered Jamie Bolger. According to the Sunday Times Supplement on 23 July, … Read more

A mixture of news items, future events, sales pitches, comments and whimsies, including risk, childhood, the Child Support Agency, child protection, useful websites, staff needs v. children’s needs and patterns of schooling. Theme 1 Sometimes we have had a theme for the month in the Webmag. Sometimes regular contributors cover the same subject without any … Read more

I think it was Martin Broken Leg who popularised the native American saying that bringing up a child is too important a matter to be left to the parents; it is a matter for the whole tribe. When one hears it said for the first time, it can hit one as a blindingly obvious truth, … Read more

Here we go again. The Home Secretary has sent his Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, to America to see what the impact of Megan’s Law has been. The law related to circulating information about paedophiles to their neighbourhoods so that parents could be aware of the threat they might pose. Care will need to be taken, … Read more