(An item from the ISHN Member information service)  In 2013, up to $75 billion dollars was invested by the governments of 169 countries into school feeding programmes. It is estimated that for every $1 spent feeding school children, $3 are generated for the local economy. On January 22, a special meeting of global leaders in school feeding met in the UK parliament to discuss how governments are increasingly using school feeding programmes as a means to both improve educational outcomes and at the same time improve agricultural economies. The real impact that a successful HGSF programme can have was provided by keynote speaker, H.E Raul Argebesola, Governor of Osun State in Nigeria who said that since the launch of his State’s school meals programme (known as O’Meals) which feeds over 250,000 children every school day, enrolment has increased by 24%. The O’Meals programme provides employment to over 3,000 women and purchases food from over 1000 local farmers. Key resources published as part of this parliamentary event include: Rethinking school feeding executive summary, State of School Feeding Worldwide 2013 and a HGSF Working Paper Series #1
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(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A recent review published by the Sutton Trust in the UK has underlined the urgent need to re-introduce or improve the family studies/home economics education provided to students so that they have the necessary parenting skills and knowledge. In a time when an ever-increasing number of children are being raised by parents who themselves have not been parented adequately, where children are bombarded by advertising aimed at increasing their purchases, where their basic cooking skills are minimal,where young adults make poor decisions about mortgage loans because of low financial literacy, where we discard more and more consumer goods rather than repair them, there is a need to focus on the third core subject: family studies/home economics. Health/Personal-Social Development and Physical Education are important but so is this strand of basic literacy for life. 
The research has found that "   Four in 10 babies don’t develop the strong emotional bonds – what psychologists call ‘secure attachment’ – with their parents that are crucial to success later in life. Disadvantaged children are more likely to face educational and behavioural problems when they grow older as a result". The review of international studies of attachment, Baby Bonds, by Sophie Moullin (Princeton University), Professor Jane Waldfogel (Colombia University and the London School of Economics) and Dr Elizabeth Washbrook (University of Bristol), finds infants aged under three who do not form strong bonds with their mother or father are more likely to suffer from aggression, defiance and hyperactivity when they get older.  Read more>>

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A new report from the 21st Century Learning Initiative summarizes the debates about the goals of schooling and proposes a transforrmative change. The Initiaitve has been active and widespread in many countries around the world. Advocates, practitioners, policy-makers and officials who support health and social development through schools based on the development of the whole child should take the time to review this paper. It begins with this overview:"Questions about school reform are being asked with increasing frequency in many countries, especially those seeking to adapt to rapidly changing social, economic and political turmoil. A range of indicators suggest, however, that after a couple of decades of intensive effort and vast expenditure of funds the results of several English-speaking countries remain problematic.3. Given what we now know from research into human learning, it would seem that what we need is not further school reform, but a radical transformation of the education system based on the complimentaryroles of home, community and school. To guide future policy we must recognise that the present structure of British, essentially English, education (a structure that has significantly shaped education in many English-speaking countries) is a result of numerous
decisions taken in times past by policymakers as they reacted to social and economic environments very different to those of today John Abbott, the leader of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, is the author of the paper and begins with this graphic metaphor:     

"Lecturing widely around Britain, North America and Australia in the mid-1990s, I proposed a graphic metaphor: Do we want our children to grow up as battery hens or free-range chickens?" He then begins with the argument that "To develop a system that reduces the
individual’s adaptability so as to enhance a set of special skills – a battery hen-type schooling – requires a dangerous certainty about the future. If there is any doubt about the kind of world our children will inherit, then a free-range approach that encourages adaptability and creativity is not only desirable but essential." Abbot offers another metaphor. "Another way of challenging ourselves to think about what we are doing, is to ask whether we see children as pilgrims or customers. Pilgrim or customer? Creators of their own material and eternaldestiny, or consumers of a range of goods and services as defined by someone else? Thinkers able to take responsibility for their own actions, and willing to accept responsibility for working for the common good, or someone who, in their frustration that nothing so far pulled off the shelves of a supermarket quite suits their tastes, searches for yet another perfect brand? Quoting John Milton, Abbot and the Initiative call for a "A complete and generous education"   Read more>>

(From the UCLA School Mental Health Center) One of the themes being developed in our discussions is how to integrate health and social programs within education systems. A recent report from the US-based Child Trends organization has described how an integrated set of student services is how the health, social services, mental health and other sectors can and should contribute to student success. If these various services can cooperate and deliver such support in a concerted manner, it would assure educators of their ongoing commitment to working with and within schools. A summary of the Child Trend report and the full research review are available from Child trends. These documents define ISS “representing an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students’ academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless system of wraparound supports for the child, the family, and schools, to target student’s academic and non-academic barriers to learning." That report focuses on nine programs:Beacon Initiative, Children’s Aid Society Community Schools, City Connects, Comer School Development Program, Communities In Schools, CoZi Initiative, Say Yes to Education, School of the 21st Century and University‑Assisted Community Schools.. However, the UCLA Center on School Mental Health, a long-time advocate for comprehensive approaches to removing barriers to learning, strongly suggests that integrated student supports (ISS) alone "do not effectively address the fundamental policy and practice concerns about the consequences of pursuing the limited approach that the concept of integrated student supports engenders with respect to enhancing equity of opportunity for students to succeed at school and beyond". The UCLA analysis suggests that "the Child Trends report "doesn’t consider the implications of the fact that in most schools student support is primarily provided by school and district-based student support personnel (e.g., school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, school dropout/graduation support, special educators, and many more school personnel who play a role in prevention, early intervention, and treatment of students with severe and chronic problems. The UCLA "emphasis continues to be on moving toward policy and practice for addressing a wide range barriers to student development and learning and to teachers teaching. Making this a reality involves much more than integrating already over-committed community services into schools. It requires transforming the role schools play and weaving together the broadest range of school and community resources for enhancing student and learning supports. In other words, the support services that must be provided by other agencies, which are vital as a long term commitment from those sectors, must be fully integrated within the goals and priorities of the school systems. Further, school systems must be committed to ensuring that all children are well-served by their schooling.