Year 5 & 6 girls needed for Harlesden Chasers FC trials during half-term

Brent's child obesity crisis worsens - nearly 1 in 3 obese on leaving primary school

A report to the Brent Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee lays out the stark facts. Graphs show the annual trend since 2013 (click on images to enlarge):

The most significant trend is the proportion of Year 6 children who are obese as they make the transition to secondary school. The figures are well above the London and England averages and the latest figure at 28.6% compares with 24.63% in 2013.

4 and 5 year olds in Reception classes have a lower level of overweight and obese children but there the proportion of overweight children has peaked at 14.8% (13.06% in 2013) and the proportion of obese children is almost back to 2013 levels at 13.8% (13.97%) despite a dip in the interim.

The report looks at the relationship between deprivation and obesity and found only a weak link in ward data:

Analysis by ethnic group shows the highest overweight and obese group is the Black group but the Asian increase in obesity rates from Reception to Year 6 is also worth noting.

The report LINK lists initiatives already underway to tackle the problem including promotion of breast feeding, adoption of Maternity Early Childhood Sustained Home Visiting model, the Healthy Early Years Award introduced in 2012, Health Schools London award, Action on Sugar (includes sugar free Tuesdays), Allotment and Food growing Strategy, promotion of physical activity and action on takeaways near schools.

All this hasn't reduced child obesity although there is a slight reduction for 2016-17 in Year 6 overweight children. Clearly more needs to be done to tackle what is an urgent public health issue.

The report outlines what is proposed by the Brent Clinical Commissioning Group:

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The proposed Service Delivery Improvement Plan would be:

1)  Review food provided by the Trust in line with guidance on reducing obesity 
and health weight by end of Quarter 1 (30 Jun 2018); 


2)  Develop a local action plan to promote healthier options by end of Quarter 2 
(30 Sep’18), and monitor in Quarter 3 (Oct-Dec 2018) and Quarter 4 (Jan-Mar 
2019); 


3)  Develop a plan for front-line staff to have ‘Make Every Contact Count’ training 
about reducing childhood obesity and local weight management services by end of Quarter 2 (30 Sep 2018), and monitor in Q4 (Jan-Mar 2019); 


         4) Identify conditions where obesity is a risk factor (e.g.CHD, dementia,  diabetes), ensure family members are aware of ways to reduce their risks by being healthy weight, and ensure the family knows how to access weight management support, in Q3 (1 Oct 2018) onwards.

The treatment of childhood obesity

 The new 0-19 children’s public health service includes tier 1 and 2 weight management service. This is a preventive universal service with additional lifestyle weight management services for those children, and their families, who are overweight or obese. This is a new service within health visiting and school nursing and mobilisation has been delayed by difficulties recruiting to the new team. However, the full establishment has now been appointed. 


The CCG commissions tier 3 services for those children who require specialist paediatrician or dietician clinical assessment and advice. A very small number of children will require drug treatment or surgery. 


 The CCG and public heath secured funding from Health Education England which was used to provide tier 1 weight management training to front line staff working with children in Brent. 173 people have attended this training which should ensure a consistent high quality offer across the Borough. 


SATS plunge is not children's or teachers' failure - it is the Government's responsibility

Nicky Morgan cried crocodile tears this morning over children losing a day's education because of the NUT strike.  What the SATs results proved, when they were released this morning, is that she has wasted a whole year of thousands of children's education in which teachers have had to sacrifice real learning to 'teaching for the test'.  Tests which are based on a hastily and poorly revised curriculum with no evidence base, lambasted by expert educationalists and far too difficult for the majority of children.

With local reports of reading results down as much as 30% it is no wonder that Morgan quickly moved to say that the results were not comparable to last year.  She had to escape blame for the sudden drop in pupils' performance and instead congratulate herself and the government on their 'higher expectations'.

On top of the stress children and teachers suffered in the Gradgrind weeks before the tests and the stress of the tests themselves which saw many children reduced to tears, I now hear of children feeling deeply distressed and despondent because they 'haven't reached the required level' - some have gone weeping to their headteachers seeking comfort.

Eleven year olds seeing themselves as failures was something that happened in my childhood as a result of the 11+ examination - now Morgan and the Tories have introduced it to a new generation. That sense of failure can carry on throughout life.

At the same time Year 6 teachers and teaching assistants, headteachers and deputies, will also be feeling that they have somehow failed - although they know the demands were unrealistic, the preparation time inadequate, and the educational justification for the tests non-existent.

Worse some will be feeling guilty about the pressure they exerted on children in order to try and get them through the tests, knowing that it was unreasonable and unjustifiable in terms of their own professional integrity. They will feel that they colluded in something that damaged children even though they tried their hardest to protect them.

Then there are the parents left trying to comfort their child, persuade them that there is more to life that SATs, and perhaps worrying that somehow their child is just not capable of making the grade.

Today's strike was officially about funding, pay and conditions, and workload. Teachers cannot legally strike about the curriculum or the heartless ill treatment of children, but that was clearly a concern demonstrated in the many placards carried by the marchers today.

The long-term impact of Morgan and Gove's education policies will take years to emerge but I am right behind teachers, headteachers, governors and parents who are working together to ensure that the next cohort of pupils will not have to go through a process that amounts to mental cruelty.

Now is is time in the last weeks of term to pick up the pieces and rebuild children's confidence so that they do not start secondary school with low self-esteem and an expectation of further failure.

Government moves goal posts to force more primary academies

David Laws today increases the primary floor target in KS2 SATS English and Maths for 2014 from 60% to 65% of Year 6 pupils achieving Level 4.  Failure to meet these targets will result in the schools being forced to become sponsored academies.

Moving the goal posts in this way will be another step in the Coalition's aim of increasing the number of schools converting to academy status to meet their aim of making academies 'the norm'.

476 primary schools are below the current floor target of 60% but this increases to  866 with the 65% target.

The Coalition argue that this number will reduce as schools 'up their game' but this will of course lead to more stress for children, teachers and headteachers and a narrow test-centred curriculum  for pupils in their last year of primary school.

Some commentators also expect that the policy may lead to some schools 'voluntarily' converting  to academy status, choosing their own sponsor, rather than face the risk of having one imposed on them at a later date. There is an added incentive for headteachers because they are usually removed by the sponsor when a school is forced to become an academy.

Clearly Gove is taking no notice of the current resistance to forced academies and is tightening the screw  on schools. He is hoping that under the guise of raising standards and making children 'secondary school ready' he will be able to escalate the privatisation of the school system.

In turn we must up our resistance  with a united campaign of teachers, governors and parents to the forced academy strategy.