Life Based Learning ™
Delivering subject content through nine life themes
Category: Featured
Children’s mental health services in crisis
A survey of 1,001 GPs across the UK who have sought urgent help for under-18s with mental health problems indicates that children’s mental health services have deteriorated over the past six years. 95% of the GPs surveyed said that mental health services for children… Continue Reading “Children’s mental health services in crisis”
Invest in music education
A leading classical musician is introducing an eye-catching initiative to widen access to music for children. The Chinese pianist, educator and philanthropist Lang Lang has announced plans to set up several ‘piano labs’ in schools, each with 20 to 30 keyboards. The first piano… Continue Reading “Invest in music education”
Embed sustainability across the curriculum
In the same week that, after a month of devastating floods, the president of South Africa declared that climate change is here and we “can no longer postpone what we need to do”, the UK Department for Education unveiled its Sustainability and Climate Change… Continue Reading “Embed sustainability across the curriculum”
Helping children lead healthy lives
Shocking new figures released by the UK Office for National Statistics are a reminder that there is a massive gap in healthy life expectancy and in overall life expectancy between the wealthiest and the poorest areas of England. For example, someone born in a… Continue Reading “Helping children lead healthy lives”
Ensuring children lead active lives
The latest Active Lives survey from Sport England, published this week, suggests that there has been a partial recovery in adult activity levels following a large drop caused by the Covid pandemic. However, more than 12 million adults are currently classed as inactive. The… Continue Reading “Ensuring children lead active lives”
Rethinking how we tackle obesity
The radical writer and activist George Monbiot wrote recently about an ‘epistemic crisis’ – ‘epistemic’ means ‘relating to knowledge’. He quoted the journalist Gabriel Gatehouse lamenting the loss of a “common frame of reference” and a “shared sense of reality”. Monbiot’s argument was that… Continue Reading “Rethinking how we tackle obesity”
Opportunities to swim
Recently published figures on life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and adult activity levels reveal stark and shocking inequalities across the nation. We have been blogging recently about the need to rethink how we tackle obesity. And however unwelcome the thought is at a time… Continue Reading “Opportunities to swim”
We need to keep children active
More evidence has been published suggesting that children are not as physically active as they need to be and that their activity levels are actually falling over time. Covid has been a factor, of course: the new University of Bristol study indicates that children… Continue Reading “We need to keep children active”
Delays on healthy eating
The UK government has been heavily criticised this week for its decision to delay implementing key elements of its obesity strategy aimed at discouraging people from buying unhealthy food and drinks. The government says that the delay is to allow time to assess the… Continue Reading “Delays on healthy eating”
Adventurous play is good for children’s mental health
Life-Based Learning has consistently championed the importance of adventurous play for children. It has many benefits, not the least of which is helping children learn to assess and manage risk. Now an academic study has demonstrated the benefits of ‘risky play’ for children’s mental… Continue Reading “Adventurous play is good for children’s mental health”