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Thursday, September 11, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
WardenHOW HOW NORDICS HAVE COME UP WITH NORDICS HAVE COME UP WITH attacked
A TRAFFIC warden was badly injured when an angry driver beat him over the head with a piece of wood. The inspector and a colleague were attacked after giving the man a parking ticket. The victims were taken to hospital where the most badly hurt, a man in his 40s, remained last night in a serious but stable condition. The other was treated for an eye injury. A 29-year-old man arrested on suspicion of GBH an hour after Tuesday’s incident in Bounds Green, North London, was being held last night.
½hr walk ‘saveslife’ WALKING for half an hour a day combats ageing and reduces the risk of early death. The British Science Festival heard it could prevent obesity and diabetes, cut the risk of some cancers and relieve depression and fatigue. Walking also reduces the chance of hip fracture by 40 per cent, slows Alzheimer’s, cuts arthritic pain by half and leads to a 23 per cent lower risk of dying young. Dr James Brown told the Birmingham crowd: “These are changes seen in people who walk for half an hour a day. That’s the message.”
CLASS ACT . . . Leena outside Helsinki’s Viikki school where, left, playing is part of learning
CHILDREN sit contentedly at neat school desks listening to a story about a bee and a cat teaching them the alphabet.
FINLAND
Population: 5.3million Average teaching wage: 30,000 euros/£23,880-a-year (starting salary) Average class size: 20 Private school attendance: Less than one per cent Primary school entry age: Seven Formal testing: None until age 16
UNITED KINGDOM
Population: 64.1million Average teaching wage: £22,853-a-year (starting salary) Average class size: 27 Private school attendance: Seven per cent Primary school entry age: Five Formal testing: Every year from age five to 16
different. We leave children to play for as long as possible. “Children in the UK start schooling so early.” Finnish children can enter pre-school aged five but formal primary schooling begins aged seven, albeit still centred around play. Save the Children revealed a quarter of British children leave primary school unable to read properly. Finland
prides itself on a 100 per cent literacy rate (compared with 99 per cent here). On average, 25 per cent of Finnish children can read basic words when they start school aged seven but most are literate by the end of the first term. Sirkku Myllyntausta teaches nine-year-olds at the Viikki School, in Helsinki. She said: “I’m given autonomy to do my work and freedom to implement my methods, so
I’m always motivated. I am my own inspector. “It means children can be free of the stigma that comes with testing.
Reading to dogs
“If they aren’t so good at one thing, we focus on how good they are at another. We take care of those who can’t read from the first day.” Sirkku explains Finland’s
library culture is at the heart of its enviable literacy levels. She said: “Children go from an early age. It’s important for them to handle books and know how to get them.” Finland has 838 libraries, including 150 buses and 15 bikes taking books to schools. In the UK, 349 libraries have closed since 2009, with local government cuts threatening to take that figure over 1,000. Finland even has 30 “reading
PENNIE: WOMAN IN COURT ‘Helped mum’s killer’
MAGICLITERACY LITERACYFORMULA FORMULA MAGIC
By SHARON HENDRY
These seven-year-olds have just begun to learn literacy yet most will be confident readers by Christmas. That is because they have been born into one of the best education systems in the world. There are no inspectors, no league tables and no exams until the age of 16. Children are not sorted into sets, everyone is educated in their local school, there is no uniform and homework, even for a 15-year-old, is set at 30 minutes a night. On day four of our Get Kids Reading campaign, The Sun travelled to Helsinki to take a closer look at the Finns’ incredible formula. Leena Krokfors, professor of teacher education at the University of Helsinki, helps shape her country’s education policy. She regularly visits UK schools and is well versed in the differences between the Finnish and British systems. She said: “One of the main differences is that in Finland we don’t have national testing for children or teachers. It gives teachers the freedom to make lessons their own. It also means children can be educated without stigma. “Our attitude to play is also
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dogs” specially trained to listen to children read aloud. Librarian Riina Paulin, of Helsinki’s Rikhardinkatu Library, explained: “Children with low reading self-esteem respond really well to the dogs, which are trained to listen to them. The children feel they have a special job reading to the dog and begin to engage with literature, as the dog doesn’t criticise them. “We even have poetry
groups for babies from one month old. Reading is seen as cool, not nerdy. Libraries are seen as fun and interesting places for children to socialise and spend time with family.” Aboard the city’s brightly coloured children’s bus library, book lover Rosa, nine, says: “I love coming to the library. “It’s fun because it’s where I meet my friends.”
The Sun Says – Page Eight
By NICK PISA
A WOMAN appeared in court yesterday in connection with the death of a mum of five who was stabbed to death in a paddock.
Pennie Davis was killed in the New Forest, Hants, while tending her horses.
Leanne Doyle appeared at Winchester crown court charged with assisting an offender and intending to pervert justice. The 24-year-old from Hythe, Hants, was bailed to reappear at the same court on October 1. A 36-year-old man arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of murder was still in custody last night. Two other men, aged 22 and 37, have been bailed. Sainsbury’s worker Pennie, 47, was found by new husband
Stabbed . . . Pennie Davis, 47 Pete at her paddock near Beaulieu on September 2. Police are investigating if she was followed from work in Blackfield to the field. Yesterday Pete, as well as Pennie’s children Sophie, 20, Alex, 19, Georga, 18, Daniel, 14, and Josef, 13, described the week since her death as “long and agonising” but said they had been “overwhelmed by support”. nick.pisa@the-sun.co.uk