An adviser to the previous government, Sir Jim Rose published a report in 2009 calling for primary school teachers to receive training to help them identify children with dyslexia and provide the support they need. The current government has not yet commented on this proposal. 

Our son, Sam, is now 15 but when he was at primary school we noticed he had a real issue with reading – he found it difficult so would never pick up a book for pleasure. 

That all changed when he was about eight. We were told about  a publisher that specialises in books for dyslexics...many of them with boy-friendly storylines (boys generally are more reluctant readers than girls and more boys than girls are dyslexic).  

The books are printed on a light cream paper and the font used is sympathetic to dyslexics, who prefer a ‘clean’ sans serif font for ease of reading; in fact, a special font, Read Regular, has been developed for dyslexics too. The stories are good: although the language used is quite straightforward, the storylines are pacey, which means that the child isn’t patronised with a baby book but still gains confidence from reading and understanding.

The main factor that helped Sam, though, was when we heard about a company that specialises in tinted lenses for glasses – imported from Japan, where this type of treatment is well established. I was initially sceptical but we went off to see a specialist for an assessment. 

Sam sat at a desk with a large lamp shining on to the page of writing. The specialist inserted a yellow-coloured slide into the lamp which shone yellow light on to the page. For Sam, this made no difference. Green then red had the same lack of effect. But when they added a blue-tinted lens Sam was astonished. “The words aren’t wobbling any more Mum!” Of course, I hadn’t realised they ever did, but just imagine how difficult that would be if you’re trying to learn to read. I had to blink back tears.

Our next step was to visit an optician that specialises in supplying coloured-lens spectacles to dyslexics. Sam’s eyes were also tested in the usual way but the optician then used lenses with different depth of blue until the optimum shade was reached. Sam has normal eyesight, so his glasses simply had coloured glass in them. 

He wore them at school and, from a reading age that was two years behind his actual age, he progressed in a few months to a reading age that tallied with his chronological age. The glasses also seemed to have a positive effect on his Maths. About a year later, Sam felt he had no more ‘wobbling’ problems and he stopped wearing the glasses. He then became an avid reader, devouring all the books other children his age were reading - amazing what a bit of blue glass can achieve.

For further information contact the Dyslexia Action and the British Dyslexia Association.

Check out the BBC Ouch page on famous dyslexics.

Jo Lamiri is a freelance writer.

One thing’s for sure. Even if you’re feeling nervous about how your child will acquit himself, it’s crucial that your sense of impending doom isn’t transmitted to your child. Try to keep a sense of perspective, too: if they’ve revised for three evenings on the trot, let them go out on the fourth. It’s also counter-productive to expect teens to cram for hours; they are as distractible as much younger children and after about 45 minutes the brain loses its ability to retain information.

Common sense should also prevail. Breaking revision down into bite-sized chunks is vital to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Adopting a methodical approach is another essential tool – a scatter approach will leave your teen feeling that he hasn’t got a real grip on the subject.

There are, however, certain tips that seem to hold true. Revising facts – dates, formulae, vocab – just before bed is a good idea as the brain absorbs information during sleep. Getting plenty of sleep and really good nutrition goes without saying: a meal of oily fish such as mackerel or salmon just before an exam, will ensure plenty of omegas! Drinking lots of water will also facilitate the brain to be effective. If they’re sporty, encourage them to keep on playing rugby or go swimming during revision time as exercise is good for blood flow to the brain and will give them a mental rest.

Revision guides have their place too and there are good online sites such as BBC Bitesize. Find out which exam board and syllabus your school is following before buying or your teen may end learning the wrong things or becoming confused. Friends can help too: especially with languages and vocabulary,as they can test each other. You can think you know something but it’s always valuable for someone to test you. (You can reward them with pizza if they do well!)

Some teens insist on revising in front of the TV, often with their iPod plugged in at the same time. Too much extraneous noise can be a distraction but for many people, some background music  is helpful – and, after all, the world of work is rarely silent.

Another good idea is to try to work out what type of learner your child is. Many schools will run questionnaires to identify whether they’re visual, aural, verbal or kinaesthetic – or a combination. Once you know this, you can tailor revision to suit the learner. 

A visual learner will work well with colour-coded flashcards and notes stuck up around the house. Try to come up with word tricks and mnemonics to help those who don’t have a naturally good memory. Aural learners may benefit from recording facts on an audio file then playing it or you can read out information and test them. The most fun is if you have a kinaesthetic learner, as I do. She will lie on my bed with her legs straight up in the air, doing various yoga-like positions, or walking round the room. Shame she has to sit still for the exam. 

Jo Lamiri is a freelance writer.

For eleven years, our daughter Milly would rather do just about anything than cook with me at home. Maybe she saw it as drudgery or maybe she thought her food writer mother would be too hard on her. Then, just a few weeks into the autumn term at her senior school, she was proudly arriving home with squashed fairy cakes, pasta in silky cheese sauce and cheese scones. 

 

Luckily for us, this interest has extended to family meals. Tentatively, I suggested she might like to help me make a chorizo, chicken and chickpea casserole for supper one night. I read out the instructions and she chopped, sautéed and stirred... it was excellent.

And that’s the crux of it. We all need to learn how to cook so that we can feed ourselves, but with many mothers lacking knowledge too, it doesn’t bode well for home cooking in the future. Over-consumption of ready meals and processed foods will also have implications for obesity, not to mention that they cost a lot more than cooking from scratch. The last government recognised this, pledging to teach Food Technology in all secondary schools by 2011, although this may now be under review.

If your children are reluctant to cook with you or lack confidence, praise their efforts and tell them how delicious it is. Encourage them to try new ingredients and invest in cookbooks that don’t just focus on cakes and biscuits. (The Sam Stern books are great for teens – especially boys, who love to see a fellow male wielding the wooden spoon.)

In 2008, the government produced a booklet called Real Meals with 32 different meals that 11 year olds and upwards can try. You might want to suggest your child picks a recipe from here - you can download them for free from the department of education website. http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DCSF-01137-2009

In Food Technology (a friend and I refer to it as ‘being FT’d when your child announces the evening before a class that she needs to take Parmesan, fresh thyme and eggs in tomorrow) the syllabus builds slowly, taking in basic techniques at first to give the children something to build on – and developing their confidence. A good approach at home is to talk to them about what they made at school whether they liked it or not and variations on the theme: pasta sauces, pizza and risotto are all excellent for this. 

It’s also very helpful if your child masters a technique or dish that you find difficult. My own culinary bête noire is pastry – Milly’s is light and flaky, so I was quick to tell her how good it was. 

Another positive effect of Food Technology is that Milly is becoming more interested in food generally and a less fussy eater. There’s still room for choice, though. In a recent Food Technology competition, she opted to make profiteroles, with a trial run at home. An adventurous choice. The ones at home were brilliant; at school she ended up with choux scrambled eggs and her cream wouldn’t whip. Oh dear. But at least she could smile about it. 

Jo Lamiri is the editor of Delia Smith's website and a member of the Guild of Food Writers.

Sadly, it seems to be part of the pervading paranoia that there’s a Bogeyman at every street corner. Last year, a couple in South London, were criticised by their children’s school for letting them cycle to school on pavements in backstreets, via a carefully mapped-out route – a distance of one mile. The nanny state was in full bate. Although many might consider an 8 and a 5 year-old to be a bit young to walk to school on their own, parents should be allowed to make their own decisions.

But just when should you allow your child to make their own way to school? Wrap them in cotton wool and on their first day at secondary school, (when there’s quite enough to fret about) they may be a bag of nerves at the thought of making the journey alone. And, at that age, they’re far too cool to have a parent tagging along... 

The answer is largely one of common sense. If you feel your child is mature enough; if you know that they can cross roads safely (boys under 14 often lack spatial and distance awareness so are more likely to have accidents); if the journey to school is relatively short and preferably, doesn’t involve crossing roads jammed with juggernauts, then you, as a parent, should make an informed decision.

This view is borne out by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), which says “children can develop valuable life skills when they are allowed out on their own and given opportunities to experience risks and learn to cope with them. RoSPA believes that life should be as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible”.

Our local primary school organises a ‘walk to school’ week, when children are encouraged to walk or cycle rather than be driven – an initiative that Mayor of London Boris Johnson is keen to foster. The PTA also organise a walking bus led by a few parents to encourage children to walk to school. The children collect ribbons as a reward and can plot their starting point on a local map on the school gate. Sustrans offers plenty of advice on walking or cycling to school.

I remember some parents calling me to question when I allowed our then primary-age children to cycle to and from school via the local common – a distance of 1.5 miles. Taking the bus was deemed even more risky yet, because I walked them to the bus stop and saw them on to the bus, it involved nothing more than being seen across the road by a lollipop lady at the other end, then a two-minute walk. As baptisms of fire go, it was barely warm. 

The sense of responsibility and independence it gave our children is paramount. Travelling alone has also made them more streetwise: at the age of 10, our daughter got off the bus a stop early then phoned me as she’d felt uneasy about a man who sat near her. 

You will know when it's the right time for you and your child to bite the bullet. In my experience, giving children some guided independence has led them to respond with enthusiasm – learning some life lessons in the process.   

Jo Lamiri is a freelance writer.

Following a series of tragic accidents in recent years, many schools, teachers and parents are now increasingly risk averse – too worried that something may happen to one of the pupils in their charge which could mean being sued by the parents. Add in swingeing public spending cuts and it looks as though school trips – often funded at least partly by the LEA – could become a thing of the past.  The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) also weighed into the argument a few years ago, saying that teachers should have more training to help prevent accidents on school trips.

Despite this climate of fear, the Government is keen to stress the value of such trips and has even produced a booklet Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits. Ofsted chief inspector, David Bell, has said teachers had "nothing to fear" on trips if they follow the right guidelines, while the Duke of Edinburgh, who created his own scheme in 1956, has said that trips are important because they teach children about "risk and responsibility".

I was always happy to allow my children on school trips, as the benefits far outweigh any dangers. The major milestone was in Year 6, at primary school, when they went on a five-day activities course on the Isle of Wight - yet for most parents, any anxiety came from the fact that this was their child's first time away from home for more than a night or so.

I had every faith in the competence of the teachers and our school kept us up to speed on a daily basis, by reporting the day's events on the school's website, which was great fun. The sheer delight on the faces of the children when they returned - grubby and with most of their clothes unworn - was justification enough for the fun and confidence-building these trips bring.

Reluctance to take pupils off site for learning opportunities means that children miss out on stimulating, interesting and enjoyable outings to cultural landmarks and events as well as the more adventurous sporting trips. These trips are not just a day out: they can spark a lifelong love of a subject or activity – or, at the very least, put classroom learning into a wider context and make sense of the dry classroom activity by seeing it ‘in the flesh’. Who hasn’t been blown away by an enthusiastic teacher describing an Egyptian mummy in the British Museum, or found a new sense of confidence and self-worth when they finally plucked up the courage to abseil down a mountain? 

School trips were also, historically, a way for less well-off children to experience things they would otherwise not have seen, whether due to lack of parental knowledge or lack of money. A school can buy theatre tickets in bulk; schools get discounted rates on accommodation for field trips; coach hire can be subsidised by the local authority. 

Accidents involving children on school trips are, thankfully, extremely rare, so when they do happen, they’re newsworthy. In our health and safety-obsessed age, there are, unsurprisingly, plenty of rules in place: teacher-pupil ratios and first-aid training are clearly defined. Yet while it’s fair to say, that teachers are in loco parentis on that art trip to Venice or Duke of Edinburgh camping expedition in the Surrey Hills, we should also ask how many parents would know how to deal with an epileptic fit or an unconscious child who’s fallen into a river. 

Naturally, there are common sense measures that are practical and laudable: no one can argue with the fitting of seatbelts in school coaches or safety harnesses being worn when clambering up a rockface. But it’s important that we keep the risks in perspective. Ex-teacher and education journalist Phil Revell has claimed that the mortality rate is one in eight million, only slightly less than our chances of being struck by lightning. 

It would be dreadful if teachers felt that parents lacked confidence in their abilities to look after our children. Surely they go into the profession with a duty of care? Teachers can also bring out the best in a child on a trip, encouraging the quieter ones to have a go at something, or allowing the more confident children to push themselves further. They can only do this by knowing the children first in a classroom setting. So, despite the perceived  - and often unfounded – risks involved in a school trip, it really is something that should be safeguarded. 

Jo Lamiri is the editor of Delia Smith’s website and a member of the Guild of Food Writers.

The debate rumbles on, just like the stomachs of those children who jettison their mothers’ lovingly made soups and sandwiches to the nearest bin – a dinner lady at my children’s school told me that every lunchtime, bins overflow with sandwiches. Ironically, sweet stuff or crisps (banned by many schools) are devoured. 

The issue of school dinner v packed lunch usually centres on food quality. Thanks largely to Jamie Oliver, turkey twizzlers and reconstituted chicken gristle are no more, yet the expected uptake in school dinners hasn’t happened. For some, the fried stuff had a ring of cosy familiarity: as parents we all know how hard it can be to persuade little Johnny to try something new today (apparently it can take seven tastes of a new food before it is accepted).  As a result schools try to steer a middle ground, giving children what they like without taking the easy option of nuggets and chips or challenging them with anything too exotic. 

 

At my children’s school, this meant plenty of vegetables, but rarely chips or fried food and everything made on the premises, partly to ward off the child obesity epidemic that is looming in Britain. Admirable. But this is also fraught with difficulty: my children – used to veg cooked al dente – whinged about soggy veggies and gristly meat. Even with the right food choices, staff need training.  

On balance it makes sense for all children to eat a nutritious, filling, hot lunch on a winter’s day – a godsend for some families entitled to free school meals who may not be able to give their children nutritious food due to lack of money, long  working hours or poor cooking skills. But it’s a constant challenge for schools to provide quality food at low cost: in some areas, efforts are being made to support local farmers and other food producers (also reducing food miles and helping the rural economy) so that children also learn where their meat and potatoes have come from.

A packed lunch gives parents more control, can include their five a day for fruit and veg and is essential for those with food allergies. Yet peer pressure kicks in early. Seven-year-old Sophie could end up championing some brand of processed cheese over cheddar, making the supermarket shop even more fraught. Suddenly, shepherd’s pie and jam roly poly can seem positively Utopian.

At secondary school, the whole issue is less incendiary. By then, most children are less fussy and may enjoy the option of baguettes, salads or a jacket potato. And with cashless payment systems, your teenager will get used to budgeting for what they eat – good practice for life. At one school, in Barking, Essex, there’s even been an 11% rise in numbers eating school dinners, as cashless cards have removed any stigma previously attached to those entitled to a free school meal. 

Jo Lamiri is the editor of Delia Smith’s website and a member of the Guild of Food Writers.