Measuring teenagers' happiness in England...

More friends and emotional security - how northern children in England top the happiness league

Polly Curtis, education editor

theguardian

Thursday 8 January 2009

(The text has been slightly modified)

1. Teenagers in the north of England are emotionally more secure ("happy") than those anywhere else in the country and are the most likely to report that they have more than one best friend by the age of 15, according to a major study of children's happiness that lays to rest the adage that life is grim up north.
2. Teenagers in Knowsley, Merseyside - one of the most disadvantaged areas of the country - scored highest in the friendship ratings published yesterday by Ofsted and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, while those in leafy Richmond, in south-west London, reported the lowest levels of emotional wellbeing.
3. The findings suggest that perceptions of London teenagers' lives as blighted by drug abuse are also misplaced. London boroughs consistently scored the lowest for drug and alcohol use among English teenagers, but a problem of substance misuse by young people in suburbs and poor rural areas was revealed.
4. The study gives every local authority in England a score on five measures: the emotional health ("happiness") of children (how many friends they have, and how much they feel able to talk to them about problems); levels of bullying; participation in sports and volunteering; substance misuse; and ease of access to parks and play areas.
5. The scores are based on responses from 150,000 children who took part in an annual survey conducted by Ofsted, called Tellus. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said local authority chiefs had been told to set themselves targets to improve children's lives by next year, taking into account the findings of the study.
6. Children in Knowsley, which consistently sits at the bottom of league tables for educational results and health, report having stronger relationships than anywhere else in the country. Halton in Cheshire, Lancashire, Liverpool, Kirklees in West Yorkshire and Hull also score highly.
7. Inner London authorities, by comparison, score consistently below the national average, suggesting that the alienation associated with life in a big city could be setting in early. London teenagers, however, benefit from having the best access to play areas, parks and other activities.
8. Inner-London teenagers are the least likely in the country to take drugs and drink alcohol, according to Ofsted. The score, derived from children's responses to questions on how often they had used drugs or drunk alcohol, showed inner London scored an average of 6.1, compared with 10.9 nationally.
9. Children in leafy London suburbs are more likely to take drugs and drink than those in inner city boroughs, it found.
10. Reported levels of bullying are highest in the south-east and south-west. The Isle of Wight has the highest score for bullying, while Knowsley and Liverpool score lowest.
11. Anne Longfield, chief executive of the children's charity 4Children, said: "You have some more affluent areas where drug problems are an issue because young people don't have material disadvantage but don't see their parents much and have a disposable income. Drugs are likely to be much more a problem for them. Parents who move their children from urban environments, where there is bad news in the headlines, to what are seen to be safer areas, often find their children confronted with other problems. Bullying continues wherever children are. It's not limited to urban areas, and drug abuse also happens in areas with more affluence and fewer things to do."
12. In Haringey, north London, where there has been intense scrutiny of children's services since the death of Baby P at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend, despite having been seen many times by social and health workers, children's happiness was rated among the lowest in the country. But the borough was found to be well below the national average for bullying and children were more likely to take part in "positive" activities such as volunteering or sports.
13. The scores were published yesterday along with suggested new targets for local authorities to reach over the next year to improve services for children. Local authorities that score badly on bullying, for example, are expected to launch new programmes in schools to tackle it.
14. The scheme is part of a government shift away from measuring the effectiveness of policies for children only in terms of their educational results to take into account new measures of happiness.
15. The government is consulting on plans to rate every school on a range of happiness indicators, including measures such as teenage pregnancies. The plan has proved controversial with teachers, who say they cannot be held responsible for the whole of a child's life.
16. A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said the survey was helpful but, because it involved children completing the survey themselves, some children outside formal education were excluded: "There is an awareness that some of the children most in need are not picked up by it."

GROUP WORK

1. Briefly describe and comment the photograph orally (what does it show, what does it illustrate?).
2. Read the text out loud (a paragraph each).
3. Translate the text (one paragraph per pupil).
4. Write down the words highlighted in grey and learn their meanings.
5. Listen to the teacher's comments on the text (take notes!)
6. List the problems teenagers face in your area.
7. List the initiatives (by Government, local authorities, schools and NGOs/charities) that exist to tackle the problems facing teenagers in your area.
8. Drawing from your own experience and knowledge, rate (on a scale from 1 to 20, 1 being extremely bad, 20 being excellent) the level of happiness among teenagers in your area. Explain your score.

HOMEWORK

1. Answer the Tellus3 questionnaire: http://www.devon.gov.uk/j4s-heads-tellus3questionnaire-primary.pdf
2. Using the information in the text (and on the BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7817871.stm), situate on a blank map of England the cities and areas (regions) mentioned and indicate on the map the different levels of emotional security/wellbeing, poverty, drug and alcohol use, bullying, participation in sports and volunteering, access to parks and play areas, educational results and health.
3. Answer the question: What would you do to improve teenagers' lives in your area?