Clare Hanbury

Text school nurses for morning after pill: what do you think?

Oxford pupils to text school nurse for morning after pill (Times online)
"Schoolgirls will be able to request the morning-after pill by text message to their school nurse as part of a scheme being introduced this year. Six schools in Oxfordshire are to take part in the project after a rise in the number of teenage pregnancies in the county.”

So will it work? Will texting the school nurse for the morning after pill really reduce teenage pregnancies?

My view is that children should be able to access emergency contraception and using a text is just one way to alert the school nurse that they need it and want it and will be coming to collect it. For some girls it’ll be a positive and responsible choice to access emergency contraception in this way. For others it’ll be something they do at a time when they are fraught with fear maybe following abuse or an attack during which unprotected sex took place. For others, it’ll be something that enables them or their partner to have unprotected sex without too much worry or concern. Easier access may even contribute to pressuring girls TO have unprotected sex when they may not want it.

As a strategy to reduce teenage pregnancies? Sorry...absolutely NO!

Newsletter Issue 1

Here is the first newsletter from the desk of Clare Hanbury to summarise the key events of the past few  months since the launch of this blog and my websites and to tell you what’s new! I am sending it to all those who have signed up on my blog or websites: www.lifeskillshandbooks.com www.youngsolutionsinternational.com and this blog www.clarehanbury.com

Please click here for the complete newsletter.

Summary

In this e-newsletter I describe:

1.    Work completed

• The Life Skill Project, Sierra Leone
• Training on Youth Participation in HIV and AIDS
• Formatting and distribution of article,  Children in War: the role of Child-to-Child activities in the therapy and care of displaced unaccompanied children by Dr P. Eunson Download Children in War

2.   Work in progress

• The technical learning and progress to build my websites and blog
• Progress with my websites’ purpose
• Other projects

3.    Sources of inspiration

• Transpersonal coach training with Sir John Whitmore and Hetty Einzig
• The Woodcraft Folk
• The SODIS project
• The Symposium
• The TED website
• Reading

4.    To conclude: ideas forming and my questions to you…

Your comments and ideas on any of this would be greatly appreciated. 

Social and Emotional Intelligence in Schools: The Evidence Base

Just reading through the weighty and fascinating report from the Marcelion Botin Foundation Social and Emotional Education: An International Analysis. The stated principle objective of the Foundation is to develop and implement initiatives to promote a fairer, freer, more efficient and more responsible society. The Foundation describes this report as the first stage on the road to creating a Joint international Platform to operate in the field of Social and Emotional Education.

The report includes an overview of the educational situation Re SEL and key developments from the USA and in 5 European countries including the UK. It concludes with reviews of the scientific literature of the effects of school-based Social and Emotional Education Programmes. These are sometimes labelled Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Skills for Life (SFL) or Life Skills (LS).

The overall conclusion from the reviews is described as 'crystal clear'. That systematic programmatic